100 Top Film Quotes
 

On this CBS program on June 21, they had 3 hours of the American Film Institute's top 100 film quotes. Of course, Clark Gable's "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn!" was given first place. Several other quotes that are usually mis-stated were rectified, such as: Ingrid Bergman's "Play it, Sam." and Mae West's "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?". However, they perpetuated an error with Alfonso Bedoya's "I don't have to show you any stinking badges!", from "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre". Bedoya actually used flawless English in the several lines of this scene, but this quote on the list on the AP Wire, contained the common version that uses some double-negatives, such as
"We ain't got no badges!". This quote is No. 36.

http://www.registerguard.com/news/20...list.0622.html

There was one interesting thing revealed about Dustin Hoffman's "I'm walkin' here! I'm walkin' here!" scene in "Midnight Cowboy". He and Jon Voight were walking across a street, when they were almost run over by a cab driver. The driver had gone through a barricade to close off the filming area and the incident was unscheduled. Did Hoffman grasp the potential of this situation and make the most of it by pounding on the cab's hood and shouting? Or was he just showing a natural reaction? Luckily, he and Voight kept walking and acting and the camera kept filming and the ad-libbed action became part of the movie. The cab driver's reaction, as he went past, added to the essence of it. I wonder if they tracked him down to get a film release and paid him the standard wage for such an appearance?

My personal choice for the all-time best movie scene and quote, was the one they showed from "When Harry Met Sally".
Billy Crystal and his co-star were in a cafe, discussing the faking of orgasms. She went through the full routine of moans and screams, while the other patrons were gaping at her. Then, a waiter asked an older woman nearby for her order. She looked over and said, "I'll have what she's having." This scene and line was written by Crystal and shows why he is so popular. The actress who played the older woman was director Rob Reiner's mother. When he read Crystal's proposed line, he immediately knew that his own mother was the only one to do it.

Steve McDonald

Katz's Deli! On the LES.

Ate a pastrami on rye there this Sunday.

They have a sign over the table where she, ah, acted that scene.

One of my wife's favorite movies (and favorite quotes). Barry Sonnenfeld DP'ed that shoot for Reiner; he autographed my copy of the DVD and it's a treasured item on our shelf.

(And I've been to both Katz's; there's a younger one in Austin!)

There's one down here in Houston, too, at Montrose and Westheimer. You're going to have to come try it one day.

Didn't know that, thanks! What is it with the Katz family and Texas, I wonder?

"Luke, I am your father," is strangely absent from that list, but a fun read none the less.

Oh, and argueably, "live long and prosper," is also missing, but who really cares about Star Trek anymore anyway?
(FLAME SHIELDS UP KEPTIN!)

What I want to know, is where was the line from "Clerks"? "37?!?"

I think a couple could be dropped... the "Caddyshack" line for one. I'd like to add in:

"I'm not and actor, I'M A MOVIE STAR!" from "My Favorite Year"... also from that movie, from the scene where Peter O'Toole mistakenly walks into the ladies restroom, and goes to take a leak. A woman in the restroom shouts at him...

WOMAN: "Hey! This is for Ladies only!"

O'Toole reaches down, unzips his fly and suavely answers...

"So's this mum, but every now and then, I feel I must run a little water through it."



Yeah, I just watched it again last nite, and remembered what a tour de force it was for O'Toole.

Another Good One:
 

How could I have overlooked mentioning this scene: In
"A Wedding", which starred Carol Burnett and many other notable people, one short bit makes me laugh every time I think about it. Mia Farrow, who could still play a young woman at that time, did a priceless rendition of an airheaded member of the family. It had just been revealed that she was pregnant. Those at the wedding reception were pressing her to tell the name of the father, but she was unable to decide who it might be. Someone asked how many men there had been, that could be the one. She thought awhile and started mumbling names, while she counted them off on her fingers. Then, she got an even more confused look on her face and finally took off a shoe and started counting on her toes.

I think this may have been the prototype of the character Lisa Kudrow played on a couple of TV series.

The entire script for "Jaws" is my favorite quote! Every single line of that script is perfect.

If I had to pick just one? "Star Wars"...quote:

"I want to learn the ways of the force and be a Jedi like my father".

That line pulls the past and future of all the "Star Wars" together. It's the moment when Luke Skywalker starts his journey...like his father. But, he takes a much different path. It just has so important and has many connections in all six movies!

One of my all-time favorites: Billy Crystal's Mitch to Jack Palance's Curly in City Slickers, "...if you're gonna kill me, get on with it; if not, shut the hell up--I'm on vacation."


(Hope that's okay; it ruined the quote when I typed h*ll.) :)

. . . I dreamt I was as light as the ether, a floating spirit visiting things to come . . .

The shades and shadows of the people in my fife wrastled their way into my slumber.


I dreamt that Gale and Evelle had decided to return to prison ...

... Probably that's just as well. I don't mean to sound superior, and they're a swell couple guys, but ...

