Shaming the Mob in Live-Action Films.
- During the riot in '71, a woman defends Gary and Thommo from being beaten. Unfortunately, Quinn doesn't care."Get back, the lot of you! We've had enough for today! Behaving like animals, you should be ashamed of yourselves!"
- The Animal:
- Parodied when one of the mob members who keeps asking questions finally asks what the viewers are thinking:Mob Member: I was just wondering...is this really the right thing? Are we sure this man did anything wrong? And even if he did, is it really right for us to kill him over it?
Mob Leader: Back of the mob.
Mob Member: Back of the mob?! But I got here three hours early for this spot!
Mob Leader: Back of the mob.
Mob Member: This mob blows. [goes to the back of the mob]
Mob Leader: Any other questions? Good, let's go. - When the mob has the main character cornered, his black friend suddenly confesses to being behind it all. The mob stops and disperses, not wanting to be known for lynching a black man.
- Parodied when one of the mob members who keeps asking questions finally asks what the viewers are thinking:
- Subverted in Blazing Saddles where the Reverend interrupts an imminent lynching by loudly proclaiming the Word of God while brandishing the Bible high in the air. The townspeople respond by blasting the Bible out of his hands with a round of gunfire, at which point the Reverend turns to the mob's intended victim and tells him, "Son...you're on your own."
- Clerks. "Bunch of easily-led automatons! Try thinking for yourselves before you pelt an innocent man with cigarettes!"
- Dracula Untold has Vlad call out his kingdom after they find out he's a vampire and want to repay him for saving them from the Ottomans by killing him. He lets them know in no uncertain terms that they are alive because of him and what he did to save them. It works.
- Occurs in The Elephant Man, when Merrick is out on his own and is discovered by a crowd at a train station, who realized he was disfigured, began following him, and are about to beat him after he knocked over a little girl trying to get away. He screams: "I am not an elephant! I am not an animal! I am a human being! I am...a man." which stops the crowd dead in its tracks, as they realize exactly what it is they are doing.
- Flowers of War: John tries to do this with the Japanese soldiers who break into the church and are trying to rape the school girls. Unsurprisingly, this doesn't work.
- In Footloose Reverend Shaw delivers these to his parishioners when they try to stage a book burning. It also serves as a touch of a What Have I Done in that they thought they were doing what the Reverend told them to do.
- In Gladiator, Maximus attempts this with his famous "ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!" speech. It doesn't work, as the crowd decide that, yes, they are very entertained indeed.
- In Good Satan, after Satan beats Michael down after carrying Jesus back to Heaven, the crowd from Heaven still mock and shun Jesus for being gay, only for Satan to come to his defense.Satan: What did he ever do to you other than love you all unconditionally?
- Hobo with a Shotgun: When Abby is confronted by the Torches and Pitchforks mob demanding to know if she is homeless. She delivers a speech to them about how living on the streets doesn't mean you're homeless, and that you are entitled to clean your home, and from where she is standing she can see a lot of filth. The mob's nerve breaks and most of the members slink off.
- In It's a Wonderful Life, there is a run on the Building & Loan and a mob is demanding all their money. George Bailey shows up and explains that the money is not there because it's been loaned to their friends to build homes. He calms them down and convinces them to take out just enough to get by (except for one jackhole who demanded all his money regardless), thereby saving the Building & Loan.
- Joey (1997): Billy attempts this by confronting the crowd at Kangaroo Kingdom with the cruelty of forcing animals to fight and asks how they can just stand there and watch it. One man simply responds, "Because there's money to be made!" and everyone else just cheers.
- A Knight's Tale: Chaucer, who has previously demonstrated his ability to work a crowd, tries to shame the mob that's gathered around William, who is in the stocks for impersonating a knight. He's pelted with vegetables before he can get started. However, in the extended cut of the film, Chaucer succeeds and chastens them into silence before Prince Edward steps in. This scene was cut to beef up Prince Edward's role.
- M: When childkiller protagonist Hans Beckert gives an extremely moving speech about how everything he does is the product of mental illness, not genuine malice. He also notes that while he is insane and can't control his abhorrent actions, the criminals who are attempting to lynch him are criminals entirely by choice. The angry mob don't listen, but he manages to buy himself enough time for the cops to arrive and arrest everyone present.
