Lee J. Cobb's classic moment of unspoken pathos

Rating: Null/10 (29 October 2005)

One of my very favorite cinematic devices is the climactic exposition of unspoken emotion. When done properly, these can pack a subtle, but powerful punch and leave the viewer breathless. Such scenes are getting rarer in modern cinema, which largely caters to lazy, unthinking ticket buyers who prefer cheap, in-your-face thrills to complex emotional dichromatics. The Exorcist boasts a monumental, masterfully-woven tapestry rich with subtext, and contains one of my very favorite moments of silent pathos. The final scene shows Lee J. Cobb's character, Lt. Kinderman, coming upon the chaotic and bloody aftermath of the exorcism. While uttering not a single word, he successfully registers an expression of complete, shocked bewilderment over what he is witnessing; a reaction to horror that is honest, pure, and completely believable. This gem ranks with other classic cinema moments of silent pathos, including Barry Fitzgerald's deeply-touching embrace with his aged, feeble Irish mother in 1944's Going My Way, and Morgan Freeman's emotional seaside reunion with his slammer buddy, Tim Robbins, in 1994's modern classic, The Shawshank Redemption. In each of these instances, the director had the courage and intelligence to eschew the narrative element and allow raw, visceral emotion to invest the scene with its inherent value. In this way the impact is deepened for the viewer, who is left to privately ponder and interpret what she/he has observed. The Shawshank sequence is particularly potent because the camera pans away to a high aerial perspective at the crucial moment of reunion, reinforcing the sense that the viewer is a vicarious witness to something deep, profound, and very, very personal.