Favorite speeches or monologues from a movie

  • Thread starter Thread starter jimmy
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
- Roy Batty, Blade Runner
 
screeninsults.com/damn-yankees.php

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR1y2WxgMtw5Txj-kIdXxjXZy9CufNiC1rMomWlBI5fYe-_bj2r_Q

Damn Yankees:

A dysfunctional middle aged Washington Senators fan from the 1950’s mutters on his porch after the Yankees have beaten his team once again:

Joe Boyd: One long ball hitter, that’s what we need! I’d sell my soul for one long ball hitter.

*A mysterious visitor appears on the porch to see if Boyd’s wish is sincere. And offers to turn Boyd into that young player who will lead the team to the pennant! *

http://www.screeninsults.com/images/damn-yankees-devil.JPG

Mr. Applegate: With my help a lot of things come easy.
[lights a cigarette from within his hand and Joe looks shocked]

Mr. Applegate: Ohhhh, uh, do you smoke?

Joe Boyd: Hey… how’d you pull that off?

Mr. Applegate: I’m handy with fire.

Joe Boyd: What happens after I stop being a baseball player? Then where would I be?

Mr. Applegate: [laughs] Well now, of course that’s fairly well known.

Joe Boyd: Yes, but I have…

Mr. Applegate: After all, there’s nothing unusual about it. How do you suppose some of these politicians around town got started? And parking lot owners?

Joe Boyd: What about an escape clause? If a fellow doesn’t like the deal he ought to be able to get out.

Mr. Applegate: This is not a real estate deal.

Joe Boyd: After all, I’ve got my wife to consider …

Mr. Applegate: Alright, Alright! I don’t want to hear anymore about wives …

Wives! They cause me more trouble than the Methodist church!

That last line, though backhanded, is possibly the greatest compliment in the history of film on the subject — of wives! 🙂
 
At the beginning of Sleuth, Michael Caine’s character Milo Tindle enters the garden of the estate of Andrew Wyke (Laurence Olivier) , a mystery novelist of some note who is dictating a chapter from his next book, unseen as Tindle solves a hedge maze while trying to find him:

Andrew (dictating into a tape recorder):

"St. John ‘Sinjun’] Lord Merridew, the great detective, rose majestically, his huge Father Christmas face glowing with mischievous delight.

Slowly, he brushed the crumbs of seedy cake from the folds of his pendulous waistcoat.

‘The Police may be baffled, Inspector’, he ***BOOMED, ***'but Merridew is not.'"
 
Liv Tyler’s “I have wasted a thousand kisses…” speech in That Thing You Do

Cary Elwes’ “To the pain…” speech in the Princess Bride

The previously mentioned speeches (and most of the rest of the dialogue) from Lord of the Rings and It’s a Wonderful Life.
 
Sir Thomas More’s pre-sentencing speech in “A Man for All Seasons.”
 
Ever After: A Cinderella Story

Henry: Are you coy on purpose or do you honestly refuse to tell me your name?

Danielle: [stops quickly] No. [quickly heads towards the gate] And yes.

Henry: Well, then, pray tell me your cousin’s name so that I might call upon her to learn who you are. For anyone can quote Thomas More is well worth the effort.

Danielle: [stops, surprised] The Prince has read “Utopia”?

Henry: I found it sentimental and dull. Honestly, the plight of the everyday rustic bores me.

Danielle: I… take it you do not converse with many peasants.

Henry: Ha, certainly not, no. Naturally.

Danielle: [starts walking again] Forgive me, Your Highness, but there is nothing “natural” about it. A country’s character is defined by its “everyday rustics”, as you call them. They are the legs you stand on and that position demands respect, not…

Henry: Am I to understand that you find me… arrogant?

Danielle: Well, you gave one man back his life, but did you even glance at the others?
[Danielle tries to get away while Henry is distracted by the criminals’ wagon.]

Henry: Please, I beg you, a name. Any name.

Danielle: I… I fear the only name to leave you with… is Countess Nicole de Lancret.

Henry: [smiling] There now… that wasn’t so hard.
 
At the beginning of Sleuth, Michael Caine’s character Milo Tindle enters the garden of the estate of Andrew Wyke (Laurence Olivier) , a mystery novelist of some note who is dictating a chapter from his next book, unseen as Tindle solves a hedge maze while trying to find him:

Andrew (dictating into a tape recorder):

"St. John ‘Sinjun’] Lord Merridew, the great detective, rose majestically, his huge Father Christmas face glowing with mischievous delight.

Slowly, he brushed the crumbs of seedy cake from the folds of his pendulous waistcoat.

‘The Police may be baffled, Inspector’, he ***BOOMED, ***'but Merridew is not.'"
Excellent movie! How about the opening credits with “Margo Channing”? 😃
 
Bogie’s final words to Bergman in Casablanca:

Rick: Last night we said a great many things. You said I was to do the thinking for both of us. Well, I’ve done a lot of it since then, and it all adds up to one thing: you’re getting on that plane with Victor where you belong.

