Most Rewatchable Scene
"Am I Black Enough for You" party sequence into the raid
In the discussion (18)
Approx. transcript time · 01:04:31Read transcript
- The phone booth execution at the very beginning is included; the walkthrough starts when Frank leaves his cell and the credits begin.
- The Benny character walking through the brothel and being executed in the phone booth is a separate set piece that announces the film's style.
- Fishburne's first scene with Buscemi's Test Tube is loved, from the dab of cocaine to 'you ever get the feeling you was being watched', 'You play ball, Tito?', the suitcase of Tampax and 'Room service, motherfuckers!'.
- The actor playing Leonard was Sam Jackson's stand-in for years.
- Walken's reunion with Fishburne's crew, with 'My feelings are dead', 'I feel no remorse' and a dance somewhere between Fred Astaire and Elvis, is iconic.
- Walken playing blackjack with Artie White (as heard) and shooting him is a rewatchable scene; the second round of shots after he is dead tops even Artie White pissing on Calderon's shoes.
- The fried chicken arrest scene ('Fuck you very much') is one of Fishburne's three big arias, with his Tito opening and his reunion with Frank; it was filmed in a grim Brooklyn slum neighborhood and is said to be a favorite of the director's.
- 'I'll slap the black off you' and 'Fuck you very much' were first heard in this movie by one participant, while another had heard the phrases growing up in New York.
- The wedding scene and the speech are a huge one, maybe the most Chimino-esque sequence.
- Caruso's bar monologue about having to kill Frank White ('My job is to protect the people of this city') is listed; delivering it in front of the bartender may be a tactical mistake because the bartender in a cop bar is always an old cop.
- Also listed: the big nightclub shootout with Schoolly D, Fishburne killing Snipes in the rain, and the tail end in the cab.
- The Plaza Hotel dinner with the columnists, the lawyer and the beautiful people evokes a New York that maybe never existed, a little Bonfire of the Vanities; Pete Hamill was a participant's grandparents' favorite columnist.
- Walken going to see Victor Argo and the line about the country spending a hundred billion a year getting high is added; quotable lines are held for later.
- The car chase is called the best action scene, though sloppy: Ferrara is likened to Sam Fuller, all about the moment, and it is obvious the black-haired driver is not Walken.
- The 'Am I Black Enough for You' party sequence running into the raid on the compound is proposed as unlike any scene set to a song or use of color seen before.
- A second voice had that scene as well, and a third, enamored with Jimmy Jump's introduction, joins 'you guys' because the song is fantastic and it takes you into their world.
- Few movies of the time used hip-hop correctly other than Do the Right Thing; Schoolly D is called the godfather of gangster rap from Philly, influencing NWA, and Abel connecting with him shows taste.
- Walken killing Caruso at the police funeral is recalled as a missed scene and one of the great shotgun deaths; one voice doubts anyone could get away at a guarded police funeral, while another would not change a frame.