These are the ten movie clips that are always playing in my head, the ones that I don’t feel I’d be the same me without, my cine-DNA, I suppose. But, no, these clips aren’t necessarily the most iconic from all of film. There’s no “You had me at hello” or “Make my day” or “Of all the gin joints” or “I’m walking here”-stuff. All of which is cool and great, of course (here for more like that). Just, that’s stuff I watched, not stuff that part of me’s always trying to live. If that can make any sense.

And, yeah, only one of them’s as recent as 2000, looks like. I guess the stuff that’s going to be formative has to kind of hit you when you’re formativing. Makes a certain kind of sense.

I guess a kind of sister-post to this would be the one I did on music, “Look What the Cat Dragged In.”

( and, these are mostly scrounged clips, so, if you notice one’s showing up dead, maybe drop a comment, let me know? thanks )

 

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Tell me about it, stud

This is probably the clip that’s ruined me the most. Looking back on just about every decision I’ve ever made, this is pretty much responsible.

 

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Come with me if you want to live

Every time I write, this is exactly the moment I’m reaching for. Seriously. Every. Single. Time.

 

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I’ll make you famous

I wanted both for him to make me famous and to be him. Still do. And, if anybody can find the clip as it happens instead of at the end, thanks in advance.

 

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Do you want to live forever?

There’s only ever been one answer to Valeria’s question. I’ve been to the emergency room so, so many times because she said this once and forever. Sorry I don’t have the (Conan the Barbarian) clip, either (anybody?). Just the audio:

 

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It was the bogeyman

When Michael was gone, the world shifted forever. Because now he was walking in it. I’ve said it in some book or interview before, but, anyway, Michael Myers is the first slasher I ever encountered, indirectly, when I was five or six. I was sleeping on my grandmother’s floor and my aunt and uncle knocked on the door, said they couldn’t sleep in their trailer anymore. because of Michael. I held the door open for them and then looked past, into the darkness. And then never looked away.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQcdsZVcJ5A

 

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Tiny Dancer

I still can’t watch this without having to get into some serious eye-batting maneuvers. It’s this hard-living rock band singing Elton John. It’s forgiveness. It’s when the kid figures out where home is. And, most important, it’s when the characters are also listening to the movie.

 

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And he’s still there

I would cut off a finger (maybe even mine) to have been in the theater in 80 and have seen this for the first time on the big screen. Still, watching it in a friend’s garage in eighth-grade, that was pretty excellent too. Either way, this is how you end a movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqKsp7UxMA8

 

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Spoil that kid every chance you get

Morgan Freeman gets my vote here for best line ever spoken.

 

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I never had friends like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?

I always secretly thought the story/movie was made special for me. And that should be present-tense, really.

 

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I wanna be an Airborne Ranger

From the moment I first saw this, I’ve been running.