Good morning, Brewers. Today I’d like to list out my top three favorite acting scenes of all time. Too often (like once a year) we see the grammy awards or oscars or whatever the hell award show it is that hands out awards for movies… I guess that lends proof that I don’t watch them… and we always see Best Actor, Best Picture, etc. And yeah, while I agree that Phillip Seymour Hoffman was masterful in Truman Capote, there just wasn’t really one scene that stuck out in my head as being just insanely awesome acting.

This might be hard to get across with flat text but I’ll try. There’s that one scene in that one movie that you’re probably thinking about right now. That one that just sends chills up your spine and makes you say, “Oh my word. That was effing brilliant.” And it might even bring tears to your eyes. Well that’s the scene I’m talking about. Here are my top three.

Number Three: Brad Pitt in Se7en. At the very end, and you should skip this section if you haven’t seen the movie Se7en, when he’s standing there with his pistol pointed at Kevin Spacey, and Morgan Freeman is running toward him telling him to drop it… Kevin Spacey (John Doe) is speaking to him calmly telling him that he took a trophy that morning. And Brad Pitt (Detective Mills) is trying to decide whether or not to believe him. He keeps turning back to Morgan Freeman (Detective Somerset) and asking him, “What’s in the box?”

The emotion in his voice as he’s crying that out, starting to believe what Doe is telling him, but fighting internally with it because Somerset hasn’t yet confirmed, all while turning back to Doe telling him to shut the hell up… That is just incredibly intense. But it gets better. When he finally believes it because Somerset confirms it, he points the gun at Doe and fights back tears several times. He wants so badly to just let them spill, just shout out and wail against what he’s heard. But he keeps biting it back and refocusing his emotion into anger. He does that several times. And the entire scene is nothing less than absolutely believable. It’s not one that makes me get teary-eyed, but it definitely gives me that man lump in my throat. Very, very well done, Mister Pitt.

Number Two: Sean Penn in Mystic River. If I have to tell you not to read on if you’ve not seen it… Seriously? Well, there’s no excuse for not seeing it. Even if you don’t think the movie is just fabulous, which – meh – it may or may not be, this scene is worth renting the movie for all by itself.

When he learns that his daughter has been murdered, the cops have to hold him back. If you watch the behind-the-scenes on this, you learn that he told the other actors, “When the scene starts, I’m going after him. Your job is to hold me back. I will not be acting and helping you hold me back. If you don’t hold me back, I will destroy him.” So when the director says action, he lets go. It was originally supposed to take like two or three cops to hold him back, but it ended up taking like six.

Because he wasn’t acting. He believed in his role. And his character would really have done that in real life, so he did it. He tore out after the other guy like he was on fire, and he was really going to kill him. And the cop actors had a damn hard time holding him back. The rage and emotion in his face and his screaming while he’s trying to break through sends chills up my spine and tears welling up in my eyes.

It’s not because it’s so beautifully acted. It’s because it rings so real that you feel what he’s feeling yourself. And I put myself in his shoes, feeling like I’ve just learned my own daughter was killed. And it makes you sick with rage and anger and the will to kill the man who took her life. You simply believe he is about to tear that guy’s throat out. Superbly done, Mister Penn.

Number One: Daryl Hannah in Kill Bill Volume Two. In this scene, she has a patch over one eye – having had it ripped from its socket some years ago by the kung fu master himself. Well this movie is kind of hogwash, and way too hokey for me to ever consider owning. But if you want to know what it feels like to have your other eye ripped out, watch Daryl Hannah do her thing.

Uma Thurman plucks her good eye out for her, then squishes it on the carpet with her bare toes. And Daryl goes flailing and wailing and screaming bloody murder, tripping over herself and falling into a bathtub, still swinging and screaming at whatever is within her reach. And good Lord, you believe she has just had her last good eye torn out. For that brief moment of masterful acting, you have the chance to imagine what it would feel like yourself. You can totally empathize because you feel the raw emotion just exploding on the room like a damn tornado.

I’ve never thought much of her before, and of course she was the best actor in that entire film, but this bit, which is probably three minutes long, is spine-chilling. It’s frightening how real it feels. Well done, Mrs. Hannah. Well done.

So that’s my short list. I wanted to come up with five, but it’s just so damn hard to visualize those short scenes that really steal the movie and make you feel so raw and full of emotion because of actual acting. Not just because of an event. Like in the end of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest when Chief rips the sink out and puts it through the window… That shit makes you stand up and shout with joy while you’re wiping tears away and trying to stifle the laughter. It’s incredible. But the emotion is built upon the foundation of the scene, the actions that take place in that scene, and the powerful music in the background. The acting itself? Well, meh. It’s nothing to write home about.

So you see what the criteria are for choosing the right scene. It has to be strictly limited to an emotion felt by an actor, and portrayed so believably that you almost forget anyone is acting at all.

Okay, so now it’s your turn. Tell me your favorite emotionally charged acting bits from movies – whether the movie is any good or not. I’m anxious to add more to my list, and – if I haven’t seen them – go check them out.