Best Line Delivery [Possible Spoilers]

Oooh, ooh. Another one from Tombstone:

Doc is lying in the sanitarium, literally on his deathbed, talking to a priest, the implication being that he’s confessing. Wyatt enters the room.

Why, Wyatt. The father and I were just discussing the mysteries of the church of Rome.

Man, I love that movie.

The Princess Bride:

“You seem a decent man. I hate to die.”

Serenity:

“Shepherd used to tell me - if you can’t do some’in smart, do somethin right.”

Peter Cook. First episode of the first series of The Black Adder:

“A horse… a horse…! My kingdom… for a horse…”

Just saw Crocodile Dundee II again today and remembered so may great lines and deliveries. One of my favorites is

The two Aborigines have arrived to help guard the three bad guys in captivity when one turns and says in native tongue and she asks
“What did he say?”
“He wants to know if we can eat these men.” and then winks when she seems unsure of his seriousness.

In The Freshman:

Matthew Broderick: “How can I say no?”
Marlon Brando : “Not saying no is not a yes (crushes walnuts with bare hands).” :cool: Ooooh…

From the Boondock Saints:

“Rocco… ROCCO!” (They finally manage to get his attention by shouting)
“WHAAAAAAAAT?!?!”

And in the same scene:
“I can’t buy a pack of smokes without running into nine guys you fucked!”

Another vote for Gary Oldman’s famous lines from The Fifth Element and Leon. In Leon, I also liked “Death is whimsical today” and “He said… go back inside.” And of course who could forget this gem:

Blood: “And then he says something like…”
Leon: “No women no kids” BOOM
Blood: “I think it was something personal.”

I loved Mos Def in The Italian Job. “They got dogs. I don’t do dogs… I had a bad experience.”
“What happened?”
“I… had… a… bad… experience…!”

All of the western references have reminded me of what well may be my favorite line delivery from a western. I can’t find the line anywhere on line and don’t have the movie in front of me so I will more than likely botch this, but I’ll give it a shot anyway. From Wyatt Earp:

Doc Holiday: Why are you not wearing your badge? A you ashamed of your profession Wyatt Earp? I, sir, am a dentist. I am not ashamed of being a dentist.

I hope I got that close enough that people at least know what line I am talking about.

Alistiar the fact that you quoted from my all time favoritist movie evar, and ye be a young pup still, has scored you major brownie points from me.
More from the Lion in Winter:

Elenor:In a world where carpenters get resurrected, everything is possible.
Eleanor: Did you ever love me?
Henry: No
Elenor: Good, this will make it all the more pleasanter.

Dennis Farina, in Get shorty:

What a buncha fuckin’ bullshit.

It doesn’t sound like much, I know, but the man OWNS that phrase.

You reminded me of two others:

“I don’t care if I burn in hell. I don’t care if *you * burn in hell . . .” with a great reaction shot by Cher.

And Olympia Dukakis, the kindly-looking matriarch, talking to the younger John Mahoney:

Olympia: “There’s a saying my mother taught me - you want to hear it?”
[He nods, clearly expecting some grandmotherly, old-world gem]
Olympia: “Don’t shit where you eat.”

In Dogma, I love the bored, all-in-a-day’s-work tone when Bethany distracts the protestors outside the women’s clinic: “Holy shit, it’s the Pope.”

From the movie “Go Tell the Spartans”.

Burt Lacaster is telling a young officer when he had been demoted from a senior command all the way down to a back of the water village in Vietnam.

Lancaster explains that he was having an affair with a general’s wife. The general’s wife was pleasing him orally (his words) in a garden at a party they were both attending. The general, along with several other dignitaries, stumble upon the couple.

The young officer is amazed and asks Lancaster what he did next.

Lancaster, taking a cigar out of his mouth, says:

I did the one thing I’ve ever learned from the army son, I saluted.

Absolutely classic. Damn Burt Lancaster rocked.

Moe Greene- “I got a business to run. I gotta kick asses sometimes to make it run right. We had a little argument, Freddy and I, so I had to straighten him out.”

Michael Corleone- “You straightened my brother out?”

Hyman Roth (talking about Moe Green being shot)- “No one knows who gave the order - when I heard it, I wasn’t angry; I knew Moe - I knew he was head-strong, talking loud, saying stupid things. So when he turned up dead - I let it go. And I said to myself, this is the business we’ve chosen.”

President Muffley- “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room!”

Taylor- “You Maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you! Damn you all to hell!”

Oops, that was Godfather, Godfather II, Dr Strangelove and Planet of the Apes respectively (although, they’re all fairly obvious anyway)

2 more from Princess Bride, both uttered by Westley

  • as they are racing in to the Fire Swamp and Buttercup fears they’ll never survive
    “Nonsense. You only say that because no one has”

and on the wall, prior to the onslaught, as he’s recovering from being mostly dead
“You’re strength, my brain, and his steel, against 60 men? and you think a little head jiggle is going to make me happy? hmmmm?”

Two times in as many weeks that I get to talk about the USS Indianapolis speech from Jaws, which Quint concludes with:

“So, eleven hundred men went in the water; 316 men come out and the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb.”

Robert Shaw had that scene perfect, from the haunted look in his eyes to the upbeat ending, as if it was all worth it.

And some more from Tombstone (chock full of them):

Doc: Ah, yes. Well, this happens to be a nocturne.
Billy: A which?
Doc: You know, Frederic fucking Chopin.

Wyatt: You gonna do somethin’? Or are you just gonna stand there and bleed?

[after being asked where Wyatt is]
Doc: Down by the creek, walking on water.

I think that everything that Katharine Hepburn says in that movie ranks amongst the best line deliveries of all time. One of the most worthy Oscar winning performances of all time.

Henry II: Give me a little peace.
Eleanor: A little? Why so modest? How about eternal peace? Now there’s a thought.

Eleanor: Of course he has a knife, he always has a knife, we all have knives! It’s 1183 and we’re barbarians! How clear we make it. Oh, my piglets, 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.

The list goes on…

Speaking of the Kathryn the Great:

“I never dreamed that any mere physical experience could be so stimulating.”

The look on her face is just priceless.

Tris

And, of course:
Colonel “Bat” Guano - “You’re gonna have to answer to the Coca-Cola company.”

May I add my favourite line of all time, from my favourite scene of all time, from my favourite movie of all time.

Jack Nicholson, as Randall McMurphy, in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. Randall has just failed in his attempt to dislodge the huge, solid, heavy metal fixture in the middle of the bathroom, thereby losing all his bets. The others stare at him, amazed because it’s the first time they’ve seen him fail at anything. Some of them don’t like him and are relishing his loss of face. Others were on his side, but still feel let down because he failed. Randall is exhausted from his exertions. He knows he failed, and he knows they are all looking on him with some derision. He makes his way past the others to the door. He leaves, but just before he does, he turns round to face them all, as strong and defiant as he can be, given how exhausted he feels. And he says…

“But I tried, didn’t I… goddamit. At least I did that”.

And they all realise the truth. At least Randall tries, he strives for what he wants and he has some fight and some spirit left in him. They haven’t. Randall leaves. The others have no response.

May I one day hear another line that moves, thrills, delights and satisfies me as much as that line does. And Nicholson delivers it to perfection.