Go Back  DVD Talk Forum > Entertainment Discussions > Movie Talk
Reload this Page >

25 Greatest Unscripted Scenes

Movie Talk A Discussion area for everything movie related including films In The Theaters

25 Greatest Unscripted Scenes

Old 08-16-11, 11:30 AM
  #1  
DVD Talk Legend
Thread Starter
 
islandclaws's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Behind the Orange Curtain
Posts: 20,085
Likes: 0
Received 6 Likes on 6 Posts
25 Greatest Unscripted Scenes

<iframe width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cTFQBHBeleE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Old 08-16-11, 11:45 AM
  #2  
Banned
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Formerly known as "Solid Snake PAC"/Denton, Tx
Posts: 39,239
Likes: 0
Received 4 Likes on 4 Posts
Re: 25 Greatest Unscripted Scenes

....some are known and worthy of being the greatest...but most in there aren't the greatest.
Old 08-16-11, 07:29 PM
  #3  
DVD Talk Hero
 
PopcornTreeCt's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 25,913
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes on 2 Posts
Re: 25 Greatest Unscripted Scenes

Don't understand how they could have Casablanca as anything but number 1. Also, I always hated that "Here's Johnny" line.

Other than that, it's okay I guess.
Old 08-16-11, 07:35 PM
  #4  
DVD Talk Legend
 
The Valeyard's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 1999
Location: Building attractions one theme park at a time.
Posts: 10,800
Received 82 Likes on 49 Posts
Re: 25 Greatest Unscripted Scenes

Meh.
Old 08-16-11, 08:18 PM
  #5  
DVD Talk Legend
 
Goat3001's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: NYC
Posts: 17,116
Received 23 Likes on 11 Posts
Re: 25 Greatest Unscripted Scenes

Some good lines in there but I think the order is off. Casablanca should be #1. Clockwork Orange should be #2 just because of how the addition of "Singing in the Rain" completely changed that scene. Jaws, Taxi Driver and Star Wars would round out my top 5.

Aside from that I don't know many improvised scenes so I can't really comment on what shouldn't be there or what should be replaced. There are some there that I had no idea were improvised... makes those scenes a whole lot cooler (such as the Usual Suspects one).
Old 08-16-11, 08:26 PM
  #6  
DVD Talk Godfather
 
Michael Corvin's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 1999
Location: Louisville, KY
Posts: 62,509
Received 909 Likes on 644 Posts
Re: 25 Greatest Unscripted Scenes

List fucking fail. First it should be called 25 greatest improvised lines not scenes. Second, this should be number #1 no matter what you call the list:

Old 08-16-11, 08:29 PM
  #7  
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: SoCal
Posts: 825
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Re: 25 Greatest Unscripted Scenes

The SAVING PRIVATE RYAN "improv" always bothered me.

1. You cock-block your brother who possibly lost the only piece of tail he was going to get before he, you know, GOT KILLED.
2. That coupling could have produced a Ryan grandchild which is kind of important since your survival is kind of questionable, being in a war zone and all. Your poor mother has already lost her entire brood, and you've essentially ended the line.
3. Why should we care if this little shit survives? It's not like he's interested in keeping the family going.
Old 08-16-11, 11:31 PM
  #8  
DVD Talk Hero
 
Abob Teff's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 1999
Location: Not necessarily Formerly known as Solid Snake
Posts: 29,097
Received 1,220 Likes on 837 Posts
Re: 25 Greatest Unscripted Scenes

Originally Posted by Michael Corvin
List fucking fail. First it should be called 25 greatest improvised lines not scenes. Second, this should be number #1 no matter what you call the list:
First of all, . I thought the same thing -- most of those were simply one-liners, not scenes.

Secondly, . What was supposed to have been an elaborate fight scene was thwarted by a stomach bug.

However, I would actually have to rank the chest-burster scene from Alien as number one, hands down. All it said in the script was, “This thing emerges.” Veronica Cartwright completely losing it is only outshined by Yaphet Koto grabbing a fork.

