the greatest cuts in cinema

[the humble narrator]

the title says it all.
what are some of the best/most effective/creative - hence greatest cuts in motion picture history. editing is the topic of this thread.

2001: A Space Odyssey. the bone to spaceship as well as the last segment with bowman in the bedroom

The Girl on the Bridge. two characters have a conversation while they are in different cities. it's truly amazing. they are talking to themselves but the way it is edited they are having a conversation.

The Limey. the entire fuckin' film.

Old Boy. The reveal of the secret. All I will mention is a school and siblings.

A Short Film about Killing. We cut from a man killing someone to the end of the trail where he has been found guilty. no trial. no investigation. nothing. one cut, and he's already being death sentenced.

Don't Look Now. The opening with the kid. As well as the amazing sex scene.

Citizen Kane. "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year." One cut. From boy to man.

so basically I am looking for scenes that are master classes of editing.
they they try something experimental and it pays off.

[Le_Big_Mac]

Well, for individual cuts, these two are basically unmatched:

http://fusionanomaly.net/2001bonetosatellite.jpg

http://chud.com/articles/content_images/5/arabia.gif


Others (all of which are actual scenes):
Shower Scene - Psycho
Tennis Game/Cigarette Lighter in Storm Drain - Strangers on a Train
The Odessa Steps - Battleship Potemkin
Final Shootout - The Wild Bunch
Mexican Standoff - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The Death of Bonnie and Clyde - Bonnie and Clyde

[athf1980]

Bulliet-the car chase scene.

[hoojib127]

The last shot/freeze frame of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."

The cut from the dentist patient spitting to Seymour throwing water out of a bucket into the alley in "Little Shop of Horrors" ('86) has always made me laugh.

[bigred760]

The Wild Bunch - basically all the violence in the movie was heightened because of its awesome editing, particularly the opening and ending shootouts . . . and the Bunch's walking scene before the final shootout.

The Godfather - the baptism scene. I've read or heard somewhere that Coppola originally wanted the baptism scene and the mob boss killing sequences to be separate, but the editor made a montage out of them, mixing them and now is one of the most classic scenes in movie history.

[overwatch]

The only one that came to mind was the 2001 cut.

[Pentangeli]

Lawrence of Arabia:
Lawrence blows out a match - cut to - a desert, and the sun rising from the horizon.

[bsquared318]

2001: A Space Odyssey is a good one.

There's this scene in the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix where we cut from a Threstal (sp?) devouring a peice of meat to Ron devouring a turkey leg. I thought that was rather clever.

Memento has to be mentioned when you talk about editing, though I don't think there is any specific instance to be mentioned when it comes to cutting a scene.

[Mr. Mxyzptlk]

I always love the cut from Kane's lips saying 'Rosebud' to the snow-globe falling in Citizen Kane and I'm not quite sure why. I also really love the cuts in the the first telling of the story in Rashomon, the series of two shots cut together to establish a triangle.

[bsquared318]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Requiem for a Dream hold a record for most cuts in a film?

[FilmJunkie1114]

Well, for individual cuts, these two are basically unmatched:

http://fusionanomaly.net/2001bonetosatellite.jpg

http://chud.com/articles/content_images/5/arabia.gif



These were the exact two cuts I was going to reference

[drc5145]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Requiem for a Dream hold a record for most cuts in a film?

I thought that went to The Wild Bunch.? That final shootout alone has more cuts than a lot of feature films made today. for the matter, that movie also belongs on the list, as others have noted.

[hoojib127]

I thought that went to The Wild Bunch.? That final shootout alone has more cuts than a lot of feature films made today. for the matter, that movie also belongs on the list, as others have noted.

I believe Roger Ebert once did an experiment of clicking a stopwatch to every cut in "Armageddon," and he said the average time between each cut was 1.5 seconds. : ? Long live ADD, eh?

[Badbird]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Requiem for a Dream hold a record for most cuts in a film?

I read in EW at the time that said the average movie has about 300 + cuts in it, where Requiem had over 1000.

Not sure if it holds the record anymore, or if it ever even had it in the first place.



A cut I always liked was in Bram Stoker's Dracula after they stake and behead Lucy in a real bloody scene, it cuts to a shot of rare steak as they start to cut it up and eat.

[soad]

300 is way too low for feature film. I made an 15 minute action film with 150 cuts.

[hasselbrad]

In A Christmas Story, the cut from Randy lifting the toilet seat to Ralphie lifting the lid on the red cabbage was sort of clever.

