Favorite movie scenes 98

Some movie scenes are just good for the soul, and these are a few.


I watched a minute of I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (2007) on television yesterday. I didn't watch the whole thing, because strangely I wasn't in the mood for gay panic humour, but it did me good just to watch that scene where Kevin James' character saves Adam's life.

They're both firemen, and they're inside a burning building. Kevin really saves him twice: first he tells Adam to jump from quite a height to his arms. It's risky, but it's also the only way he can get down, so he jumps. The landing isn't very smooth, as you can imagine, and Adam is temporarily lights out. Then Kevin sees that a burning piece of the building is going to fall on them both, so he throws himself over the body of his friend, to protect him. They wake up in the hospital and all is well, etc, but I was so grateful that acts of heroism are still being sneaked into films. Even though people can't handle human kindness anymore unless it's in the context of a gross-out comedy, the point is the heart is undeniably there.

- I watched a few seconds of a trailer for a Richard Gere movie, but I couldn't tell you what movie it is (maybe 2005's Bee Season? I dunno) Richard is a father, and he's being obnoxious to his kids. His wife turns to him, and says "You're a bully!" It may not seem like a lot to you, but to me it was one of those turning points when someone made it ok for me to even think about something on those terms. Yeah, when parents talk to their kids like that, it's not ok! They're not disciplining them, they're taking advantage of their authority. They don't have any inherent right to walk all over them, nor should their children feel they just have to take it. You talk to your child like a bully, you're a bully. Thanks, whatever movie you are.

In The Prince of Tides (1991) Barbra Streisand is a shrink trying to save a suicidal woman's life, and for this purpose she must drill her brother (Nick Nolte) for insights into their family life, something he's not prepared to do, as those memories are too painful. He keeps cracking jokes, and to his credit he is very intelligent, and charming, and funny. But Barbra doesn't let him sweep her off her feet. She says "Do you always make jokes instead of conversation?" And that's when I first got a clue that sarcasm may not be the best response to all problems at all times. That maybe it's just a way to avoid unbearable feelings that must, nevertheless, be faced; that it's a strategy to keep others away when you believe all they want is to lay a trap for you.

In Nothing in Common (1986) Eva Marie Saint plays an older woman who is getting a divorce, after what seems like a lifetime of being married to the same man -- the only man she ever slept with. When she tries to go on a date, for the first time in so many decades, she finds she can't do it.

Her son (Tom Hanks) realizes that this means her experience as a married woman was terribly damaging to her as a sexual being, and he confronts his father about it. His father tells his son to butt off, but Tom demands to know "What have you done to my mother?" That was one of the first times that I saw this butting into a married couple's private life being justified, like, she's not your private property for you to do as you will. She's a real human being, and she's not alone and defenseless, she's got me, her son, and I'll stand up for her. The father says he had to get rough with her because she just lied there like a corpse and wouldn't do anything. Finally he got mistresses because she wasn't any good in bed. Tom is outraged. "Of course she was like that, they didn't teach her anything about sex, those things were disgusting to her!" And they have one of those conversations where a man says that it's a wife's duty to give him pleasure, and that a man's got a do what a man's got to.

One of the most disappointing things to me as a feminist was having to listen to women feminists scorn and put down all the women who came before them. For many years I was on occasion forced to listen to the speech "Every woman who came before us was dumb and useless, thank God we're so superior". It always surprised me the stupidity of this argument -- if all women who had come before us had been worthless we would be worthless too, for how can centuries of stupidity turn to intelligence in the space of just two or three generations? We must have gotten our brains somewhere. I was also shocked by the unkindness and lack of compassion they showed, namely when it came to women's repressed sexuality, and to all the difficulties in enjoying sex that this repression created, all the unnecessary heart-ache and pain it caused. But the typical feminist's attitude was to mock them for their frigidity, as if it was somehow their fault they were victims of repression, and to thank God they weren't like that, as if they somehow owed it spontaneously to themselves, instead of to all the feminists who came before them and who risked everything to fight for womens' right to sexual gratification.

So I was touched by the writers' kindness in portraying this woman's personal tragedy. They didn't treat her like she was ridiculous for still wanting to have some kind of sexually gratifying experience with a man at her age. They didn't mock her as a loser for never having had pleasure, or for only having had one man in her entire life. They understood what that must have felt like. It was also very good that her son didn't react with disgust at the mere thought that his mother was a sexual being, nor did he think her unhappiness was none of his business. It was frankly wonderful that he would take her side, and confront his dad about his insensitivity and callousness. That kind of understanding and support is more than a lot of women from older generations ever got in real life from many "feminists".

In Election (1999) Matthew Broderick plays a teacher who so hates one of his students that he fixes the school elections so that she doesn't win. One of the young men in charge of counting the votes insists he counted them right, and that the girl should have won, but Matthew denies it, and is very condescending about it. Of course, the young man is right, and the truth comes out, when thanks to his efforts the missing vote is found in the teacher's paper basket.

I love the scene where Matthew is driving and he has to stop at a red light. As chance would have it, the driver in the car right next to his is the young man who uncovered his corruption. Matthew tries to keep up appearances, and waves to him with a faint smile, as if to ask "Let's pretend none of that ever happened". The young man never smiles back though and, gratifyingly, spits on him.

I can't say it's a very nice thing to do, it is perhaps lacking is a certain finesse, but there are times and there are people who deserve being spat on. It was the condescension, the way Matthew acted like "Who are you going to believe, me, an adult who is a teacher, or a young man who is a student?" It was totally satisfying for once to see that level of utter contempt being completely justified.