The Righteous Fury of the Best Scenes of 2017

By Neil Miller

Two scenes — one from TV and another on the big screen — defined 2017 in raw, impressive, and thrilling ways.

In years past, we’ve always picked one single scene that feels emblematic of that year’s cinematic experience. It’s not necessarily the best scene, but one we determine will be the year’s most enduring. Last year, we loved the unpredictable, free-spirited nature of the opening sequence of Swiss Army Man. It was a simpler time, then.

We also found ample debate around the most enduring movie moments of 2016. There was plenty of Martha talk.

In hindsight, 2016 was far less of a punishing year as the one we’re about to see end. Sure, culturally it ended with a great deal of uncertainty and some upheaval. But could we have known then how much more tumult we’d experience in 2017? Maybe. Probably not.

While it will take a few years for art to catch up completely with the larger cultural moment, there have been several things in 2017 that have stood as placeholders for the righteous fury — mostly that of women in America — that we’ve seen amplified in 2017. Which is why, in the end, there are two clear winners for Scene of the Year. One comes to us from the traditional realm of cinema, the other gracing our TV screens. Both felt like works of cinema designed to remind us that some fights are worth having, and some people should never be underestimated.

No Man’s Land

Putting aside it’s terrible name — seriously, “Loot Train Attack”? — this sequence from Game of Thrones’ is the closest any television show has got to the massive scale of Hollywood blockbusters. For the casual viewer of the show, it’s simply impressive. You don’t see this kind of scope on television.

For the more attentive Game of Thrones viewer, The Loot Train Attack is not just an evolution in scale, it’s an evolution in method. Director Matt Shakman, whose most notable previous credit was It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, chose to structure the entire scene around the experience of Jamie Lannister. This is significant not just because he’s on the losing side of the encounter, but because he’s a character we can root for fighting on a side we’d probably all rather see lose. The overwhelming consensus is that people want Team Daenerys to win the larger fight, but we’d rather not see Jamie and Ser Bronn of the Blackwater burned alive. This perspective shift also allows the audience to experience the might of Daenerys’ dragons from a new angle. It’s a brilliantly staged sequence that, when necessary, displays everything that makes Game of Thrones great: the tension, the scale, and the pure carnage of it all.

Separately these are both great scenes. But together they represent one of 2017’s persistent (and oddly hopeful) themes. Even in some of our darkest, most distressing moments, there is plenty of righteous fury from those who believe deeply in their cause. For Diana Prince, it’s the notion that evil in any form should be defeated. For Daenerys, it’s about breaking the wheel of inequality in an effort to create a new world for everyone in her fictional country. These are women and ideas we should follow into battle every time.

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