Memorable Love Scenes: Risky Business

Movie poster via IMDB.com

This week I'm taking a bit of a break from the normal blogging schedule. I've just wrapped up teaching an online class on writing love scenes. And one of the things I asked students to do was name love scenes from movies or books that stood out in their memory. The point of the exercise was to look at those scenes and see WHY they were memorable. What did the storyteller do to make them so impression-making?

So this week, I'm going to post some of the examples we used so that you can break them down too. (Or if you're not a writer, just sit back and enjoy the smexiness.)

First on the agenda is Risky Business and the smoking hot scene on the train. (This doesn't have nudity but isn't exactly safe for work either.) This is an example of using a unique setting to your advantage.

Hot, right? So why is this scene memorable? Is it simply the location, the chance of someone discovering them? Is it the tension built up before this? Or is it because the moment is tranformative for the characters? Or is it just because it's a young Tom Cruise and Rebecca DeMornay?