Death becomes them

The terrifically readable (if inherently morbid) webzine Obit has a new piece on "the 10 Greatest Movie Death Scenes." Any list that covers both Fredo Corleone and the Wicked Witch of the West is okay by me, but the comment section acknowledges that writer Kevin Nance has barely scratched the surface here. Off the top of my head (I've got a "Hangover" review to write), here are five movie farewells I find it impossible to forget:

"The Last of the Mohicans" (1992) Jodhi May, as Alice Munro, takes a header off a cliff rather than be taken prisoner by Magua (Wes Studi). Her calm expression of acceptance and his stoic look of bafflement is the movie's eeriest moment of drama.

"Peter Ibbetson" (1935) Long-forgotten (although you can find it on DVD) but visually arresting fantasy-romance in which Gary Cooper and Ann Harding play lovers who meet beyond death in a privileged alternate-world Eden. Cooper's final scene is a masterpiece of lighting, sorrow, and joy.

"White Heat" (1949) Jimmy Cagney makes it to the top of the world. After a career playing criminals, the star finally lets us see the screaming big-baby id beneath the tough guy.

"Munich" (2005) The houseboat scene in which Jeanette the Dutch assassin (Marie-Josee Croze) gets taken out by the Israeli avengers. Intentionally creepy and more than a little misogynistic (what are those phallic zip-guns the killers use?), the sequence also daringly uses quiet and duration to confront the notion of a person confronting her own death as it happens. Spielberg used this tactic in "Saving Private Ryan" too -- think of the agonizingly slow demises of the characters played by Adam Goldberg and Giovanni Ribisi -- but here he blurs the moral lines in provocatively heinous ways.

"Psycho" (1960) Fifty shots that cut film history in half.

What are yours?