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Where did on knees camera overhead "Noooooo!" originate?

Jack Denfeld

08:55 / 19.01.06

I've most recently seen it on a Simpsons rerun, and on some sitcom I can't remember. I've seen it several times over the years in comedy, and maybe even a few times in dramas, but where did it originate? The earliest I remember seeing it was when Green Goblin struck the pose in Platoon, but I don't think his cries were audible in the film because of the helicoptor noise and background music. Usually it happens when someone finds out a loved one is killed or something horrible has happened to that character. I've seen them use the dialogue, "Noooooooooooo!" and also "Whyyyyyyyyyy?". Anyone know where this comes from? Here's what the pose looks like when they scream

Jack Denfeld

08:57 / 19.01.06

Except the camera is usually more overhead than that picture.

Smoothly

09:12 / 19.01.06

Isn’t the same kind of long overhead pull-back shot used when Kirk is marooned in Star Trek II? You know, “Kaaaahhhhhhhnn!”

Jack Denfeld

09:15 / 19.01.06

Yeah, like the screaming at God shot. Or Khan, since Khan really was up in the stars when Kirk screamed.

Mistoffelees

09:27 / 19.01.06

The actor who does this pose in Platoon and in Spiderman is Willem Dafoe. He also pays homage to his famous pose in Boondock Saints ("There was a firefiiiiight!").

Lysander Stark

09:27 / 19.01.06

Surely one of the masters of this type of shot is uber-actor Charlton Heston-- a little despair and shock next to the Statue of Liberty, anyone? I mean, he does not shout 'Noooooooo!', but it is between the lines ('You maniacs!')...

Spaniel

09:40 / 19.01.06

Mist, I think you're missing the funny.

lord nuneaton savage

10:26 / 19.01.06

What I want to know is where the leaping-to-push-someone-out-of-the-way-of-a- speeding-projectile-in-slow-motion "NOOOOOOOOOOO" comes from.

I remember seeing it parodied in an episode of Deep Space Nine but I have no idea from whence it originates.

■

12:19 / 19.01.06

B3ta-theft alert:

grant

17:29 / 19.01.06

I'm sure I've seen the "Nooooo!" in episodes of Twilight Zone, but I can't think of any specifics.

GogMickGog

17:34 / 19.01.06

Oooh, ooh, but the stock footage of printers/ newspaper spinning to camera thing is very firsted in "Citizen Kane", so we're getting there right?

What about the first cop buddy movie? When did we first see an uptight pen-pusher paired up alongside a radical results-gettin' fella (with HILARIOUS consequences!!)?

gridley

19:27 / 19.01.06

I feel like it must have started with the method actors in the 50s. They practically invented screaming into the camera. "The "Noooooooooo!" was probably some lesser film's take on "Steellllaaaa!!!!" or "You're tearing me apaaaaaarrt!"

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

19:48 / 19.01.06

grant- does Burgess Meredith do it in the one where he's the only survivor of a nuclear war, but is happy because now he will finally have time to read all the books he's ever wanted to, then he breaks his glasses?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

DO NOT WANT

Isn't there a shot of a woman on her knees, holding her dead baby and looking up to the sky for answers in Battleship Potemkin?

I haven't seen it for ages, so I can't be too sure.

Shrug

23:01 / 19.01.06

I'm not 100% on this either but I think perhaps that she holds her injured child as she advances toward the Cossacks but not exactly in the manner of the thread abstract.
Here's the closest I could find, although from two different versions:

De Selby

02:50 / 20.01.06

Yeah you're right, I just downloaded it and watched it. At first she looks up at the ship below (which seems a little odd when watching it, almost like she's wondering how this could happen but to whom?), and then she walks back up the steps towards the Cossacks, and pleads for them to not shoot her.

Back to the drawing board.

Jack Fear

11:51 / 20.01.06

You know, the more I think about it, the more I think it's a an homage to WRATH OF KHAN. I really can't think of anyone doing anything similar before—well, before The Simpsons, frankly. Nicholas Meyer and the Shat invented it, but Matt Groening spread it far and wide. I don't think you can overestimate the enormous cultural clout of The Simpsons.

I think that fact that it's so ubiquitous now just makes it seem like it's been around forever, if you know what I mean. It's an instant classic—the moment you see the bit, you can't imagine the world ever having been without it.

Anyway: I've referred the question to Roger Ebert, in an e-mail to his biweekly "Movie Answer Man" column. We'll see if he has anything to say on the subject

■

15:31 / 20.01.06

Well, Seinfeld did quite a lot with it, too. Was that before of after the Simpsons?

Jack Fear

17:07 / 20.01.06

The Simpsons premiered a year before Seinfeld, and was instantly and consistently huge, while Seinfeld took two or three seasons to penetrate mass consciousness.

ibis the being

17:11 / 20.01.06

I just went searching to see what exactly the dialogue was in the climactic scene of Planet of the Apes... couldn't find it but I did find this most hilarious thread ever -

A Classic Burton Ending!

Sorry for the threadrot. I thought POTA was a good guess for the original question....

Jack Fear

17:14 / 20.01.06

Of course, for a Tim Burton film, the audience falls to its collective knees and screams...

PatrickMM

18:29 / 20.01.06

The Seinfeld version of the 'NOOOO' was definitely based on Wrath of Kahn, in fact I think George actually says "KAAAHHHNNN" when he does it.

grant

21:09 / 20.01.06

Yeah, Seinfeld was for sure "Khan!"

Burgess Meredith, on the other hand, says something like, "It just isn't fair!" or "That can't be so!" If there's any, "Noooooo!" it happens off-camera, but I think he simply weeps.

Marlon Brando, on the other hand, seems like he might've done it in On the Waterfront.

If I'm remembering the end of Planet of the Apes right, Heston sinks to his knees, but doesn't bellow a single word -- he sort of raves and sobs.

Triplets

01:24 / 21.01.06

Grant:

Heston, "Oh no, I was wrong: it was Earth, all along. Oh, you've finally made a monkey... you've finally made a monkey out of me".

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