Technically 101, but let's not quibble.

April 18, 2016 1:53 PM

100 Years/100 Shots - Starting with Birth of a Nation in 1915 and ending with Mad Max: Fury Road in 2015, a series of iconic shots in film with one shot per year.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI (28 comments total)

Aw, they should have gone 101 (or technically 102) years and ended with Birth of a Nation (2016)...
posted by Huck500 at 1:58 PM on April 18, 2016 [8 favorites]

That was fun, I recognized way more of them than I had thought I would.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 2:43 PM on April 18, 2016

I need to see more movies. I figured I'd know more than I did. I couldn't even place several of the more recent ones. It also surprised me how many I knew immediately even though I've never seen the movie or the scene just because of the iconic imagery. Silence of the Lambs or Avatar for example.

I wonder how many of these exact scenes have been parodied on The Simpsons. I noticed many and I am not a Simpsons expert.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 2:53 PM on April 18, 2016

As soon as I clicked play I started saying "please no Un Chien Andalou, please no Un Chien Andalou...." And it worked, because I was prepared enough for Un Chien Andalou that I was able to immediately squeeze my eyes shut when the shot came on-screen!

Also, I was surprised that he chose the last scene from The Graduate instead of the one that frames Dustin Hoffman within the silhouette of Anne Bancroft's leg. I'd wager that the latter is more iconic than the former.
posted by mudpuppie at 3:08 PM on April 18, 2016 [4 favorites]

I wonder how many of these exact scenes have been parodied on The Simpsons. I noticed many and I am not a Simpsons expert.

I had a somewhat sheltered childhood regarding pop culture, so I didn't really start watching a lot of films until I hit college. But my dad has always been a big Simpsons fan, and I lived with/was friends with numerous people for whom Family Guy was a popular backgrounder for whatever else what going on while we hung out. The chances of me recognizing a scene or bit of dialogue from an episode of one of those two shows, as opposed to from actually watching the film, is probably on the order of 3 to 1.
posted by AdamCSnider at 3:14 PM on April 18, 2016

Great list and all, but man, just quietly slipping in that clip from Un Chien Andalou without warning is not a kindness to some of us. Like mudpuppie, my reflexes were sharp enough that I was able to close my eyes but it sure shot my pulse rate through the roof when the shot started.

Also, not the shot I personally would've picked from There Will Be Blood. I've seen the movie and still couldn't place the shot, compared to some others where I haven't seen the movie but still knew what it was instantly.

And it's sorta silly but the visual connection the editing made of "people with their arms outstretched" through Shawshank, Braveheart, Mission Impossible and Titanic amused me.
posted by mstokes650 at 3:15 PM on April 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

Platoon had the outstretched arms too. =)
posted by JoeZydeco at 3:16 PM on April 18, 2016

I'm unfamiliar with Un Chien Andalou and I can say I also was not prepared for that. Damn.
posted by moons in june at 3:33 PM on April 18, 2016

The clip from "Un Chien Andalou" --proof that I can hiss, wince, and swear all at once.
posted by datawrangler at 4:04 PM on April 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

I never really paid that much attention to it because there's a whole plot going on, but geez third man is just gorgeously lit.
posted by juv3nal at 4:13 PM on April 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

I wonder how many of these exact scenes have been parodied on The Simpsons

40'year ago it would have been Mad magazine. And I agree that some of the shots were not the most iconic. But a neat little history of cinema (mainly in the USA) nonetheless.
posted by TedW at 4:20 PM on April 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

I don't know why it felt like they were skipping some years? Maybe I miscounted. Is there a list somewhere?

also - hi fellow eye-centered body horror kindred, REPRESENT. I knew it was UN CHIEN that first second.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:39 PM on April 18, 2016

And it worked, because I was prepared enough for Un Chien Andalou that I was able to immediately squeeze my eyes shut when the shot came on-screen!

Eh, either you guys saw another video than I did or you all closed your eyes and missed that it was the shot before the notorious one. Or two shots before that one, to be precise, since there's a shot by the moon between them.

I was mostly puzzled over how some clips where totally out of order from what I remember. Guess I'm getting old.

(also would have been nice with a few more non-US choices, but that's how it is)
posted by effbot at 4:51 PM on April 18, 2016 [3 favorites]

Is there a list somewhere?

It's in the video's description (listing film titles, not years).
posted by effbot at 4:52 PM on April 18, 2016

I never really paid that much attention to it because there's a whole plot going on, but geez third man is just gorgeously lit.

