help me visualize human dignity -- or a stunning lack thereof

September 18, 2007 11:12 AM

I need to find a vivid visual depiction of shredded dignity. I'm thinking that it will come from a film, but it needs to be bite-sized, meaning a single scene or moment, and not the sum total of the movie.

I'm trying to show what it looks like when a human's dignity has been dismantled -- I'm willing to use obvious imagery, but thought that the combined experience of the hive mind could lead to some more subtle examples.
The key is that it MUST be bite-sized, and not be the result of [or hinge on] knowing the meta narrative. How creative can we get on this one?

posted by rubberfish to Media & Arts (63 answers total)

How about something from "Meet the Parents" - there are any number of relatively short scenes you could use from that movie.
posted by davey_darling at 11:16 AM on September 18, 2007

Bill Murray in Rushmore, jumping into the filthy swimming pool, then hovering in the water, clearly wondering if he should bother surfacing.
posted by beaucoupkevin at 11:18 AM on September 18, 2007 [3 favorites]

Shawshank Redemption.
posted by Brocktoon at 11:24 AM on September 18, 2007

something from Glengarry Glen Ross (I'd have to re-watch it to pick out a specific scene)
posted by mikepop at 11:26 AM on September 18, 2007

Not from a film, but definitely bite sized and shows a human being stripped of all dignity against his will. Click here.
posted by milarepa at 11:32 AM on September 18, 2007 [1 favorite]

something from Glengarry Glen Ross (I'd have to re-watch it to pick out a specific scene)

Pretty much the whole Alec Baldwin scene:

"Put that coffee down. Coffee is for closers only."

"What's my name? Fuck you, that's my name."

"This watch costs more than your car."

... and so on.
posted by mhum at 11:33 AM on September 18, 2007

In Amalie, she thinks her love is in love with another, and she falls into a million tears, collapsing into a puddle. Maybe not exactly what you wanted, but a really stunning visual.

How about Dustin Hoffman at the bottom of the pool in The Graduate?
posted by thebrokedown at 11:33 AM on September 18, 2007

A man called Horse
posted by zeoslap at 11:34 AM on September 18, 2007

Deliverance squeal like a pig scene
posted by zeoslap at 11:34 AM on September 18, 2007

something from Glengarry Glen Ross (I'd have to re-watch it to pick out a specific scene)

Pretty much the whole Alec Baldwin scene:

The other choice would be Al Pacino dressing down Kevin Spacey at the end. When he calls him a child, you can hear Spacey's balls hit the floor and roll away.
posted by Bookhouse at 11:38 AM on September 18, 2007

Find above here:
posted by Bookhouse at 11:40 AM on September 18, 2007

There's a scene in "The Elephant Man" where the doctor (played by Anthony Hopkins, I believe) clinically discusses John Merrick's tumors to a packed lecture hall, eventually disrobing the poor man and jabbing his genitals with a pointer as if he were a mannequin. I remember being intensely uncomfortable during this sequence.
posted by Help, I can't stop talking! at 11:40 AM on September 18, 2007

here
here
here
here
[may be nsfw]
posted by thinkingwoman at 11:41 AM on September 18, 2007 [1 favorite]

The final two shots of The Last American Virgin are perhaps the worst example of dignity being shredded. Ever.

From Wikipedia:

Eventually Rick gets Karen pregnant and leaves her. Gary decides to help Karen pay for her abortion by selling most of his possessions and borrowing money from his boss. After the abortion, Gary and Karen spend the remainder of the weekend alone together in Gary's grandmother's house. They seem to hit it off and Karen invites Gary to her birthday party the following week. Gary scrapes up a few more dollars and buys Karen a gold bracelet for her birthday.

However when Gary arrives at the party his dreams are shattered when he sees Karen making out with Rick. The film ends with the credits rolling over a close up of tears streaming down Gary's face as he drives home.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 11:42 AM on September 18, 2007 [1 favorite]

Pretty much any random scene from any randomly chosen Farrelly brothers movie (Something About Mary, etc). They specialize in humiliation. Kingpin abounds with them, including Randy Quaid in a stripper outfit.

