The movie making industry is fraught with inconsistency and disappointments. One quick example would be that the same company that made X Men 2 also made X Men Origins: Wolverine, one overlong and depressing example would be that The Hobbit was made by the same man who made The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Bringing this down from the big picture look at movies, inconsistencies can exist in any individual movie. Whether there was one awesome scene that the rest of the film never matched, one iconic moment that became bigger than the movie or something so shocking you can't think of anything else to do with the film, everyone knows these type of movies. It's very common that a movie can become renowned for a particular piece of imagery, an iconic piece of dialogue or Nicolas Cage's wig. These are the less common examples of scenes that really steal the movie, the things you think about first when someone strikes up a conversation with 'Oh have you ever seen...' and often the parts of the film that what follows never seems to match. These are just 10 examples of scenes that completely overshadow the rest of their movie...
10. American History X - Head Stamp
The Scene: Neo-Nazi Edward Norton takes the fight to some African Americans, who he had earlier offended, who were trying to make off with his car. After shooting and killing one and injuring the other he commands the one still alive to bite down on the edge of the pavement; where he proceeds to stamp on his head in full view of his teenage brother.
Why It Overshadows The Movie: Being the most shocking scene in a movie that included racial hatred and prison rape takes some going but that is what this scene succeeds in doing in a movie chock full of shocking side pieces but, for me, didn't manage to get past these scenes enough to make more of an impact than making my teeth itch. The scene is brilliantly executed in what is probably Edward Norton's second best performance after Fight Club, it helps step up the level of anger and hatred running deep in these groups by really stunning you into submission with the sheer brutality of the scene. The bit where his teeth touch the pavement is just... Eurgh. After this though the film kind of falls flat as it doesn't convincingly handle the characters rehabilitation and again tries to shock us with a quite needless shower scene that brought down his rehab to 'I don't really wanna be in the same gang as those guys'. This scene was the shocking and impactful high point of a movie that never really managed to overcome this tipping point...