This assignment was surprisingly difficult.  It’s easy to think of my favorite movies, but to think of scenes that had a lasting impact is a much harder task.  The ones I chose all moved me for the same reason.  They all cast an interesting light on human nature, and they do so in different ways.  I tried to reflect this is my ordering of clips: Shawshank Redemption, M, There Will Be Blood.  In the Shawshank clip, Morgan Freeman plays a character who did something terrible when he was young, and is reflecting on his life since then as a much older man.  As a viewer, I was totally drawn in and sympathetic toward him.  In the clip from M, Peter Lorre plays a character that should by all accounts be despicable.  He is child killer, which is just about as bad as you can get.  That said, his breakdown shows his sincerity and apparent regret/self loathing for his actions.  When watching him, it is impossible not to feel some sympathy for him, as he is entirely weak and pathetic.  In There Will Be Blood, it is impossible to feel sympathy for Daniel Day Lewis’ character.  He is entirely self-absorbed, and his actions reflect this.  He is so detached from those around him that he seems almost inhuman.  This progression of criminal badness is what drove me to choose the clips I did.  Each clip is moving in its own right, but together they are much more thought provoking.