Favorite Movie speeches

[Hosakawa Tito]

I remember play acting this one with my daughter & niece in the car on a vacation trip to Florida many moons ago. We played cassettes all the way from NY to FLA to keep them occupied, and this was their favorite after the Hokey Pokey (God how I prayed that one would break).
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/mp3c...ioncourage.mp3

Cowardly Lion:

Courage. What makes a King out of a slave? Courage.

What makes the flag on the mast to wave? Courage.

What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist or the dusky dusk?

What makes the muskrat guard his musk? Courage.

What makes the Sphinx the 7th Wonder? Courage.

What makes the dawn come up like THUNDER?! Courage.

What makes the Hottentot so hot?

What puts the "ape" in ape-ricot?

Whatta they got that I ain't got?

Dorothy & Friends: Courage!

Cowardly Lion: You can say that again.

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

My personal favourite movie speech is Sam Spade's monologue at the end of the Maltese Falcon, when Brigid pleads with him not to turn her in.

[Kongamato]

Sam Spade's speech is a good one. Here's a line from another film noir, Double Indemnity.

"Suddenly it came over me that everything would go wrong. It sounds crazy, Keyes, but it's true, so help me. I couldn't hear my own footsteps. It was the walk of a dead man."

There's always the Patton speech, but that one is so obvious I don't need to post it's contents.

[Kaiser of Arabia]

Anything from 'Zulu'

[TheSilverKnight]

I like all the speeches from "The Patriot"

[Don Corleone]

A Brit that actually likes the Patriot?

You don't find it a little...uhm, jingo-istic? One sided? As in not your side?

[Big_John]

"well there's this passage i got memorized. ezekiel 25:17. 'the path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness. for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. and i will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. and you will know i am the lord when i lay my vengeance upon you." i been sayin' that s--t for years. and if you ever heard it, it meant your ass. i never gave much thought what it meant. i just thought it was some cold-blooded s--t to say to a motherf--ker before i popped a cap in his ass. i saw some s--t this morning made me think twice. see now i'm thinking, maybe it means you're the evil man, and i'm the righteous man, and mr. 9mm here, he's the shepherd protecting my righteous ass in the valley of darkness. or it could mean you're the righteous man and i'm the shepherd and it's the world that's evil and selfish. now i'd like that. but that s--t ain't the truth. the truth is... you're the weak, and i'm the tyranny of evil men. but i'm trying, ringo, i'm trying real hard to be a shepherd."
jules winfield (samuel l. jackson), pulp fiction


"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 tanhauser gate. all those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain....
time to die."
roy (rutger hauer), blade runner


"and we turn him into an anecdote, to dine out on, like we're doing right now. but it was an experience. i will not turn him into an anecdote. how do we keep what happens to us? how do we fit it into life without turning it into an anecdote, with no teeth, and a punch line you'll mouth over and over, years to come: 'oh, that reminds me of the time that impostor came into our lives. oh, tell the one about that boy.' and we become these human jukeboxes, spilling out these anecdotes. but it was an experience. how do we keep the experience?"
ouisa kittredge (stockard channing), six degrees of separation


"first of all, papa smurf didn't create smurfette. gargamel did. she was sent in as gargamel's evil spy with the intention of destroying the smurf village, but the overwhelming goodness of the smurf way of life transformed her. and as for the whole gang-bang scenario, it just couldn't happen. smurfs are asexual. they don't even have reproductive organs under those little white pants. that's what's so illogical, you know, about being a smurf. what's the point of living if you don't have a d--k?"
donnie darko (jake gyllenhaal), donnie darko


"i'll send you a love letter! straight from my heart, f--ker! you know what a love letter is? it's a bullet from a f--king gun, f--ker! you recieve a love letter from me, you're f--ked forever! you understand, f--k? i'll send you straight to hell, f--ker!"
frank booth (dennis hopper), blue velvet


"sometimes it makes me sad though, andy being gone. i have to remind myself that some birds aren't meant to be caged. their feathers are just too bright. and when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice. but still, the the place you live in is that much more drab and empty now they are gone. i guess i just miss my friend."
red (morgan freeman), the shawshank redemption


"i haven't even had a cold since 1935. i've had to watch my friends and loved ones die off through the years. hal and melinda. brutus howell. my wife. my son. and you, elaine, you'll die, too. and my curse is knowing i'll be there to see it. that's my punishment, you see, my punishment for letting john coffey ride the lightning. for killing a miracle of god. you'll be gone, like all the others, and i'll have to stay. i'll die eventually, i imagine. i have no illusions of immortality. but i will have wished for death long before death finds me. in truth, i wish for it already.

