The Ten Greatest Screen Kisses
I use as my icon the greatest screen couple not on my list. Buffy and Angel, as much as they kissed, didn't have a Great Kiss, in my opinion. Yet another reason I shake my fist in the general direction of Joss Whedon.
Anyway, with one notable exception I am only including scenes in which I love the couple just as much as the kiss. And these are alternating between movies and TV, or else they might be in a slightly different order.
10. The Princess Bride. Wesley & Buttercup. Peter Falk said it best. "Since the invention of the kiss, there have been five kisses that were rated the most passionate, the most pure... this one left them all behind."
9. Lost. Kate and Sawyer. This is the only one on the list between two people I don't want to be together. (She doesn't deserve him.) But I had to put it on the list. Because ... damn.
8. Some Kind of Wonderful. The tough tomboy with the hopeless, secret crush on her best friend makes the masochistic offer to "help him practice" before his big date. And oh lordy. This one sent my teenage self into throes of romantic ecstasy.
7. 24. Tony & Michelle. (*sniff*) It's about 21 hours into their 24 hour day and they're both on the ragged edge. He's hobbling around on crutches because his boss broke his ankle, she's just watched her brother get hauled off screaming by security. Plus Los Angeles is about to blow up. Again. And they share one of the hottest, most desperate, passionate kisses ever ... until that Machiavellian bitch interrupts them.
6. The Quiet Man. Sean Thornton & Mary Kate Danaher. It's an Irish cemetery. In the rain. It just does not get more fucking romantic than that.
5. Sharpe's Rifles. Sharpe & Teresa. This, my friends, is one of the great love stories on film. He's a common soldier raised from the ranks, she's a Spanish guerilla fighter. He's unsure of his place and she's emotionally scarred. It's careful and tender and just beautiful.
4. Last of the Mohicans. Nathaniel & Cora. The kiss is so dark I had to use a picture of the afterglow. But this is just so damn hot. It's entirely wordless as they stare at each other across a crowded, firelit fort, and then he silently takes her hand and leads her into the shadows and ... guh. The way you can hear them breathing.
3. Veronica Mars. Logan & Veronica's first kiss is one of those moments that fans of the relationship are bouncing up and down on the couches and high-fiving each other (*waves to misreall*) with joy because it's exactly what we wanted. He plays the cavalry and rushes to save her from danger (turns out she didn't need saving but whatever) and she faces him (we all hold our breath, hardly daring to hope) and reaches up and gives him an impulsive kiss. She then looks like she can't believe she fucking did that and can the earth just swallow her up now? He looks like someone clipped him with a brick. She turns to walk away and he takes her arm and pulls her back into the most. perfect. kiss. Dreamy sighs all around.
2. A Room With a View. Lucy Honeychurch & George Emerson. In setting it's damn near as romantic as The Quiet Man. An Italian poppy field with Florence in the distance. She comes upon him and he turns and sees her and just strides forward and without speaking a word, takes her in a kiss as the opera swells. I give this one top marks for being almost shockingly carnal in such polite, Edwardian trappings. Damn the quintessential English chaperone for interrupting it.
1. Torchwood. Jack Harkness & Jack Harkness. One of them is a time-traveling rogue who picked a convenient identity in WWII England. The other is the hero on the night before his final mission. One is helpless in the knowledge that this man whose name he wears is headed for certain death. The other is powerfully drawn to this stranger who's bringing all his buried, forbidden desires to the surface. They share a shocking, public dance, clinging to each other. Then it's the moment where the one must return to his own time and his own duty. But he turns back to his doomed doppelganger and they share one helpless, desperate, passionate kiss before parting forever. I defy even the most closed-minded to watch this and not respond to the anguished beauty of it.
Okay, that was fun. Any additions to the list?