New to the Collection: Up

Every time Saucy adds a new DVD to his increasingly mammoth film collection, he will take the time to provide five indelible scenes that convinced him to spend his hard-earned sheckles on something he could have gotten for free with a DVD burner and a Netflix subscription. Unless he doesn't want to do that, at which point he will just do something else. This installment discusses Up, the 2009 animated film by Pixar Studios.

I had prepared a really long, pompous, snobby, interminable screed about the "Married Life sequence" in Up, the scene that I consider to be the greatest single piece of filmmaking in movies during the year of 2009, and probably one of the five or so best examples of film editing during the last decade. It was basically just a restating of the events that take place during the sequence, only I inserted some really absurd terms, like "meet-cute," "human condition," and "haunting image." Seriously, the thing really blew. I figured I would just scrap it and allow you to watch the scene for yourself. Follow the link and enjoy!

New to the Collection: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Every time Saucy adds a new DVD to his increasingly mammoth film collection, he will take the time to provide five indelible scenes that convinced him to spend his hard-earned sheckles on something he could have gotten for free with a DVD burner and a Netflix subscription. This installment discusses The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, the 1948 film starring a deliciously crazed Humphrey Bogart and directed by that manliest of men's directors, John Huston.

1) "Can you stake a fellow American to a meal?"
Three times, Bogart's Fred C. Dobbs hits up the same unfortunate fellow (Huston, in a memorable cameo) for money to get himself something to eat. However, despite the fact that the benefactor agrees to give Dobbs not only three donations, but a fourth to simply leave him alone, Bogart's character never manages to buy that promised meal. Either he's hitting a bar or luxuriating for a nice shave and haircut. In the first ten minutes, the scene not only entertains, but shows Dobbs' hunger, his greed, and his basic immorality, all of which will lead him toward madness as he hunts for gold flakes later in the picture.

New to the Collection: The Great Dictator (1940)

Every time Saucy adds a new DVD to his increasingly mammoth film collection, he will take the time to provide five indelible scenes that convinced him to spend his hard-earned sheckles on something he could have gotten for free with a DVD burner and a Netflix subscription. This installment discusses The Great Dictator, a 1940 satire of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich by silent film legend Charles Chaplin.

1.) The Globe Sequence
Easily the film’s most indelible scene, it shows a mad man in love with his own ambitions, oblivious to (or more likely, unmoved by) the calamities his megalomania is having on thousands of “Tomanian” citizens. Also, it is just an incredibly shot, choreographed, and acted sequence by a man as graceful as he was bold. Even showcases some early wire work.