Top Ten Favorite Scenes from a Movie

Every good movie I've seen has a moment that pulls everything together. In some movies, that's the top scene for me, but in others, it could be a feel good moment, a laugh until you cry moment, or a real tear jerker. Since I've seen thousands of movies and have more than one favorite scene in most of them, I could write a different list of top favorite movie scenes for the next year. For today, my top ten favorite scenes from a movie include:

1. The death scene in the movie "Brian's Song". My sister and I have shared a box of kleenex every time we've watched that movie in the past 30 years.

2. A lump grows in my throat and tears flow when I watch the remake of "Stella" starring Bette Midler. The last scene where Stella is looking through the window trying to see her daughter's face to make sure she's happy is so moving.

3. The scene in "Stripes" where Bill Murray leads his fellow army squad in a unique graduation display that earns them a special assignment from a general looking for a team of go-getters. It's hilarious.

4. The last dance scene in "Dirty Dancing" pulls together all the other dance scenes in the movie. From the time Johnny (Patrick Swayze) leads Baby (Jennifer Grey) from her parents table to the stage after uttering that famous line, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner," until Baby completes the 'lift' that plagued her throughout the movie, you want to cheer and keep cheering.

5. You have to love the scenes in "Rain Man," when Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) frustrates his brother (Tom Cruise) with everything from his insistence on watching Judge Wopner to his need to wear underwear from Kmart. But the defining scene is this movie is the one where Charlie realizes Raymond is his childhood hero, the Rain Man, and that Raymond was put in a home for accidently putting him in harm's way.

6. The moment in the movie "The Sixth Sense" when viewers realize that Malcolm is one of the dead people is one of the most haunting moments I've seen in any movie.

7. I have to include the scene in "Jerry Maguire" that Jerry begins to make his speech to Dorothy in front of her sister and the divorced women group and she tells him to shut up. "You had me at hello," became a catch phrase along with "You complete me."

8.This scene is probably not on anyone's list, but I thought it was hilarious, and it always makes me laugh. In "Something to Talk About" when Julia Robert's cheating husband comes to see her at her sister's house, he is rolling on the floor in pain when she comes out. "What did you do?" she asks. "You told me to keep him busy," her sister replies. "He's busy holdin' his nuts." Okay, so I have a warped sense of humor.

9. I'm wavering here between the Jamie Lee Curtis exotic dance scene in "True Lies" and Meg Ryan's fake orgasm scene in the middle of a crowded restaurant in "When Harry Met Sally." They're both so funny, but I can't put one at number ten because I had to save that spot for

10. Forrest Gump, a movie that it's impossible to choose a top scene from because every single scene is a top movie scene. Tom Hanks is outstanding and this has to be one of the best movies ever made.

I know there are dozens of classic movie scenes from the 1930's to the present that deserve a spot on this list. I'll leave it to all of you to submit your own top 10 scenes so together we can pay tribute to the talented actors, actresses, writers, directors, and producers who helped give us these moments.