The AFI announced that the theme for this year’s Oscars is going to be the top 100 quotes of all time. There is a ballot with 400 quotes on it and members of the Academy will vote to choose the best 100. Here’s the list in PDF. Some of the quotes are must-haves, some are really lame and stupid. There are a few I think should be on there that aren’t, such as “The path of the righteous man” speech from *Pulp Fiction * and “Too bad she won’t live-- but then again, who does?” from Blade Runner. I’m sure there are tons more that I will think of, but of course it’s impossible to make a truly comprehensive list of these kinds of things.
So, which quotes do you think should be chosen for the Top 100? Which quotes aren’t on the list that you think should be? Which would you remove from the ballot altogether if it were up to you?
“All-righty then!” from Ace Ventura? Give me a break. The quote should be synonomous with the movie. When you hear the quote, you should think immediately of the movie.
Such as: “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”
Or: “Open the pod bay doors, Hal,”
Or: “What we have here, is a failure to communicate.”
Or: “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. Prepare to die.”
These quotes live on their own, outside of context. Some of the others on the list do not. They only have meaning when you see the actors speaking them on film.
Besides, four quotes from Star Wars made the list, but none from Star Trek? No “KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNN!” No, “His was the most…human?” No, “Fly her apart then!”
I don’t want to defend the inclusion of the quote, but I think that it is synonomous with the Ace Ventura movie, and that it is easily identifiable and recognisable as such.
Some of them are really awful. I would be interested to hear what the criteria were.
#348 (The Ten Commandments)
NEFRETIRI: Oh, Moses, Moses, you stubborn, splendid, adorable fool!
If they’d dug a little deeper they might have found other lines like “Darn it! If you’d just stop worrying about the Red Sea for one second and look at me, you might realize … I love you!” :rolleyes:
But the most memorable, the one that can live outside of context, is “KHAAAAANNNNN!” How that one got skipped is a mystery that will endure through the ages.
Not a single Warner Brothers cartoons quote ? What about “What’s up, Doc” or “Od course, you know this means war !” ? And if they quote James Bond and Clouseau, how come not a single Monty Python quote ?
Ok, so they have “May the force be with you” on that list, and it definitely deserves to be there. But did you see who they have saying it? Han Solo. Uh, what? Han Solo said it? Please tell me I’m not the only one that thinks of Obi-Wan Kenobi when they hear that phrase.
I only ever saw the first Star Wars movie, because I thought they’d won at the end and felt cheated when they told us later Darth Vader had gotten away. I haven’t seen that one in years, either, but the one instance of that quote I remember was Han saying it to Luke.
Similarly, they attribute “play it, Sam” to Ilse, I suppose because she said it first, or to balance the credits somewhat, but the reason it is so often misremembered as “play it again, Sam”, is because when Rick says the same thing a bit later he follows with “you played it for her so you can play it for me” (or something like that).
On “May the Force Be With You”, I do remember Han saying it. And it was kind of ‘big’, because earlier Han was talking about hoky religions in reference to the Force.
After thinking about it, I realized that I must be mixing this up with, “The force will be with you, always.” which Obi-Wan did say. I guess I always figured it was too “Jedi-like” for Han to say. :smack:
Only ONE Bull Durham and Field of Dreams quote? Aye, bastards! Sure they got the most famous ones, but what about “Church of Baseball…” in Bull Duham and “The one constant, Ray, is baseball…” in Field of Dreams or “People will come…” in Field of Dreams?
You may be right; in which case I wonder… the IMDB has that one and a couple of other real howlers. Maybe somebody has been whooshed. Look at these from the IMBD http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049833/quotes
Rameses: His God… is God!
and also
Memnet: What have you found?
Bithiah: The answer to my prayers!
Memnet: You prayed for a basket?
Bithiah: No, I prayed for a son.
