Visual Index: Death Becomes Her's Best Shot(s)
Tuesday, May 3, 2016 at 9:54PM 
This is as good a time as any to tell you that May is "Girls Gone Wild" month at The Film Experience. You know we love a good theme week/month at the site! And with Thelma & Louise and Madonna's Truth or Dare both celebrating 25th anniversaries this very month, it was the only conceivable plus awesome theme to build the blogging around. So we'll be celebrating reckless divas, fierce warriors, psychotic beauties, and blonde venuses all month long. Well that and Cannes hoopla of course.
And we'll start Girls Gone Wild right now with actress Madeline Ashton (Meryl Streep) and her frenemy author Helen Sharp (Goldie Hawn) who drink a seductive potion to appease their vanity with spectacular Oscar-winning results. My choice for Best Shot will be up tomorrow as I'm running behind -- when I love a movie too much it takes me so much longer! -- so I'll keep updating this gallery if you're also running late.
DEATH BECOMES HER
Director: Robert Zemeckis; Cinematographer: Dean Cundey
Click on any of the 14 shots to read its accompanying article
What image best sums up Meryl Streep’s many talents?
- Scopophiliac at the Cinema
I'm a girl...
-Jeff Marshall *first time participant! Welcome*
Streep is just so damn committed, tongue and all.
-Sorta That Guy
It’s legitimately disturbing and yet hilarious...
-I Want to Believe
This shot wouldn’t be out of place in a Hammer film...
-Where are the Advertisers
She’s biding her time, waiting to make her best entrance (like any true diva would)...
-Awards Madness
The balance of satire, camp, and actress deification are held in glorious unity throughout the film
-Film Mix Tape
I found the film to be a bit of a trifle, wasting a fascinating premise on a slapstick plot
-Film Actually
One of the things I love about Zemeckis is that he has such a tremendous gift for being obvious in creative, high-quality ways, much like his mentor Steven Spielberg...
-Antagony & Ecstasy
I have probably watched Death Becomes Her over 300 times...
-Drink Your Juice, Shelby
a pretty great genre hybrid film...
-Dancin Dan on Film
I’m trying to put a finger on why this black comedy worked for me and films like Drop Dead Gorgeous don’t.
-Rachel's Reviews
Living gargoyles...
-The Film Experience
I always thought this was one of the best, scariest, darkly comical endings...
-Cinematic Corner
Do you have a favorite Death Becomes Her shot?
Reader Comments (27)
For a movie released in 1992 with wall to wall CGI, doesn't this movie feel like an 80's holdover?
/3rtful -- well it has 80s things about it but the visuals hold up better than 80s films did in this regard
This was a fun movie to re-watch. I hadn't watched it in at least a decade or more. I totally missed Warhol/Garbo/Monroe reference/cameos when I saw it all those years ago.
This film has oddly grown for me over time. It's funny and I like all the performances. I find it often hysterical. The send up of Hollywood and cartoon quality at same time are genius.
I look forward to reading these. Madeline Ashton is a national treasure.
This DBH interview is refreshingly funny: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LKNQfuq9iFA
There's so many things about the film I love. The play that Meryl is in at the film's beginning which was so bad. You see that it's a fucking mess but it's so bad, it's good. The best part is how Bruce Willis' character was just so in awe of it and was like "YEAH, WOO!!!"
Another shot is where after Meryl took the potion, her body corrects herself as I loved the shot of her butt getting firmer and tighter. If that was her real butt, then DAMN!!! BABY GOT BACK!!!!!
I love that shot of Meryl's eyes in the fake mirror in the musical scene. She's waiting for her cue, and she glances to the side. It's just brilliantly bad acting.
Farrah Fawcett was cut out of the movie, and I've wondered what her part in the story was. Another aging diva?
One of my favorite favorite films. I wonder why it's never caught on as a top Gay Diva film, like "Mommie Dearest" or "Rocky Horror" or others. Just one giant bitchfest, that I still quote to this day.
"She's from Newark, for God's sake!"
"First, we finish dinner"
"Ernest! What part of the plan didn't you understand?!?!"
"En garde.... bitch!"
helen sinclair is the name of goldie's character, Nathaniel?
This was my first time seeing this film and I'm normally not into dark comedies but this worked for me.
Love this movie on so many levels, the acting, the lines and the endless references to horror movies! I mean Dean Cundey shot Halloween and there are shots in Death becomes her that are close to exact copies of shots in the Carpenter classic.
sulu -- lol. conflating my 90s comedy classics.
Anyone ever notice the first letters of each of the ladies character names spells HAMS when rearranged,They are both doing Ham as it should be done.
I just watched Private Benjamin for about the eighth time. I really think Goldie is right up there with Carole Lombard and Jean Harlow as a brilliant comic actress.
@brookesboy. Co-sign.
https://www.facebook.com/jeffmarshallmovieblogger/
I love this damn movie so much that even though I didn't have time to rewatch I couldn't let it go by without showing some love (after my sister's wedding this weekend I am overflowing with love), so here's my entry: http://dancindanonfilm.blogspot.com/2016/05/hit-me-with-your-best-shot-death.html
Don't know how to post a best-shot, but my pick would definitely include something with Isabella Rossellini wearing those beads.
Pam -- she is indelible. I'm surprised nobody chose her for this!
I really wish i could have participated in this one, but our library system only has this movie on vhs. :(
I'd loved to parcitipate too, but sadly it's too late...
Anyway, this movie. Flawless. From beginning to end, everything fits perfectly.
Favored shot? All of them, plain and simple.
Meryl's the queen, Goldie looks ravishing with that long red hair.... Bruce Willes. OMG! So hilarious. And Rosselini... no words.
I'd nominate all four for an Oscar without a doubt. In fact they'd all winning it that year. (Best Actress-TIE!, Best ?supporting? Actor and best Supporting Actress)
SEMPRE VIVA!!!!
Helen Sharp: You're a powerful sexual being, Ernest.
Ernest Menville: I am?
Helen Sharp: Yes, you are. If I never told you before, it was because I wasn't the sort of girl who could say the word "sexual" without blushing. Well I can now. Sexual... sensual... sexy... sex... sex... sex...
Jono -- my best friend and i use to quote that bit from Goldie so much. LOL.
So yeah.... love this movie. Everyone is fantastic, but the most overlooked great performance has to be Goldie Hawn. I know this is her kind of role, but it's the only Goldie movie I can think of where the performance outshines the celebrity.
And Isabella Rosellini's careful nude strut should be included in best shot. I can't remember but was there any awards traction for her supporting turn? It would have been well-deserved.
So many good pieces. Thanks all.
Love this movie
Such a great movie. Could a movie this inventive and consistently funny with big name prestigious actors be done today?