... maybe they weren't ready yet to come out into the world.


And then I dreamed on, into the future, to a Christmas mom in the Arizona home ...

... where Nathan Jr. was opening a present from a kindly couple who preferred to remain unknown.

I saw Glen, a few years later, still havin' no luck gettin' the cops to listen to his wild tales about me 'n Ed ...

. . .Maybe he threw in one Pollack joke too many . . .


... I don't know.



And still I dreamed on ...


... further into the future than I'd ever dreamed before.


... Watching Nathan Jr.'s progress from afar ...

... Taking pride in his accomplishments as if he were our own ...

... Wondering if he ever thought of us .

... and hoping that maybe we'd broadened his horizons a little, even if he couldn't remember just how they'd got broadened.



But still I hadn't dreamt nothin' about me 'n Ed. Until the end ...

. . . And this was cloudier 'cause it was years, years away.


... But I saw an old couple bein' visited by their children-and all their grandchildren too. And the old couple wasn't screwed up, and neither were their kids or their grandkids. And I don't know, you tell me. This whole dream, was it wishful thinking? Was I just fleein' reality, like I know I'm liable to do?


. . . But me'n Ed, we can be good too . . .

... And it seemed real. It seemed like us. And it seemed like well ... our home . . . If not Arizona, then a land, not too far away, where all parents are strong and wise and capable, and all children are happy and beloved....



I dunno...



...maybe it was Utah.

You mean Meg Ryan? (Co-star? Come on man)

Someone over at dvxuser summed this list up nicely; the list is no good.

#98 “Nobody puts Baby in a corner,” “Dirty Dancing,” 1987.

I had listed some of the following as MISSING from the list:

"Snakes. Why'd it have to be snakes?" Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981

"She just goes a little mad sometimes. We all go a little mad sometimes. Haven't you?" Psycho 1960

"As far back as I can remember I always wanted to be a gangster." Goodfellas 1990

"Yippee-ki-yay, motherf***er." Die HArd 1988

"They're coming to get you Babrabra." Night of the lIving Dead 1968

"What an excellent day for an exorcism." The Excorcist 1973

"These go to eleven. " Spinal Tap 1984

"Who is Keyser Soze?" The Usual Suspects 1995

"I am not an animal. I am a human being." The Elephant Man 1980

"Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?" Ferris Bueller's Day Off 1986

"I believe in the soul, the cock, the pussy, the small of a woman's back, the hanging curve ball, high fiber, good scotch, that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated crap. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft-core pornography, opening your presents Christmas morning rather than Christmas Eve and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days." Bull Durham 1988

"Any of you f***ing pricks move, and I'll execute every motherf***ing last one of ya!" Pulp Fiction 1994

Huh. I never saw Bull Durham. Can't imagine why a baseball player would place such importance on a rooster and a cat. ;)

Heh heh. It's a line with some weight to it.

If you really havent seen Bull Durham you must run out and see it. One of Costners (and Sarandons) finest and Tim Robbins fresh out of Howard the Duck. Great film.

John Hudson wrote:

You mean Meg Ryan? (Co-star? Come on, man.)
---------------------------------------

I'll admit I was being charitable when I implied that Billy Crystal had equal status with her.

Lorinda,
if you are going to quote "City Slickers", who can forget Jack Palance's performance ...
"I crap bigger than you."
cut to visual of the Oscar ceremony with him doing one-armed pushups.

Jeff Patnaude :>)

Kudos to Bill Porter for posting the VO from the conclusion of "Raising Arizona," my favorite Sonnenfeld-DP'ed Cohen Bros. film.

Lest you forget it was Meg who made that entire scene work. ;)

#37 on my top 1000, lol


"Now that's a real shame when folks be throwing away a perfectly good white boy." -Better Off Dead

A number of years ago, I was in New York doing some interviews for a television special, and my last subject was the noted screenwriter and author, Terry Southern (Candy, Magic Christian, Dr. Strangelove, Easy Rider). After the official interview, Terry and I sat in my hotel room drinking beers and bashing Ronald Reagen, discovering we had a lot in common politically. Somehow, we got into the topic of great lines from the movies, and I mentioned one of my favorites, from "The Loved One," based on the scathing novel about the funeral business, written by Evelyn Waugh.

In one scene, the owner of the Forest Lawn-like funeral business is meeting with his board of directors, who are informing him that his business will soon be in dire financial straits because they are about to run out of burial plots, and the only source of income will be from maintenance fees. It's too bad, one of his directors remarks, that his land is filled with burial plots, because otherwise he could turn the land into a retirement community, which benefits from constant turnover, and is a never-ending source of high income.

(As I am recalling this scene, I notice Terry Southern is giving me his undivided attention. Obviously, he is in thrall of my story telling prowess)

The CEO is played with much gusto by Jonathan Winters, whose beady eyes are dancing at the thought of that endless line of retirees moving into sparkling, expensive condos, with quick turnovers. As the official winds up his presentation, there is a momentary pause as the camera settles on a close-up of Jonathan Winters, who snarls,
"I've got to find a way to get those stiffs off my property!"

