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Posted: |
Mar 30, 2015 - 2:24 PM
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By: |
JeffM
(Member)
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I'll go with the aforementioned scenes from E.T., Big Fish, Cast Away ("Wilson, I'm Sorry"), and Forrest Gump.
I'll add "Freedom!" from Braveheart.
Also, Platoon, when Charlie Sheen sees Willem Defoe (from the helicopter) running from the Vietnamese soldiers ("Adagio for Strings").
Rocky II (Yo Adrian, I did it!")
The end of Rocky Balboa (when he waves to the fans while exiting the arena, then as he walks away from the gravesite).
And as silly as it may seem, the end of Lucas.
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Perhaps dark-horse choices of three film finales that always leave me blubbering:
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean: "Miss Lillie Langtry" reads the Judge's last love letter as the past recedes away forever. My single favorite moment of Maurice Jarre's many score triumphs.
Defending Your Life - what I always think of as "Brave enough for you?" as Rip Torn says to Lee Grant when Albert Brooks overcomes fear for the first time in his many lives. I return to Michael Gore's score for these last five minutes perhaps more frequently than any other single cue.
Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country: Sign-Off, with each cast member affixing their autograph to the final voyage of the original crew. Brilliantly scored by Cliff Eidelman, this was an ideal send off for this life-long trekkie/trekker.
It's worth noting that I saw these final two films around the time my mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer in her mid-fifties, so my memories of these films are tied into my memory of her too-soon illness and death. But it also shows what a sucker I am for beautiful farewells. (I've been crying over Judge Roy Bean since I was a teenager.)
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Does TV count? Do musicals? Because I've got two from Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer that I think are terrific examples, from Christophe Beck.
SPOILERS AHEAD! (If you haven't seen Buffy and have any interest, WATCH THE EPISODES FIRST! And if you don't know the show, I've gotta stress that we're not talking Twilight here - the vampire boyfriends in Buffy are monsters, even if sometimes good ones.)
The first choice is "Close Your Eyes" from the season two climax. Buffy's vampire boyfriend Angel recovers his soul and his goodness, but she has to kill him anyway to save the world - so she tells him to close his eyes and she stabs him. Beck, who is no stranger to histrionics, scored this moment tenderly with his love theme for Angel and Buffy. He captures the longing and desolation of this moment so perfectly that in my view TV (and Whedon) have not done anything as strong since.
Nearly as rich is the musical episode mid-way through season six, where a demon makes everyone sing their innermost thoughts. Music and lyrics by series creator Joss Whedon, but wonderfully finished by Beck. In the climax, "Give Me Something to Sing About," we learn that Buffy's resurrection after her sacrifice at the climax of the previous season did not bring her back from hell. And her potential salvation comes from her unexpected OTHER vampire-soon-to-be boyfriend, the very UN-redeemed Spike. I've gotta share the crucial lyrics that tear me up even as I hear them now.
BUFFY:
There was no pain.
No fear, no doubt,
Till they pulled me out of heaven.
So that’s my refrain,
I live in hell,
Cause I’ve been expelled from heaven.
I think I was in heaven
So give me something to sing about,
Please, give me something…
SPIKE:
Life’s not a song,
Life isn’t bliss
Life is just this,
It’s living.
You’ll get along,
The pain that you feel
Only can heal,
By living.
You have to go on living,
So one of us is living.
(Ooh, I'm shivering again just reading this!)
Buffy was also the rare TV series that used songs really well - Joss and company always had a very strong musical sensibility. The best tearjerker moment with a song for me is the third-season episode where the resurrected Angel (it's complicated but makes sense in the show!) is going to leave Buffy forever, but comes to her senior prom and they dance to a wonderfully unexpected cover of The Rolling Stones' Wild Horses by The Sundays.
I have to go now, I'm flooding my keyboard.....
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Rose's Death from Cocoon.
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Sean, TV is perfectly acceptable, and there are a lot of Buffy lovers (Beck too) at FSM. I have a CD of the Buffy music. I remember all the incidents you explained. Beautiful rendition of Angel's and Buffy's love theme when she has to kill him. I also know the song you mentioned and have the musical CD. Also, I would add the lovely music to AMENDS when Angel was going to face the rising sun, but it snows. Lovely music in the background.
From television, I would add, "I love Brian Piccolo." When Sayers says that, Legrand's gorgeous theme from Brian's Song underscores this speech and brings out the tears every time.
I forgot about the snowfall music! Thanks for reminding me.
And I had completely forgotten about Brian's Song. That's one of my favorite examples, how I loved that movie growing up. I can even kind of remember the final words from coach Jack Warden, about this not being the story of how he died, "but how he lived, how he did live." One of the first movie tunes I plucked out on a piano. I even did the deathbed scene in a class from a Scholastic Books version of the scene, trying to play James Caan with that raspy voice he uses at the end.
Lovely memories, made memorable forever by the music.
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