Comments on: Snow way to die!

By: Richard Harland Smith

Richard Harland Smith — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:15:33 +0000

One movie I left off my list because I couldn’t verify a memory I had of seeing it is Jan Troell’s The New Land (1972). The only thing I remember about this film (which spun off a short-lived TV series, believe it or not, in 1974) is a bit where several Sioux indians are hanged for their participation in a massacre on Norweigan settlers. I’ll never forget the close-up on one prisoner’s face as the noose is slipped around his neck and all around him pillowy snowflakes fall. Truly haunting. I wish I could see that one again.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:39:30 +0000

Love wintery movies, The Grand Silence was the first thing I thought of when I saw this post. Funnily enough, just watched Day of the Outlaw over the holiday break (where we got a huge dump of snow up this way), glad to finally have that one on DVD.

Guess I should finally get around to watching Track of the Cat.

By: Bob Cashill

Bob Cashill — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 01:53:10 +0000

Surely No. 11 must have been THE BLOB. What “dies” more gloriously in ice and snow than it?

The frozen-stiff horses in the river in Guy Maddin’s MY WINNIPEG are macabre..and funny.

Back to people: Fred Zinnemann’s swan song, FIVE DAYS ONE SUMMER, takes off from an effective scene where an elderly woman is shown the corpse of her long-missing mountaineer lover, his features preserved in the ice and snow that buried him.

By: Richard Harland Smith

Richard Harland Smith — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 22:40:36 +0000

I did think of Fargo but I’m actually more favorably impressed by the death of the trooper early on. Of course, that movie is wall-to-wall snow so there’s a lot to love there. But in limiting my list to 10, some classics had to fall by the wayside… and besides, this gives y’all something to complain about! ;0)

By: Tony Dayoub

Tony Dayoub — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 22:36:02 +0000

I’m surprised you left out the most obvious one. The death-by-woodchipper scene in “Fargo”. Was it too obvious?

By: Patricia

Patricia — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 22:11:14 +0000

Aw. There’s sympathy behind my giggles and snorts, RHS.

By: Richard Harland Smith

Richard Harland Smith — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 22:08:24 +0000

Lambert has a rifle, but his fingers are frozen.

I’ve so been that guy.

By: Patricia

Patricia — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 21:23:28 +0000

You send a chill down my back.

Andre de Toth’s “Day of the Outlaw” from 1959 features Burl Ive’s gang of outlaws ostensibly being led to safety through a mountain pass by rancher Robert Ryan. One by one the outlaws perish in the cold leaving nasty Jack Lambert who can only watch helplessly as Ryan rides off. Lambert has a rifle, but his fingers are frozen.