David Cameron is something of a renegade. He walks his own path, dances to the beat of his own rhythms. That's why, when the Daily Mail asked him for his five favourite films, he listed five classics (including Lawrence of Arabia, Casablanca and Schindler's List) before adding "and the last 10 minutes of Shrek 2".
While Cameron's inclusion of Shrek 2 might simply be a misjudged stab at tedious zoinks-a-lummy political faux-populism, perhaps he's on to something. Perhaps the last 10 minutes of Shrek 2 really do constitute the sixth-best film of all time. Let's take a closer look at it – completely out of context, because if the rest of the film isn't good enough for David Cameron, it's not good enough for us – to see if he's right.
Inside some sort of royal castle, Princess Fiona dances with Prince Charming to a remix of Bonnie Tyler's Holding Out for a Hero, performed by a fairy.
Meanwhile, Shrek (in human form) attacks the castle atop a giant gingerbread man, who is sporting a white recency-era wig made of foam. The gingerbread man dies and Shrek uses this as a distraction to enter the castle. Once inside, he lowers the drawbridge to call his allies, including a cat on a horse and a wolf in a nightie.
Shrek interrupts the dance just as Prince Charming is about to kiss Fiona. This enrages the fairy, who is subsequently attacked by some pigs. Prince Charming kisses Fiona. Fiona headbutts him. The fairy attempts to fire a beam of magic at Shrek, but there is a mishap and she explodes.
At midnight, Shrek and Fiona start glowing and floating. They turn into ogres again. The music swells. They kiss. It is a profoundly emotional moment. Then the cat and the donkey sing Living La Vida Loca by Ricky Martin all the way through. The song is so exuberantly performed that Prince Charming kisses the transgender bartender voiced by Larry King and Shrek jumps on a puppy, presumably crushing it to death. The end.
It's a strange choice for Cameron, especially since Shrek's an ogre and he famously hates "green crap". Perhaps he only likes the last 10 minutes because it's a demonstration of individual exceptionalism at work. Or maybe he equates giant gingerbread men with the NHS and it makes him happy to see it die. Or perhaps, on reflection, Cameron is just plain right. The last 10 minutes of Shrek 2 is the sixth-best film ever, pushing the previous sixth-best film ever, the middle bit of The Million Dollar Duck, down into seventh place. It's either that or David Cameron just gets a weird, visceral kick from seeing puppies getting squished to death.
