Five seminal scenes that completely redefined cinema
Is cinema the ultimate art form? The amalgamation of storytelling, performance, visuals, and music makes movies one of the most all-encompassing forms of art, allowing viewers to soak up other worlds for an extended period of time, one you can see, hear, and imagine yourself in. Naturally, as cinema has evolved over the years, many films have come to represent certain great moments of creative progression, with a canon of unforgettable movie moments forming in the consciousness of both dedicated cinema lovers and casual fans.
From Gene Kelly dancing in Singin’ in the Rain to the tragic goodbye of Brief Encounter to Robert De Niro’s “You talkin’ to me?” in Taxi Driver, there are countless classic moments that define key periods in cinema history. This vast collection of moments contains scenes that are seminal for certain reasons, maybe they include the use of a pioneering editing technique, or perhaps they include plot twists that challenge the way we think about narrative.
While there are so many monumental scenes that redefined the art form to pick from, we’ve selected five that truly feel like era-defining and groundbreaking moments in cinema history. These are scenes that have been endlessly parodied or replicated in some form in the years since they debuted, recognisable to those who haven’t even seen the films they’re from.
If you wanted to make a showreel of some of cinema’s most indelible images, you’d have to include the scenes listed below. So, from the Dawn of Man in 2001: A Space Odyssey to the shower sequence in Psycho, here are five scenes that redefined cinema.
Five seminal scenes that completely redefined cinema:
Empire State Building – ‘King Kong’ (Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1933)
While the special effects used in 1933’s King Kong might look rather amateur compared to the computer-generated graphics used today, back then, only a few years after cinema had even received sound, it was truly astounding to see these kinds of effects in action. To bring the giant gorilla to life, RKO brought in Willis H. O’Brien to complete the special effects, which were achieved with stop motion. The most iconic scene in the movie sees King Kong climbing the Empire State Building, holding Fay Wray’s character in his hand.
Such effects were so new to cinema that this was truly an era-defining moment in film history. The movie proved to be a huge source of inspiration for subsequent monster movies, like Godzilla, while the stop motion techniques encouraged Ray Harryhausen to pursue his career, with the animator subsequently becoming one of the industry’s most legendary and pioneering special effects artists. King Kong has its issues, especially when it comes to its depiction of race, but at least in terms of its technical achievements, the film, particularly this scene, marked a new era for cinematic possibilities.
Maria’s transformation – ‘Metropolis’ (Fritz Lang, 1927)
Fritz Lang’s 1927 movie Metropolis is a true feat of filmmaking, with its Expressionist and Futurist style exploring rich themes of class. The industrial setting is a visual spectacle, and it’s hard to believe that the movie was made during such an early point in cinema’s evolution. Not long after its release, Metropolis became known as one of the most influential movies ever made, standing as the first feature-length sci-fi film. It featured incredible effects that fully immersed viewers in this alternative, dystopian world, and they still amaze viewers almost 100 years later.
From the breathtaking shots of the city to the controversial dance sequence, plenty of scenes in Metropolis have helped cement its iconic place in cinema history. But who can forget Maria’s transformation? With wires plugged into the shiny robot body, patiently sitting in a chair as visual effects pass across her, we see her metamorphosis from artificial to human, and it’s simply beautiful. These days, the effects would be computer-generated, no doubt, but in the 1920s, no one had seen effects like this before, and it’s fascinating to imagine how people reacted to this sequence at the time.
Shower sequence – ‘Psycho’ (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)
When we think of the greatest and most influential moments in horror history, the iconic shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho likely comes to mind. The tense sequence, in which Janet Leigh’s character hops in the shower, only to be rudely interrupted by a mysterious figure who stabs her to death, was a dramatic moment that changed the course of the film’s narrative and the subsequent course of cinema history.
No longer was Leigh the main character, as we’d been led to believe, and no longer could we trust any of the characters. The scene was rather explicit for the time, with black-and-white film stock used to minimise the gruesome display of blood circling the drain, and even the fact that viewers were shown the knife pressing against naked skin was rather groundbreaking for early ’60s Hollywood, which the Hays Code still ruled. Psycho significantly influenced the slasher genre, which would emerge properly the next decade, and it also marked a new era for horror as a genre that could be truly terrifying in a much more realistic and unsettling way.
The Odessa Steps – ‘Battleship Potemkin’ (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925)
Sergei Eisenstein was one of the most important filmmakers of all time, emerging in the 1920s with influential Soviet films like Strike and Battleship Potemkin. Out of all of his achievements in the world of cinema, the Odessa Steps sequence from the latter film is perhaps his most seminal. Using montage – a technique he pioneered – Eisenstein depicted the massacre of civilians, with marching boots contrasted with people bleeding, a baby falling in its pram, and a woman whose pince-nez slides off her face as she screams. It’s a harrowing sequence, and one that has exerted significant influence over the film industry since it debuted in 1925.
It might be a film school staple, but that’s for a reason. Eisenstein communicated the chaos and horror of the massacre through his innovative editing techniques, and few movies had shown such pure terror and obscene violence before. References to the sequence can be seen in everything from Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith to Dune, emphasising its enduring power as a monumental moment in cinema history.
The Dawn of Man – ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
The sci-fi genre was forever changed when Stanley Kubrick released 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968. With its revolutionary special effects that made it feel like we were really in outer space, the movie harnessed a visual aesthetic that felt considerably ahead of its time, something that was matched by its exploration of technological developments and fears, including the threats of artificial intelligence. Inspiring everything from Star Wars to Interstellar, the film has endured for decades, and there are many sequences within it that we could place on this list.
It’s the opening sequence, however, that feels the most significant. With its use of dramatic music that is now firmly embedded in popular culture, such as ‘Also sprach Zarathustra’, the scene has captivated countless viewers and its influence can even be seen in movies like Barbie. When a hominin tribe discovers a mysterious monolith, they learn the power of using their resources for greater means, turning a bone into a weapon. When this bone is thrown into the air, we see it morph into a satellite, and this transition from a prehistoric setting to the present day is truly mind blowing. It’s a spine-tingling scene, and you can practically feel the intense cinematic impact it exerted while you’re watching it.
