The American Film Institute has published a list of their "100 Best Movie Quote".

AFI quote list

What do you think of this list?

Have they forgotten any of your favorites? If so, which ones?

Like all such things, it's a bit of a mixed bag. I was glad to see so many Groucho Marx quotes, plus things like Airplane and Blazing Saddles.

But it struck me as a little odd that there were so many quotes that were from films based on real life, or based on a previously successful play or novel, where the quote is something the original character said (e.g. "The dingo took my baby" or "Follow the money", "You can't handle the truth", "My precious" all illustrate this to some degree). There's even one quote - "The stuff that dreams are made of" - where the film character (Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon) is himself quoting Shakespeare! I'm not sure these should be considered as film quotes as such.

Also, there are a lot of one- or two- word quotes (e.g. "You betcha", "Non!", or "Help me"), where it's more important to do an impression of the film character saying the words than to say the words themselves. Those few examples, for instance, would be pretty much impossible to pin down without having read the list, or without hearing someone say them in the manner of the film character.

On the other hand, a quote like "Elementary my dear Watson" or "I love the smell of napalm in the morning." are pretty much unmistakeable as coming from a particular character in a particular movie or movies. So I think these are more legitimate.

Quotes I think are missing from the list?

"I'd just like to say - good luck and we're all counting on you." - Airplane
"I don't think it's nice you laughing. My mule don't like people laughing." - A Fistful of Dollars
"You we're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!" - The Italian Job
"Pauuuuuuuuunaan da riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii" - Young Frankenstein
"Live, Wyatt. Live for me." - Tombstone
"Consider that a divorce" - Total Recall
"God tells me he can get me out of this mess, but He's pretty sure - you're expletive deleted" - Braveheart

I didn't watch this on TV last night. Some of the quotes are odd. For example for the "The Searchers" the quote they have listed is "Lets go home Debbie." I've watched that movie a million times and if you asked me for a quote from the movie I wouldn't have even thought of that. The hit song by The Searchers' "That'll be the day" would have been the best choice considering the band got its name from the movie and the title of the song from that quote.

What do I know?

A few more that were missed by the AFI.....

"They brought their (bleep)ing TOYS!" - Reggie Dunlop in Slap Shot

Well, I wouldn't exactly say I've been *missing* it, Bob. - w/r to "work", Peter Gibbons in Office Space

"I can do anything....I'm the chief of police" - Chief Brody in Jaws

"May the Schwartz be with you!" - Yougurt in Spaceballs

"Let's play chess!" - Bart in Blazing Saddles

One of my favorites is from the Simpsons, "You aren't as stupid as you sound...or look...or our best tests would indicate".

The movie As Good As It Gets as some of the best quotes, too.

"When you first entered the restaurant, I thought you were handsome... and then, of course, you spoke."

"I am drowning here and you are describing the water."

"Never, never, interrupt me, okay? Not if there's a fire, not even if you hear the sound of a thud from my home and one week later there's a smell coming from there that can only be a decaying human body and you have to hold a hanky to your face because the stench is so thick that you think you're going to faint. Even then, don't come knocking. Or, if it's election night, and you're excited and you wanna celebrate because some (homosexual epithet) that you date has been elected the first queer president of the United States and he's going to have you down to Camp David, and you want someone to share the moment with. Even then, don't knock. Not on this door. Not for ANY reason. Do you get me, sweetheart?"

They missed (one of many) classic Trainspotting lines.

Ewan McGregor (hopeless bumbling heroin addict 'Renton')

"I don't hate the English - they're just.........w*nkers"

A few from Willy Wonka:

VERUCA: Snozzberries? Who ever heard of a snozzberry?

WONKA: We are the music-makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.

=================

(Charlie leaves the Gobstopper on Willy Wonka's desk.)

WONKA: So shines a good deed in a weary world.