Better Off Dead, a MeFi favorite, includes some key dignity-destroying moments, especially when Lane (John Cusack) is tossed out of the kitchen in his pigburger hat, in front of his arch-nemesis Stalin. And on the subject of fast-food-related teenage humiliation, any scene in Fast Times at Ridgemont High where Brad (Judge Reinhold) is wearing his ludicrous seafood-shack uniform.
posted by adamrice at 11:42 AM on September 18, 2007

Requiem for a Dream, when the two girls are performing sexually in front of a leering crowd of men. That made my skin absolutely crawl.
posted by desjardins at 11:44 AM on September 18, 2007

there's got to be a scene in The Big Lebowski that would work
posted by nikko at 11:44 AM on September 18, 2007

Terms of Endearment, the scene at the grocery store when Emma doesn't have enough money to pay for her groceries; brief but may be what you are looking for.

Or, you can just film me here at work in my cubicle.
posted by BozoBurgerBonanza at 11:47 AM on September 18, 2007

I can't believe nobody's mention Carrie yet.
posted by iamkimiam at 11:47 AM on September 18, 2007

If you aren't tied to the film aspect, I would say the images from the Abu Ghraib prison are all about shredded dignity.
posted by sulaine at 11:48 AM on September 18, 2007

A Christmas Story...bunny suit.
posted by artdrectr at 11:58 AM on September 18, 2007 [1 favorite]

Lebowski does not have any shredded dignity, because no character in that movie has any. I'd suggest the scene from "There's Something About Mary" when Ben Stiller's character meets Mary's dad when picking her up for the prom.
posted by rhizome at 12:02 PM on September 18, 2007

Trading Places, the Dan Ackroyd/Eddie Murphy movie. Ackroyd is a high-flying corporate guy who is deliberately framed, shamed, totally disgraced in front of his co-workers and there are a couple of scenes where he comes back, bedraggled, and is shocked and horrified that nobody will help him or even talk to him.
posted by LobsterMitten at 12:21 PM on September 18, 2007

The very last scene of The Bicycle Thief, where the man and his son are walking hand in hand through a crowd. The man's devastation is so complete it's unbelievable. I've never seen the movie, just the clip they showed on the Oscars last year. In less than 2 seconds, my mother and I were both reduced to tears by the expression on his face and that of his son, as he tries to comfort his father. No words at all -- just about 5 seconds of heartbreak. It's at around 8:00 in this clip on youtube.
posted by katemonster at 12:27 PM on September 18, 2007

The opening five minutes to the movie Happiness should be more than sufficient as long as it can be crude and make your viewers want to die.
posted by munchingzombie at 12:27 PM on September 18, 2007

There's a Monty Python sketch where Terry Jones plays a character who's at the beach trying to find someplace to change his clothes, and every time he thinks he's found one, and let down his pants, his cover goes away and he finds himself exposed.

It ends with him doing a strip tease on stage, which is useless for you, but there has to be somewhere earlier in that sketch that you can find something like what you want.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 12:35 PM on September 18, 2007

Linda Lovelace blowing a dog from her notorious peepshow reel.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 12:38 PM on September 18, 2007

There is a short film called "Drumstruck" which for some reason was tacked onto the VHS copy of Tetsuo that I rented 15 years ago. In one scene, the protagonist, a skinny, nerdy underdog drummer, is on all fours fixing his broken kit when a St. Bernard or Irish Wolfhound mounts him and starts humping. If you can get a still from that scene, it would be perfect.
posted by mds35 at 12:49 PM on September 18, 2007

Seconding Trading Places. There is also a scene in The Jerk after the Steve Martin character has lost everything he has and is walking around his house gathering up useless and worthless knicknacks.
posted by contessa at 12:52 PM on September 18, 2007

There must be a scene in The Out of Towners (Jack Lemmon version)

The Jerk, where Navin is leaving the house, broke, dejected, pants around his ankles, carrying several trivial items.
posted by Gungho at 12:53 PM on September 18, 2007

wow!
posted by Gungho at 12:53 PM on September 18, 2007

Lebowski does not have any shredded dignity, because no character in that movie has any.

Not true! The first thing I thought of was the rug-pissers. Whatever shred of dignity The Dude had was well and truly shredded by Wu the Chinaman. The rug tied the room together!

Also...

• Jodie Foster -- rape scene in The Accused
• Various scenes of Ron Kovic in Born on the Fourth of July
• Seconding the final scene of Requiem for a Dream
• Jeremy Blackman not being allowed to use the bathroom in Magnolia
• Jennifer Jason Leigh in Fast Times at Ridgemont High after having sex

There are others. Let me chew on this.
posted by pardonyou? at 1:07 PM on September 18, 2007

Response by poster: these are fantastic. i'll use several, but need to do a LOT of watching... keep it up!
posted by rubberfish at 1:18 PM on September 18, 2007

Joan Cusack collapsing in her wedding dress screaming "Is this the Twilight Zone?" in In & Out.
posted by kirkaracha at 1:24 PM on September 18, 2007

The William H. Macy and Nina Hartley scenes in Boogie Nights.
posted by TimTypeZed at 1:33 PM on September 18, 2007

There's a River Pheonix movie where a bunch of guys make a bet to date ugly girls. I'm sure there were some real uncomfortable scenes in that movie when the girls realized they were just being used as a game.
posted by pardonyou? at 1:34 PM on September 18, 2007

It's called Dogfight
posted by pardonyou? at 1:36 PM on September 18, 2007

Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in Full Metal Jacket does a pretty good job of stripping away dignity, at least until Pvt. Pyle decides he wants some back.
posted by pardonyou? at 1:39 PM on September 18, 2007

Also, quite a few scenes in Schindler's List. Perhaps none more than the scene where the women are herded naked into a chamber, believing (along with the audience) that the plumbing over their heads will release gas (it ends up being water).

{shudder}
posted by pardonyou? at 1:49 PM on September 18, 2007

I emphatically second the last scene of The Bicycle Thief - just thinking about it made me tear up. I don't think there's anything as tragic as a son losing faith in his father, and a father simultaneously losing faith in himself.
posted by sarahsynonymous at 1:50 PM on September 18, 2007

Oh, shit, I almost forgot about the scene in Glory where Denzel Williams' character is whipped. Great acting in that scene, and maybe the very definition of "loss of dignity" -- an effect enhanced by someone as dignified as Denzel Washington.

OK, I'm done.
posted by pardonyou? at 1:53 PM on September 18, 2007

Um I don't think Denzel's character ever lost his dignity in that scene. Just the opposite IMHO.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. John Candy sitting in the train station alone, near the end of the film.
posted by Gungho at 2:02 PM on September 18, 2007

Mr. Banks gets fired and has his hat smashed and his boutonniere shredded at the end of Mary Poppins!
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 2:16 PM on September 18, 2007

Episode 4F04 of The Simpsons ("A Milhouse Divided") is a 22-minute study in Milhouse's father Kirk Van Houten's loss of dignity. Opens indeed with Kirk unable to draw "dignity" in a game Charades, includes his pathetic attempt to brag about the racecar bed he sleeps in at his new bachelor pad and the timelessly pathetic image of thawing frozen hot dogs in a gas-station restroom. Pinnacle/trough is probably Kirk's monumentally lame "Can I Borrow A Feeling?" soft-rock demo tape, and Homer's merciless mockery of same.

Also, in the magnificent Patrick Swayze mess that is Roadhouse, at one point Ben Gazzara's spectucularly campy big-biz villain orders one of his girls to do a striptease, and then at the end of it she makes a half-assed swoon at Swayze and he just wraps her in a robe.

Also, there's a movie called Roadhouse . . .
posted by gompa at 2:16 PM on September 18, 2007

"Is that normal pooing you're doing?"
You'll need to jump to 20:30 in the video. Then it's pretty humiliating. Peep Show has an example like this nearly every episode, and is genius.
posted by greytape at 2:19 PM on September 18, 2007

In Paul Verhoeven's masterful Black Book, there's an unforgettable scene involving an, er, rather large bucket of material. Check the treatment of accused collaborators after liberation.

In Buffy's "Fool For Love", Moulin Rouge, and Clockers, there are scenes of people being humiliated as they are paid money, e.g. "I've paid my whore."

Many scenes from Welcome To The Dollhouse, in particular after Dawn wakes up from a dream sequence.

