100 Best Mainstream Movie Female Death Scenes; Strange Dog’s Personal Top Four:
Hello Everybody,
Here follow my personal top four favorite female death scenes from mainstream movies. For each nomination, I include a synopsis, a number of still images, and, where possible, a link to a Youtube video of the scene in question. Enjoy!
1. Hanna’s War (1988):
Synopsis:
This movie is about the real-life World War II Jewish resistance fighter, Hanna Senesh. The factual Hanna of history had a brief but brilliant Amazon warrior career fighting against the Nazis in what was Yugoslavia back then. But eventually (inevitably?) she was captured. She refused to break under torture and was eventually executed by firing squad. Of course, the Hollywood movie glorifying Hanna decades later played all that up to maximum effect. The actress playing Hanna, Maruschka Detmers, was, obviously, a drop-dead gorgeous babe, far prettier than the actual Hanna. The firing squad scene at the climax of the movie turns her death with three bullets in her chest into a work of art—the action taking place in cinematic slow motion, with multiple cameras capturing the event from multiple points of view that inter-cut with each other on screen. Watching the movie, you see Hanna make a show of, of course, refusing the blindfold so she can make eye contact with her killers; so she can look up and see the sky while she dies. You see the three bullets impact across her chest at bosom and heart level in slow motion. She takes one bullet in the middle of each bosom and one bullet perfectly centered between her bosoms.
Of course, she’s wearing a plain and simple but very pretty white blouse that displays the three tastefully small, neat bloodstains to best effect. (Her blouse is neatly tucked into a dark gray pencil skirt.) The various cameras absolutely make love to the actress while she “dies,” while she sinks to the ground in slow motion to elegantly lay herself out on the ground with the gracefulness of a ballet dancer. The way actress Detmers plays Hanna reacting to the bullets penetrating her chest, the way she closes her eyes, lays back her head, raises her face toward the sky, pushes her bosoms forward into the bullets, the way she opens her mouth agape in what seems to be an orgasmic yowl—the whole death scene lasting about a minute—is the most beautifully erotic thing I’ve seen in a mainstream movie.
Still Photo:
Youtube Video: (Beware of the non-original music in this video that was nastily added by the person who posted the video to Youtube.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPfSwQPvvic
2. White Cargo (1996 Version):
Synopsis:
In this current era crime drama, the woman with the particularly excellent death scene is an attractive young Caucasian brunette. She is wearing a button-front, dark blue shirt with the buttons all undone and tied off in front halter style. She also wears a white tee-shirt under her halter shirt and a long orange skirt with a deep slit up one side. In a fit of jealousy, she attempts to murder her boyfriend with a throwing dagger. But he is faster with
his throwing dagger and kills her instead. He drills her with his throwing dagger in the middle of her cleavage, perfectly centered between her bosoms, where her white tee-shirt shows out from under her blue halter shirt. She clutches one hand to the dagger embedded in the middle of her chest, gracefully sinks to the floor, and eventually expires in the arms of her boyfriend who has just mortally wounded her after she murmurs her last words of regret about the situation.
Still Photos:
Youtube Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CplKqIim41U
3. Farewell, My Lovely (1975):
Synopsis:
Charlotte Rampling is a
classic Film Noire style Femme Fatale in this crime drama set in the 1930s-1940s. She is wearing a gorgeous full-length white formal gown with pearls when she double-crosses her boyfriend but is then shot in the gut by a private investigator played by Robert Mitchum. Charlotte does a superb and long, drawn-out falling to the floor where she expires, gracefully laid out flat on her back and with a surprisingly peaceful looking, but beautiful, expression of sleep on her face.
Still Photos:
Youtube Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOXnHHciLi4
4. Taza, Son of Cochise (1954):
Synopsis:
In the Wild West, a pioneer girl named Mary is wearing a typical pioneer girl dress when she is shot with an Indian arrow between her bosoms, perfectly centered in her cleavage. She closes her eyes, lays back her head, raises her face toward the sky, arches her back, thrusts outs her chest into the impact of the arrow, clutches at the arrow embedded in her chest with one hand, and then falls to the ground to lay herself out flat on her back to fall asleep in death. If this scene were not so quick, if it were done in slow motion like the Hanna’s War scene, this scene would rank higher in my list. But, as it is, if you blink, you will miss it.
Still Photos: (Note that the third photo, the B&W one taken from a side view, is a promotional still
not seen in the original movie.)
Youtube Video:
None that I can find of just the death scene in question.