They forgot:




- Toulouse-Lautrec, Moulin Rouge




- Stan, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind




- Napoleon Dynamite, Napoleon Dynamite




Firman, The Phantom of the Opera




- Chris Kelvin, Solaris




- Tom Cullen, The Stand




- Buck Williams, Left Behind: The Movie




- Gimli, The Return of the King




- Bludworth, Final Destination




- Conrad, The Game




- Sidney Bruhl, Deathtrap




- Judge Francis J. Quincannon, And Then There Were None




- Helen, Copycat




- Hannibal Lecter, Hannibal




- Chris Neilen, What Dreams May Come



** edited to comply to forum rules against profanity.

“Charlie doesn’t surf!!” – Captn Killgore ?? [Robert Duvall] Apocalypse Now

“Pool and a pond…Pond would be good for you” – Ty to Carl, Caddy Shack

I've always had this vague notion that for a quote to be worth quoting, it has to carry some deeper significance beyond its own context.

With that in mind, I am perplexed that such a quote as, 'All-righty then' should be considered worthy enough to be even considered for this list at all, let alone come out at first place.

I'm also a bit disapointed that Bladerunner only made one quote

Just a reminder... this was the American Film Institute's list. Trainspotting was written, produced, filmed and completed in Scotland and England. And my own addition to the list:

"If it wasn't for us, you'd all be speaking german!"

The quotes are not ranked. They are listed alphabetically by movie title. I.e. Ace Ventura first, then the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. etc.

Here is the list of ranked quotes (top 20 only, the link has the rest).

Hard to believe that what is arguably the cheesiest line in movie history is on this list: "Nobody puts Baby in the corner."

Que? Only one Full Metal Jacket Quote!





CP

Personally, I think this list stinks.

I can't decide what makes me amount of one-liners from one movie or the ones that come from movies that no one has seen or remembers. Bond. James Bond. isn't a specific quote from a specific movie. It's a catch-phrase that has been used since God knows how long.

Also, I don't know how "Show me the money" beat out (cue microphone echo ) "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth." What is that about? Personally, I think the lone Caddyschack quote could have been higher on the list, as well as the famous quote from Chinatown.

I could spend about thirty minutes on quotes I think should be dropped frm anywhere near the top 100, but I'll just add a few of my favorites:

From the movie Stripes:







From Top Gun:



..And it's a damn shame Clerks was completely passed up.



Now, one of the most tragic mis-steps by this list is it's complete and utter obliviousness to war movies, one of them being The Longest Day. One of the greatest war movies ever made starring, I don't know, only John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Henry Fonda, Rod Sieiger, Richard Burton and Sean Connery (he's the scottish guy that makes the remark about Dunkirk, look for him) and countless other celebrities. Anyhow, these couple gems should be at the top of the list.



John Wayne in The Green Berets


Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon



God, I could go on...but I think I'll stop before I get too mad.

- edited to comply with AD regs -

Maybe not the most famous quotes but one that left me wondering how it got past the director and editing room.

Sean Connery in his thick Welsh/Scottish/English accent in Highlander:

“The names Ramirez, from Barcelona”

I always loved this quote from The Princess Bride:

"Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father: prepare to die."

Good one, Amlord! That was one of the one's I was thinkin of as well.

As far as Highlander quotes are concerned:

"There can be only one!"

My favorites:

"Go ahead, make my day."--Dirty Harry

"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!"--President Merkin Muffley, Dr. Strangelove

"What we've got here is failure to communicate."--"Captain", Cool Hand Luke

Some of the quotations aren't worth reading. But these are indeed repeatable and have become part of the language.

Welsh?? If you've seen The Untouchables , you'd know that Sir Sean (pretty good for a Scottish Nationalist Republican to accept a knighthood, eh?) is utterly incapable of sounding like anything other than what he is - from Edinburgh.



What about

*gruff* "It's better to burn out than fade away"?

Another I thought of, from Miller's Crossing:
"If I'd know we'd be casting our feelings into words, I'd have memorised the Song of Solomon".

Speaking of Sean Connery

From the Untouchables:





CP

Lol, I was thinkin of that one as well, but I could only put down so much!

Sticking with the Sean Connery theme:



And who knew he could play a Russian so well?

Terminator: "I'll be back!"

I can't believe that that is not in there. Did I just overlook it?