i lie in bed most nights, thinking about it. and i wait. i think about all the people i've loved, now long gone. i think about my beautiful jan, and how i lost her so many years ago. i think about all of us walking our own green mile, each in our own time. but one thought, more than any other, keeps me awake most nights. if he could make a mouse live so long, how much longer do i have? we each owe a death, there are no exceptions, but sometimes, oh god, the green mile is so long."
old paul edgecomb (dabbs greer), green mile


"all right you primitive screwheads, listen up. see this? this is my boomstick! it's a twelve gauge double-barreled remington, s-mart's top-of-the-line. you can find this in the sporting goods department. that's right, this sweet baby was made in grand rapids, michigan. retails for about $199.95. it's got a walnut stock, cobalt blue steel and a hair trigger. that's right. shop smart; shop s-mart. you got that? now i swear, the next one of you primates, even touches me... yaa! now, let's talk about how i get back home."
ash (bruce campbell), army of darkness


"i've done everything the loving father of a drug addict is supposed to do. i've sent her to the best hospitals, she's seen all the best doctors. it doesn't matter. two weeks later she's on the street. new york, vancouver, pittsburgh, toronto, l.a. the next time i hear from her, it's a phone call scamming for money. money for school, or money for a new kind of therapist, or money for a plane ticket home. 'oh daddy, just let me come home... please, daddy, i have to see you.' but she never comes home. i'm always at the airport, but she's never there. ten years of this, ten years of these lies, of imagining what happens if i don't send the money, of kicking down doors and dragging her out of rat-infested apartments, of explaining why that couldn't be my daughter in a porn flick someone saw. well, enough rage and helplessness, and your love turns to something else."
mitchell stephens (ian holm), the sweet hereafter


"i have to believe in a world outside my own mind. i have to believe that my actions still have meaning, even if i don't remember them. i have to believe that when my eyes are closed, the world is still there. do i believe the world's still there? is it still out there? ... yeah. we all need mirrors to remind ourselves who we really are. i'm no different.

now, where was i?"
leonard shelby (guy pearce), memento


"do you realize that in addition to fluoridating water, why, there are studies underway to fluoridate salt, flour, fruit juices, soup, sugar, milk, ice cream? ice cream, mandrake? children's ice cream! you know when fluoridation began? 1946. 1946, mandrake. how does that coincide with your post-war commie conspiracy, huh? it's incredibly obvious, isn't it? a foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual, and certainly without any choice. that's the way your hard-core commie works. i first became aware of it, mandrake, during the physical act of love. yes, a profound sense of fatigue, a feeling of emptiness followed. luckily i was able to interpret these feelings correctly. loss of essence. i can assure you it has not recurred, mandrake. women... women sense my power, and they seek the life essence. i do not avoid women, mandrake...but i do deny them my essence."
general jack d. ripper (sterling hayden), dr. strangelove

[Cygnus X-1]