Spoilered for length (from http://www.empireonline.com/intervie...w.asp?IID=1095):
Spoiler:

BIRTH
Ron Shusett: Ridley didn’t tell the cast; he said, “They’re just going to see it.”

Sigourney Weaver: They were crafty. They pitched the story so that you feel John Hurt’s character would be the only true hero amongst us.

Veronica Cartwright (Lambert): Well, we knew what was going to happen. We read the script. We weren’t stupid. We just didn’t know what the hell we were supposed to be looking at. They showed us a mock-up, but they didn’t show how it was going to work. They just said, “Its head will move and it’s going to have teeth.”

Sigourney Weaver: All it said in the script was, “This thing emerges.”

Ridley Scott: The reactions were going to be the most difficult thing. If an actor is just acting terrified, you can’t get the genuine look of raw, animal fear. What I wanted was a hardcore reaction.

Veronica Cartwright: They take John down in the morning to prep him and we’re upstairs for four hours. We’re sitting upstairs and nobody knows what the hell is going on. Harry Dean [Stanton] is sitting in the hall playing his guitar.

Ridley Scott: Prosthetics in those days weren’t that good. I figured the best thing to do was to get stuff from a butcher’s shop and a fishmonger. On the morning we had them examining the Facehugger, that was clams, oysters, seafood. You had to be ready to shoot because it started to smell pretty quickly. You can’t make better stuff than that — it’s organic.

Dan O’Bannon (executive producer/screenwriter):
All it said in the script was, “This thing emerges.”
Once the creature was rigged up, they stuffed the chest cavity full of organs from the butcher’s shop. Then they ran a couple of big hoses to pump the stage blood. During all this Ridley moved about, tending to the finest detail. I remember easily half an hour was spent with him draping this little piece of beef organ so it would hang out of the creature’s mouth.

Roger Christian: I had to go and get the stuff from the abattoir in the morning. It was quite fresh but would cook under the lights, so there had to be no hanging around.

Ridley Scott: Roger came in with the little demon in a shopping bag. We had an artificial chest screwed to the table. John was underneath: it was an illusion his neck was attached to the body.

Veronica Cartwright: When they finally take us down, the whole set is in a big plastic bag and everybody is wearing raingear and there are huge buckets around. The formaldehyde smell automatically made you queasy. And John is lying there.

Sigourney Weaver: Everyone was wearing raincoats — we should have been a little suspicious. And, oh God, the smell. They went to a local butcher’s or something. It was just awful.

Ron Shusett: He had four cameras running. Two guys, technicians, were under the table with a compressed blood machine. Nobody said a word, but Sigourney looked really scared. I said, “You’re really getting into character.” She said, “No, I have a feeling I’m going to be pretty repulsed right now.”

Yaphet Kotto (Parker): We were all wondering what the hell was going on. Why is the crew looking at us the way they’re looking at us right now? Why are they wearing plastic shields?

Ron Shusett: Later I read an interview where Sigourney said, “Dan O’Bannon and Ron Shusett were in the corner like kids on Christmas morning. I knew it was going to be a bloodbath!”

Veronica Cartwright: We start to do the scene. They have four cameras going. You see this thing start to come out, so we all get sucked in, we lean forward to check it out. They shout, “Cut!” They cut John’s T-shirt a little more because it wasn’t going to burst through. Then they said, “Let’s start again.” We all start leaning forward again and all of a sudden it comes out. I tell you, none of us expected it. It came out and twisted round.

Roger Christian: We were pumping something in the range of six gallons of blood on each take. It literally went all over the set.

Sigourney Weaver: All I could think of was John, frankly. I wasn’t even thinking that we were making a movie.

Ivor Powell: I hadn’t expected it to be quite that intense.

Sigourney Weaver: Look, I worked with Roman Polanski on Death And The Maiden — he would shoot a gun off. You can act, sure, but when you’re surprised, that’s gold.

Ron Shusett: Veronica Cartwright — when the blood hit her — she totally passed out. I heard from Yaphet Kotto’s wife that after that scene he went to his room and wouldn’t talk to anybody.