You've got red on you. --Shaun of the Dead

I like smiling, smiling is my favorite. . --Elf

I thought he was born Welsh and moved to Scotland, must have been thinking of someone else. (and to be honest I don't know if I've ever heard a Welsh accent)

Continuing with the Sir Sean quotes, from the Untouchables

“Just like a Wop to bring a knife to a gunfight.” – Sgt Malone

Famous Welsh you might have heard....
Catherine Zeta Jones. Yet she doesn't sound very Welsh.

Tom Jones...now he does sound Welsh.

Fast Times at Ridgemont High is loaded with great quotes (if you were a teenager in the '80's):

Brad (fast food manager)- "You guys had shirts when you came in here."

Spicoli (smirking)- "Something happened to them man!"

Or:

Black kid (as Spicoli wrecks his brother's Trans Am)- "My brother is gonna (defecate). He's gonna kill us!"

Spicoli (smirking)- "Well make up your mind man!...Is he gonna (defecate)? Or is he gonna kill us?"

The classic Fast Times one liner:

Mr. Hand- "What are you people...on DOPE???"


A slightly more recent favorite exchange from Slingblade:

Billy Bob Thorton- "Which numbers do you press to get the po-lice?"

Dwight Yoakam- "...9...1...1.........What are you doing with that lawnmower blade?"

Billy Bob Thorton- "I mean to kill you with it..."

Notable Quotes not on the list:

A Bronx Tale


Pulp Fiction (Long one, but just awesome)


Ghostbusters


Goodfellas


There are other great quotes...just cant think of them now.

We watched the first Star Wars movie last night. R2D2 was playing a game with Chewbacca aboard the Millenium Falcon, and winning. Han suggested that it might not be a good idea to beat Chewie as Chewie had been known to tear an arm off a person when he was losing.

C3P0 said, "R2, let's try a new strategy: Let the Wookie win."

I don't know how I could have neglected all the great lines in Mel Brooks movies. One of my faves came from the wonderful Madeline Kahn in Young Frankenstein:


Or when Gene Wilder says to Marty Feldman:

Or the whole Abby Normal bit.

Then there's Blazing Saddles and its wealth of bawdy quotes.

or Hedley Lamarr saying:

A lot of great lines in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"

I loved this exchange involving King Arthur and a medieval Marxist.



I placed in bold my favorite part of the exchange.

I think that's my all-round favourite film, but MY favourite bit of Blazing Saddles (by a tiny margin) it the noise Harvey Korman makes just after this speech, when Slim Pickens (as Taggart) asks him to say it again.

I'm sure I've no idea how to transcribe it onto the board - you have to have heard it, really. (I'm sure Saddles fans like DaffyGrl know exactly what I'm talking about.

They included a quote from A Touch of Evil, but there's another that I prefer:

Tanya: Your future is all used up.


I was a bit surprised that they had no quotes from The Lion in Winter, which has one of the best screenplays in motion picture history. Maybe it's because it just has great dialogue, rather than quoatable one-liners.

Here are a few that almost work out of context, though:

Henry II: The day those stout hearts band together is the day that pigs get wings.
Eleanor: There'll be pork in the treetops come morning.

Prince John: A knife! He's got a knife!
Eleanor: Of course he has a knife. He always has a knife. We all have knives! It's 1183 and we're barbarians!

Eleanor: We are the origins of war: not history's forces, nor the times, nor justice, nor the lack of it, nor causes, nor religions, nor ideas, nor kinds of government, nor any other thing. We are the killers. We breed wars. We carry it like syphilis inside.

Henry II: I'm villifying you for God's sake - pay attention!

Eleanor: I could peel you like a pear and God himself would call it justice!

Prince Geoffrey: I know. You know I know. I know you know I know. We know Henry knows, and Henry knows we know it. We're a knowledgeable family.

Eleanor: I adored you. I still do.
Henry II: Of all the lies you've told, that is the most terrible.
Eleanor: I know. That's why I've saved it up until now.

and the best (though the context helps a bit on this one):

Eleanor: What family doesn't have its ups and downs?

From Jaws

Police Chief Brody (Roy Sheider) about to go down with the ship, aiming down the rifle sights, the great white bearing down on him with the air tank in his mouth:

“Smile you son of …..”

Then shark parts everywhere.