I have to say that Say Anything is one of my favorite films and there’s a lot there, quite aside from the boombox scene. There’s the scene at the Gas ‘n’ Sip, where those guys offer Lloyd advice about his breakup with Diane Court.
Lloyd Dobler: I got a question. If you guys know so much about women, how come you’re here at like the Gas ‘n’ Sip on a Saturday night completely alone drinking beers with no women anywhere?
Joe: By choice, man.
Someone else: Yeah, conscious choice.
And the other scene in which he gets advice from some female friends.
D.C.: Lloyd, why do you have to be like this?
Lloyd Dobler: 'Cause I’m a guy. I have pride.
Corey Flood: You’re not a guy.
Lloyd Dobler: I am.
Corey Flood: No. The world is full of guys. Be a man. Don’t be a guy.
Action in Arabia (1944) - Non-classic WWII Middle East intrigue has good guy George Sanders using the iconic “cigarette jab at the critical moment” trick to make the bad guy swear in German and expose a Nazi plot to pit Arab tribes against the Allies.
The Big Gundown (1966) - Iconic moment has Lee Van Cleef dueling “Baron von Schulenburg,” a hired gun (with a look right out of an anime) whose theory that “to be quick on the draw is more important than precision in shooting” is proved invalid.
Deluge (1933) - Post-apocalyptic flick features incredible scenes of mass destruction heavily reused in later productions.
The Fury (1978) – In what (imo) should be his most iconic moment in a film, John Cassavetes explodes.
Performance (1970) – Mick Jagger performs “Memo from Turner” (Ry Cooder on slide guitar).
There is probably a whole thread to be had on memes (hell probably one on Nicholas Cage memes alone). But Vampires Kiss from which this Nicholas Cage meme comes from counts IMO:
“I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don’t want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed.”
“I’m the distraction that’s going with her to England, sir.”
A TV show, not a movie, and certainly not one that’s been forgotten. But I was recently watching the Simpsons in the breakroom at work when a woman came in and sat down. She was in her early 20s, so born after the show’s classic era, and I’m not sure she had ever really watched the series.
Anyway, this was the episode where Homer becomes friendly with Ned Flanders, and there’s a scene where Homer walks backwards and disappears into the bushes separating their yards. When the woman saw this, she got all excited and said, “So, that’s where that meme came from!”
Four movies I saw on TV as a kid but can’t imagine them being shown today:
The Purple Heart (1944): Dana Andrews’ speech at the end of the Japanese tribunal for the captured Doolittle raiders:
You can kill us… But if you think that’s going to put the fear of God into the United States of America, and stop them from sending other flyers to bomb you, you’re wrong… They’ll come by night, they’ll come by day… They’ll blacken your skies and burn your cities to the ground and make you get down on your knees and beg for mercy.
The Sniper (1952) The titular character kills Marie Windsor as she plants a kiss on her poster while she leaves the nightclub where she works. He also shoots a smokestack painter who spots him crouched on a roof and tries to raise the alarm by flinging his bucket of paint onto the street hundreds of feet below.
Hot Blood (1956) The fight with belts in the Gypsy encampment.
Experiment in Terror (1962) Creepy asthmatic psychopath Ross Martin kidnaps Lee Remick’s kid sister Stefanie Powers and tells the terrified girl “Take off your clothes!” once he has her alone in his secret lair.
A couple making out on the beach while waves crash over them - still shows up fairly commonly, but how many people have seen From Here to Eternity these days?