Yaphet Kotto: Oh man! It was real, man. We didn’t see that coming. Can you imagine, we’re struggling with this guy, and here we are acting. You know they are going to do something, you don’t know what, then all of a sudden this thing splats in front of you, and it breaks loose. We were freaked. The actors were all frightened. And Veronica nutted out.

Dan O'Bannon: This jet of blood, about three feet long, caught her smack in the kisser.

Veronica Cartwright: I didn’t have to do anything. I didn’t have to say, “Oh, I’m acting now.” Your reaction is just going off what you’re seeing. It was totally a visceral thing. That huge thing of blood hit my face and I backed up and flipped upside-down. It was on the dailies, it was hysterical. But that was it. It was a one-off. Everyone’s reaction was totally real.

Ron Shusett: From that moment on, they were really into it. It wasn’t a game.

Last edited by Abob Teff; 08-16-11 at 11:45 PM.
Old 08-17-11, 08:06 AM
  #9  
DVD Talk Special Edition
 
Join Date: Apr 2002
Posts: 1,249
Received 29 Likes on 19 Posts
Re: 25 Greatest Unscripted Scenes

Originally Posted by Abob Teff
Secondly, . What was supposed to have been an elaborate fight scene was thwarted by a stomach bug.
Apparenlty the guy who played the swordsman was livid that he just gets shot instead.

I didn't watch the video but Harrison Ford ad-libbed "It's not the years sweetheart, its the mileage" in Raiders. Awesome line.
Old 08-17-11, 12:33 PM
  #10  
Banned
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Conducting miss-aisle drills and listening to their rock n roll
Posts: 20,052
Received 168 Likes on 126 Posts
Re: 25 Greatest Unscripted Scenes

A lot of those are dubious. The "I know" line from Empire was not in the script, but it's not like it was spontaneously ad libed on the spot as the cameras rolled. It was Ford and the director came up with the line, it was rehearsed and shot. It was something that was developed while they were working, not something ad libed at a moment's notice.

Same thing with We Need a Bigger Boat.

Blade Runner "tears in rain" is debated to this day. There were so many screenwriters and revisions that the famous monologue draws from like three different writers, and it was rehearsed and tweeked right up to filming. Still it's not some "improvised as the cameras rolled" kind of thing.

The Clockwork Orange "singin' in the rain" thing is endlessly debated with everyone haveing a different version of the story.

I don't believe for a minute that the SPR story was entirely improvised.

Last edited by Mabuse; 08-17-11 at 04:23 PM.
Old 08-17-11, 12:48 PM
  #11  
DVD Talk Legend
 
Join Date: Oct 2001
Posts: 19,679
Received 646 Likes on 446 Posts
Re: 25 Greatest Unscripted Scenes

Originally Posted by Mabuse
A lot of those are dubious. The "I know" line from Empire was not in the script, but it's not like it was spontaneously ad libed on the spot as the cameras rolled.
I think that's why the list is called "25 Greatest Unscripted Scenes", not "25 Greatest ad-libbed Scenes".

Several of the examples you give are lines that weren't in the script, which means, by definition, that they're unscripted.
Old 08-17-11, 05:24 PM
  #12  
DVD Talk Hero - 2023 TOTY Award Winner
 
jfoobar's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2000
Posts: 46,562
Received 2,150 Likes on 1,213 Posts
Re: 25 Greatest Unscripted Scenes

Originally Posted by Neeb
The SAVING PRIVATE RYAN "improv" always bothered me.

1. You cock-block your brother who possibly lost the only piece of tail he was going to get before he, you know, GOT KILLED.
2. That coupling could have produced a Ryan grandchild which is kind of important since your survival is kind of questionable, being in a war zone and all. Your poor mother has already lost her entire brood, and you've essentially ended the line.
3. Why should we care if this little shit survives? It's not like he's interested in keeping the family going.
It always bothered me as well, but mostly because I found it to be the weakest scene in the film by far. Damon, who admittedly is a solid actor, is just so obviously acting during that scene.

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.