LONDON - In the gore stakes, Janet Leigh's shower scene in "Psycho" is the "best movie death" of all time, according to a critics' poll published Thursday. The 44-year-old Hitchcock thriller beat other iconic movies such as "The Godfather" (22nd) and Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs" (23rd) in the poll by Total Film magazine. Stanley Kubrick's "Dr Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb" (1964) came second, with the surreal ending when Slim Pickens rides an atomic bomb. Other highly rated movie deaths were the fatal plunge to earth of the ape in the 1933 Fay Wray movie "King Kong," in third place, and the demise of Bambi's mother (6th) in the 1942 Disney movie of the same name. Alan Rickman's fall from a 30-storey building in "Die Hard" (1988) comes fourth, followed by the killing of the title characters in "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967). "Some of the deaths in the poll, like The Wicked Witch melting in 'The Wizard Of Oz' (13th), are iconic but laughable, but nearly 45 years on, 'Psycho's' shower scene is still distressing," said Total Film deputy editor Simon Crook. "It's the sheer violence of the edit rather than any explicit gore — 70 different angles, over 90 cuts and those shrieking violins. It's a masterclass in montage and audience manipulation." Crook added: "Knowing that the blood is Bosco's chocolate syrup and that a pulped casaba melon stood in for the stabbing noises does nothing to reduce the impact." What are your favorites?
"I Know What You Did Last Summer": When the killer uses a meat hook to kill Max. "Saving Private Ryan": When the sniper kills the other sniper by firing a bullet through his sight. "Final Destination": When Terry says "I'm moving on, Carter. And if you want to waste your life beating the sh** out of Alex every time you see him then you can just drop f***ing dead!" and then gets hit by a bus "Training Day" For some reason I like the way they lit Alonzo up at the end I'm sure I have more and I will add them later.
Now I'm sure that is on a famous movie but I saw the scene on the movie "Juice" with Tupac Shakur. What movie is that from and what happens?
James Cagney in White Heat (1949) Plays a gangster that, I believe, blows himself up at the end of the movie on top of a gas tank.
Oh, is that Jimmy Cagney pushing his mom down the stairs in her wheelchair. Great chiller. No, that's not it. What is that? Also, Bettie Davis is perfectly cruel pulling the heart pills just out of reach in The Little Foxes. Like watching a fish suffocate. That's a great scene in that music video, btw. Sonny in the phone booth in Godfather. Al Pacino dusting the pimp in Taxi Driver (that's more a murder scene). Scarface comes to mind - but not as a positive. The drawn-out, superhero unreality was a real negative for me. Killed the rest of the story.
Cagney in White Heat. It was just about the most famous on screen death, for a while. Others: The unseen death at the end of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the first death in Jaws, Robert Shaw's death in Jaws, the final scene in Bonnie & Clyde, Alec Guiness' death in Star Wars, etc.
Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) in Blade Runner. 'I've... seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the Shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments, will be lost, in time, like tears... in... rain. Time... to die."
SHREDDER: Fools! The three of you could have overpowered me with the loss of but one. Now your fate WILL BE HIS! SPLINTER: Death comes to us all, Oruku Saki, but for you it will come... without honor. Splinter lets him fall off the roof and then Casey Jones crushes him in the trash compactor he lands in. The sequel erases his death, but it's still my favorite.
I can't beleive it took this long for somebody to come up with this one. My favorite of all time was when Steven Segal died in the 1st 10 minutes in Executive Decision. I openly cheered. I was so happy I didn't have to look at his gay pony tail for the remainder of the movie.
