# Most Effective Movie Speeches **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 24, 2012, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-effective-movie-speeches/629279 "2012-07-24T20:32:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2012, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-effective-movie-speeches/629279/81 "2012-08-10T09:32:20Z")
> [@Quercus\_alba](#): > > [They’re all right here](http://youtu.be/d6wRkzCW5qI) 😃 That is a wonderful thing right there. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2012, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-effective-movie-speeches/629279/82 "2012-08-10T11:15:45Z")
“…I’m going to blame some of the people in this room!” ---
**Author:** ![Skip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@Skip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skip)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2012, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-effective-movie-speeches/629279/83 "2012-08-10T11:35:18Z")
Elizabeth I’s [speech to the troops at Tilbury](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbjj9Nmn6ZU) from the 2005 BBC series “The Virgin Queen”. I prefer this to the Cate Blanchett version. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2012, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-effective-movie-speeches/629279/84 "2012-08-10T13:55:41Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > I prefer Laurence Olivier’s version of the Saint Crispin’s Day speech. (From the 1944 movie.) Branagh is better in more intimate moments, like carousing with Falstaff, or romancing the princess, but Olivier was better at the grand speeches. I totally disagree. Olivier sounded like a cheerleader at a pep rally. He gave no indication that he knew the long odds. As soon as Branagh says “We few..” it’s obvious that he knows they are all probably going to die but as the King he has to do his best to get them ready. Olivier says the words pretty but with no emotion. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2012, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-effective-movie-speeches/629279/85 "2012-08-10T17:20:18Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > :You must be feverish. Aragorn’s speech is the feckless twin’s of Theoden’s: it tries to be manly, muscular, and inspiring, but winds up being just annoying. > > That might just be me expressing my hatred of Movie!Aragorn, of course, But even if you like the son of Arathorn, I don’t see how you can liken his speech to Theoden’s. Theoden’s speech is briefer, it’s more poetic, it’s more bold. Aragorn is just preaching. Oh my. I agree completely. Aragorn may be hotter then Theoden, but his wheezy thin voice…the best moment of that speech is when he shuts up and gracefully turns around to start the attack. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2012, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-effective-movie-speeches/629279/86 "2012-08-10T18:12:40Z")
I can’t believe we forgot this one: [Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross](http://youtu.be/E7zHF19n2qE) ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2012, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-effective-movie-speeches/629279/87 "2012-08-10T20:34:31Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > I can’t believe we forgot this one: [Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross](http://youtu.be/E7zHF19n2qE) Post #5. ---
**Author:** ![ArrMatey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrmatey/32/3522_2.png) [@ArrMatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArrMatey)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2012, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-effective-movie-speeches/629279/88 "2012-08-10T20:36:45Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > [First prize is a tank](http://youtu.be/0Y9aKqawdUQ) from Life is Beautiful. Wow. I know that I could never watch the rest of that movie, but that scene alone is… Beautiful. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-effective-movie-speeches/629279/89 "2012-08-11T00:12:28Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Post #5. Ah. Well in my defense, I did search the thread for “Glengarry” before posting. Carry on. ---
**Author:** ![filling\_pages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@filling\_pages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filling_pages)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2012, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-effective-movie-speeches/629279/90 "2012-08-11T20:05:50Z")
As an unabashed Battlestar fan, I’m going to go with the season 4 speech in which Roslin unleashes her wrath. Short but 100% badass: > [@](#): > > No. Not now. Not ever. Do you hear me? I will use every cannon, every bomb, every bullet, every weapon I have down to my own eye teeth to end you! I swear it! I’m coming for all of you! This may or may not be my ring tone. [Here’s a kind of bad video version of it](http://youtu.be/qzMKrx9HHtU), but it’s slightly more spoilery than just the quote. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-effective-movie-speeches/629279/91 "2012-08-13T11:24:45Z")
> [@filling\_pages](#): > > As an unabashed Battlestar fan, I’m going to go with the season 4 speech in which Roslin unleashes her wrath. Short but 100% badass: I know we’ve strayed into television but Babylon 5 has a couple of these Crowning Moments of Awesome as well: [“If you value your lives, be somewhere else.”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFvkgfBXHPA) [“I am the right hand of vengeance”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83U5Oupj1RI&feature=endscreen&NR=1) Back to movies: I’m rather fond of the bank scene from [The Pope Must Die](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_uNV3_rD-Q). The relevant bit starts at 1.30, and the speech starts at about 2.00. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-effective-movie-speeches/629279/92 "2012-08-13T20:32:43Z")
> [@iftheresaway](#): > > Not sure it fits the definition of a speech, but for my money Robert the Bruce’s impassioned proclamation to his father is far more powerful: > > Robert the Bruce: Lands, titles, men, power, nothing. > Robert’s Father: Nothing? > Robert the Bruce: I have nothing. Men fight for me because if they do not, I throw them off my land and I starve their wives and their children. Those men who bled the ground red at Falkirk, they fought for William Wallace, and he fights for something that I never had. And I took it from him, when I betrayed him. I saw it in his face on the battlefield and it’s tearing me apart. > Robert’s Father: All men betray. All lose heart. > Robert the Bruce: I don’t wanna lose heart. I wanna believe as he does. More of a conversation than a speech. His rallying speech at the end of the movie was short, but effective: “You bled with Wallace…Now bleed with me!” ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-effective-movie-speeches/629279/93 "2012-08-13T20:35:21Z")
Dilios’ speech at the end of 300: “…Just there the barbarians huddle, sheer terror gripping tight their hearts with icy fingers… knowing full well what merciless horrors they suffered at the swords and spears of three hundred. Yet they stare now across the plain at TEN THOUSAND Spartans commanding thirty thousand free Greeks!!” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-effective-movie-speeches/629279.md?page=4)