I love when AFI makes my day.
Casting all critics, Rolling Stone, and IMDB-ites aside, I defer to the American Film Institute as a guiding force in the judgment placed upon cinema over the last century. I don't know who makes up said institute, but they have done a phenomenal job of compiling lists that glow with greatness. You won't find trendy picks, or picks to please certain movie production companies. You're not going to find polls rife with subjectivity. If you want that - watch any list on VH1. If you want real movie greatness, watch an AFI special.
The process for composing an AFI's 100 Greatest list is simple. They come up with a topic that is integral to film history. Best movie. Best song. Best villain. Whatever. Then the all-knowing compile a semifinal list of sorts, with a list of 400 candidates vying to make the list. This also peaks viewer and reader interest. 8 months later, they list has been whittled down to a solid century. 100 entries into the hallowed hall of fame. I'm impressed every time.
Well, a new topic is on the table: the Top 100 movie quotes of all time. (Such a good category, it should have been mine.) Well, there's the ring. And oh! My hat is in it!
I scanned the list of 400 - a 103 page pdf file, mind you, and I realized that coming up with my own Top 10 from this list was a little daunting. Maybe when it gets down to 100 - but not now. Due to my lifespan, my knowledge of movies definitely skews neo-centric, where I have a solid working knowledge of most things post 1990, and I'm working my way back. So, I took the 57 entries on the list from 1990-1999 and put together a fierce top 10 list. These are quotes that I found to be the decade's best based on the following criteria:
- Wording
- Delivery
- Effect it has on the film
- Memorability
- Quality of film
- Cultural Importance
Well, I feel that last measurable will count a little less than the importance AFI will place, just because I had a hard time cutting down the list. Despite their cultural importance, "Show me the money" from Jerry Maguire and "Hasta la vista, baby." from T2 just missed the cut. This was a hard list to trim down, because of a strong decade of quotent quotables. In ascending order, heeeeeeeeeee're we go!
10. That’ll do pig. That’ll do. - Farmer Hoggett (James Cromwell), Babe. (1995.)
9. First rule of Fight Club – you do not talk about Fight Club. - Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), Fight Club (1999.)
8. It's a hell of a thing, killin’ a man. You take away all he’s got and all he’s ever gonna have. - Bill Munny (Clint Eastwood), Unforgiven. (1992.)
7. We didn’t land on Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock landed on us! - Malcolm X (Denzel Washington), Malcom X. (1992.)
6. I do wish we could chat longer, but I’m having an old friend for dinner. - Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), Silence of the Lambs. (1991)
5. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. - Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey), The Usual Suspects. (1995.)
4. I see dead people. - Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), The Sixth Sense. (1999.)
3. Houston, we have a problem. - Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks), Apollo 13. (1995.)
2. You can’t handle the truth! - Nathan R. Jessup (Jack Nicholson), A Few Good Men, (1992.)
1. They make take away our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom! - William Wallace (Mel Gibson), Braveheart (1995.)
4 comments:
Movie quote - A quote that is in a movie.
That's the AFI's criteria - and so it is mine.
75-80 percent of screenplays are adapted from a prior work - let it be fiction or non-fiction. Original screenplays are few and far between. You'd probably knock out 250-275 of these nominations on that premise.
Actually, Lovell's quote was "Houston, there is a problem." Doesn't flow as well, though.
I feel the AFI's latest effort lacks the "glow with greatness" you say it has. Maybe this is the 400-Greatest catchphrase list, but for movie quotes it is a dim cespool of mediocrity.
Movie quotes need "think about me for the next 30 minutes" quality. 'Yeah baby' is a funny catchphrase, but not a movie quote.
And the fact that Mr. Lloyd Dober's most famous quote is left out makes ze whole thing a zham!
"What I really want to do with my life - what I want to do for a living - is I want to be with your daughter. I'm good at it"
I thought at first to refute some of the one's on Spud's list from the 80's but when I made my own I found that it had 17 entries of which I didn't want to delete any. But I have some entries, based on their effects/comments on society, that really need some honorable mention:
1. "You'll shoot your eye out." - Mrs. Parker (Melinda Dillon), A Christmas Story
2. "I know you are, but what am I?" - Pee-Wee Herman (Paul Reubens), Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
3. "Would you like to play a game?" - Joshua the computer (James Ackerman), Wargames
4. "I'll have what she's having." - Customer (Estelle Reiner), When Harry Met Sally
The first two are there of course because who amongst us, as children and perhaps even now, hasn't repeated these lines upteen million times. #2 especially, was a great favorite for teasing in grade school. Numbers 3 and 4 are just great commentary on society of the 80's. Fear of global war plays out in Wargames and sex is pretty blatant as shown by Sally's fake orgasm performance.
I'd also like to mention that I'm rather upset with the quotes that they pulled from Ghostbusters for the list. "I've been slimed." is ok but really "We came. We saw. We kicked its ass." is not nearly as good as "Ray, when someone asks you if you're a god, you say, "Yes!" Of course that's just my lowly opinion.
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