The Shield premiered in 2002 and got glowing reviews but I never got around to watching it. Until now. It holds up well after 20+ years. The show was created and written by Shawn Ryan and while I can’t say for sure he penned this bit of dialog, somebody deserves an award for coming up with the line, “I’ve got a yammy full of Georgia joy juice.” And I thought I had every slang term for female genitalia.
Category Archives: Best Scenes
Rust Cohle talks about religion
Dr. Strangelove
With Putin rattling the “tactical nuclear nukes” saber on a daily basis, this seemed like a good time to enjoy a couple of my favorite scenes from Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, known simply and more commonly as Dr. Strangelove.
Hitler’s final memo
One more from Antony Beevor’s great history, The Fall of Berlin 1945:
“Hitler took Traudl Junge (one of his secretaries) away to another room (in the bunker), where he dictated his political and personal testaments. She sat there in nervous excitement, expecting to hear at last a profound explanation of the great sacrifice’s true purpose. But instead a stream of political clichés, delusions and recriminations poured forth. He had never wanted war. It had been forced on him by international Jewish interests. The war, ‘in spite of all setbacks,’ he claimed, will one day go down in history as the most glorious and heroic manifestation of a people’s will to live’” (emphasis mine)
Favorite scenes from TV and movies
I’ve been collecting these for 20+ years. One of the reasons I started blogging… to have a place to collect these. I could have linked each of these directly to the post/video but it’s better if you just browse. Or you can use the search box at the top of the page.
- 12 Monkeys (Consumerism)
- Alien (Breaking quarantine)
- Andy Griffith Show (“Is this good government!”)
- Boiler Room (Ben Affleck speech)
- Brazil (Ministry of Information)
- Broadcast News (Keep it to yourself)
- Carnivale (gas station shooting)
- Charlie Chan (Mantan Moreland and Ben Carter)
- Dave (budget cutting)
- Dave (Commerce Secretary)
- Deadwood (kidney stone)
- Dr. Strangelove
- Five Easy Pieces (diner scene)
- Game Change (Concession speech)
- Glengarry Glen Ross (always be closing)
- Good Will Hunting (why not work for the NSA)
- Inherit the Wind (creationism vs evolution)
- Mississippi Burning (Gene Hackman grabs deputy’s balls)
- Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (assorted)
- Network (Mad as hell)
- Rainmaker (“You must be stupid!”)
- Rambo III (Freedom speech)
- Snowpiercer (axe battle)
- Sorcerer (bridge scene; picking out a truck)
- St. Vincent (Bill Murray sings Bob Dylan)
- The Deer Hunter (fuck it)
- The Deer Hunter (Russian roulette)
- The Dentist (W.C.Fields)
- The Memory Expert (W.C. Fields)
- Time Bandits (understanding technology)
- Shakespeare In Love (“It’s a mystery”)
- Tarzan the Ape Man (pygmy scene)
- The Shield (“yammy full of Georgia joy juice”)
- Three Days of the Condor (final scene)
- Time Bandits (understanding technology)
- True Detective (Philosophy of Rust Cohle; Rust Cohle on religion)
- True Romance (White Boy Day)
Praise the Lord!
I’ve been watching the HBO series, Carnivàle. First aired (streamed?) in 2003 so nearly 20 years old but holds up well. The scene above is a great example of what I call the “after thought” shooting. A staple in action movies but not so much back then.
According to Fashion Stylist Rebekah Roy: “It cost $4 million US per episode; it was one of the most expensive shows to produce. There were an estimated 5,000 people costumed in the show’s first season!” The costumes were designed by Chrisi Karvonides-Dushenko.
Consumerism
Rambo III: Freedom Speech
We knew how Afghanistan was going to end way back in 2008. In this scene from Rambo III Richard Crenna warns the Russian commander how stupid it is to start a holy war in the middle east in the name of freedom.
And this from 2009. Matthew Hoh, a former marine saying Afghanistan is not worth U.S. lives.
“I feel that our strategies in Afghanistan are not pursing goals that are worthy of sacrificing our young men and women or spending the billions we’re doing there,” Hoh said. “I believe that the people we are fighting there are fighting us because we are occupying them — not for any ideological reasons, not because of any links to al Qaeda, not because of any fundamental hatred toward the West. The only reason they’re fighting us is because we are occupying them.”
It’s a mystery
The Universe knows what it’s doing. I mostly find it true. My favorite cinematic example is from Shakespeare In Love.