Movies with Goosebump factor

[baleanoptera]

It really started with something nutmeg3 said, about movies you've seen countless times - and that still manage to get to you and give you goosebumps. Possibly they contain that undefinable "it" factor; impossible to pinpoint, highly reliant on personal preference and generally goosebumps inducing.

So I though - what are the movies that always gets to me - even if I know them down to the smallest camera angle? Well, this is a select list and in no particular order.

Fellowship of the Ring

I love all the LOTR movies, but this is the one that gets to me. Why? It's Boromir dying. It really is. It's the manner of the death - the story surrounding it, and the way he is shot by those hellish arrows and sinks to his knees.

But it is also the light and sound involved. The way the sound is dimmed, and everything becomes eerie and quiet. The sound and the drama of the movie fades in parallel with Boromir dying, and the beautiful dramatic soundscape that is LOTR pauses a little. The effect is a little of the world coming to a halt as Boromir dies, and that always gives me goosebumps.

Sometimes it also makes me sniffle and cry.

The Last of the Mohicans

Um...more endings and death actually. It's the the end on the promontory, with Uncas running up the mountainside towards his fatal fight with Magua. It's Alice jumping after him - and this crushing, horrible climax set in absolutely stunning surroundings.

The promontory scene works for me not only because it's beautiful and dramatic, but because it uncovers this whole undercurrent of a storyline (Uncas and Alice)that has been running through the movie. And not only does it uncover it - but in many ways lets it take center stage and leaving Hawkeye as a bistander.(Which is fine by me, as I could give a great big yawn in regards to the Hawkeye and Cora plot.)

And through all of this there is almost no dialouge - just music. Music heavy with drums and rhythm, almost like a heartbeat. I love that.

The Lion in Winter
- the Katharin Hepburn and Peter O'Toole version

It's a little difficult to specify a scene here as this is possibly one of my favorite movies of all time. But one scene that always gets to me is when Eleanore is trying to win back her son Richard's favor. She is cooing and cursing almost at the same time, playing upon childhood memories and buried affection.

She tells Richard she'll write a will, giving all her lands to him. "Paper burns", Richard replies. "I'll scratch your name in this!" she says and slices into her hand and this finally breaks him, and he runs to her. As he stands there kissing her bleeding hand she starts to talk about how good things where when it was just them, and how good things will be.

And I'm never sure how much of what Eleanore says is an act, how much in genuine and how much is a mix of both. I sometimes wonder if even she knows. It's a brilliant performance in a brilliant film - and it gives me goosebumps each and every time.

East of Eden

I love this film to bits - most easily shown by the fact that I prefer to watch it in silence.
(I can talk while watching a film or series, but if I truly adore and love it there must be silence. Absolute silence. Headphones are good.;D)

Once again it's the ending that never fails to get to me. After hours of misunderstandings, miscommunication, biblical parallels and symbolism Cal finally manages to connect to his father. The clinch is of course that his father is sick and dying, and that Cal's brother has gone a little crazy - so things are in general not good. And yet, as Cal sits there and reads to his father there is a little glimpse of hope - and this is where the goosebumps come.
With the hope.



If any of you have any goosebumps inducing films I'd love to hear about them.

Comments

[reginaspina.livejournal.com]

Oh, Boromir! You have absolutely described why I find that scene so brilliant - do you know that I went to a talk by Howard Shore, and he said that he wrote the music for that scene after he watched one thing in particular that always tears at my heart? It's after Boromir's hit by the second arrow and he kind of falls to his knees and there's this one long look between him and Merry and Pippin - and they all know that he's going to die, but that he'll die still trying to protect them.

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

I have three LotR moments: Arwen's ride in

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I have three LotR moments: Arwen's ride in <i><Fellowship</i>, which hits me so viscerally every time (in part because I love horses and riding and miss them), and her vision of an older Aragorn with their son in <i>Return</i>, as well as Elrond's description of her fate if she stays, accompanied by the beautiful visual of Aragorn on his bier slowly morphing into gray stone.

And another is "I crossed time for you, Sarah" in the first <i>Terminator</i>. I just saw it again this afternoon and reacted with all-over goosebumps, as always.

[aquamarcia.livejournal.com]

The scene depicted in the icon attached to this comment is the part of Boromir's death that always gets me. I often think it is only at that moment, when he speaks his last words to Aragorn, that Boromir fully realizes his nobility.

The movie that's been getting to me lately is Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0311113/). I recently read the Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian and as a consequence now see in the film many more subtleties, especially with regard to character interaction. There are so many poignant moments when social strictures prevent a man like Captain Aubrey from speaking his heart to one of his midshipman, or even his close friend Dr. Maturin. There is a great deal of pain in all that is left unsaid and the film puts a fine point on every instance.