There’s been a discussion going on via my local movie theater’s Facebook page about people’s favorite movie quotes. I gave a lot of thought to the question before making my post. I’m not like those folks who cheat and put up three or four favorites rather than just the one that was asked for. And I have so many to choose from.
Should it be “Here’s looking at you, kid,” from Casablanca?
Or what about “Use the force, Luke,” from Star Wars?
Or “Asps, very dangerous. You go first,” from Raiders.
Or “Werewolf. There wolf,” from Young Frankenstein.
Or “Insanity doesn’t run in my family, it gallops,” from Arsenic and Old Lace.
Or even “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore,” from Network.
But the one quote that rose to the top for me was from early in the movie Lawrence of Arabia, where T.E. Lawrence (played by a very young Peter O’Toole) does his trick of extinguishing a match with his fingers for his aide William Potter:
“Ooh! It damn well ‘urts!’
“Certainly it hurts.”
“Whats the trick then?”
“The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts”.
It’s not merely a great scene in and of itself, but it also sets up what is considered to be one of the great edits in cinematic history.
What’s your favorite movie quote, and why? Leave us a note in the comments!
I would have to say some of my favorite movie quotes would be:
“You see what happens Larry? This is what happens when you **** a stranger in the ass!” from The Big Lebowski
“Why so serious?” from The Dark Knight
“I drink your milkshake! I drink it up!” from There Will Be Blood
and, as part of a dialogue from Clue:
Miss Scarlet: Do you miss him?
Mrs. White: Well, it’s a matter of life after death. Now that he’s dead, I have a life.
Wadsworth: But, he was your second husband. Your first husband also disappeared.
Mrs. White: But that was his job. He was an illusionist.
Wadsworth: But he never reappeared!
Mrs. White: [admittedly] He wasn’t a very good illusionist.
I think a lot of these… it has to do with the delivery. The Lebowski line is just so outlandish and nonsensical it’s hilarious. The Clue line, on the other hand, is dry and subtle.
The Dark Knight line is more of a catch phrase than anything, but it’s so important to how the character, one of the best villains in fiction IMO, conveys his rationale throughout the film.
There Will Be Blood is similar to Big Lebowski… it’s the context where you realize just how crazy and off the rails Daniel Day Lewis’ character is.
These lines will always, always remind me of the films they were used in and the very scene or scenes they occur in as well. I suppose that’s why I think they are great lines. They are synecdoche for the films they are used in.
Theres a great throwaway line in “The Departed” between mobster Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) and a guy walking through the bar.
Frank Costello: Who let this IRA motherfucker in my bar?
[the man looks startled]
Frank Costello: [laughs] Only kidding. How’s your mother?
Man in Costello’s Bar: Oh… I’m afraid she’s on her way out.
Frank Costello: [walks away] We all are. Act accordingly.
[smiles and his straightens tie]
Delivered with such great deadpan understatement, a true classic.
“I just threw your damn palm tree over board, sir.”
tied with
“Pinochle. It’s a very rough game.”
“Stinkin'” palm tree, Martin David. Code era movie, donchaknow….. (Ok, I cheated and looked it up to see what it was from….)
Citizen Kane (in a great scene)….”And I’ll let you in on a little secret: it’s also my pleasure to see to it that decent, hard-working people in this community aren’t robbed blind by a pack of money-mad pirates, just because they haven’t had anybody to look after their interests…”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzhb3U2cONs
I think what makes a movie quote great is what you BRING to the movie…in my case, I love that quote because I used to run a newspaper.
The Dark Knight is probably one of the most quotable movies from the past ten years. “You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become a villain..” and “Some men just want to watch the world burn” are my favorites.
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