“Now - Drop your sword”
Col Tim Collins gave a great speech to the 1st Battalion, Royal Irish, as they prepared to enter Iraq that referenced not just their mission, but a reminder to be honorable in all their actions. Closing with a simple “Our business now is north.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2866581.stm
Ken Branagh dramatized it for a series.
Between that and St Crispin, Branagh does get some good monologues.
Of course, there is always Sgt Major Plumly in We were Soldiers. Just one line but well delivered by Sam Elliott:
“Sir, Custer was a pussy. You ain’t.”
Lord John Whorfin addressing his troops before they return to Planet 10.
Not fictional but it has been used many a time now in movies & on TV: Winston Churchill: We Shall Fight on the Beaches.
The Gary Oldman version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skrdyoabmgA
In his own voice, the key snippet, only 2:24 Really gets rousing at about 1:15 into it.
I understand that not everyone would recognize the lines. But I did link them to the scene from the movie I was quoting.
“Nuts!”
Tyrion Lannister’s speech from “Blackwater”. It works much better on-screen with the additional context included in this clip, but this is the summary:
“Don’t fight for your king and don’t fight for his kingdoms. Don’t fight for honor. Don’t fight for glory. Don’t fight for riches, because you won’t get any. This is your city Stannis means to sack. That’s your gate he’s ramming. If he gets in, it will be your houses he burns, your gold he steals, your women he will rape. Those are brave men knocking at our door. Let’s go kill them.”
+1
No mention yet of Braveheart?
“Aye, fight and you may die. Run and you’ll live – at least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!”
I agree that the speech at the Black Gate is one of the weaker parts of Mortenson’s performance, but the text of the speech is great:
Not asking for perfection, for all time, just get through this day. Which seems like it would inspire not-particularly-brave me (especially for a defensive battle)
Oh, and honorable mention (just the kind of mention George Patton would like) goes to (real life, not just movie) Patton’s speech that began
Post 13, but worth repeating.
Consider Gen. George Washington’s message to the Continental Army preparing for a British attack on Long Island, Aug. 27, 1776:
“The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness from which no human effort will deliver them. The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die…”
Or his impromptu address to troops who were about to leave at the expiration of their enlistments just before the Battle of Trenton later that year:
“My brave fellows, you have done all I asked you to do, and more than could be reasonably expected, but your country is at stake, your wives, your houses, and all that you hold dear. You have worn yourselves out with fatigues and hardships, but we know not how to spare you. If you will consent to stay one month longer, you will render that service to the cause of liberty, and to your country, which you can probably never do under any other circumstances.”
A great, low-key but inspiring address. Jeff Daniels should’ve won an Oscar for his role as Chamberlain, I think.
The text of the speech is OK. But, as I said, what makes a speech of this type great is the actor’s performance.
Théoden’s Address to his troops makes not a damn bit of sense semantically, but it is incredibly rousing. It is down to the performance, I think.
OK, Skald, I’ve got to say that I really respect that accent mark in “Théoden”. Because some things are important, right?
I was saying that to the boys of Spin̈al Tap just the other day.
Speaking of Aquaman, does rousing songs count?
More of a call-and-response than a speech, but the Martian Marine Core from The Expanse knows how to do a dropship chant.
“Who’s going to feast on Earth’s sky and drink their rivers dry?”
“MMC!”
“Who’s going to stomp their mountains into fine Martian dust?”
“MMC!”
“Till the rains fall hard on Olympus Mons, who are we?”
“MMC!”
“I can’t hear you!”
“MMC!”
“Who are we?!”
“MMC!”