Welcome to the final Favorite Scene Friday of 2017! We're really starting to get into some colder weather, so what better way to celebrate than with a scene from a film where cold, bleak weather is practically a character in the film? Hell, one of the taglines is "What is hidden in snow, comes forth in the thaw.". It's from a fairly recent thriller - 2011's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
The Millennium series - first a Swedish book series, then a Swedish film series and then a stalled American film series, is soon to be rebooted yet again in the form of anther American film, The Girl in the Spider's Web. Director Fede Alvarez is at the helm with The Crown's Claire Foy playing the part of computer hacker and general bad ass Lisbeth Salander, the titular girl (I kind of thought Alvarez should reteam with Jane Levy, his star from the Evil Dead reboot and Don't Breathe). Quite excited for this film, actually - it's due October of next year.
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| Yannis Ger/AMP |
But we're not here to talk about that film - it's TGWTDT we're worried about. My God, this thing really came out all the way back in 2011? It seems like yesterday. We reviewed it, actually - back when we did that sort of thing.
The film follows journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) as he investigates a missing person's case. During the course of the investigation he teams up with Salander (the underappreciated Rooney Mara). Our scene takes place towards the end of the film, after Blomkvist has been abducted by Stellan Skarsgård's Martin Vanger, who, it's been revealed, is the film's villain. One of the highlights of this scene is surely Skarsgård. He's sort of detached but chillingly intense at the same time.
It's really an interesting back and forth between Craig and Skarsgård. Fear. Boredom. Aggression. More boredom. The scene really kicks into gear when Vanger puts a bag over Blomkvist's head. The bag over the head is so simple but so chilling. Just look at that screen grab below for Pete's sake. It's intense for two reasons - seeing Daniel Craig (or anyone) like that is very disturbing, but then director David Fincher also lets us see through his character's eyes. I'm not sure which is worse.
Vanger is sort of going through the motions when he realizes - while opening Blomkvist's fly - that he's never had a man down in his torture chamber before. But then it's back to business until Lisbeth shows up. And it's so cathartic when she whacks him with that golf club.
Lastly, if you happened to read that review, you may have noticed that even back then we were particularly affected by the choice of Orinoco Flow, which, by the way, Daniel Craig randomly picked from his iPod behind the scenes. I'll probably never be able to listen to this song the same way again.
The film follows journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) as he investigates a missing person's case. During the course of the investigation he teams up with Salander (the underappreciated Rooney Mara). Our scene takes place towards the end of the film, after Blomkvist has been abducted by Stellan Skarsgård's Martin Vanger, who, it's been revealed, is the film's villain. One of the highlights of this scene is surely Skarsgård. He's sort of detached but chillingly intense at the same time.
It's really an interesting back and forth between Craig and Skarsgård. Fear. Boredom. Aggression. More boredom. The scene really kicks into gear when Vanger puts a bag over Blomkvist's head. The bag over the head is so simple but so chilling. Just look at that screen grab below for Pete's sake. It's intense for two reasons - seeing Daniel Craig (or anyone) like that is very disturbing, but then director David Fincher also lets us see through his character's eyes. I'm not sure which is worse.
Vanger is sort of going through the motions when he realizes - while opening Blomkvist's fly - that he's never had a man down in his torture chamber before. But then it's back to business until Lisbeth shows up. And it's so cathartic when she whacks him with that golf club.
Lastly, if you happened to read that review, you may have noticed that even back then we were particularly affected by the choice of Orinoco Flow, which, by the way, Daniel Craig randomly picked from his iPod behind the scenes. I'll probably never be able to listen to this song the same way again.
What's your favorite scene from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo?
What's your favorite installment in The Millennium Series, be it the books, the original films, or the American remake?
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