Heroic Movie scenes

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Recovering from a recent throat operation, with time heavy on my hands,
I came up with a small list of heroic movie scenes where the hero
dies a defiant and brave --


Frank Sinatra in: “Cast a Giant Shadowâ€
Mickey Rooney in “Ambush Bayâ€
William Defoe in “Flight of the Intruderâ€
Sean Bean in “The Fellowship of the Ringsâ€
Reb Brown & Randal “Tex “ Cobb In “Uncommon Valorâ€
Lt. Gorman & Pvt. Vasques in “Aliensâ€
John Wayne in "The Fighting Seabees", "The Alamo", and just about every war movie he ever died in.

Anyone else have any classic scenes to add?
 

Doughboy

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My favorite has got to be in Blade Runner when Dekkard whacks Roy Batty in the face with a pipe and Batty holds the pipe to encourage him by saying "That's the Spirit!"
Talk about being overmatched! :mrgreen:

John
 
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I remember this old movie made during WWII starring Gregory Peck as part of a band of Russian partisans fighting the Germans. Two Russian guys, as part of the comic relief of the movie, were always arguing with each other over who got to do what first. At the climax of the movie, were Gregory Peck’s partisans are trying to hold off a major German winter advance—(A German major advance in Winter?!), the two Russians are manning an AT gun and are arguing who gets to fire it. A Panzer appears and MG’s one of them. As the Russian lies dying, he says to the other; “I guess you get to shoot first, comrade.†His buddy grabs the AT’s lanyard, puts it in the hand of his dying friend, and says: “No comrade, we’ll shoot it together†and with his hand over his friend hand, nails the panzer. Then as he tries to reload the AT gun another panzer comes along and KIA’s him. (That always brings a tear to my eye!)


In “Cast a Giant Shadow†Frank Sinatra plays a pilot helping Kirk Douglas who is acting as a military advisor to the fledging Israeli army during the 1948 Israeli war of independence—(Yul Brunner does a Moshe Dayan look-alike Israeli officer) During a spoiling attack against the enemy, Sinatra flys a Piper cub, dropping seltzer bottles on the enemy—The idea that the bottles whistle as they fall and will ize the enemy troops—As he is “bombingâ€, an enemy fighter shows up and attacks him. Sinatra pulls out a sten gun, but it jams after a few rounds. Then, only as Sinatra can do, he resignedly points a seltzer bottle at the enemy fighter and give it a squirt of seltzer in defiance. Cut to a scene when Kirk Douglas sees the Piper Cub falling from the sky….

Mickey Rooney in “Ambush Bay†(--Or something like that title) is part of a US commando team on a Japanese-held island. The commandos are being pursued by a Japanese platoon. He gets wounded in the legs, and persuades the others to leave him behind. As he sits waiting for the Japanese to arrive, he primes two s, and places them under his legs. When the Japanese arrive, one of them, interpreting for his commander, interrogates Rooney:

“Who’s your Commander?â€

“General Douglas Arthurâ€

“How many men do you have?â€

“Oh, about a million or soâ€

“If you don’t tell us what we want to know, we’ll shoot you!â€

“Oh don’t do that, that will give me such a headache! You know, my problem is I’m hungry, and haven’t had anything to eat all day except for these HOT POTATOES!†With a develish-looking grin, Rooney pulls out the grenedes, holding them up in front of his face. The Japanese quickly back away as he continues to offer them, and shoot him. As he dies, he throws the grenedes. Cut to the scene where the remaining commandos turn their heads towards the direction of the explosions.
off in the distance
 

Doughboy

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Interesting that you mentioned this film starring Gregory Peck, in fact this was his first film role back in 1944. As the synopsis from All Movie Guide puts it:

Like Song of Russia and Mission to Moscow before it, Days of Glory is a paean to the courage and resourcefulness of the Soviet Union during WW2 (this was long before the Russians became the stock villains in Hollywood films!) Producer Casey Robinson took a gamble with the project, casting the leading roles with movie newcomers. Heading the cast is Broadway actor Gregory Peck as Vladimir, the leader of a band of Soviet guerilla fighters. Tamara Toumanova, former premier ballerina of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, costars as Nina, whose love for Vladimir is surpassed by her love for Mother Russia (Toumanova was at the time the wife of producer Robinson). The actors speak in long, lyrical monologues about freedom, sacrifice and the indomitability of the human spirit: fascinating at first, the excess verbiage begins to wear on the viewer after three or four reels. In traditional underground-movie fashion, hero and heroine are obliged to give up their own lives for the sake of their countrymen, in a reasonably spectacular climactic battle sequence. Budgeted at nearly a million dollars, Days of Glory lost heavily at the box-office, though critics and audiences alike were in agreement that Gregory Peck had some potential as a screen presence. — Hal Erickson
:)


