What film is this scene from?
July 26, 2010 1:49 PM   Subscribe

Help me find an excerpt from a film! It's a woman who's in this ceremony that eventually ends up throwing herself (or pushing, I can't remember) off a cliff.

I believe it's from a film, and it's very dramatic. I think it's a foreign movie. People standing around in a ceremony and watching this woman who very slowly walks to the edge of a cliff, stands for a minute, and then throws herself off. Nobody flinches. I think it's a single shot, but I could be mistaken.

It's been puzzling me for a while... help solve this mystery :)
posted by mrplab to Media & Arts (14 answers total)
 
It's not from Last of the Mohicans, is it? Check around 5:40.
posted by punchtothehead at 1:59 PM on July 26, 2010


Best answer: Songs From The Second Floor?
posted by Sticherbeast at 2:03 PM on July 26, 2010 [1 favorite]


That sounds exactly like Rebecca de Mornay's suicide scene in 1993's Three Musketeers.
posted by frobozz at 2:11 PM on July 26, 2010 [3 favorites]


There's a scene in Bird of Paradise that starts with some sort of sacrificial ceremony involving all the people of a village, and ends with the "sacrifice" slowly walking up a hill to a volcano, where she halts for a minute, and then jumps in.
posted by iconomy at 2:17 PM on July 26, 2010


More details I think I remember from the 3 Musketeers one so you can see if it sounds familiar: de Mornay is wearing a flowing white dress; she and several men are standing on a cliff so that she can be executed; it's very solemn; she walks to the edge (possibly says a few words) and jumps; you can see her white dress fluttering on the way down; the men take it very stoically.
posted by frobozz at 2:19 PM on July 26, 2010


You guys are all thinking way too highbrow -- it's from "Conan the Barbarian"! The woman is one of Thulsa Doom's cult members (Thulsa Doom being played by James Earl Jones), and she silently throws herself off the ledge of the embankment at his command. The scene is towards the end of the film when Thulsa Doom is explaining to Conan the "riddle of steel" -- the answer being, the steel is not as important as the hand that wields it, which is embodied in the actions of the woman, who throws herself to her death merely because Thulsa Doom commanded that it be so.

Unfortunately, I could not find a clip from this scene online, but this really sounds exactly like your description, and I think it's it. And you would have mistaken it for a foreign film because, well, "a long time ago, somewhere in Central Asia, as seen through the lens of the 1980's" looks quite a bit like a foreign film!
posted by Asparagirl at 2:29 PM on July 26, 2010 [2 favorites]


Does sound like Conan.
posted by permafrost at 2:55 PM on July 26, 2010


"Last of the Mohican"s came to mind immediately.
posted by jgirl at 3:32 PM on July 26, 2010


Sticherbeast has it. Songs from the Second Floor.
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 3:50 PM on July 26, 2010


First movie that came to my mind was Manos the Hands of Fate, but I don't think there's a cliff-jumping scene.

Actually, it's probably because the movie is so bad that it makes me want to jump off a cliff. ZING!

(The MST3K rifftrack is great, though.)
posted by two lights above the sea at 6:22 PM on July 26, 2010


Fwiw I thought of Conan too...
posted by Chrysalis at 7:09 PM on July 26, 2010


This probably isn't what you're looking for, but your description reminded me of this scene in The Omen.
posted by surenoproblem at 7:56 PM on July 26, 2010


mrplab?
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 3:03 AM on July 27, 2010


Response by poster: Yes - that's it! Songs from the Second Floor.

Thanks so much, Sticherbeast!
posted by mrplab at 7:44 AM on July 27, 2010


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