Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:heat-large-tm 1505.jpg|link=Heat|frame|A few scenes later, they're shooting at each other with assault rifles. (And a few movies later, they are trying to frame each other. And so on...!)]]

 

What can make a great action film truly great? You might remember some exciting fight, spectacular pyrotechnics or awesome special effects, but they are not enough. Ironically, what really makes the difference is how well the film is at its quietest drama.

 

Compare [[Stage Whisper]], which is when a ''comedy'' film tries to do this, usually without success. [[Super-Trope]] of [[After-Action Patchup]].

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* For all the crap ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny|Gundam SEED Destiny]]'' has leveled at it, there's a rather effective scene of this sort during episode 17 where [[Older and Wiser|Athrun Zala]] talks with Shinn about how those with power needs to know how to use it properly, otherwise they'll just be causing more of the grief that they themselves have suffered already.

* One of the main reasons ''[[Speed Racer (film)|Speed Racer]]'' avoided the acting problems of other films with chroma-keyed backgrounds is that there are a great deal of scenes where the actors are just talking to each other. These are some pretty damn good scenes, only slightly overshadowed because of the action ones.

** The talking scenes in ''Speed Racer'' almost end up being action scenes though because of the bizarre way they overlapped scenes constantly.

* The 2008 ''[[Iron Man (film)|Iron Man]]'' film had several of these, mostly with Tony and Pepper. One strong example is after she helps him replace his chest piece, nearly killing him in the process:

{{quote|'''Pepper:''' Don't you...ever...ask me do do something like that, ever again.

*** [[Fridge Brilliance|On the other hand,]] one could say the fight scene served the same purpose as a Quiet Drama Scene — bringing Buffy (and the audience) back to "reality," which in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' means fighting Sunnydale's endless supply of random vampires who don't care whether or not {{spoiler|your mother just died}}.

* ''[[Deadwood]]'' practically ''lived'' on this trope. Granted, it was a western drama series and not an action show, but still. It was the quiet scenes that were the best in the the series' entire run. Noteworthy examples include the last scene of the season one finale, which ends with the [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]] where Doc is dancing with Jewel; Alma's walk to the bank after getting shot at definitely counts as this, and there were several episodes that started off with extremely quiet but memorable scenes, the best of which was arguably in the penultimate episode of season three, "The Catbird Seat", in which there is a ''ten-minute-long'', almost completely quiet sequence that takes place in the dark hours of morning, which captures the eerie silence of that hour with remarkable precision.

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' had quite a few of these back in the day. One that comes to mind is in "Tomb of the Cybermen", when the Doctor is discussing grief and how life goes on with Victoria.

** The new series has its share as well, though the format change from multi-part serials to fifty-minute one (occasionally two)-episode stories leaves less room for them. Still, a few episodes that use these very well and spring to mind quickly include "Father's Day", "Waters of Mars", "Human Nature"/"Family of Blood", and "Vincent and the Doctor".