- Done well in the 1953 biographical film Martin Luther and especially well in its excellent 2003 remake, Luther. Martin is horrified both that his best friends are being burned at stake for heresy—an unfortunate touch of Truth in Television—and that his supposed followers and converts to a way of peaceful reform have instead decided to take up arms against Catholicism, looting and pillaging churches and Spalatin, even killing a priest. Martin confronts them at the steps, fiery-eyed.Martin: You think this is my work?! This is never my work!
Spalatin: No...it's...the people's work!
Martin: The people's work? The...people's work...?
[he shakes his head very slowly, turns his back on them and walks away; the mob falls silent] - In Napoléon (1927), an angry mob shows up at the Bonapartes' doorstep. Napoleon simply walks out the door and stares them down. The mob quickly leaves.
- In No Name on the Bullet, Stricker gathers the townsmen to challenge Gant, and although Luke disapproves, he agrees to lead them, hoping to minimize the possible violence. Gant, angered to see Luke backed by a mob, warns the men that if they shoot him, he will still live long enough to kill Luke, saloon owner Henry Reeger (another man afraid Gant is after him), Asa, Stricker, and several other town leaders. The men disband silently.
- Ike in Runaway Bride does this at the pre-wedding party to the collected family and friends of Maggie. Granted, the "Mob" here was only throwing snide comments at Maggie rather than pitchforks and torches, but..."May you find yourselves the bullseye of an easy target, may you be publicly flogged for all of your bad choices, and may your noses be rubbed in all of your mistakes."
- At the end of the 1923 version of Scaramouche, Andre-Louis convinces a revolutionary mob to spare two aristocratic women because they are his mother and fiancée.
- In A Series of Unfortunate Events it is done by Olaf of all people to the audience of the play. When his scheme to legally marry Violet Baudelaire to get her fortune has been revealed, he venomously taunts Mr. Poe's hypocrisy by exclaiming Poe and the other adults in the audience let this happen because they wouldn't listen to the Baudelaires when they begged for help.Count Olaf: You think you're innocent? You're accomplices!
- Played with twice in Silent Hill. Initiated first by Christabella, when it succeeds because the mob that she's talking down is composed entirely of the members of her cult. The second time Rose attempts to shame the cult, including Christabella, for burning Alessa and then attempting to go for some sort of bizarre karmic double jeopardy by burning Sharon. This fails as a form of Verbal Judo when Christabella stabs her, but succeeds in letting them know that they've seriously messed up, which brings the darkness into their church.
- In Silver Lode, Rose makes several attempts to shame the townspeople for turning on Ballard, but it doesn't work until Ballard himself chews them out after the truth has been revealed."You're sorry? A moment ago, you wanted to kill me. You forced me to kill to defend myself, to save my own life. You wouldn't believe me, you wouldn't believe what I said. A man's life can hang in the balance, on a piece of paper. And you're sorry!"
- In The Stoning of Soraya M., right before the stoning, Soraya gets to have a Final Speech in which she accuses her fellow villagers of coldheartedness.
- Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat: About midway through the movie, many of the (blood-starved) vampire residents of the Monster Town are about to attack the jail to drag out and kill a pair of humans locked up for witnessing an attack (although to be fair, letting them go wasn't an option). They're about to drain them of blood when the towns founder, Count Mardulak appears, and rebukes them (with a fair amount of intimidation) for being prepared to succumb to their bloodlust after fighting it for so long, causing them to disperse.
- At the climax of Talk of the Town, the mob is about to lynch Cary Grant when Ronald Colman bursts into the courtroom—yep, the mob invaded a courtroom—with the purported murder victim, who is very much alive. Colman then gives a long shaming-the-mob speech about how they should respect the law, especially during a time when other countries were fighting to have law.
- At the climax of the film Young Frankenstein, the monster, made newly articulate, manages to do this. Downplayed twice before; the first time, a respected elder tells a group of people that they should not chase Dr. Frankenstein away, until they are sure he is creating a monster. The second time, he speaks to the mob, pitchforks and all, and explains that "A riot is an ungly thing...und, I tink, that it is chust about time ve had vun."
