It isn’t exactly from a classic film, but this scene has the key ingredient that makes Hollywood the master signifier it is, and what Eisenstein, the Russian who tried to do the with reason what Disney did with emotion, feared; control over the human will.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjRxdrg9BtU[/youtube]
In part it’s the music by Hans Zimmer that makes it work - his music has been collected on a disc called Wings of Film if I’m not mistaken, and that is more than just, but this scene would survive without the music. More important is the rain, the blue light and the powerful voice. Eisenstein tried to approach cinema as if he was dealing with reality, and making it into a an illusion. Hollywood does, I think, the opposite - turning an illusion (the medium film) into a reality (a great film).
Hollywood film has not the intention of conveying a reality, but the causation of an emotion. Reality, in suggestion and simulation, is a means, to the end of causing a hypnotic fascination with a persona, so as to leave the self and be drawn into a collective experience.
In which scenes is this effect most thoroughly achieved? I’m sure there are better scenes than this Crimson Tide speech, but I like it a lot. It makes me want to visit Alabama.