I have a few but the one I like best is when the kids are interrogating the Russian and Lea Thompson's character smacks him around to get him to talk.
I liked it because seeing a small, delicate girl behaving in a desperate almost barbaric manner was shocking and unusual, at the time. It was also wholly believable.
Mostly, I liked it because it was turning point in the movie where the kids went from being scared innocents into full-on freedom fighters.
My favorite scene is when they are sitting around the campfire and LTC Tanner makes a grim reference to the Siege of Leningrad.
"They feed on rats, sawdust bread, and sometimes each other. The pyres light up the sky at night."
Near the end when Colonel Bella is reading his letter to his wife. Ron O'Neal's performance was the highlight of the movie. That part feels so real about a man who watched his convictions to a cause simply fall away to the harsh realities of war. The end, when he lets the brothers go and drops his weapon is a sign of his true humanity.
shareYou know what? I wonder if that scene where he lets Jed and Matt go is supposed to be similar to what Mr. Teasdale was talking about in the history lecture at the beginning. The last thing he mentions before the invasion is about the young son of the Khan asking his dad to let the last survivor go free. That's sort of what Bella does.
shareMine has always ben when C. Thomas Howell's character Robert stares down the Russian Hind 'copter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4JPMo4bMa4
This 1000%, it effected me so much as a child, I drew pictures and imitated this scene so many times.. I thought it was the most heroic *beep* I ever seen!
I would rewind it countless times, and it never got old. I partially named my son Robert, because of this character.
As a kid going up in the 80's there was nothing more heroic then that moment.
I was obsessed for YEARS, making makeshift RPG's Dressing like Robert in my Paintball days.. it never ended hahah.
I partially named my son Robert, because of this character.
Probably the initial invasion at the school.
"Aren't you a little strong for a lady? I'm calling wang..."
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I like it when they are getting all the stuff from the gas station and one kid insists on getting toilet paper because he wasn't going to use leaves. That's exactly what I would've done if I had been there.
shareMy favorite scene would probably the Daryl execution scene. In this scene, more than any, you see the effects of war on these young kids and their humanity. Even Daryl had a legitimate reason for what he did that all of them outside of Robert could empathize with. You could see the anguish that Jed goes through in deciding whether or not to kill him.
"Simpsons did it! Simpsons did it!"
It has nothing to do with empathy. The Soviets weren't going to roll up on them and play nice due to "empathy" and the kids couldn't afford to either. The bottom line is Daryl betrayed them, risking their lives and Robert knew that dragging the endgame with Daryl and further was just nonsense and putting them at risk. Robert did the right thing.
Although I will say he should have backed up a bit as to not get Daryl's blood on him.
"AVENGE ME!"
shareThe execution scene for the reasons others stated, but also because I see it differently
When the movie came out, I just laughed (I was a dumb kid) when Robert casually shot Daryl. I saw Robert as a stone-cold badass.
Now I see Robert as a victim, nearly as tragic as Daryl. The war burned Robert's humanity right out of him; he'd have had no kind of life at all, had he survived.
Actually, I take that back - Robert is MORE tragic than Daryl. I've become even less forgiving of Daryl over the years. After all the time the Wolverines spent together, he still managed to betray his friends AND his country.
Every reply that I've read here, gives me the same reaction: "yeah, THAT'S my favorite scene!"
I suppose that means my favorite scene is the whole movie.