What is the most memorable dialogue from an Academy Award Winning film?

[The Lone Liberal]

For me these two might qualify for the best.

Terry Malloy: You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been someone Charley, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let's face it. I'm a bum. It was you, Charley. On the Waterfront ---- Oscar 1954

Runner up:

Man For All Seasons --- Oscar 1966

Sir Thomas More: Why Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world... but for Wales?

What is yours?

[greatauntoftriplets]

1. Frankly Scarlett

I don't give a damn.

[joeybee12]

20. Absolutely! That's because EVERYONE knows that line!

And you did say memorable; you didn't say thought-provoking, moving, etc.

[bigwillq]

2. "The list is life"

From Schindler's List


"I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti, FVVV!!!"
-The Silence of the Lambs

[Bertha Venation]

3. The Silence of the Lambs:

Okay, it was in the book first -- I don't know if this is word for word; the author adapted his own work for the screen. But what made it so memorable is Anthony Hopkins' delivery.

Lecter: "You know what you look like to me with your good bag and your cheap shoes? You look like a rube. A well-scrubbed, hustling rube with a little taste. Good nutrition's given you some length of bone but you're not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you, Agent Starling? And that accent you've tried so desperately to shed; pure West Virginia. What was your father, dear, was he a coal miner? Did he stink of the lamp? And oh, how quickly the boys found you; all those tedious, sticky fumblings in the back seats of cars, while you could only dream of getting out. Getting anywhere. Getting all the way to the F B I."

And yes, my friends, that is from memory. No, no... don't throw flowers, just money. ;)

[HiramAbiff]

4. "There are unjust laws, as there are unjust men"

[BeyondGeography]

5. Casablanca

More great lines than any other script in creation.

Rick: "He's aiming at your heart."
Captain Reynaud: "That is my least vulnerable spot."

Damsel in distress: "Tell me, what kind of man is Captain Reynaud?"
Rick: "He's like every other man, only moreso."

And of course:

"Of all the gin joints and booze halls in the world, she walks into mine."

"The Germans wore gray, you wore blue."

"I'm not a genius, but I'm smart enough to know that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world."

Etc., etc.

[Faygo Kid]

6. Here's looking at you, kid.

Yep, more memorable lines than any other film, and that's saying a lot.

[BeyondGeography]

7. Major Strassner has been shot

Round up the usual suspects!

[TeeYiYi]

19. Good lineup! .....n/t

TYY

[kodi]

22. great scenes, but my favotite, one that hits my heart is...

When the young female refugee asks him if she should sleep with Captain Renault to get exit visas for her and her new husband, Rick at first tells her to go ahead, that Renault can be trusted.

But the girl is worried that by trying to save her husband, she will have to betray him, and she asks Rick:

"If a woman loved you so much that she would do something bad for you, would you be able to forgive her?"

Rick responds in a tight, clipped, and annoyed voice, "No one ever loved me that much."

for me, is the pivotal moment in the film, when Rick recognizes the source of his own pain. Immediately, he tries to put the girl off– but then he arranges for her husband to win enough at roulette to buy the visas.

Tell me that your heart doen't ache when watching that scene.

[TheWhitneyBrown]

25. And don't forget

"This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship."



(Very prophetic line)

[bobthedrummer]

8. "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?"

the entire screenplay.

[The Lone Liberal]

9. They call me MISTER Tibbs!

In the Heat of the Night -- 1967

[The Lone Liberal]

10. Frankly, you're beginning to smell ...

and for a stud in New York, that's a handicap. Midnight Cowboy 1969

[Leilani]

11. Can we do Nominated movies

that didn't win?

"We're gonna need a bigger boat." JAWS

[TeeYiYi]

12. "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore." . . .

Although it lost for best film in 1939 against Gone With The Wind, it did win for Best Song ("Over the Rainbow" by Harold Arlen and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg) and Best Original Score (Herbert Stothart). Judy Garland was also presented with a Special Award for her "outstanding performance as a screen juvenile."

TYY

[TeeYiYi]

13. "There's nothing more powerful than the odor of mendacity" . . .

. . . from the nominated but didn't win category:

"There's nothing more powerful than the odor of mendacity" — Big Daddy

Burl Ives as Big Daddy Pollitt in the film version of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958).

