The Greatest Motion Picture Sequences -- Part 4
secure -- the shower. A great ending shot to this sequence is the water circling down the drain dissolved into the gazing stare of Janet Leigh, now lying dead on the bathroom floor.
The ending from LEAP OF FAITH (1992) --- This was a really unique and uplifting film sequence from this smaller, lesser known film. Throughout this film, we deal with such cynicism after seeing Jonas Nightingale, played by Steve Martin, who is a con-man preacher, going around to cities, filling people with a hope he doesn't believe in to make money. His tour breaks down in a small town, where a true miracle finally does happen and it's the sequence which ends this film. A young boy, who was paralyzed and couldn't walk, is actually healed during one of Jonas's tent revivals, to the astonishment of even Jonas. "The real article" has finally faced him, and no one has any explanation except that it was God himself who did this. Jonas decides to hang it up for good and is even more convinced of God's miracle when it finally rains in this town who had been begging for rain for so long. One very sweet segment of this sequence has Jonas emerging from the tent after the miracle and looking at all the people who had arrived because of it. He looks around and we see various people reading the Bible, talking to their children, hugging their loved ones, etc. And through these moments, we see a profound change happening to Jonas, and it's truly touching.
The game of Russian roulette in a Vietnamese prison camp from THE DEER HUNTER (1978) --- This is one of the "tension" scenes that we see so often in movies, but this one seems to rise above the rest. Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken are prisoners of war in a Vietnamese prison camp and are forced to play a game of Russian roulette by their captors, who are betting on the outcome. They pass the gun back and forth, placing it to their head and pulling the trigger, knowing that a bullet is in there somewhere. Both De Niro and Walken endure it once, until finally De Niro begins shooting the captors to end the torture. But it is definitely one of the most tension filled scenes in film history, especially due to the performances by De Niro and Walken.
The ending (That's
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