According to an email I got: The BBC conducted a poll of cinema-lovers on the best dialogue in the history of film.
Here’s the Top 10:
Robert Duvall, Apocalypse Now
(1979): You smell that? Do you smell that? Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for twelve hours. When it was all over I walked up. We didn’t find one of ‘em, not one stinkin’ dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like… victory. Someday this war’s gonna end…
Jack Nicholson, A Few Good Men
Marlon Brando, On The Waterfront
Samuel L Jackson, Pulp Fiction
Michael Douglas, Wall Street
Peter Finch, Network
Ewan McGregor,Trainspotting
Clint Eastwood, Dirty Harry
Richard E Grant,Withnail and I
Mel Gibson,Braveheart
There’s the top 10. I haven’t been able to find it on the ‘net, but I’m sure it’s probably real. However, there’s a couple there that do not belong IMO. Now, I’m no cinema buff by any stretch of the imagination, but I can think of two that should have been there that were not:
Although not a dialogue in the purest sense of the word, the accompanying dialogue is so intangible it may as well be a dialogue ( accompanying dialogue omitted ):
Sterling Hayden, Dr. Strangelove ( 1964 ): Mandrake? Have you ever seen a Commie drink a glass of water? Vodka, that’s what they drink, isn’t it? Never water? On no account will a Commie ever drink water, and not without good reason. Water, that’s what I’m getting at, water. Mandrake, water is the source of all life. Seven-tenths of this earth’s surface is water. Why, do you realize that seventy percent of you is water? And as human beings, you and I need fresh, pure water to replenish our precious bodily fluids. Are you beginning to understand? Mandrake. Mandrake, have you never wondered why I drink only distilled water, or rain water, and only pure-grain alcohol? Have you ever heard of a thing called fluoridation. Fluoridation of water? Well, do you know what it is? Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face?
And, once again, another of MY Top 10 Dialogues with just enough supporting dialogue to keep it going omitted:
Eric Idle as Dennis, the Peasant, Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail ( 1975 ): Listen — strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony. Well you can’t expect to wield supreme executive power just ’cause some watery tart threw a sword at you! I mean, if I went around sayin’ I was an emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me they’d put me away! Ah, now we see the violence inherent in the system. Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! HELP! HELP! I’m being repressed! Oh, what a give away. Did you hear that, did you hear that, eh? That’s what I’m on about — did you see him repressing me, you saw it didn’t you?
I’m just going to give up here. How those two dialogues can not be greater than Braveheart, Wall Street, or Network just tells me I’m not on the same wavelength as the people in this poll. That’s not unusual tho.
I’ve not seen one movie mentioned, Withnail and I, so cannot comment on it deserving inclusion on this list. I can agree with the others, particularly Braveheart and Pulp Fiction, as they are two of my favorites. I wouldn’t leave any off the list to include your selections, but perhaps the list deserves expansion for I do agree that those bits of dialogue are among my favorites also. Lists of this nature are problematic because they tend to not include everyone’s favorites. However, discussing the merits of inclusion can be a pleasant way to pass away about 10 minutes of time.
10 minutes is about 9 more than most people spend here. So, I am shooting for about one minute of entertainment value. However, I wasn’t judging these on the merits of the movies in their entirity, they all have merits based on that criteria as most of them had some social impact and commentary based on their time period. I was looking at the single dialogue on its own merits outside of the movie it’s contained in. As such, some of them are just boring to me.
I too, was commenting on the bits of dialogue and not on the films in their entirety.
Well, what I was shooting for by listing two I liked better were others that people liked. For instance, I state there are better dialogues in Network than that one. Here’s one:
“Good evening. Today is Wednesday, September the 24th, and this is my last broadcast. Yesterday I announced on this program that I was going to commit public suicide, admittedly an act of madness. Well, I’ll tell you what happened: I just ran out of bullshit. Am I still on the air? I really don’t know any other way to say it other than I just ran out of bullshit. Bullshit is all the reasons we give for living. And if we can’t think up any reasons of our own, we always have the God bullshit. We don’t know why we’re going through all this pointless pain, humiliation, decays, so there better be someone somewhere who does know. That’s the God bullshit. And then, there’s the noble man bullshit; that man is a noble creature that can order his own world; who needs God? Well, if there’s anybody out there that can look around this demented slaughterhouse of a world we live in and tell me that man is a noble creature, believe me: That man is full of bullshit. I don’t have anything going for me. I haven’t got any kids. And I was married for forty-three years of shrill, shrieking fraud. So I don’t have any bullshit left. I just ran out of it, you see. ”
I think that’s a lot more profound than the one they list.