The end of the UK Office, Series Two.

In Peep Show Series Two, when the little guy betrays his white supremacist friend. Neither has any dignity at that point. Ditto for the end of that Series, actually, except with the taller one and his girlfriend.
posted by Sticherbeast at 2:31 PM on September 18, 2007

The two late scenes in Neil LaBute's "In the Company of Men" when the characters Christine and Howard each realize that they've been manipulated by the sociopath, Chad.
posted by stagewhisper at 3:26 PM on September 18, 2007

I keep thinking of the final scene in Breaking the Waves, as Emily Watson is traveling out towards the ship. It's been a long time since I saw the movie so I'm unsure if it qualifies. As I remember it, you as an observer are aware of her fate, that she'll be brutally abused, but the character herself may be deluded and unaware, so I don't know if it can be considered a loss of dignity.

There's the scene in Code Unknown where the kid on the subway verbally attacks Julliette Binoche before spitting in her face.
posted by TimTypeZed at 4:15 PM on September 18, 2007

The Lynndie England dog lead and thumbs-up shots do it for me.
posted by flabdablet at 4:34 PM on September 18, 2007

Mod note: added nsfw indicator to thinkingwoman's links fyi
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 4:36 PM on September 18, 2007

The Ricky Gervais comedy series Extras. Pretty much all of it.
posted by aeschenkarnos at 4:37 PM on September 18, 2007

Paul Giamatti in Sideways, sitting alone in the fast food restaurant with his one prize bottle of wine.
posted by OneOliveShort at 5:07 PM on September 18, 2007

American Beauty. Many scenes to choose from.
posted by ctmf at 5:22 PM on September 18, 2007

Google Emotional Index [nsfw]
posted by tellurian at 5:43 PM on September 18, 2007

Ending scenes from "In the company of men"

Scene from "The Bounty" (the Mel Gibson one) on the skiff when they are doling out the bird they caught and one of Bligh's men stands up to him for his share, Bligh dresses him down then gives him his own paltry share of the bird and he's left to eat it crying.
posted by clanger at 7:17 PM on September 18, 2007

Reality TV has such - depths - to explore... perhaps MP George Galloway's 2006 appearance on BBC 4's "Celebrity Big Brother"?
posted by willconsult4food at 7:34 PM on September 18, 2007

In V for Vendetta.. The character Delia Surridge talks about her loathing of people conscripted for medical experimentation. She goes into her description of how she despises them, as they walk by; stripped of any human dignity. Disturbing scene.
posted by filmgeek at 7:45 PM on September 18, 2007

"Gone with the wind", when Scarlett finally realizes what a gem Rhett is, runs to him, face full of hope, telling him how much she loves him. He replies "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn", then just walks away.

I liked the movie, loved the book.
posted by JujuB at 8:01 PM on September 18, 2007

This brought to mind that old episode of The Flintstones where Fred is being berated by either Wilma or his boss and with each rebuke, he shrinks down smaller and smaller until he's about the size of a squirrel.
posted by blueberry at 10:46 PM on September 18, 2007

A Lebowski scene that might work is when John Goodman picks up the Big Lebowski from his wheelchair thinking he can walk, and drops him on the ground. John Goodman is kinda shamed, and the Big dude is lying there, weeping.
posted by lhall at 12:59 AM on September 19, 2007

Ooh, or the scattering ashes scene. John Goodman goes into a long rant and dumps ashes...out of a coffee can. Ashes are caught in the wind and blow all over the Dude. He yells at John Goodman who apologizes and becomes very pathetic.
posted by lhall at 1:03 AM on September 19, 2007

SPOILERS FOR OLDBOY

The scene in where the main character Oh Dae-su crying at the main antagonist's feet even reducing himself to act like a dog, offering to be his pet. He then proceeds to cut out his own tongue because his words have caused offense.
posted by slimepuppy at 6:21 AM on September 19, 2007

Shawshank Redemption.

Specifically, the scenes depicting the bagging job.

The scene in Office Space where Tom is asked to describe his job to Bob and Bob is pretty good too.

Would you accept cases where an actor has shredded his dignity simply by appearing in the movie?
posted by Caviar at 10:08 AM on September 19, 2007