Retrospect
This post is completely frivolous (as opposed to the usual material of critical importance to your life). It’s inspired by a conversation I had with Herr Vogler a few weeks ago. Basically, I’m just seeking to incite exchanges of inane comments that will amuse me when I’m bored at work next week.
I submit to you my Top 5 favorite action scenes as a kid (circa age 10):
1) Sail Barge Assault. Um… I still want a green lightsaber. If you recall, this is also one of my favorite score cues of all time.
2) Hoverboard Chase. (Incidentally, Alan Silvestri was one of the composers who drew me to film music.) I wore out the tape watching this scene alone. I know it’s pink, but I wanted one, okay?! Get off my back!!
3) Last Crusade Tank Chase. I reenacted this for hours upon hours with my Legos… oh yeah. Although nowadays, I must say, the truck chase from Raiders is better.
4) Speeder Bike Chase. What can I say, Return of the Jedi is great. Especially for a kid. Man, it’s still great.
5) Something from Superman III… I don’t know… I haven’t seen that movie in so long, I don’t even know what it’s about. But it used to be one of my favorite movies, back when I was a young warthog. From what I hear, it’s a piece of crap. I believe it.
Okay. The ball’s in your court.
posted by the warrior bard at 11:44 AM
12 Comments:
1) The Asteroid Field - Empire Strikes Back Not much of a scene without the Williams cue. My favorite Williams' cue when I was a preteen. Played it over and over.
2) Mine Car Chase - Temple of Doom Not knowing how it was done - my favorite action scene. Knowing it was stop motion - my favorite fx scene. One of few that got me interested in visual fx.
3) We Got One / Trapping Slimer - Ghostbusters I memorized the whole movie... need I say more?
4) Temple Escape - Raiders of the Lost Ark Ginormous boulder... need I say more?
5) Final Battles - Return of the Jedi Luke vs. Vader stands out amongst them, only because I was obsessed with swordplay when I was ten. But still, the entire sequence stands out as a good example of cutting three disparate and complex events together in a coherent fashion.
Sunday, March 18, 2007 9:01:00 AM
Yeah, that last one was my favorite climax ever. I didn't count it because I figured it was a three-way action sequence, and it was just so hard to choose. Besides, I already had two examples from that movie.
I must say, looking back, that the sequence with all the Ewok booby-traps was one of the most gleefully invigorating scenes from any movie at the time.
Yeah, Spielberg has a lot of great family fun. Nobody can make this list without at least one Spielberg.
So... I have this sick desire to watch Superman III, but I know I'll be sorry if I do. Maybe some things are better off forgotten. Yet... I must know... but am I ready for what I seek?
Watch the movie you must not. Only pain will it bring you. Warned you I have.
Sunday, March 18, 2007 2:43:00 PM
Ah, but they all ebb and flow together, each continuation of sequence building from the emotional impact of the previous one. The climax counts as one. And, honestly, in each there are at least two lines running in tandem.
The greater space battle and Lando/Falcon.
Ewoks vs. Empire and the demolition of the shield generator by Han & Friends.
Eh... Luke vs. Vader and the Emperor vs. Luke (vs. Vader) is a stretch... they are so intertwined.
Anyhow, only watch Superman III (or IV for that matter) if you have a taste for insanity.
And yes, the Ewoks tripping the AT-ST with the logs is classic.
Oh, incidentally, my second, third and fourth games of Star Wars miniatures was actually fun. I managed to kick your bro's ass 2 out of 3.
Sunday, March 18, 2007 9:24:00 PM
One of these days, when I visit my old roommate Mac, we'll get so drunk we'll actually think it's a good idea to watch Superman III. It'll happen.
Monday, March 19, 2007 8:08:00 AM
Perhaps the scene to which you're referring in Superman III is either the scene where he puts out the huge fire in the chemical plant near Smallville or the end where he has to do battle with Robert Vaughn's little sister as the human incarnation of the evil computer.
I really shouldn't know that.
Monday, March 19, 2007 4:03:00 PM
Maybe. I seem to recall at some point he fights an evil version of himself.
Monday, March 19, 2007 4:17:00 PM
Ah, what do 10-year-olds know, anyway!
Monday, March 19, 2007 4:17:00 PM
I recall that, for whatever reason, the evil sister computer transformation bit scared the hell out of me when I was a kid.
Monday, March 19, 2007 7:01:00 PM
Yeah, there was the fight with himself. The inner struggle if you will. But that just didn't quite cut the mustard for me. I mean, It's Superman fighting himself!!!. Shouldn't he have been hurtling himself into outer space at some point? And couldn't the battle then have moved to space. I mean, that's a whole lot bigger place to have a knockdown, drag-out than in the middle of a junkyard. And Zero G! How awesome would that have been?!?!
Oddly enough the transforming sister bit never really bothered me. Perhaps it was because I more afraid of my actual sister that I never really felt all that threatened by it.
Again I've said too much.
Monday, March 19, 2007 7:23:00 PM
Yeah, the thing with the computer possession. Wasn't there like a jar of radioactive goo that bubbled up and melted through the floor or something? That seemed to bother me for some reason. Okay, now I have to see this movie.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007 8:13:00 AM
Aaaaand this post is dead. I guess it fulfilled its purpose.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007 11:08:00 AM
Yeah, we need to get the Captain and Brando in the room for that.
The fourth movie is gloriously and memorably bad. It's the only one with a subtitle, too: The Quest for Peace.
I'm more than a little hazy on it, but somehow Lex Luthor creates Nuclear Man, a solar-powered anti-Superman Strictly speaking, Superman is also solar-powered, but they took it very literally with Nuclear Man; if the sun isn't shining, he falls asleep or something. Yeah.
Somehow, the act of Superman going around and blowing up nuclear reactors constitutes his quest for peace. Hmmm...
Now I have to do a marathon. I'll reward myself for suffering the second pair by watching the outstanding Superman Returns.
Oh, wait. I don't have any of them.
Friday, March 23, 2007 8:17:00 AM
<< Home