And for that matter, I liked this one better as well: “These are those four outlines submitted by Universal for an hour series. You needn’t bother to read them; I’ll tell them to you. The first one is set at a large Eastern law school, presumably Harvard. The series is irresistibly entitled “The New Lawyers.” The running characters are a crusty-but-benign ex-Supreme Court justice, presumably Oliver Wendell Holmes by way of Dr. Zorba; there’s a beautiful girl graduate student; and the local district attorney who is brilliant and sometimes cuts corners. The second one is called “The Amazon Squad.” The running characters include a crusty-but-benign police lieutenant who’s always getting heat from the commissioner; a hard-nosed, hard-drinking detective who thinks women belong in the kitchen; and the brilliant and beautiful young girl cop who’s fighting the feminist battle on the force. Up next is another one of those investigative reporter shows. A crusty-but-benign managing editor who’s always gett…”
( Sound familiar? This was 30 years ago. )
And, I like this one: “This is not a psychotic breakdown; it’s a cleansing moment of clarity.” Short, but good.
And, “I love it. Suicides, assassinations, mad bombers, Mafia hitmen, automobile smash-ups: “The Death Hour.” A great Sunday night show for the whole family. It’d wipe that fuckin’ Disney right off the air.”
And, of course, “Right now, there is a whole, an entire generation that never knew anything that didn’t come out of this tube. This tube is the gospel, the ultimate revelation; this tube can make or break presidents, popes, prime ministers; this tube is the most awesome goddamn propaganda force in the whole godless world, and woe is us if it ever falls into the hands of the wrong people, and that’s why woe is us that Edward George Ruddy died. Because this company is now in the hands of CCA, the Communications Corporation of America; there’s a new chairman of the board, a man called Frank Hackett, sitting in Mr. Ruddy’s office on the twentieth floor. And when the 12th largest company in the world controls the most awesome goddamn propaganda force in the whole godless world, who knows what shit will be peddled for truth on this network?”
And, “I would like at this moment to announce that I will be retiring from this program in two weeks’ time because of poor ratings. Since this show is the only thing I had going for me in my life, I’ve decided to kill myself. I’m going to blow my brains out right on this program a week from today. So tune in next Tuesday. That should give the public relations people a week to promote the show. You ought to get a hell of a rating out of that. 50 share, easy.”
My point still being, how did they decide that was one of the Top 10 dialogues of all time if I don’t even think it’s the best dialogue in the movie?
I know its not quite the “classic” movie or the “classic dialog” per se, but I believe that the occasional raised eyebrow of John Beluchi in “Animal House” ranks as one of the great movie “lines.” Especially the one just before the food fight.
Here also are some of the lines from that “great” movie.
http://www.acmewebpages.com/animal/quotes.htm
And frankly, I realize that its not “classic” dialog, but there is a part of me that still enjoys listening to Bill Murray in “Caddyshack” as he narrates his own attempt at winning the Masters’ Tournament ending with “its in the hole!”
http://www.moviewavs.com/0078546128/MP3S/Movies/Caddyshack/inthehol.mp3
I guess maybe some these belong in “famous lines” instead of dialog though.
I think great lines are the ones we remember the most which means they are the ones that hit closest to our own personal orbit or ones that state something we can’t.
There are many as have been shown… I like these, which I’m sure you will reconize…
“What we have here is a failure to communicate. I don’t like it anymore than you do but thats the way he wants it.”
Or the infamous… “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.”
I vote for
#1 Marlon Brando… “I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum. Which is what I am. Let’s face it.”
#2 Samuel L Jackson… “The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men.”
“Open the pod bay doors, Hal.” I can think of an endless list of classic one-liners. A dialogue ( monologue ) to me is a work of art on a par of a great song. The ability to take a thought and expand it to many different angles is what makes a dialogue unique.
Oops! dialogue… I was OT as usual… imagine that.
Being on topic would make the space in spaceman just seem out of place, now wouldn’t it?
We’ll do a one-liners thing soon.
Genius, you listed a bunch of monologues, not dialogues. The ones you say are not dialogues in the purest sense of the word are in fact dialogues. The others are monologues, spoken by one person.
Take it to BBC Genius, it’s their list. As I stated, I didn’t think it was very good.
And, for what it’s worth ( I hate repeating myself so much here ), I listed dialogues and left the supporting lines out.
Are my posts really that complicated?
You’re just a complicated person Moon
Must be. Guess I need to provide better instructions?
Hey Moon, came back to check after a while. Love the dialogues entry, do you mind if I like to it, that is if I don’t just take the dialogue and post myself.
http://mindrtist.livejournal.com
-Marnie
Glad you like it. Do whatever you want with it, just spot me some credit, ok?
jack beats then all hands down….,,
he is unparalleled in few gud men
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While the “What a piece of work man…” quote is in the film “Withnail & I”, it is not an original quote from there. The quote came from:
Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Act II, scene II
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_a_piece_of_work_is_a_man
Good catch David. This also reminded me of a new greatest monlogue/dialogue/ diatribe:
Alpa, if you untie me, I will literally suck your dick, right now. I’ll cradle the balls, stroke the shaft, work the pipe, and swallow the gravy. Get it over here, buddy. Let’s do this.