You read different things into this scene as you age. I’m in my 60s now and I see an inevitable truth in this that I didn’t see when younger. A time when you realize you have a lot less time in front of you then behind

I'm in my 60s also, the way I look at is one day I will 80 and will give anything to be 60 again. I'm in my mid 60s thank God I'm not 80. Put a positive spin on it.

@@doug3819right

Exactly. It's like all downhill after we became adults.

Matt H: Never thought of it that way, but I think you're right.

Exactly.

I don’t know- In these ...”ever changing”- “new normal” ...times..... I’ll take the old times.

Being young is overrated.

Both deserved their Oscars.

💯

Took a lot of persuasion to get him to take the part “I loved Sam….” 👌

So many great films and I loved his style. We lost a good one- shine on Peter

I agree.

colderbeer @

Maybe in 1971. Certainly not in 2020

@@paleo704 The film was set in 1951.

Ellen Burstyn was hot as hell in this movie. Imagine what Sam is remembering.

@@paleo704 It was a time piece made in 1971.

+JohnWesley Downey I never get tired of that scene. I never get tired of the film. I feel that it's one of a small handful of very important films of the last half century.

Ben Johnson has a quality that can't be taught. When you see or hear him on the screen, you are drawn to him like a magnet, he commands attention without ever raising his voice.

Boy, you have got that right, JohnWesley Downey. This is my favorite scene in this movie and one of my favorite scenes in any movie I have ever seen in my life. Ben Johnson just plain nailed it.

This is the scene that got Ben his Academy Award. In his speech he said "There's not an actor in this room can't act circles around me but I can play Ben Johnson better than anyone else can.

This scene, and the death of vito corleone in the Godfather, are my favorite movie scenes. It's not just the acting, it's the quality of the writing and the way it was filmed.

Mine too. It's so sad that he died.

Yes, his lines hit you like a hammer. And they are delivered just as an ordinary man would say them, Ben Johnson was one great actor to pull that off.

@@tommytruth7595really does hit ya

Yep. When I first watched this movie -- and this scene -- that haunting line really packed a punch. It sat me right down in my seat and my attention was totally focused on the rest of the monologue.

He should have got two or three of them for that performance.

I know exactly what he is talking about this part in the movie always takes me back to one of the best times in my life

His performances were as good as they get.

His performance was naturally perfect.

Thumbs up!

I remember that effect. I saw this in 1971 first release. I was 19. It completely changed how I looked a movies. This one scene is etched in my heart forever.

And now Peter Bogdanovich has died, but what a legacy they've left behind.

And not by accident.

I have no idea what your point is, but it sounds interesting nonetheless.

@@johnperrigo6474 I was getting ready to say the exact same thing you did! So you are not alone!

Never claimed to be an actor. It was just that no one was better at being Ben Johnson than he was.

TM Rezzek it was said that he really did not want to do the movie at all simply because he didn’t want to say any of the lines. Amazing how natural he makes them in the film.

david W

That scene is flawless. It is one of the best of any movie ever made in this country.

I'm looking for a time machine, myself.

And many times they were.

More "best part(s)" than the big bucket at Kentucky Fried Chicken (gulp): The early morning chill at the pool hall and later, Sonny standing in the doorway, wind whipping through the emptiness; every Cloris Leachman scene; Sam's water-tank testament; the speechless, toothpickin' cafe patron standing over the boys in digust after their football fiasco; the little girl rescued who almost gets let behind as they haul off the twisted teen and the old guys just keep jawing; Lois letting Sonny back into the cafe and Sam happily signing on. Not enough digits on my hands and feet to count all of the beautiful moments, human, humorous and heart-warming.

It is a good depiction of the real Texas that is rapidly being lost as time goes on-----except for all the promiscuity. That did no go on at that level in the 1950's.

@INTERNETWORK That's a good one (Sam reads the riot act). And later, in his confused, post-Sam state, Sonny does something similar when he chides the old ne'er-do-wells hovering and making cold commentary over Billy's corpse, he having just been killed by a truck in the road.

Oh, people have been promiscuous since we crawled out of the ocean to live on the land. What's missing today is the discretion and the privacy of it. You might be running around on your spouse or getting wild with the local football hero, but nobody knew about it. Nobody said anything, nobody looked into it to find out. Now... Is that a good or a bad thing? You'd say at first it doesn't seem like a positive change, since everyone's sexual activities are now everyone else's business. But, with the decrease in being discreet came an increase in being accountable. Abusive and manipulative situations were identified and help could be given. Children, especially, could find someone to talk to about their issues. The LGBT community were more free to assert themselves without having to conceal a huge part of who they were. Sexual harassment and inappropriate sexual behaviors could be discussed, identified and mitigated in professional and occupational settings, opening opportunities up for everyone to pursue a satisfying career that wasn't limited by your willingness to "cooperate" with those already in positions of power. It's a mixed bag, to be sure. It's also given us ridiculously politicized sexual identity issues that are, much of the time, entirely unnecessary. It's made private sexual behaviors a matter of public consideration in areas where it should be entirely irrelevant. It's used by those across the entire spectrum of political ideologies to divide, alienate and manipulate the public into supporting or opposing various positions. We'll figure it out in the end. We always do. Some new issue, some new socio-political philosophy will come along and make our current debates seem silly and irrelevant, the same way we view controversies like "women with bare calves at the beach" from 100+ years ago. To the people around at that time, that WAS a big deal. They weren't dumber than us, or inferior or some sort of less advanced species. One day, it'll be 2123, and all of our hand-wringing over our "big issues" will seem just as silly and comical to the people living in that future. The one thing we can count on is that every single person (from ancient high priests consulting with volcano gods to the finest scientific leading academic researchers) who has predicted the "end of the world" or the "collapse of society" has been wrong... and they always will be. Ancient Sumerians were wrong. Great Thurnberg is wrong. Tomorrow, some political guy is gonna pop up and tell you if we don't vote for the X Party, society will collapse or the nation will crumble. No, it won't. He's wrong, too. Humanity is forever. We are the universe experiencing itself. We adapt, we overcome, and we conquer... Every single time.

Always so it is!

Joe L No need for this movie to show so much sex though.

I love Laura.

Matthew Mosca I've seen it at least 20 times. I never get tired of it. Many brilliant performances. And Bogdanovich had the good sense to film it in glorious black and white. I consider this, Midnight Cowboy, Atlantic City, In Cold Blood and To Kill a Mockingbird to be five of the most important films of the last half century or so.

What's funny, ironic is, Sam wouldn't want us all makin' such a fuss, but it's what we do today.

McMurtry grew up in the area.

Ben had a thrilling reality about him that you seldom see in Hollywood.

Exquisite it is!

And the real Texas.

Both characters created by Larry McMurtry, who also wrote Lonesome Dove and Terms Of Endearment.

And many more. His books that depict Texas back in time are outstanding.

poetcomic1 Homer Bannon, Granddad in Hud, spoke words that ring true to this very day.

Ben Johnsom was multidimensional, Melvyn Douglas was humorless and too pious and martyred for his own good.

But the promiscuity was greatly exaggerated in that movie, maybe the book, I will have to read it. It did not go on at that level in the 50's. Not at all.