Claudette Colbert lifting her skirt to stop a car from IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934) --- This is another classic moment from cinema history. IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT is filled with wonderful tension between the sexes, and teases the audience with its sexuality (of course still tame -- remember, this was 1934, where the most stunning thing about the film was Gable appearing without his shirt on!) But one of the more interesting and fun scenes is this scene where Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, stranded on the road, are attempting to hitchhike and get a ride. Gable has been completely unsuccessful, as car after car after car drives by very quickly. In desperation he gives up -- Colbert says she can get a car to stop right away. Of course Gable doesn't believe her and she goes to prove it. She wanders out to the road, and just when she sees a car coming, she pulls up her skirt a little bit to reveal her legs, and of course the driver immediately stops! And Gable and Colbert have their ride -- and the war between the sexes continues!
Matthew Poncelet's lethal injection death penalty from DEAD MAN WALKING (1995) --- No matter what your stance on the death penalty, it was difficult not to admire how balanced Tim Robbins made his film DEAD MAN WALKING, the true story of convicted murderer Matthew Poncelet and his path to confession and discovery of spirituality through the help of a nun, played by Susan Sarandon in an Oscar-winning performance. The film presented all of the sides and never took sides, which made it even more brilliant. And there's no better example of its balance than in the final scene, when Poncelot finally walks into the death chamber to be killed for the murder of a young couple. We endure the entire process of the execution through all the minute details of exactly what goes on during a lethal injection execution. But the best part of the sequence is during these details of showing how the state is killing Poncelet in such a carefully controlled manner, scenes of the uncontrollable and horrifying rape and murder of the young couple are intercut with the execution. This constant cutting back and forth between both events shows that balance -- some would say it shows the balance of is it any better if the state murders someone or someone else murders someone. Others could come to the conclusion that the scene shows the proper carrying out of justice for the gruesome murder he committed. Either way, it's powerful filmmaking. One of the most haunting scenes shows the young couple superimposed over the dying body of Poncelot, almost as if the spirits of the young couple are watching over this execution. It's a haunting image that audiences don't soon forget.
