Watching back through several of my favorite movies I encountered a few specific lines that always just blow me away in their delivery. They are not necessarily the best lines in the movies but they are delivered so perfectly that they stand out. The three that I came across recently are:
The Lion in Winter:
After Henry offers to let Eleanor out of prison in return for what amounts to everything she has she tells him of her love of travel and how when she made Louis take her on the Crusade she rode in bare breasted and ‘damn near died of windburn’. She is smiling through the tale until that point when she says
"But the troops were dazzled."
That delivery contains more emotion than I could possibly imagine being in one line.
The Life Aquatic: with Steve Zissou:
I think I may have mentioned this one before in other ‘favorite line’ threads, but it also is a brilliant delivery. When Steve is describing his boat room by room they get to the deck where a mini-sub sits, on the side of the sub the name ‘Jaquline’ is crossed out and his son asks, “Whatever happed to Jaquline?” his reply
"She didn’t really love me."
is simultaneously flat and nonchalant and regretful.
Bladerunner
Roy Batty’s death scene is perhaps my favorite of all time and his entire last monolouge is wonderful, but the delivery of his last line tops it all:
I like Gary Oldman’s line in The Fifth Element:He returns to the big space cruiser in a panic, top try to retrieve the stones and is met by a team of guards who scream at him that he can’t come aboard, because there’s a bomb (which he planted, but they don’t know that). he guns them all down, then calmly says ‘I know’
Kenneth Brannagh in Henry V, at the beginning of the play. The French messenger has just relayed the Dauphan’s insulting offer to buy out Henry’s claim on the French throne for a box full of tennis balls. Henry responds:
“We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us;
His present and your pains we thank you for:
When we have march’d our rackets to these balls,
We will, in France, by God’s grace, play a set
Shall strike his father’s crown into the hazard.”
The way he bites off the word “set” is just chilling. There’s so much tightly controlled rage in it.
In the movie Big Trouble Jenny Herk Zooey Deschanel has been kidnapped and taken hostage by the two dumbest crooks in the history of crookedness (Tom Sizemore and Johnny Knoxville) and when she’s told “Now, don’t do anything stupid.” she responds in a very dry, deadpan “How would you know if I did something stupid”. Here monotone presentation is priceless.
Terry Jones in Life of Brian: “'E’s NOT the Messiah, 'e’s a VERY NAUGHTY BOY! Now PISS OFF!” Slays me every time.
Gumball Rally–As the red Ferrari rockets through the canyons of NYC, zooms toward the camera, flashes by with that amazing Ferrari whine and dopplers into the distance, one cop takes a sip on his coffee, turns to the other cop and says “It’s gonna be a nice day!” Perfect, just perfect…
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid–Multiple examples of “Who are those guys?”
A Fish Called Wanda–Again, multiple examples of “AssHOLE!”
I’m sure more will occur to me five seconds after I hit “submit!”
