TOP 10:  Shootouts

The most iconic staple of the modern action film is the all-important shootout.  There have been many great firefights throughout cinema's history, and here is my own Top-10 list of the greatest of all time.

10. 'The Terminator' - Police Station

    You know things are about to get ridiculous as soon as Arnold rams his car through the police station entrance.  The ensuing slaughter is a bloody orchestration embodying man's fear of his inability to control rampant technology.  Our nemesis has casually walked right into our bastion of civil protection and order and matter-of-factly lays waste to it.  The police can do nothing.  Our weapons can do nothing.  We can do nothing. 
Oh yeah, and that James Cameron guy can shoot an action sequence pretty well.

Best Moment: The car coming through the police station doors.

9. 'Collateral' - Night Club Shootout

    Michael Mann knows his way around a shootout, and this is an excellent example.  He puts his unique brand of stylized realism on full display, and Tom Cruise does a great job playing an unstoppable human force who ruthlessly takes down anyone standing between him and his target.  The scene has a strange and great way of organizing the chaos inside the packed night club and conveying a sense of confusion while keeping the viewer aware of what is going on.  It's a superbly orchestrated three-way battle to the death.

Best Moment: Tom Cruise calmly wades through the crowd toward the VIP table like a stalking tiger, releasing animalistic yet coldly professional outbursts of violence on the guards before they know what's going on.

8. '3:10 to Yuma' - Race for the Train


    I know many would rather me put the last confrontation from 'Unforgiven' in this Western slot, but I felt this one deserved it more.  You're not given a moment to rest as Christian Bale defies logic and sticks to his principles, guiding Russell Crowe through the streets as Crowe's gang (and everyone else in town) fires at them from every angle.  It's kinetic, bloody, and altogether exhilarating.

Best Moment:  After giving the townsfolk guns, the gang's psychotic lieutenant decides they're shooting too carelessly and guns down a few of them to get the point across.

7. 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' - Last Charge


The film has plenty of good lighthearted moments.  But even though Redford and Newman flash their trademark twinkles before their final charge, the scene is deadly serious and carries remarkable emotional weight that makes this last shootout one of the best ever.   We get the feeling the bandits don't fully grasp the size of the force surrounding them or the hopelessness of their situation, and that makes their stand all the more powerful. 

Best Moment: The final charge, where we don't actually see the men die, but we know their ultimate fate. 

6. 'L.A. Confidential' - The Victory Motel


    Our two detectives, played by Guy Pierce and Russell Crowe, have found themselves in a very precarious position.  They've found out their chief is corrupt, and now a full contingent of officers has them surrounded in an abandoned motel in the middle of the night to keep them from talking...ever again.  The resulting gun battle makes remarkable use of shadow and a keen sense of space to chronicle a desperate fight for survival as these two men fight against the forces they thought they had been supporting. 

Best Moment: A dirty cop gets a crotch full of buckshot as Russell Crowe makes clever use of a hole in the floor.

5. 'The Professional' - Apartment Battle

    Alright, now we're in the Top 5.  Really good stuff here.
    As a director, Luc Besson can paint some beautiful pictures with the simplest of colors.  Gary Oldman's lunatic DEA agent thinks he can easily trap our heroic assissin by loading up the complex with SWAT officers.  They bust in, kill the guy, easy enough right?  Not so much.  Besson uses terrific sound design and tight, simplistic camera work as Leon slaughters the cops with astounding proficiency.  He displays the calm and craftsmanship of an artisan of death, and every second is heart-pounding. 

Best Moment:  A SWAT officer carefully peeks around the corner to survey the damage, and he's met with a gun barrel pressed against his head.  Leon orders the cops to release the girl, and the helpless officer orders them to oblige.  The balls on display are staggering.

4. 'Hard Boiled'- The Hospital

    John Woo is a Rembrandt of the gun battle, and his action skills are on full display in this ultraviolent classic.  This shootout is truly epic, with the whole sequence lasting around a half hour, and there are an whopping 146 on-screen deaths in this battle alone.  The incomparable Chow Yun Fat mows down the bad guys with relative ease, and Woo's trademark editing and top-notch stunt work make this one a firefight for the ages, if only for the sheer size and relentlessness of it. 

Best Moment: A five-minute tracking shot of uninterrupted gun play.  Truly a sight to behold.

3. 'The Matrix' - The Lobby

    I think everyone already knows the scene I'm talking about.   This shootout is not only a terrific action sequence.  It also changed the way shootouts and indeed action films in general were filmed from that point forward.  'Bullet Time' may be a bit of a cliche now, but it's easy to forget how riveting and revolutionary the technique was when 'The Matrix' came out.  On a 1-10 Badass Scale, this scene rates somewhere around a 14.  From the second Keanu Reeves and Carrie Ann Moss walk through the metal detoctors, we're treated to an ultra-stylized dance of lethality.  Movies would never be the same.  Plus, it was just so...damn...cool.

Best Moment: I know the fancy flipping around is the visual focal point, but I'm a sucker for the moment where Reeves casually opens his trench coat to reveal an arsenal of firepower, leaving the guard frozen in shock before he's summarily dispatched.

2. 'The Wild Bunch' - Battle in the Mexican Town


    Director Sam Peckinpah wasn't a big fan of subtlety or moralistic constraint, but that allowed him to film what is to this day one of the most brutal shootouts ever.  Our antiheroes are trapped in a Mexican town with an army of soldiers to fight, and they use everything as their disposal.  And I mean everything.  Guns.  Knives.  A Browning machine gun.  Women as human shields.  Nothing and no one is spared in this unapologetically over-the-top circus of carnage.  It set a new bar for violence in mainstream cinema, and from a sheer filmmaking standpoint sits as one the greatest gun battles of all time.

Best Moment: One of the outlaws grabbing a Mexican woman and using her as a human shield.  Wholesome?  No.  But it's exemplary of just how over-the-top this scene is.

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