Jacob Shoaf's Favorite Scene of 2007

It’s hard to pick just one favorite scene from a year with so many great films. There’s the fantastic confrontation between George Clooney and Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton, the mesmerizing tracking shot that surveys the beach during the Dunkirk evacuation from Atonement, and, pardon my foray into the lowbrow arena, the opening of Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSyO1t2As3U&feature=related – if you haven’t seen this three-minute middle finger to seat-kickers, cell-phone talkers, and crying babies, then you really should). Though there are still around thirty movies I would like to see from 2007 before I finalize anything, a task is at hand and it must be completed.

My favorite scene of the year is from the film which seemed to garner the most overall critical acclaim. I am of course referring to the Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men. In this scene, Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) confronts a gas station proprietor (Gene Jones) and forces him into a very high-stakes coin toss. It’s ridiculous how much tension the Coens are able to build from just a conversation between two men and a scant seven shots (in terms of camera positions, not cuts...and one of those shouldn't even count as it was only an establishing shot). Chigurh turns the proprietor’s friendly banter into a growing threat which slowly envelopes the room. Even a crinkled food wrapper placed on the counter by Chigurh lurches toward the man as an ominous threat of his possible doom. It’s a fantastic scene from a truly great movie. If you haven't seen it: slap yourself, say ten "Hail Tarkovsky"s as penance, and get thee to a film-ery, friendo. Continue reading...