Watch it some time with the sound off. It's just beautiful. Of course, when I first saw it, I didn't know from Expressionist film so it seemed more formally innovative to me than it actually is, but, still, it's amazing. I think more people would have chosen the image of Harry Lime first stepping into the light as the iconic shot from that film, but maybe due to the cut back to Martins's reaction, it was too short for the editor's purposes.

Ugh, I feel sorry for everyone who didn't recognize the Chien Andalou clip in time to look away.
posted by praemunire at 4:53 PM on April 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

Somewhat related, but specific to a single style by a single director:

Kubrick // One-Point Perspective
posted by splitpeasoup at 5:13 PM on April 18, 2016

Wow, bizarre to think that Sound of Music comes only halfway through the list. Or maybe only for me as I was born the year before.
posted by octothorpe at 5:14 PM on April 18, 2016

THIS IS SPARTA!

Gym Jones on 300
posted by bukvich at 5:23 PM on April 18, 2016

My movie-fanatic brothers (both younger than me) brought me up right -- I recognized almost all of them. And I agree with both these points:

> also would have been nice with a few more non-US choices

> Eh, either you guys saw another video than I did or you all closed your eyes and missed that it was the shot before the notorious one.
posted by languagehat at 5:28 PM on April 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

There were a number of them where I thought the choice of film was fine but the chosen shot wasn't. Off the top of my head:

The Great Dictator - the little dance bouncing around the earth beach ball is much more evocative than that flat medium shot of Chaplin
Citizen Kane - there are many more interesting shots than that one
The Seven Year Itch - maybe the shot right after the one chosen
Vertigo - surely the drowning rescue at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge or the dolly/zoom effect are more iconic.
The Graduate - definitely should have been the shot through Bancroft's leg
2001 - shouldn't it be a shot with the monolith?
The Empire Strikes Back - I'd have chosen the shot of the Millenium Falcon narrowly escaping two Star Destroyers with an extreme dive and barrel role.
Goodfellas - I suppose if he'd picked the Copacabana shot the clip would be too long but he should have grabbed the next shot of DeNiro smoking menacingly after the cutaway (it also loses its impact without Sunshine of your Love playing behind it.
Silence of the Lambs - I would have chosen the first appearance of Lecter standing perfectly still in his cell. Or the overhead shot of him bloody-faced, in a Bach-induced reverie after killing the two guards.
There are more I think. But that's where I'll stop.
posted by wabbittwax at 5:30 PM on April 18, 2016

Needed more The Conformist
posted by wabbittwax at 5:31 PM on April 18, 2016

Eh, either you guys saw another video than I did or you all closed your eyes and missed that it was the shot before the notorious one.

WE DIDN't ACTUALLY HAVE TO SEE IT WE JUST KNOW WHAT IS NEXT
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:32 PM on April 18, 2016 [4 favorites]

Eh, either you guys saw another video than I did or you all closed your eyes and missed that it was the shot before the notorious one. Or two shots before that one, to be precise, since there's a shot by the moon between them.

I'm calling it a victory, regardless.

And for the record, I don't think the shot with the razor held to the woman's face is any less notorious or any less iconic than the one with the actual eyeball -- in the same way that the shot with Norman Bates' "mother" raising the knife isn't any less notorious or iconic than the shots that follow it. The anticipation, the breath-holding, is at least half the point.
posted by mudpuppie at 6:22 PM on April 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

juv3nal: "I never really paid that much attention to it because there's a whole plot going on, but geez third man is just gorgeously lit."

I just saw the new 4k restoration on a big screen last week and it is just so amazing looking. If you stop to think about it, none of the lighting makes much sense but who cares when it looks like that.
posted by octothorpe at 6:33 PM on April 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

I feel bad for 1939, 1977, and 1999, at least.
posted by beerperson at 6:35 PM on April 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

I don't know. This felt to me like a mediocre Oscars montage with a not very surprising or interesting mix of movies (and some fairly mundane scenes from some of them). And how many black or Asian faces were there?
posted by stargell at 6:35 PM on April 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

What is Pirates of the Caribbean doing in there?
posted by crossoverman at 8:07 PM on April 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

Thanks for this, it made me want to skip work and sneak into a movie theater.

The fact that a one second shot can make you not only remember the movie but also (shortly) relive what you felt is a testament to the impact this particular art form has on us.

God, I really want to go and watch a movie now.
posted by Captain Fetid at 3:56 AM on April 19, 2016 [2 favorites]