Best Scene *****SPOILER*****

The long, last phone call Kilvinski makes to his former partner, in the hazy golden-orange twilight by a palm-lined L.A. Freeway, before reaching into the desk for a gun to shoot himself in the mouth. One man, one long single shot. A slow, building closeup that, even as it makes Scott's face fill the screen, still appears distant as his desperately rambling account of the lonely old man who kept calling the cops to keep him company sputters to a halt. We know why he tells it, and so does he, though he pretends otherwise. His sleeping partner doesn't get it, won't ever get it, unless he were to come right out and ask for what he needs -- which he won't. An insincere smile, a "Sorry to bother you", and "I'll be talking to you." Bang.

I'd never seen a scene like that, in 1973 when I was 12.
But I sure got it. Even at that tender age.
This scene may have been my introduction to the art of filmmaking.

Only two kinds of movies could ever have a long, one-man, single-shot, apparently-going-nowhere scene like that: an indy, or a studio picture made between 1968 and 1972. Those were the days.