Terry Southern is now bolt upright in his chair, with a huge grin on his face, and he fairly yells at me,
"I wrote that! That was my line!"

I had totally forgotten that among his many credits, Terry Southern had indeed written the screenplay for "The Loved One." That was a great afternoon in the "Big Apple."

Terry Southern passed away in 1995.

Wayne Orr, SOC

I envy that you were able to meet him and have that conversation.

Didn't see the list but
"Snap out of it!" slap.

Cher (looking her best ever mind you) in Moonstruck slapping Nicholas Cage.

Kudos on the Raising Arizona quote. Fabulous film.

And, let's not forget "Snake Pliskin. I thought you were dead."

Escape from NY.

Someone else in another forum quoted the last lines of Big Trouble in Little China. Another good one.

Sean McHenry

Big Trouble In Little China, another classic. It's one of those movies that pokes fun at itself so well that some don't "get it" and think it's just a dorky movie. Not so! Full of terrific lines and performances all around.

.

Maybe not a top film quote, but from one of my favorite movies. Maybe you can all guess what it is from?

"Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it?"

.

Blade Runner ;-) I wouldn't know normally, but I watched it again, for (only) the second time, a couple of days ago.

Bang the Drum...
 

One of the things I remember about 'Raising Arizona' was how different the filmed looked. It was a ground breaker. Today its visual tour de force has seeped into the conscience of many films and upon another viewing a decade or two later- looks ordinary- brilliant but lacking that first time knock out punch. Happens to many films.


Here is a last line I like: Michael Moriarty in “Bang The Drum Slowly,” leaving the funeral of Robert DeNiro, a baseball player and teammate that many didn’t care about but was befriended and protected by Moriarty after he learned DiNero had cancer and was dying, “From here on in, I rag nobody.”


just found this:

http://www.filmsite.org/greatlastlines4.html

http://www.filmsite.org/

One of my favorites films to quote is Ghostbusters.

the "Is that true"? "Yes, it's true.....This man has no dick." line is great.
here is a link to more Ghostbuster quotes:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087332/quotes

"Eating Raoul"
 

How could we forget this one! "Eating Raoul" from 1982 had one of my favorite lines, by Mary Woronov. She gave this line with a straight face, but I'll bet they had to do a lot of takes, as the cast probably kept cracking up: "It's amazing what you can do with a cheap piece of meat!".

Steve McDonald

"Eddie? That's a rather tender subject."

Should be easy.

Sean

I second this: "Yippee-ki-yay, motherf***er." Die HArd 1988
--------------
Here are some more:
"you think that's air you're breathing now?" The Matrix (my fav kick azz movie)

"Agent Smith : You were given _specific_ orders...

Lieutenant : Hey, I'm just doing my job. You give me that

juris-my-dick-tion crap, you can cram it up your ass. " The Matrix

''Neo: I Know Kung Fu" The Matrix

"Mouse : That's exactly my point. Exactly. Because you have to wonder
now, how did the machines really know what Tasty Wheat tasted
like, huh? Maybe they got it wrong. Maybe what _I_ think
Tasty Wheat tasted like actually tasted like, uh..oatmeal, or
tuna fish. That makes you wonder about a lot of things. You
take chicken for example, maybe they couldn't figure out what
to make chicken taste like, which is why chicken tastes like
everything. Maybe they couldn't... " The Matrix

"Mouse : The woman in the red dress! I, I designed her. She, um..well
she doesn't talk very much, but...but if you'd like to meet
her, I can arrange a much more personalized milieu.
Switch : Digital pimp, hard at work. " The Matrix

"Hey! You taste it you buy it!" -Eating Raoul

"It's not the years, it's the mileage." -Raiders of the Lost Ark

"How long could we maintain? I wondered. How long until one of us starts raving and jabbering at this boy? What will he think then? This same lonely desert was the last known home of the Manson family; will he make that grim connection when my attorney starts screaming about bats and huge manta rays coming down on the car? If so, well, we'll just have to cut his head off and bury him somewhere, 'cause it goes without saying that we can't turn him loose. He'd report us at once to some kind of outback Nazi law enforcement agency and they'll run us down like dogs. Jesus, did I say that? Or just think it? Was I talking? Did they hear me?" -Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

"Your miserable life is not worth the reversal of a Custer decision." -Little Big Man

"What we have here is failure to communicate." -Cool Hand Luke

My vote for a well known movie line that has never actually worked...

"Good-bye mister Bond."

Favs include, in no particular order...

"I'm a great lover cuz I practice so much by myself." Woody Allen, Love and Death

"I think you smoked yourself retarded" from Halfbaked

''You can milk anything with nipples.'' Meet the Parents

''I'm looking for Ray Finkle." Someone puts a gun to his head. "And a clean pair of shorts." Ace Ventrua