In the New York Herald, November 26, year 1911, there is an account of the hanging of three men. They died for the murder of Sir Edmund William Godfrey; Husband, Father, Pharmacist and all around gentle-man resident of: Greenberry Hill, London. He was murdered by three vagrants whose motive was simple robbery. They were identified as: Joseph Green, Stanley Berry, and Daniel Hill. Green, Berry, Hill. And I Would Like To Think This was Only A Matter Of Chance. As reported in the Reno Gazzette, June of 1983 there is the story of a fire, the water that it took to contain the fire, and a scuba diver named Delmer Darion. Employee of the Peppermill Hotel and Casino, Reno, Nevada. Engaged as a blackjack dealer. Well liked and well regarded as a physical, recreational and sporting sort, Delmer's true passion was for the lake. As reported by the coroner, Delmer died of a heart attack somewhere between the lake and the tree. A most curious side note is the suicide the next day of Craig Hansen. Volunteer firefighter, estranged father of four and a poor tendency to drink. Mr. Hansen was the pilot of the plane that quite accidentally lifted Delmer Darion out of the water. Added to this, Mr. Hansen's tortured life met before with Delmer Darion just two nights previous. The weight of the guilt and the measure of coincidence so large, Craig Hansen took his life. And I Am Trying To Think This Was All Only A Matter Of Chance. The tale told at a 1961 awards dinner for the American Association Of Forensic Science by Dr. Donald Harper, president of the association, began with a simple suicide attempt. Seventeen year old Sydney Barringer. In the city of Los Angeles on March 23, 1958. The coroner ruled that the unsuccessful suicide had suddenly become a succesful homicide. To explain: The suicide was confirmed by a note, left in the breast pocket of Sydney Barringer. At the same time young Sydney stood on the ledge of this nine story building, an argument swelled three stories below. The neighbors heard, as they usually did, the arguing of the tenants and it was not uncommon for them to threaten each other with a shotgun, or one of the many handguns kept in the house. And when the shotgun accidentaly went off, Sydney just happend to pass. Added to this, the two tenants turned out to be: Fay and Arthur Barringer. Sydney's mother and Sydney's father. When confronted with the charge, which took some figuring out for the officers on the scene of the crime, Fay Barringer swore that she did not know that the gun was loaded. A young boy who lived in the building, sometimes a vistor and friend to Sydney Barringer said that he had seen, six days prior the loading of the shotgun. It seems that the arguing and the fighting and all of the violence was far too much for Sydney Barringer and knowing his mother and father's tendency to fight, he decided to do something. Sydney Barringer jumps from the ninth floor rooftop. His parents argue three stories below. Her accidental shotgun blast hits Sydney in the stomach as he passes the arguing sixth floor window. He is killed instantly but continues to fall, only to find, three stories below, a safety net installed three days prior for a set of window washers that would have broken his fall and saved his life if not for the hole in his stomach. So Fay Barringer was charged with the murder of her son and Sydney Barringer noted as an accomplice in his own death. And it is in the humble opinion of this narrator that this is not just "Something That Happened." This cannot be "One of those things..." This, please, cannot be that. And for what I would like to say, I can't. This Was Not Just A Matter Of Chance. Ohhhh. These strange things happen all the time. - Narrator, Magnolia

Sorry boys, all the stitches in the world can't sew me together again. Lay down... lay down. Gonna stretch me out in Fernandez funeral home on Hun and Ninth street. Always knew I'd make a stop there, but a lot later than a whole gang of people thought... Last of the Moh-Ricans... well maybe not the last. Gail's gonna be a good mom... New improved Carlito Brigante... Hope she uses the money to get out. No room in this city for big hearts like hers... Sorry baby, I tried the best I could, honest... Can't come with me on this trip, Loaf. Getting the shakes now, last call for drinks, bars closing down... Sun's out, where are we going for breakfast? Don't wanna go far. Rough night, tired baby... Tired... - Carlito Brigante (Al Pacino), Carilto's Way

Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off. Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), Fight Club

[lancelot]

Vader's 'join me' speech in ESB...

[Somebody Else]

That bit out of Lock Stock, when Vinnie Jones is explaining the difference between a replica gun, and a Desert Eagle...

Also

An old film, has Henry V saying "...forwards men, and let us begin the Hundred Years War!"

There's more about, but I can't be bothered to think of any.

[Dutch_guy]

a few good men :

I want the truth !
you can't handle the truth !

it goes on a little more, but forgot what he said exactley.

best one-liner...:

Say hello to my little friend !

scarface...

[Longshanks]

a few good men :

I want the truth !
you can't handle the truth !

it goes on a little more, but forgot what he said exactley.

Jessep: You can't handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has walls. And those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives...You don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall.
We use words like honor, code, loyalty...we use these words as the backbone to a life spent defending something. You use 'em as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then questions the manner in which I provide it! I'd rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you're entitled to!

'I know what you're thinking, punk. You're thinking, did he fire six shots or only five? Well to tell you the truth, I forgot myself in all this excitement. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and will blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself a question: do I feel lucky? Well do ya, punk?'

-Harry Callahan, Dirty Harry

I'm surprised no one mentioned Dirty Harry, as that has to be the greatest movie speech of all time. Or at least the most famous.

I love that speech from Dirty Harry! That reminds me of another one of my favorite movie moments, not so much a speech but more of a line. Blondie to Tuco at the end of The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly: "In this world, there are two kinds of people...those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig!"

[Nelson]

One of the most moving speeches I have heard in a film is Gregory Peck's Atticus Finch in his closing argument of Tom Robinsons trial.

You can hear it here:

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/Movi...ckingbird.html


George C. Scott’s speech as Patton when the movie begins is great too.