"100 Years, 100 Movie Quotes"
I'm a sucker for these American Film Institute lists. Tomorrow, they're airing another one of their television specials celebrating the 100 greatest movie quotes. I think the idea is that the quotes have to be not only widely known and used, but also that they have to have some cultural resonance.
Many of my co-Rumpusers disagree with me here, but my own choice for greatest movie quote would be "Oh, Auntie Em, there's no place like home." That's an iconic, poignant, almost melancholy line from an iconic film. It simultaneously evokes our idealized versions of home and suggests that "home" may be, in some sense, an unattainable utopia.
My other suggestions for the Top Ten:
* "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."
* "Here's looking at you, kid."
* "My father made him an offer he couldn't refuse."
* "Shane, come back!"
* "You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been someone Charley, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let's face it. I'm a bum. It was you, Charley. "
* "May the Force be with you."
* "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night."
* "I love the smell of napalm in the morning . . . smells like victory."
* "E.T., phone home!"
[I have a suspicion they're going to throw in "Show me the money" or "Life is like a box of chocolates" or some other quote of that ilk, just to have a more "contemporary" film represented in the Top Ten, but all I have to say to that is . . . I've got your box of chocolates right here, pal!]
Update: John Podhoretz weighs in on this pressing issue.
Many of my co-Rumpusers disagree with me here, but my own choice for greatest movie quote would be "Oh, Auntie Em, there's no place like home." That's an iconic, poignant, almost melancholy line from an iconic film. It simultaneously evokes our idealized versions of home and suggests that "home" may be, in some sense, an unattainable utopia.
My other suggestions for the Top Ten:
* "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."
* "Here's looking at you, kid."
* "My father made him an offer he couldn't refuse."
* "Shane, come back!"
* "You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been someone Charley, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let's face it. I'm a bum. It was you, Charley. "
* "May the Force be with you."
* "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night."
* "I love the smell of napalm in the morning . . . smells like victory."
* "E.T., phone home!"
[I have a suspicion they're going to throw in "Show me the money" or "Life is like a box of chocolates" or some other quote of that ilk, just to have a more "contemporary" film represented in the Top Ten, but all I have to say to that is . . . I've got your box of chocolates right here, pal!]
Update: John Podhoretz weighs in on this pressing issue.
posted by Kate Marie | 12:25 PM | Permalink
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12 comments
12 Comments:
I've got to go with the Jack Nicholson/Lorna Thayer scene from Five Easy Pieces:
"You want me to hold the chicken"?
"Yes, hold it between your knees".
The other choices are great.
I also have to throw in
"Where do we get such men"?
-----The Bridges at Toko Ri
"Porsche. There is no substitute."
That's from "Risky Business" and Porsche commercials.
If you are going to pick a Risky Business quote, it HAS to be:
"Sometime, you just have to say what the (Biden)".
I wouldn't recognize a single quote from Risky Business. Personally, I think Risky Business is a guy thing. C.I.V., are you outing yourself as male?
Risky Business is a GREAT movie. . Period.
I disagree, Kate, on the "no place like home" quote. While I'm sure it will finish high, I don't think it will take the number one spot. My money is on Rhett and his cavalier sentiments.
I tend to agree with your picks and their likelihood of landing in the top ten. Here are a few others I believe to be in the running:
"We need a bigger boat."
"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine."
"Yo, Adrian."
"Mrs. Robinson are you trying to seduce me?"
"Seeing as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and could blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself a question -- Do I feel lucky? Well...Do ya? Punk?"
I knew most of the Rumpusers disagreed with me, but my list is more preferences than predictions. I don't really think, for instance, that the Bette Davis (or Margo Channing) quote is going to make the top ten. I guess all the others on my list are top ten contenders, though.
I can't believe I forgot the Dirty Harry quote! That's a great one. And while the quotation from The Graduate isn't one of my favorites, I think it's definitely in the running for top ten.
Other favorites:
"Leave the gun. Take the cannolis."
"Luca Brazzi sleeps with the fishes."
While that is the better Dirty Harry quote, I fear the more culturally inundated, "Go ahead, make my day" will probably place higher.
Another potential top tenner:
"You talkin' to me?"
CIV owned a Porsche back in the days of "Risky Business." Haven't owned a sports car since and haven't seen a movie (in a theater) in, oh, about 15 years. So everything I know about Hollywood is stale to the point of petrifaction.
I forgot these two, which go on my personal top ten:
"I want to live again. I want to live again."
"To my big brother George, the richest man in town." (At which point, I always begin to cry, if I'm not crying already.)
"I want the Champ. I want the Champ".
I see where this show is 3 hours long. . yawn.
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