I’ll second The Big Kahuna. There are some truly choice arguments there.
No it isn’t.
Sadly disqualified, due to fighting during the debate, but…Batman vs. Batman.
Um—if anyone asks, let’s just say I nominated something from Inherit The Wind. That’s probably slightly more classy than a Cartoon Network original series. :smack:
The Devil and Daniel Webster. It is definitely a connected series of statements intended to establish a proposition.
Every scene between Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in Hi Girl Friday.
For me, this movie hasn’t aged well. It was one of my favorite movies for a long time, but I’ve grown more sophisticated and society has progressed enough that it’s no longer to be seen as daring in its subject matter . . .
. . . but damn does that scene hold up.
And you can’t just cue it up, you have to watch the whole movie and go on the journey with the characters for this scene to have its full impact- thus, this scene completely validates viewing a movie that I would otherwise have abandoned by now.
Joey Lauren Adams is a good actress, not a great actress but talented and has turned in some good performances but- holy crap, does she bring it in this scene! She’s just amazing, she goes all out and every bit of it reads as real. Heartbreaking.
The debate in Parliament in Robert Bolt’s Lady Caroline Lamb. Bolt wrote the play and screenplay for A Man for All Seasons, a stack of plays most people have never heard of, and the screenplays for **Dr. Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia, ** and The Mission, but this is the only movie he directed himself. I think it flopped, which is too bad. This scene of a Parliamentary debate is wonderfully bone, depicting the argument between an Idealist and a Practical Man, with the latter illustrating how the law being defended by the Idealist will actually end up working if enacted.
Elizabeth Bennett vs. Lady Catherine is a classic. It’s kind of a wizard’s duel, only with words.
There are a lot of great arguments in As Good As It Gets. I think it’s an excellent film in general. Maybe my favorite is Greg Kinnear and Jack Nicholson near the end, when Kinnear is telling Nicholson to go talk to Helen Hunt. “Well then put on your pajamas and I’ll tell you a story!”
How could I forget the Dead Parrot sketch?
*Pining for the fjords? *
I’ve been watching Foyle’s War lately. The main character (“My name’s Foyle. I’m a police officer.”) doesn’t often get into arguments. He usually just raises his eyebrows and lets a remark slide. But Og help you if that man decides to lay it out straight. He explains to the offender in very civil, polite terms how they are idiots, incompetents, cowards, and degraders of what is good and innocent. It’s a verbal lashing that leaves most people slack jawed and stuttering. Anyone who tries to defend themself gets a second round, and it’s the verbal equivalent of the bastinado.
A Man for All Seasons was what I immediately thought of when I read the title of this thread. Almost any of More’s exchanges with his prosecutors, in or out of a formal setting.
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman is a pussy, RSM Lauderdale would make him cry like a little girl. Guns at Batasi has many great arguments, but there are two between Lauderdale and Lt. Bonniface that are cinema gold. One is on YouTube but iPads are shit for citing, so I’ll link to it later.
Mr. Incredible vs Elastigirl, arguing about whether she’s going to fight or stay with the kids.
There’s a combat-free followup a bit later in the story in which the tables are turned. Also, there’s a nice example of a peaceful but not-really-argumentative scene in “Flash and Substance” where Flash talks Trickster into going back on his meds and turning himself in.
I’d suggest John the Savage and Mustapha Mond debating the nature and relative importance of freedom and happiness in Brave New World, but I’m calling dibs on it myself. 
My favorite is the 4th dimension argument in HG Well’s The Time Machine. To paraphrase: everything in existence has 3 dimensions: length, width, and breadth (draws cube on chalkboard.) But, there is a fourth dimension: duration (erases cube.) Without duration, nothing can exist.
And from there, he builds a time machine. Pure. Pseudobabble. Moment. Of. Awesome.
Yep - that’s my favorite part - after watching a man get arrested for disputing a restaurant check, we get this dialogue
Batman: They’d love it here, don’t you think?
Lord!Batman: Who?
Batman: Mom and Dad. They’d be so proud of you.
Lord!Batman: …Just drive.
Also, there’s the argument Miles has with Speaker Karal about whether a woman’s accusation of murder against her husband should be investigated or not in The Mountains of Mourning, by Lois McMaster Bujold.
“I don’t tip.”
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are dead:
Ooo, good one.
And Harry “Breaker” Morant on cross examination during his court-martial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj8N8Nvv6ys
If “argument” in the philosophical sense is acceptable here, then: