“Hey, have you seen this movie? What did you think about THAT SCENE?!” We have all used that phrase at one point during our discussions of movies with the other person’s eyebrows raising, “Oh yea, THAT SCENE!” You go on to pick that memorable scene apart by listing what you loved or didn’t like, how it made you feel and the impression it left on you.
In this series, we will do just that. We will take a scene from a movie and discuss its impact on us. Some of these scenes may be frightening, weird, iconic, controversial, hilarious, and everything in between. Let us know your impression of the scene and the impact it left on you the first time you watched it down below in the comments. Enjoy!
*Warning: May Contain Spoilers*
Movie: Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987)
Scene: “I Like Me”
THE PLAYERS
Director: John Hughes
Characters: Neal (Steve Martin) and Del (John Candy)
THE SETUP
Neal a very busy account executive who is on a business trip in New York and is looking forward to returning to his for the Thanksgiving holiday. After attending a tedious meeting, he is finally ready to head to the airport. He has a hard time hailing a cab until he is finally able to pay off a greedy New Yorker to let him have the cab instead. While haggling with the man, his cab is stolen by another man transporting a huge trunk. Once arriving at LaGuardia, he crosses path with the man that stole his cab, Del Griffith. Del is a talkative shower ring salesman and an annoyance to Neal. The board the same plane where Del continues to talk Neal’s ear off. Their flight is diverted to Witchita because of a blizzard in Chicago. Neal is frustrated because this delays his return home and realizes he will have to spend the night in Witchita. He reluctantly agrees to share a room with Del which only brings more annoyances. This brings us to our scene.
THAT SCENE
THE EXECUTION
I completely understand Neal’s frustration here but he gets so mean it’s hard to get on his side here. Del starts to go back and forth with him until Neal just continues his rant as we start to feel sorry for Del with John Candy playing this scene (and the whole movie) to perfection. You are just waiting for him to knock Neal’s teeth down his throat. I know I would, but he just sits there taking it obviously upset with his breathing getting heavier soaking in Neal’s tirade about how horrible and annoying Del has been. Then Del hit him and all of us for that matter with one of the best responses in cinema. “I like me.” Delivered confidently and inspiringly. You can tell he’s hurt but he’s not letting words or someone else question or define who he is. Like he said, he genuine. The real deal. What you see is what you get. Whether you were on Del’s side or not, after this speech he won us over even more and us firmly planted on Team Del. We could all use a little bit more of this big teddy bear in our lives especially heading into the holidays.
What do you think of this scene? What did you think of Del’s response??
