MovieChat Forums > Sometimes a Great Notion (1972) Discussion > One of the most gut wrenching death scen...

One of the most gut wrenching death scenes ever filmed [SPOILERS]

posted 14 years ago by incognitoami
26 replies | jump to latest

Richard Jaeckel's death is just difficult to watch. Such a likable fellow and the whole time he is trapped by the log you just know it is coming. Paul Newman is just one of those guys in the business that understood drama and how to make it work. The movie is slow but builds to one of the most intensely dramatic climaxes. This film is terribly underrated. I've seen Jaeckel in many numerous character actor roles before and I mostly remember him from Starman but this has to be his most memorable performance. Henry Fonda's death was pretty intense as well but Jaeckel's is the one that really ripped my guts out.

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] jmcody 13 years ago

very well said!

Still it would have been interesting to see what the film would have looked like had Peckinpah directed with Lee Marvin in the lead - as the two were attached briefly to the project . . .

Keep The Change Bob.

"The Maestro says its Mozart, when it sounds like bubblegum."

[–] sschneider-6 13 years ago

I agree completely

I hadn't seen this movie for years, and just watched it again this morning on Encore

But that scene has stayed with me for 20+ years -- I've never forgotten it and think it is one of the most intense, disturbing, gut-wrenching scenes I have EVER seen

Any time I've been in a discussion about the worst way to die (which seems to happen more often that it probably should), I always think of this scene

Amazingly done
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Messieurs et Mesdames, bienvenue au Cirque du Mousie

[–] onleft23 13 years ago

i think it is the single most gut wrenching scene ive ever watched
i remember seeing it at the movies when it came out
after newman did an interview on the dick cavett show

undoubtably in my top ten movies all time

i dont know if it's still up but the scene used to be on youtube
i started to watch it but couldnt make it thru
too heartbreaking a scene i got two brothers and losing one that way
i dont think i could take

newman was as good as he ever was in that flick imo
just an astonishing acting job
the take where he's sitting on the couch throwing empties
into the fireplace is simply magnificent

then him and sarrazin settling up slash calling a temporary truce
on the tug ...

i could go on and on

not to mention lee remick is the most beautiful actress i ever saw ...

[–] frstclasslady 12 years ago

This may sound sick but I'm so glad to see that others reacted the same way I did when I first saw this movie at least 30 years ago. I didn't even remember the name of the movie until it popped up on my Netflix suggested titles and I realized THERE was the movie I couldn't remember. The thing that has stuck with me though over these past 30 years is that horrible drowning scene at the end. I cried my eyes out and have never gotten that scene out of my mind. It is for that reason alone that I could never watch this movie again. Very, very VERY few movies have that affect on me. The only other ones that come to mind is Brian's Song and Leaving Las Vegas.

Thanks. You all have just validated my emotions after all these years!!

[–] jquick99 7 years ago

Count me in on seeing this film as a little girl, and that scene still haunts me. I now live in Oregon, and have started to read the book...and NOT looking forward to that part.

[–] CULTEGUY 13 years ago

It's rough to watch. People should watch it for Newman's part, though, and how he handled a real crisis. And, to keep an open mind, it gives you a question as to how did they do that in the 70s? Now, we can do so much for so little, but that looked pretty realistic.

I'll admit I've never read the book, and have to, but this movie is a little underated. I'm pretty sure it doesn't bother the book, for purists of the book, but it's a hell of a shame to see a good film not distributed in the right way so that it's slipped into oblivion, shameful.

[–] WarpedRecord 13 years ago

I was also wondering how that was filmed, because clearly he's fully submerged in much of the scene. I assumed they needed many takes and Richard Jaeckel had to hold his breath a lot. The emotions in that scene are incredible – it's humorous at first, but by the end you can see the terror on his face.

I love this film because it is so free-form, with plenty of subplots and side paths – just like life.

[–] banders46 13 years ago

Well said. I really like this movie, but probably without that scene it would be fairly forgettable. That scene is just a terrific piece of drama, well crafted and acted.

[–] coolbrett 12 years ago

I just watched this on youtube and was incredibly disturbed by it. Obviously a very well directed scene

[–] Kroyall1962 11 years ago

It is a great scene. The film itself is awesome, one of my top 10 easily. The close-ups for the log scene were done in an above-ground swimming pool inter-cut with the real river location.

I wonder if it would have worked for Hank to find a decent size log that was floating and use it as a ram to try to dislodge Joe Ben from under the larger log. I also don't understand how Joe Ben could have been "nailed" to the log when it floated down the river as Hank explained to Lee. I figured he was just pinned between 2 logs, once the top one floats away his body would be loose.

[–] chester-copperpot-1 11 years ago

I wonder if it would have worked for Hank to find a decent size log that was floating and use it as a ram to try to dislodge Joe Ben from under the larger log. I also don't understand how Joe Ben could have been "nailed" to the log when it floated down the river as Hank explained to Lee. I figured he was just pinned between 2 logs, once the top one floats away his body would be loose.

