great moments in cinema as filtered through the golden haze of memory

Oh, man, remember that scene in The Abyss where Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio Stuart Masterson Louise Parker has drowned and Ed Harris is trying to revive her? Everyone's like, "She's dead, dude. Let it go, alright? We're already bummed out enough as it is." But Ed's like, "Screw you guys! You don't know nothin'!" So he starts pounding on Mary Stuart Louise's chest and giving her mouth-to-mouth to the point where it's just sad and weird, and ...

... And then Ed Harris starts screaming his lines and losing his voice as he says the word "fight," and it's just a really great, raw moment of acting that's completely "in the moment." You wonder how many takes James Cameron shot for that scene. I remember reading how tough of a shoot The Abyss was, and how Harris once burst into tears while driving from the set back to the hotel after a long, stressful day of filming. But good or bad, all that stress did produce that one scene and that one moment I'll never forget. If I'm remembering it correctly, that is. But isn't my hazy memory from the spring of 1990 more important? Yes. Because I was 14 back then, and anything was possible. Anything is still possible, but you know what I mean. And if you don't, pretend to be 14 again and watch The Abyss.