There’s a lot of snow on the ground in London this morning… enough that it would be kinda impressive even in New York. Since everything makes me think about movies:
What’s your favorite snow-related scene or sequence from a film?
I’m gonna go with all the Hoth stuff in The Empire Strikes Back. From Han Solo’s “Then I’ll see you in hell!” to,well, Han Solo’s “And I thought they smelled bad on the outside,” there’s a ton of humor and just plain human desperation connected to the cold setting — the weather and the environment isn’t just sci-fi dressing.
(On a related note, I’ll also mention the episode of Stargate SG-1 in which O’Neill and Carter think they’re going home through the stargate but end up in a strange place in a snow cave on what Carter determines, once she’s able to climb outside, to be “an ice world.” Of course, it turns out they’ve come through a second gate on Earth and are in Antarctica. I’ve always thought that the presumption that this had to be “an ice world” is a nice little smackdown of unimaginative science fiction writers who invent planets that have only a single kind of environment… such as Hoth.)
You?
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when George meets the angel in its a wonderful life. When he jumps in the water to save him.Or in that one scene in Snow falling on cedars im sure was a big hit
Jack chasing Danny through the maze at the end of The Shining. “Danny! Daaaanneeee! DAANNEEEEE!”
And the discovery of Hatchet Jack in Jeremiah Johnson “It kilt the bar what kilt me.”
I gotta go with Ethan Hawke slipping and stumbling through the snow after hearing of Neil’s death in Dead Poets Society. I was obsessed with that film (and Ethan Hawke) in my teens so it’s the first snow scene that comes to mind.
The snow at the end of Francois Traffaut’s “Farenheit 451,” and snow falling on the dead Lemures god-demon in the third episode of “Vampire Princess Miyu.”
Oops! I missed one–snow falling on the funeral at the end of the episode, “The Message,” in “Firefly.”
I like the episode “Amends” from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Angel has decided that he’s beyond redemption, and he’s waiting for the sun to come up so that it will kill him. And it starts to snow. In California, the first white Christmas in Sunnydale, ever. It blocks out the sun, and Buffy and Angel walk around together all day long with snow falling on them.
The “What’s This?” sequence from The Nightmare Before Christmas is a pretty strong contender.
I’m in Florida. What is this “snow” you speak of?
Ironically, “Ice Planet” is probably the most likely of the single-environment worlds in Star Wars.
the scene in Doctor Zhivago where they go to their dacha at Verickno (sp?)
they’ve left behind the sadness and horror of Moscow and riding
across a flat snow landscape in their troika, they see the little house,
completely covered in ice… it’s just breathtaking.
I’m told that, when I get around to seeing Dr. Z, the snow is unforgettable.
as is its visual opposite — the sunflower scene… that movie is just chock full of breathtaking visuals (i do mean the one with Omar Sharif)…
Although there’s snow everywhere throughout the better part of the film, the final scene of Joseph Vilsmayer’s Stalingrad silently does with the snow what Roy Batty did with the rain.
Edward Scissorhands shaving an ice sculpture and creating “snow” for Winona Ryder’s character to dance in.
WARNING:CONTAINS SPOILERS
The climactic gunfight at the end of Robert Altman’s McCabe and Mrs. Miller is probably my favorite winter scene of all time in a movie. It’s the complete opposite of your standard Western climax, which usually features the hero boldly gunning down the main villain in the middle of the town square while the locals stand around and applaud and he runs off with the girl at the end. In this one, McCabe is stalked by his pursuers during an intense snowstorm while the villagers are distracted with the job of putting out a fire at the local church. He manages to kill all of his assassins, but is fatally wounded himself and dies alone in the snow, unnoticed by anybody, particularly the female lead, who loses herself in a drug-induced fog in an opium den on the outskirts of town, while Leonard Cohen’s “Winter Lady” plays on the soundtrack. Very heart-breaking and poetic, and the perfect ending for such a sad and beautiful film.
1. The penultimate confrontation between D’Hubert and Ferraud in “The Duellists” on the retreat from Moscow.
2. The first meeting of Oskar and Eli in “Let The Right One In”.
I agree that the ESB sequence on Hoth is good.
I don’t think I have a favorite. I did like the whole snow filled part of the Renner Bourne film. Beautifully filmed. What also comes to mind is an image from a trailer for I movie I never saw: Raise the Red Lantern.
My first thought was Fargo. The scene near the end and they show the snowy windswept land. You just know it is like -10 degrees and feeling colder from the wind. In other words frickin’ miserable if you are out in the weather. Then you have Marge saying “And here ya are, and it’s a beautiful day.” And you know what- it is a beautiful day- where there is life there is hope.
For me, that would have to be the ice sculpture scene from Groundhog Day, where Phil is just hanging out with Rita, having a nice time and finally losing some of his douchebag qualities (though at this stage he’s still got some way to go). Just a perfect blending of setting, sentiment and music.