I don't know how it was in the book, but Hanks talk about Ben being "nailed" to the log, to me, implies just that. That Ben was more or less impaled by one of the branches. It was just his good hearted nature that made him look like it wasn't as bad as it probably was. Perhaps it wasn't in the gut, or there would have been blood. But perhaps he just got hooked by something that went through the fleshy part of his thigh or leg and pinned him to the log.

Hank said something like "tell him to watch out for a log that is flagged. Joe Ben's nailed to it". Which means even as the log floated by itself, Hank couldn't unhook Joe from it. There is much in this film that isn't said or stated, but only implied. And that's my take on it.

And on the scen, yes, it was gut wrenching. I saw the film on tv some fifteen years ago, didn't know what it was, missed the first fiteen minutes or so. But I was hooked. And then came that scene. And the entire ending, with Joe and Henry and the women splitting and the logging and Henrys goddamn arm with the middle finger raised tied to that tug. Perhaps the biggest *beep* you in film history. It has stayed with me ever since, and I've desperately tried to get my hands on this film for years now.

[–] puttypaws 11 years ago

my feeling was that after he died, hank nailed him to the log and flagged it up, so he could retrieve the body as it and all the cut logs eventually floated off downstream.

the whole scene made the film - brilliant direction, editing and acting

[–] sschneider-6 11 years ago

That's how I always took it too -- that he had nailed his brother's body to the log after, so they could find him later
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Messieurs et Mesdames, bienvenue au Cirque du Mousie

[–] lizcarlo87 11 years ago

His character is a great guy. I just could not help but love him. This is one of my favorite movies.

[–] aasoloway 11 years ago

You're not kidding. I saw this when it first came out (I was a kid) and it's stayed with me. What a nightmare!

[–] Jefbecco-1 11 years ago

I saw this movie when it first aired on network television in the seventies and was retitled "Never Give An Inch". I must have been around eight or nine years old, but I remember watching Joby's death in rapt ,and horrified, fascination. I've seen this movie twice in the years since. Just watched it again today (10/01/13) on Netflicks and I still found his death to be wrenching. Powerfully done and even 43 years later still has some real punch.

[–] susanemccool 10 years ago

I came here to post "Was anyone else as disturbed by . . . " Although I'm relatively new to this site, I should have known that I wouldn't be alone in my reaction to such a powerful, horrible scene. I think it was the claustrophobic nature of it that left me so shaken. That and the "so near, yet so far" factor. I couldn't get it out of my mind for weeks afterward, and here I am, 43 years later . . .

Most people don't even think "director" in connection to Paul Newman - at least most non-IMDb people, I should say - but he sure was a terrific one.

[–] tay-15 10 years ago

I saw the film with my family at a drive-in in the early '70s. That scene just haunted me. Frankly, I was too young for it.

The bear does not quit. The bear will not die.

[–] ecarle (14979) 3 years ago

Quentin Tarantino (for what it is worth) called this "one of the most justifiably famous movie scenes of the early 70's."

I know QT has some haters, but his reviews get read and he probably helped get this movie out in the marketplace again.

It is a great scene that got a fine, underappreciated actor (Richard Jaeckel) one of those Oscar nominations that go to people who get THE right character to play in THE right scene and play the hell out of it.

You never ask yourself "how did they film this?" as Jaeckel's head keeps going under water...you LIVE it. And you feel the ever-growing panic of Paul Newman as all attempts to save Jaeckel fail (I expect audiences felt that PAUL NEWMAN would surely save the day...but no.)

What's also interesting is that the same "bad tree split and fall" that traps Jaeckel destroys Henry Fonda's arm, too. Sarrazin takes off to drive Fonda to the hospital...leaving Newman alone with no help to try to save Jaeckel. Two deaths ensue...though nice guy Jaeckel's is surely more sad than the aged, brittle Fonda's.

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The other impressive scene in this movie is about a ten minute sequence showing the actors actually doing the dangerous work OF logging, with that incessant tractor "beeper noise" accompanying the rugged macho action. Paul Newman has a brave stunt double climbing to the tippy top of a tree and you feel THAT terror (even Newman "cut into the shot reels real enough.)

[–] ecarle (14979) 3 years ago

That scene just haunted me. Frankly, I was too young for it.

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Its a tough truism in movie-going families that a lot of small kids -- particularly at drive-ins in a car "safely with their parents" end up seeing scenes of terror or violence that maybe they should have seen, because they are indeed too young.. But there is a "taboo draw" to watching such scenes too young. You never forget them, and as you grow to adulthood, you can watch the scenes with a certain memory of being too young the first time -- you've finally grown up to where you can watch the scene as an adult.

And with THIS scene, even as an adult, uou are STILL affected.