It's the unrivalled and endlessly uncomfortable blend of incalculable frustration and anger that makes this particular scene so unbelievably hard-to-watch. Indeed, it was the inspiration for writing this list in the first place, because no other scene in movie history sets up a situation quite so primed to make an audience so insane with rage. The moment comes as part of Steven Spielberg's epic World War II film Saving Private Ryan, of course, which has its fair share of hard-to-watch scenes scattered throughout. But this... this is on another level. The set-up is as follows: Sgt. Mellish (Adam Goldberg) enters a house and gets into a fight over with a Nazi over a knife, who proceeds to pin Mellish down and slowly... slowly... slowly... begins to push to knife towards his chest. It doesn't happen in slo-motion, but it sure as hell feels like it. The worst part of the scene, however - and the reason that this moment tops the list - is because there's a fellow U.S. soldier, Corporal Upham, cowering on the other side of the door, just a stone's throw away from being able to save his friend. And he's too scared to do it. It's the kind of scene that has you shouting - nay, screaming - at the screen for its entire length, just begging Upham to kick down the door and save his pal. He doesn't, and Mellish dies. Why would you ever want to watch it play out again? Like this article? What do you make of our choices? How would your own version of this list have looked? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