James Dean and Grace Kelly were the the original stars cast for the movie, but James Dean died in a car crash and Grace Kelly left acting to become Princess of Monaco. Paul Newman replaced James Dean as Brick Pollitt and Elizabeth Taylor replaced Grace Kelly as Maggie Pollitt. Elizabeth Taylor went on to receive the 1958 Oscar nomination for Best Actress but lost to Susan Hayward for 'I Want to Live!'.

TYY

[The Lone Liberal]

21. That is fun movie to watch.

I love Big Daddy.

"What's that smell in this room? Didn't you notice it Brick? Didn't you notice a powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity in this room?...Thereain't nothin' more powerful than the odor of mendacity...You can smell it."



A similar movie is Long Hot Summer, Ben Quick and Will Varner. Some great lines from that movie:

Ben: All right then, run, lady, and you keep on running. Buy yourself a bus ticket and disappear. Change your name, dye your hair, get lost--and then maybe, just maybe, you're gonna be safe from me.


Ben: Well, I'll be damned.
Will Varner: More than probable, you will be. But first, you're going to church and get married, yeah, to my daughter.

[Paul Hood]

14. I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse. n/t

[IconoclastIlene]

15. You talkin' to me?

Taxi Driver!!!

[Insider]

16. everyone there will have moved here!

west side story is the answer to all entertainment questions in my book. so if lyrics can be dialogue (in a musical), then here it is:

BERNARDO
Everywhere grime in America
Organized crime in America
Terrible time in America

ANITA
You forget I'm in America

BERNARDO
I think I'll go back to San Juan

ANITA
I know what boat you can get on

BERNARDO
Everyone there will give big cheers

ANITA
Everyone there will have moved here

[lpbk2713]

17. Uncle Bally (Chill Wills) in "Giant"

Talking about Jett Rink (James Dean) to Bic Benedict (Rock Hudson) ......... "You should'a killed that boy when you had the chance, Bic. Now he's too rich to kill."

[MrScorpio]

18. "I am Spartacus"

Winner 4 Academy Awards 1961

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Peter Ustinov

Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color
Alexander Golitzen
Eric Orbom
Russell A. Gausman
Julia Heron

Best Cinematography, Color
Russell Metty

Best Costume Design, Color
Valles
Bill Thomas

[Gildor Inglorion]

23. The entire script of "The Lion in Winter"

It's practically perfect, dialog-wise. :-)

[TheWhitneyBrown]

24. From 'Unforgiven'

Kid: He was just sitting there, takin' a shit, and I just blazed away at him. Three shots. Right in the chest... and I, I kilt him.(takes a swig of whiskey)...But, he had it comin', right?
Clint: We all got it comin', Kid.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

26. Jack Nicholson in Easy Rider.... After his first marijuana exp.

That was a UFO, beamin' back at ya. Me and Eric Heisman was down in Mexico two weeks ago - we seen forty of 'em flying in formation. They-they-they've got bases all over the world now, you know. They've been coming here ever since nineteen forty-six - when the scientists first started bouncin' radar beams off of the moon. And they have been livin' and workin' among us in vast quantities ever since. The government knows all about 'em.


Well, they are people, just like us - from within our own solar system. Except that their society is more highly evolved. I mean, they don't have no wars, they got no monetary system, they don't have any leaders, because, I mean, each man is a leader. I mean, each man - because of their technology, they are able to feed, clothe, house, and transport themselves equally - and with no effort...Why don't they reveal themselves to us is because if they did it would cause a general panic. Now, I mean, we still have leaders upon whom we rely for the release of this information. These leaders have decided to repress this information because of the tremendous shock that it would cause to our antiquated systems. Now, the result of this has been that the Venutians have contacted people in all walks of life - all walks of life. (He laughs) Yes. It-it-it would be a devastatin' blow to our antiquated systems - so now the Venutians are meeting with people in all walks of life - in an advisory capacity. For once man will have a god-like control over his own destiny. He will have a chance to transcend and to evolve with some equality for all.

[gorrister]

27. "My friends ... you bow to no one."

-- Aragorn to the hobbits, in "LOTR: The Return Of The King"

I know, I know, it didn't win -- yet. B-)

[The Lone Liberal]

28. No Arab loves the desert.

No Arab loves the desert. We love water and green trees. There is nothing in the desert and no man needs nothing.

Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

[The Lone Liberal]

29. " Ain't gonna be no rematch." "Don't want one."

Rocky 1976