Which death scene did you prefer?

[Warp Coil]

I'd give the slight edge to David's death. The character was a bit whiny and irritating in TWOK and TSFS, but his death was a little more dramatic and heroic (he was trying to save Saavik from becoming the victim). Kirk's reaction to the news is just great, too. One element that I like about TSFS is that the film is all about Kirk going to get his best friend back, but in the end, it comes with a price (the death of his son and the destruction of his ship).

Amanda gets very little screen time in the final cut of ST'09. She's a minor character that the audience barely knows. While I love the emotional impact that her death has on Spock, the event itself doesn't really do too much for me.

 

[sbk1234]

I went with Amanda, although I think both death scenes were well done. For me, it was just more of a shock. She was just seconds from safety. Spock's helpless reaction really served to sell it.

 

[Too Much Fun]

I, for one, thought Winona/Amanda's death was effective. It was a big shock to me, and I thought it was a lot more dramatic than David's, which just left me thinking, "that's it???". Spock's mom dying was something I didn't see coming and I felt a lot worse for Spock than I did for Kirk in "The Search for Spock". I agree with Rojo. David was mostly an annoying character, so his death didn't hit as hard. I can still remember the look on Amanda's face when she died. It was haunting.

Yeah, as played by Winona, Amanda wasn't the most interesting or well-developed character, but I could feel that she had a deeper relationship with Spock than Kirk did with David, even though the two characters didn't spend much time together onscreen. Kirk was just getting to know David when he got killed off, whereas Spock had grown up with a mother, so her death seemed more powerful and less contrived. It's like they introduced David into the series just so he could get killed off to make Kirk more anti-Klingon. Kinda like Rachel in the Batman movies. Ultimately more a plot device character.

 

[Anticitizen]

Shatner's acting in Kirk's reaction to David's death - in my opinion - is one of the most powerful performances I've seen in thespianism. Seriously. It was 100% true-to-life - the shock, the disbelief, the stumbling backward and missing his chair, the anger that's been defanged by grief (the way he's able to intonate klingon bastards without snarling in the slightest, there is pure loss and sadness in his voice).

It's in large part to that scene that I get all prickly when people criticize The Shat's acting.

 

[Geckothan]

Shatner's acting in Kirk's reaction to David's death - in my opinion - is one of the most powerful performances I've seen in thespianism. Seriously. It was 100% true-to-life - the shock, the disbelief, the stumbling backward and missing his chair, the anger that's been defanged by grief (the way he's able to intonate klingon bastards without snarling in the slightest, there is pure loss and sadness in his voice).

It's in large part to that scene that I get all prickly when people criticize The Shat's acting.

"I... have had... enough... of... YOU!"

 

[Yeoman Randi]

I thought the way David's death was handled was better since Shatner played it really well.

David being murdered by the Klingon in STIII. Still packs a whallop, and happens with no special effects or background music whatsoever. Much more of an emotional impact than watching Winona Ryder's Amanda fall to her death while being beamed. As much as I love the new TREK movie, her demise just doesn't hit me even close to the same way.

^

What he said.

Yeah, what they said. And Shatner's reaction, " You Klingon bastard! You've killed my son! You've killed my son" ...backing up, falling on his ass... as a parent, my god, that scene just breaks my heart into a million pieces.

 

[Joker]

I guess I'm in the minority when I say I found Shatner's reaction scene completely crap.

 

[cooleddie74]

It's one of the few times Shatner seriously overacts...and it WORKS in spite of itself. Yeah, some consider it too hammy and over-the-top, but I've been around loved ones when they hear someone they care about has died. Sometimes people do bubble, over-emote and gesture like that. It's not always some clean. level-headed and relatively quiet expression of emotion.

 

[Anticitizen]

I also liked the shot of Kruge in mourning, after the Enterprise self-destructed taking his crew with it - head in hands, in grief or something akin to it. Nice touch.

 

[trevanian]

I guess I'm in the minority when I say I found Shatner's reaction scene completely crap.

Doesn't mean you're wrong, though.

I've seen actors deliver 'collapse/lose it' moments credibly; Mandy Patinkin on CHICAGO HOPE did it (in a wide shot, which is really tough) when the McNichol character died on his operating table. I saw that once, more than 15 years ago, and I can still feel the heart-seize of it.

The ShatnerFall in SFS? As mannered and stylized and unconvincing as anything he ever did (which is saying a lot), and that is coming from somebody who really admires Shatner's full-range work in THE INTRUDER as well as early low-key Kirk performances like CHARLIE X and BALANCE OF TERROR.

 

[C_Miller]

While David's death got a very good short term reaction, it failed to play a major role in the development of Kirk's character (It wasn't mentioned again until TUC) nor did it do anything in the development of the film. David's death was dwarfed by the destruction of the Enterprise, a machine that became very much an important character herself. The fight between Kruge and Kirk also didn't pack the emotional wallop of a fight between a father and the man who killed his son. It almost feels trivial.

And to the person who said that it was about Kirk sacrificing his son and his ship to get his best friend back. Yeah, that's good and all, but they didn't do anything with that. The movie feels small in comparison to how it could feel.

 

[cooleddie74]

Death scenes are hard for most actors to pull off convincingly. Even DeNiro in GOODFELLAS seems kinda phony and forced when he cries after finding out his dearest friend Joe Pesci was murdered. If DeNiro has issues with emoting correctly when called for, what can we expect of most other actors?

 

[Penhall99]

I thought Shatner gave a great performance in that scene...

 

[cooleddie74]

I do too. One of the times in his career when being overwrought and hammy ADDED to the scene and made it far more impactful and memorable.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

Shatner did.

 

[Too Much Fun]

Is it really relevant to the poll to talk about Shatner's reaction in that scene? I might have voted differently if it was, but I don't think it is. I thought we're talking about the death itself, not the reaction to the death. If we were, shouldn't the poll be Young Spock/Zachary Quinto's reaction to his mother's death compared to Shatner's reaction to David's death? I love Kirk's reaction scene too, I just think David's death was dull compared to the death of Amanda Grayson.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Amanda - that one was funnier

 

[TrekNut87]

Both deaths were terribly contrived, but if I had to choose, I'd give David's death the upper hand, solely for Kirk's reaction in the aftermath of it. Beautifully played by Shatner.

 

[DonIago]

Erm...hiow was either death contrived?

 

[cooleddie74]

Well aside from David being knifed by an alien biker with a lobster glued to his forehead...