Ilsa: But, Richard, no, I… I…

Rick: Now, you’ve got to listen to me! You have any idea what you’d have to look forward to if you stayed here? Nine chances out of ten, we’d both wind up in a concentration camp. Isn’t that true, Louie?

Captain Renault: I’m afraid Major Strasser would insist.

Ilsa: You’re saying this only to make me go.

Rick: I’m saying it because it’s true. Inside of us, we both know you belong with Victor. You’re part of his work, the thing that keeps him going. If that plane leaves the ground and you’re not with him, you’ll regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.

Ilsa: But what about us?

Rick: We’ll always have Paris. We didn’t have, we, we lost it until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night.

Ilsa: When I said I would never leave you.

Rick: And you never will. But I’ve got a job to do, too. Where I’m going, you can’t follow. What I’ve got to do, you can’t be any part of. Ilsa, I’m no good at being noble, but it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you’ll understand that.

[Ilsa lowers her head and begins to cry]

Rick: Now, now…

[Rick gently places his hand under her chin and raises it so their eyes meet]

Rick: Here’s looking at you kid.

Ahh, don’t make 'em like that anymore…❤️❤️❤️
 
Davy Crockett: It was like I was empty. Well, I’m not empty anymore. That’s what’s important, to feel useful in this old world, to hit a lick against what’s wrong for what’s right even though you get walloped for saying that word.
Now I may sound like a Bible beater yelling up a revival at a river crossing camp meeting, but that don’t change the truth none. There’s right and there’s wrong. You got to do one or the other. You do the one and you’re living. You do the other and you may be walking around, but you’re dead as a beaver hat.
From The Alamo (1960) Crockett played by John Wayne
 
Clark: Hi officer, what’s the problem?

Motorcycle Cop: Get out of the car!

[Clark exits from the car]

Clark: I don’t think I was speeding. Was I weaving or something?

Motorcycle Cop: Shut your mouth, sir! You know, if I weren’t in uniform, I’d split your skull with the butt of this revolver faster than you can say, “police brutality!”

Clark: Well whatever I did, I’m sure I can explain…

[the motorcycle cop forcibily takes Clark by the arm and leads him to the rear of the car, which has a dog leash still tied to it]

Motorcycle Cop: Explain this, you…!

Clark: Oh my God…

Aunt Edna: I was afraid you’d get pulled over, Clark. You’ve been exeeding the speed limit for thousands of miles!

Rusty Griswold: Dad wasn’t speeding. The cop stopped us because Dad forgot to…

Ellen Griswold: He was speeding, Rusty!

Rusty Griswold: No he wasn’t, Mom. He…

Clark: Rusty! Listen to your mother. I was speeding. I was driving like a maniac. We can all be grateful for this man for stopping us. You see kids…

[the motorcycle cop appears at the car window with the dog leash]

Motorcycle Cop: Here’s the leash, sir. I’m going back to get the rest of the carcass off the road.
 
If singing a monologue doesn’t eliminate a nominee … here’s a familiar one with written lyrics that will fill in the missing adjectives that flew by too quickly when you just listened to it.

The late, great, Bert Lahr in the Wizard of Oz … as the (more confident now) Cowardly Lion:
Cowardly Lion: [singing] If I were king of the fore-e-e-est / Not queen, not duke, not prince /
My regal robes of the fore-e-e-est / Would be satin, not cotton, not chintz /
I’d command each thing, whether fish or fowl / With a r-r-ruff and a r-r-ruff, and a royal growl - R-R-Ruff! /
As I click my heels / All the trees would kneel / And the mountains bow / And the bulls kowtow /
And the sparrow would take wing / If I, if I were ki-i-i-i-ng! /
The rabbits would show respect to me / The chipmunks genuflect to me /
Though my tail would lash / I would show compash / For every underling /
If I, if I were king / Just ki-i-i-i-ing!
http://glossynews.com/wp-content/th...olympic-gold-medal1.jpg&h=300&w=300&zc=1&q=90
 
John Wayne as John Bernard Books from the 1976 movie “The Shootist”:

“I won’t be wronged. I won’t be insulted. I won’t be laid a-hand on.
I don’t do these things to other people, and I require the same from them.”

👍
 
Pretty much anything Kurt Russell says in “Big Trouble in Little China”

"When some wild-eyed, eight-foot-tall maniac grabs your neck, taps the back of your favorite head up against the barroom wall, and he looks you crooked in the eye and he asks you if ya paid your dues, you just stare that big sucker right back in the eye, and you remember what ol’ Jack Burton always says at a time like that: “Have ya paid your dues, Jack?” “Yessir, the check is in the mail.” "

"Well, ya see, I’m not saying that I’ve been everywhere and I’ve done everything, but I do know it’s a pretty amazing planet we live on here, and a man would have to be some kind of FOOL to think we’re alone in THIS universe. "

"Just remember what ol’ Jack Burton does when the earth quakes, and the poison arrows fall from the sky, and the pillars of Heaven shake. Yeah, Jack Burton just looks that big ol’ storm right square in the eye and he says, “Give me your best shot, pal. I can take it.” "
 
From Princess Bride:

Man in Black: You guessed wrong.

Vizzini: You only think I guessed wrong! That’s what’s so funny! I switched glasses when your back was turned! Ha ha! You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders - The most famous of which is “never get involved in a land war in Asia” - but only slightly less well-known is this: “Never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line”! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha…

From The Wizard of Speed and Time (from memory)

Mike Jittlov: And they asked ‘Can it be done?’ and I say Yayus! For it is creativity that gets things created!

From Duck Soup
Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx): I’d be unworthy of the high trust that’s been placed in me if I didn’t do everything in my power to keep our beloved Freedonia in peace with the world. I’d be only too happy to meet with Ambassador Trentino, and offer him on behalf of my country the right hand of good fellowship. And I feel sure he will accept this gesture in the spirit of which it is offered. But suppose he doesn’t. A fine thing that’ll be. I hold out my hand and he refuses to accept. That’ll add a lot to my prestige, won’t it? Me, the head of a country, snubbed by a foreign ambassador. Who does he think he is, that he can come here, and make a sap of me in front of all my people? Think of it - I hold out my hand and that hyena refuses to accept. Why, the cheap four-flushing swine, he’ll never get away with it I tell you, he’ll never get away with it.

[Trentino enters]

Rufus T. Firefly: So, you refuse to shake hands with me, eh?

[slaps Trentino with his glove]

I was going to pick the “nobody gives me my gun and tells me to leave” scene from The Magnificent Seven but found this one instead:

Village Boy 2: We’re ashamed to live here. Our fathers are cowards.

O’Reilly: Don’t you ever say that again about your fathers, because they are not cowards. You think I am brave because I carry a gun; well, your fathers are much braver because they carry responsibility, for you, your brothers, your sisters, and your mothers. And this responsibility is like a big rock that weighs a ton. It bends and it twists them until finally it buries them under the ground. And there’s nobody says they have to do this. They do it because they love you, and because they want to. I have never had this kind of courage. Running a farm, working like a mule every day with no guarantee anything will ever come of it. This is bravery. That’s why I never even started anything like that… that’s why I never will.

Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea

Captain Nemo: I am not what is called a civilized man, Professor. I have done with society for reasons that seem good to me. Therefore, I do not obey its laws.

Master of the World
Prudent: You, sir, are mad! Quite, quite mad!

Robur: How like the reasoning of your kind, Mr. Prudent. All well and sane to be the owner of factories, that products of which cause the violent deaths of millions in wartime and in peace. But to kill hundreds or even thousands with the aim of ending such deaths for all time? This is “madness.”

Prudent: And do you, sir, consider the man who makes a weapon responsible for the action of the man who buys it?

Robur: Yes, I do, sir! All men are responsible to all other men.

*The Assassination Bureau *
Miss Winter: With your ideas, I’m surprised you’re shocked at the thought of war.

Ivan Dragomiloff: Not at all. It’s purely a matter of business. How can we charge our sort of prices with everybody happily killing each other for a shilling a day?

Dave
Dave: If you’ve ever seen the look on somebody’s face the day they finally get a job, I’ve had some experience with this, they look like they could fly. And its not about the paycheck, it’s about respect, it’s about looking in the mirror and knowing that you’ve done something valuable with your day. And if one person could start to feel this way, and then another person, and then another person, soon all these other problems may not seem so impossible. You don’t really know how much you can do until you, stand up and decide to try.

(And his speech to congress):

Dave: [after reciting Bob Alexander’s charges against him] Okay, let’s get right to the guts of it: every one of these accusations is absolutely true. I’m the President, and as they say, the buck stops here. So I take full responsibility for each one of my illegal actions. But that’s not the whole story. I think the American people are entitled to the real truth.
I have here evidence in the form of notes, letters, and written memoranda, proving that Bob Alexander was involved in each of these illegal acts, and in most cases planned them as well.
Now, allegations of wrongdoing have also been made against Vice President Nance. Now, as this evidence will prove, at no time and in no way was the Vice President involved in any of this affair. Bob just made all that up. Vice President Nance is a good and decent public servant, and I want to apologize for any pain that this has caused him or his family.

[Dave turns and offers his hand. Nance stands and takes it. As they shake, the House applauds. Cut to Bob’s home, now empty except for him, as he watches the TV]

And, although it violates the subject line, there is a speech given by Apollo in the original Battlestar Galactica TV show (of which I only remember a bit):

We found that the opposite of war isn’t always peace. Sometimes it’s slavery.

Tom A.
 
From Princess Bride:

Man in Black: You guessed wrong.

Vizzini: You only think I guessed wrong! That’s what’s so funny! I switched glasses when your back was turned! Ha ha! You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders - The most famous of which is “never get involved in a land war in Asia” - but only slightly less well-known is this: “Never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line”! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha…

(…)
I think most of The Princess Bride is quotable.

Vizzini: Clearly I cannot choose the wine in front of you.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top