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Your favorite film dialogue

garp

garp

Feb 7, 2009
4,258
10,124
Connecticut USA
#1
I'm a big fan of screenplays – perhaps moreso than actual films. Without a doubt, dialogue can truly make or break a movie. No, I'm not talking about well-known movie lines like "Play it again, Sam" (Casablanca, 1942), "We're gonna need a bigger boat" (Jaws, 1975) or "Son, you've got a panty on your head" (Raising Arizona, 1987) but rather dialogue that provide unique insights into a character or characters.

Here's an example: In Saving Private Ryan (1998), Private Ryan and Captain Miller are enjoying a brief respite from the harrowing experience of battle in France during mid-June 1944, and they begin swapping memories of home.

Private Ryan: "Tell me about your wife and those rose bushes."
Captain Miller: "No. No, that one I save just for me."

Do you have any favorite examples of film dialogue that really sticks with you years later?
 
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#2
Invalid Link Removed: And was there anything of value in the car?

Invalid Link Removed: Oh, uh, yeah, uh... a tape deck, some Creedence tapes, and there was a, uh... uh, my briefcase.

Invalid Link Removed: [expectant pause] In the briefcase?

Invalid Link Removed: Uh, uh, papers, um, just papers, uh, you know, uh, my papers, business papers.

Invalid Link Removed: And what do you do, sir?

Invalid Link Removed: I'm unemployed.
 
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#3
garp said:
I'm a big fan of screenplays – perhaps moreso than actual films. Without a doubt, dialogue can truly make or break a movie. No, I'm not talking about well-known movie lines like "Play it again, Sam" (Casablanca, 1942), "We're gonna need a bigger boat" (Jaws, 1975) or "Son, you've got a panty on your head" (Raising Arizona, 1987) but rather dialogue that provide unique insights into a character or characters.

Here's an example: In Saving Private Ryan (1998), Private Ryan and Captain Miller are enjoying a brief respite from the harrowing experience of battle in France during mid-June 1944, and they begin swapping memories of home.

Private Ryan: "Tell me about your wife and those rose bushes."
Captain Miller: "No. No, that one I save just for me."

Do you have any favorite examples of film dialogue that really sticks with you years later?
Click to expand...
"Too many notes." from Amadeus (1984)
Director:
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Writers:
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Stars:
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Winner
Oscar Best Picture
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Best Actor in a Leading Role
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Best Director
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Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium
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Best Art Direction-Set Decoration
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Best Costume Design
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Best Sound
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Best Makeup
Paul LeBlanc
Dick Smith

EMPEROR: Well, Herr Mozart! A good effort. Decidedly that. An excellent effort! You've shown us something quite new today.

[Mozart bows frantically: he is over-excited.]

MOZART: It is new, it is, isn't it, Sire?

EMPEROR: Yes, indeed.

MOZART: So then you like it? You really like it, Your Majesty?

EMPEROR: Of course I do. It's very good. Of course now and then - just now and then - it gets a touch elaborate.

MOZART: What do you mean, Sire?

EMPEROR: Well, I mean occasionally it seems to have, how shall one say? [he stops in difficulty; turning to Orsini-Rosenberg] How shall one say, Director?

ORSINI-ROSENBERG: Too many notes, Your Majesty?

EMPEROR: Exactly. Very well put. Too many notes.

MOZART: I don't understand. There are just as many notes, Majesty, as are required. Neither more nor less.

EMPEROR: My dear fellow, there are in fact only so many notes the ear can hear in the course of an evening. I think I'm right in saying that, aren't I, Court Composer?

SALIERI: Yes! yes! er, on the whole, yes, Majesty.

MOZART: But this is absurd!

EMPEROR: My dear, young man, don't take it too hard. Your work is ingenious. It's quality work. And there are simply too many notes, that's all. Cut a few and it will be perfect.

MOZART: Which few did you have in mind, Majesty?

EMPEROR: Well. There it is.

 
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#5
A Few Good Men, Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson, 1992

Kaffee: I want the truth!!
Jessup: You can't handle the truth!

thetruth.jpg
 
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#12
  • Bob Slydell: If you would, would you walk us through a typical day, for you?
  • Peter Gibbons: Yeah.
  • Bob Slydell: Great.
  • Peter Gibbons: Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late, ah, I use the side door–that way Lumberg can't see me, heh–after that I sorta space out for an hour.
  • Bob Porter: Da-uh? Space out?
  • Peter Gibbons: Yeah, I just stare at my desk, but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch too, I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work.
 
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#13
There's a wonderful moment in 2010: The Year We Make Contact where Roy Scheider and John Lithgow are hanging out while their spaceship is in orbit around the planet Jupiter, half a billion miles from Earth, and they're quietly reminiscing about home. They start talking about baseball games. And then hot dogs at baseball games. It's very sparse dialog, lots of long silent pauses:

"Yeah, hot dogs. With mustard."



:::long pause:::


"Brown or yellow?"

:::slightly shorter pause:::

"Brown, of course."




:::really long pause:::





"It's important."
 
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#14
Men In Black

Edwards:
Why the big secret? People are smart. They can handle it.

Kay : A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow.
 
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#15
DirtDog said:
Charlie Sheen in Terminal Velocity: "pack the bags, we're going on a guilt trip".

Jake and Elwood Blues:

poopie.
What?
Rollers.
No....
Yeah....
poopie.
Click to expand...


I was going to go with:

"Chicago is 106 miles away. We've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses"

"Hit it!"

I just wasn't sure that exchange was all that insightful. Still, it's a favorite. My son and I will toss it back and forth at random times to confuse people.
 
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#16
(From an obscure little movie about a guy who plows under his cornfield to build a baseball diamond...) ;)



Ray, people will come, Ray.

They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway, not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past.

"Of course, we won't mind if you look around," you'll say. "It's only twenty dollars per person." They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it. For it is money they have and peace they lack.

And they'll walk out to the bleachers, and sit in shirt-sleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game, and it'll be as if they'd dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick, they'll have to brush them away from their faces.

People will come, Ray.

The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time.
This field, this game -- it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again.

Ohhhhhhhh, people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come.
 
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#17
Myrna Loy, William Powell as Nora and Nick Charles in "The Thin Man"



Her entrance scene here is an absolute classic.
Welcome back to 1934... and pre-Code Hollywood!

My favorite line:

Nick: I'm a hero. I was shot twice in the Tribune.
Nora: I read where you were shot five times in the tabloids.
Nick: It's not true. He didn't come anywhere near my tabloids.
 
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#19
A couple more that have stuck with me for a long time.

From Saving Private Ryan:
"What's she singing about? Why does she sound so melancholy?"
"Her lover left her ... but she still sees his face everywhere she goes."
"That'll do it."

From We Were Soldiers:
(Colonel explaining to Sergeant, who normally carries only a pistol, that they are headed for a hot landing zone)
"You might want to get yourself an M-16."
"If the time comes when I need it, sir, there'll be plenty of 'em lying on the ground."
 

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