What a great resource, check it out: www.allmovie.com

cheers
John
 

Doughboy

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come to think of it, I think Cross of Iron has a few choice scenes such as the death the death of Lt Meyer and Steiner's platoon getting wiped out in the end. Actually, when Steiner took part in the counter attack and attempted the rescue of the one soldier, I thought that was heroic as well.
Too back Peckinpah ran out of money filming this peace of work, it could have been so much better. Never the less it is one of my top favs Squad Leader films of all time. Out of curorsity, was there ever a Sgt or Cpl Steiner SMC in SL or ASL? Could have sworn there was one, but my memory is probrably going :roll:
 
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Another honoarable mention--Jean Reno's charactor in "The Professional".
Nothing like checking your dying enemy's hand to see what it is holding----and find a pulled grendae pin!
 

Countertroll

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Heroic Demise

I really dig the James Coburn demise in 'Hell is for Heroes'. Drives home the point why it is often not cool to carry a four gallon zippo on your back.
 
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Yea, I remember that scene--Him and Steve McQueen trying to infiltrate
a German pillbox at night, and poor Colburn "finds" a landmine that Steve
missed as point man----I sweated watching that part. I cannot imagine how it has to feel wearing a FT and crawling on open ground in enemy territory. I just read an account of Marines at Iwo Jima where the FT men where especially singled out by Japanese snipers--Yet time after time a brave Marine would go retrieve the FT from the man and pick up were he left off---Sheer guts, I tell you!
 

UXB

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Hero movie scenes

Saving Private Ryan

Not a battle scene, the scene where Tom Hanks's character tells the squad
he's an English teacher. I had a teacher in high school who was in Korea.
Hanks's character reminided me of that guy, who returned from
a war zone and taught a bunch of whining upscale morons.

It seems to me that wars take people out of their regular lives and when
they get back they still see all the whingeing buffoons they left.

Anyway I think that's a pretty heroic scene because it reminded me of
that teacher in high school, who went through the misery of war and
had the guts to teach us idiots without making us feel useless. If you talked
to him after class about the war you came to realise what a huge thing that is.
 

J P

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war scenes

There was an Audie Murphy movie based on his time in the army during WW2 and the final scene was of Audie standing on a burning tank letting rip with the AAMG at the attacking germans-very gutsy. Anybody know the name of the flick?
 

Doughboy

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"To Hell and Back"
an autobiographical film on the experiences of Audi Murphy

In fact, Washing Machine Charlie's avatar is Murphy from that film

cheers
 

Harold

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When Mel Gibson's character jumps out of the trench in Gallipoli. He knew he was going to die yet he obeyed his orders. Kind of a shocker ending as well.
 

Doughboy

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actually, it was Mark Lee who played Archie who died. He was the guy training for the Olympics at the beginning of the film. Frank (Mel Gibson) was desparately running back with the new order to hold off the charge until confirmation. Unfortunately, he was too late. Check out this link at allmovie.com:
http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=1:19135

As reviewed by Rebecca Flint from allmovie:
Full of unforgettable imagery and stirring adventure, Gallipoli is both one of the cinema's best anti-war tracts and a poignant meditation on the nature of friendship. Beneath the film's war-is-hell message lies the simple tale of a young man who yearns to break away from the isolated life he has known since birth. A golden-skinned athlete, he radiates promise and naivete, and he symbolizes the generation lost to World War I. But wisely, director Peter Weir refrains from exploiting such symbolism to its treacly maximum. Instead, he makes Mark Lee's Archy a foil for Mel Gibson's more ironic, world-weary Frank, using them to fashion a parable about the loss of innocence and the vindication of cynicism. Some of the film's most stunning aspects lie in its images. Weir's landscapes appear simultaneously stark and lush, with the blinding sands of the Australian outback underscoring both geographical and existential isolation; the chaotic, lively setting of the film's battles makes the specter of death even more surreal and terrible. Perhaps the film's most striking image is that of Australian soldiers swimming underwater during a daytime air attack; the sight of their nude bodies silently thrashing through reddening water is one of troubling beauty. Preferring to take a somber rather than accusatory standpoint on the battle of Gallipoli, the film nonetheless manages to be a profound indictment of the stupidity and misjudgment that defined the catastrophic battle. Taken with its compelling portrait of the friendship of its two leads, Gallipoli makes its subject a highly personal one, giving a human face to the statistical cost of human failings. — Rebecca Flint

cheers
 

UXB

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Breaker Morrant

The coffin scene near the end.

"Make sure the coffin's tall enough..." or words to that effect.
 

last_cav1971

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Just watched "We Were Soldiers" again the other night........the guy who jumped on the grenade.......my wife looked at me and said, "you know, that would take a lot of guts." I looked at her and said, "yeah...."..........thats it. Couldnt think of any other words.

Mark
Deo Vindice
 
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