In which we discuss characters from film & TV who are especially good at giving rousing speeches to encourage their dispirited troops.
To me, the all-time champ at this is Théoden from RETURN OF THE KING. His address to the Rohirrim on the Pelennor fields is one of the four scenes making that otherwise horrible movie tolerable. Anybody got a better one?
Chronos
December 19, 2019, 5:47pm
2
Do any of the film versions of Henry V count? Because it’s kind of hard to top the Crispin’s Day Speech.
President Thomas Whitmore, Independence Day
Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind. “Mankind.” That word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can’t be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps it’s fate that today is the Fourth of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom… Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution… but from annihilation. We are fighting for our right to live. To exist. And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the world declared in one voice: “We will not go quietly into the night!” We will not vanish without a fight! We’re going to live on! We’re going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!
I never understood why President Weenie’s speech in Independence Day was so highly respected.
ETA - ninja’d by KneadToKnow
I think you have to specify a specific version. The reason I prefer Théoden to Aragorn in ROTK is that Wenham delivers a much better performance than Mortenson.
YouTube isn’t cooperating with VoiceOver on my computer right now. What movie is that from?
A very different take on this kind of speech is Captain Miller’s “let’s just get this over with” approach from Saving Private Ryan :
I’m a schoolteacher. I teach English composition… in this little town called Adley, Pennsylvania. The last eleven years, I’ve been at Thomas Alva Edison High School. I was a coach of the baseball team in the springtime. Back home, I tell people what I do for a living and they think well, now that figures. But over here, it’s a big, a big mystery. So, I guess I’ve changed some. Sometimes I wonder if I’ve changed so much my wife is even going to recognize me, whenever it is that I get back to her. And how I’ll ever be able to tell her about days like today. Ah, Ryan. I don’t know anything about Ryan. I don’t care. The man means nothing to me. It’s just a name. But if… You know if going to Rumelle and finding him so that he can go home. If that earns me the right to get back to my wife, then that’s my mission. You want to leave? You want to go off and fight the war? All right. All right. I won’t stop you. I’ll even put in the paperwork. I just know that every man I kill the farther away from home I feel.
Miller
December 19, 2019, 6:10pm
10
Babylon 5 had a lot, but one that doesn’t get much love is from the post-series TV movie, In the Beginning :
This is the President.
I’ve just been informed that our mid range military bases at Beta Durani and Proxima III have fallen to the Minbari advance. We’ve lost contact with our bases at Io and must conclude that they too have fallen to an advanced force.
Our military intelligence believes that the Minbari intend to bypass Mars and attack Earth directly, and the attack may come at any time.
We continue to broadcast our surrender and a plea for mercy. They have not responded. We can therefore only conclude that we stand at the twilight of the human race.
In order to buy more time for our evacuation transports to leave Earth, we ask for the support of every ship capable of fighting to take part in a last defense of our homeworld. We will not lie to you. We do not believe that survival is a possibility. We believe that anyone who joins this battle, will never come home. But, for every ten minutes, we can delay the military advance, several hundred more civilians may have a chance to escape to neutral territory. Though Earth may fall, the human race must have a chance to continue elsewhere.
No greater sacrifice has ever been asked of a people but I ask you now, to step forward one last time, one last battle to hold the line against the night.
May God go with you all.
I am partial to the Kenneth Branagh verison, he is inspiring. Olivier sounds like a nutcase, out of camera range his men are slinking away.
Close second.
I assume Avengers: Endgame
Patton’s opening speech in Patton. I believe it varies a bit from the original and of course was done by George C. Scott instead of George S. Patton. (his voice was higher pitched and less strong).
I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor, dumb bastard die for his country.
First this I thought of was President Thomas Whitmore, Independence Day but **KneadToKnow **covered that.
Good choice, very inspiring and don’t worry, he’s on a roll.
Another great one; Tom Joad in Grapes of Wrath
I’ll be all around in the dark. I’ll be everywhere.
Though it probably doesn’t really count I suppose as it is only rousing the audience, not troops on screen.
Bill Murray in Meatballs : “It Just Doesn’t Matter ”
Dr. Rumack from Airplane :
The last thing he said to me, “Doc,” he said, “some time when the crew is up against it, and the breaks are beating the boys, tell them to get out there and give it all they got and win just one for the Zipper. I don’t know where I’ll be then, Doc,” he said, “but I won’t smell too good, that’s for sure.”
Which is of course based on the speech from Knute Rockne: All American (1940).
I’m also partial to Gen. George C. Marshall’s talk to his staff in the same movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWV5nby3M8Q
Sorry. I didn’t think I needed to identify it. It’s literally the most popular movie in history and it only came out eight months ago.
It’s Captain America’s speech from Avengers: Endgame . The other line is Rocket’s response to the speech.
I preferred his “We’re mutts” speech from Stripes .
Chronos
December 19, 2019, 7:32pm
20
Which means that it came out well after the OP lost his sight, and therefore a large portion of his ability to enjoy superhero movies.
And heck, I did see the movie, and I didn’t recognize the lines, either. Give me the full speech, and sure, it’s obvious where it’s from, but “this is the fight of our lives, and we’re going to win it” could come from pretty much any inspiring speech.