[drc5145]

I believe Roger Ebert once did an experiment of clicking a stopwatch to every cut in "Armageddon," and he said the average time between each cut was 1.5 seconds. : ? Long live ADD, eh?

Holy bejeebus. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, coming from Michael Bay.

[overwatch]

Pulp Fiction when Butch gets a shotgun but to the face. And it cuts to a closeup mid strike.

[echo_bravo]

Requiem for a Dream or The Fountain.

Both brillant job by Darren.

[Danger^Cart]

I've always been infatuated with the scene from Narc, where Liotta pops Jason Patric in the face with the shotty.

[Tweek]

Old Boy. The reveal of the secret. All I will mention is a school and siblings.


That's funny. The first thing that came to mind was from Oldboy. My favorite (I'm not trying to dub it the greatest) from that movie is (spoilers): After his sister falls and his hand curls up and then it cuts to...well, you know. BANG! That fucked me up, it was so well done.

[ericdraven]

The whole opening credits sequence in Fight Club where it goes from all that to Ed norton with a gun in his mouth. That shot blew my mind when I first saw it.

[The Postmaster General]

In RoboCop when Murphy is looking through his old house and punches the TV then it cuts to the dance club and the sound effect of the TV smashing transitions into the music at the club.

Actually, coming to think of it, I think most of my favorite cuts are more sound-based than visual. Goodfellas has a bunch of these, like when Karen screams after getting manhandled and it cuts to the guys screaming in the bar.

[Pentangeli]

Brotherhood of the Wolf: Bellucci's tits faded into snowy mountains.

[jaymckee74]

http://unrealitymag.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/anton.jpg

[Antonio141]

Oh CUTS, I thought the title said CUNTS, and I was ready with my list! HaHaHa!

No Contest: The shower scene in PSYCHO!!!

[John Galt]

The "chum" scene in Jaws.

The tractor scene in Footloose.

The Tech Noir scene in The Terminator.

The escape scene from LB-426 in Aliens.

[Badbird]

I just thought of a good one:

Signs - when it cuts from Mel Gibson talking to his daughter by the bed to him looking out the window and you see the alien stand up on the roof.

Though it is technically a "jump scare" or gotcha moment, it was still such a shock to actually see it. It was so creepy that it stayed with you.

[steve16890]

The crash in Grindhouse which shows the crash from each characters perspective.

[Monotreme]

The Coen brothers have a bunch of great cuts. One that comes to mind is in Fargo, when Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare are in the shack, and the camera slowly dollies in as Buscemi is hitting the TV while cursing loudly, although it is showing nothing but static. When the static-filled TV set fills the entire screen, suddenly it pops to life and shows a nature documentary about wood lice or something like that. But in the next cut, we see that we've actually moved to Frances McDormand and her husband's bedroom, and they are watching the WORKING TV.

But I have to admit, that the first cut that came to mind when I read the thread title was:

"The oil pressure. I forgot to check the oil pressure! When Kramer hears about this, the shit's going to hit the fan!"

http://mos.totalfilm.com/images/1/10-greatest-gross-out-moments-of-the-80s-00-420-75.jpg

[Jon Lyrik]

No Country For Old Men is a masterpiece of editing.

[Reigh Kaufman]

The Lives of Others uses a brilliant cut when Georg holds Christa-Maria after she has been sexually abused by the Stasi chief. The shot of Georg cradling Christa is matched to Gerd in the attic tenderly cradling the headset in his sleep. Absolute loneliness demonstrated in one beautiful edit.

Magic.

[Prismatic Sphere]

The sequence at the end on the staircase in Dario Argento's "The Black Cat" from 'Two Evil Eyes'.

For that moment of cinema, he out-Hitchcocks, Hitchcock.

[overwatch]

I'd love to make some gifs out of these scenes but I don't know how.

[phelonious]

I don't know if it's one of the greatest cuts, but in PAY IT FORWARD, they are all sitting on the couch watching wrestling and her Ex walks in. Cut to: John Bon Jovi--BOING! you just know that couch had an ejector seat in it and Kevin Spacey is hurtling through space.

[Man With A Harmonica]

The last shot/freeze frame of "Rocky"

[scottmushroom]

Spaceballs:
Nice fade!

[SykkBoy]

In A Christmas Story, the cut from Randy lifting the toilet seat to Ralphie lifting the lid on the red cabbage was sort of clever.

This is one I was thinking of...

I'd also have to go with Requiem For A Dream, the ending sequence as

*SPOILERS* they all curl into fetal positions as they resign themselves to their fates (except Sarah who's been lobotomized and is blissfully unaware and dreams about her "fans")