And then there are “Most Effective Movie Comebacks” to which I offer four words-
“I am no man.”
George Segal walking among the tombstones, telling the departed what they are missing, in Bye Bye Braverman. Hard to find.
And it’s more of a monologue.
Kind of a short speech and I know this movie doesn’t get much love here, but I still like the My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius speech from Gladiator.
And in the same movie is Aragorn’s speech at the Black Gate of Mordor
Network - in addition to the famous “I’m mad as hell” speech, there’s this gem:
It won Beatrice Straight an Academy Award, and represents 90% of her lines in the film. That’s what O call an effective speech.
http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBfdl6hNZ9k
Have to include this-adore!
Skald, I love your plain language summary!
:: ritually spits at the mention of the Strider-beast ::
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.
From Runaway Train
Both speeches do what they set out to do - ready the armies for battle against long odds. Theoden’s is more poetic, but disjointed. Aragorn’s is less poetic, but has complete thoughts and sentences. I like them both, and any single movie or book that has them both is pretty darn good!
Once of my favorites. Perfect, except he forgot to add “…mother fucker!” to the end.
The start of No Country For Old Men
Watch only to 2:18 to avoid the violence that follows, if that kind of thing bothers you.
And that’s not the only one!
Henry Fonda in The Grapes of Wrath. Just about anything from Paths of Glory.
Bogie did okay in Casablanca.
“Gentlemen, progress has never been a bargain. You have to pay for it. Sometimes I think there’s a man who sits behind a counter and says, ‘Alright, you can have a telephone, but you lose privacy and the charm of distance.’ ‘Madam, you may vote, but at a price. You lose the right to retreat behind the powder-puff or your petticoat.’ ‘Mr., you may conquer the air, but the birds will lose their wonder and the clouds will smell of gasoline.’ Darwin took us forward to a hilltop from where we could look back and see the way from which we came, but for this insight, and for this knowledge, we must abandon our faith in the pleasant poetry of Genesis.”
–Henry Drummond, Inherit the Wind
Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, authors
Damn, you beat me! I like the absentee landlord part of the speech but I like this part too:
“These people, it’s no mystery where they come from. You sharpen the human appetite to the point where it can split atoms with its desire. You build egos the size of cathedrals. Fiber-optically connect the world to every eager impulse. Grease even the dullest dreams with these dollar-green gold-plated fantasies until every human becomes an aspiring emperor, becomes his own god. Where can you go from there? As we’re scrambling from one deal to the next, who’s got his eye on the planet? As the air thickens, the water sours, even bees’ honey takes on the metallic taste of radioactivity… and it just keeps coming, faster and faster. There’s no chance to think, to prepare; it’s buy futures, sell futures… when there is no future.”
Monologue ≠ speech (in the absence of an assembled audience)
and
voiceover ≠ speech
IMHO
Damn. at first glance, I thought that said Pants Of Glory, and I was just about to dive into NetFlix based on the title alone.
Kurt Russell in Miracle: