Favorite movie quotes

[YmaOHyd]

But does the war end or not? That seems to be important. The Valkyrie plotters didn't dislike Hitler because he was evil, but because he was losing the war. Still, it takes some guts to walk into his headquarters and leave a bomb at this feet. It just wasn't big enough.

Anyway, the Nazis have plenty of competition for evil. Why doesn't he take on Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot, Pinochet, Franco, etc? The first two each probably killed more than the Nazis did. Stalin was victorious, so he got to set the terms he wanted. Mao won the Chinese civil war, so he set the terms he wanted.

Whether the war ends or not in IB isn't important, because it's not a World War 2 movie; it's a movie about the triumph of the Jewish people, made possible by storytelling. And while Mao, Stalin et al were obviously evil, Nazis are the movie villains.

 

[SimonDoom]

Inglorious Basterds/Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood:

They're both metafiction operating on a level I love. They're about the power of stories and how they can change reality.

What happens at the end of Inglorious Basterds? The theater bursts into flames as Shoshana Dreyfus says "this is the face of Jewish vengeance." The movie's about how film, as a medium for storytelling, is the ultimate revenge of the Jewish people on the Nazis. For as long as Hollywood produces movies that people watch, Nazis will be the ultimate bad guy, scum that exists to be shot and stabbed and burned and detonated. That symbol will always, in film and in storytelling, stand for futility, for failure, for monstrous evil and stupidity.

Once Upon a Time is about reclaiming the story of Sharon Tate from her murderers and her grotesque pedophile husband. No one thinks about Tate anymore, other than her passive roles as Polanski's wife and the Manson gang's victim. And when we do think of her as an actress, we think of her as she appears in Valley of the Dolls, saying "I have no talent. All I have is a body." Once Upon a Time rages against that; Sharon Tate, Tarantino tells us, was a person with worth. The center of the movie is a sequence of cuts between Pitt's Booth uncovering the squalid, pointless grifting of the Manson Gang; DiCaprio's Dalton struggling with all his might to produce something good enough and real enough to appear on a crappy TV show; and Robbie's Tate watching herself on screen in The Wrecking Crew. And we get to watch her realize that her work in making the movie was important -- she listens to the audience laugh when they're supposed to, gasp when she does the stunt she practiced for weeks. She's a living, breathing presence independent of her shitty husband and her shitty murderers, and the title card "Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood" only appears once that brutal night of violence is over, telling us that this is what might have been, what should have been, in a fairy tale.

There's also a brilliant piece of technical filmmaking where DiCaprio is digitally inserted into a scene from The Great Escape in place of Steve McQueen. It looks great and it's a fun little way to tell the audience about what the character used to be. But it's also a way to show the audience "look what I can do" so they'll notice when he doesn't do it later. During the scenes from The Wrecking Crew shown in the theater, Tarantino chooses to show the original footage. He doesn't insert Margot Robbie; he makes us watch Tate herself, though it's clearly not the same person.

We can all have different reactions and respectfully disagree, but my reaction to both of these movies is: they're phony. Fiction doesn't have to be realistic. There are lots of ways to twist reality in ways that work creatively. For me, though, these two did not work. A common denominator to many of Tarantino's films is unrealistically satisfying revenge. To me, it comes across as cartoonish. He's pandering to the audience's desire for simple justice. In the real world, justice is rarely simple, and often not achieved at all. In the Tarantino universe, real horrors are simplified. In great art, the horror of human experience is presented in its complexity. Tarantino routinely dodges that.

 

[PennyThompson]

(carefully tip toes around the heated argument about how problematic Quentin Tarantino may or may not be)

M. Gustave: Have you ever been questioned by the authorities?
Zero: Yes. On one occasion, I was arrested and tortured by the rebel militia after the desert uprising.
M. Gustave: You know the drill, then, zip it.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Whether the war ends or not in IB isn't important, because it's not a World War 2 movie; it's a movie about the triumph of the Jewish people, made possible by storytelling. And while Mao, Stalin et al were obviously evil, Nazis are the movie villains.

That's the problem. What movies depict can be misleading. And story telling can't change the historical record. Tarantino seems to think he's cool - I guess - because he can offer alternative history and he picks easy targets. How about a movie about the Ottoman Empire not entering World War I (they almost didn't) and therefore there is no genocide of the Armenians. How would you market such a movie? "Who the hell are the Armenians?"

There are some very insightful books about the Holocaust from one of the survivors, Primo Levi, including If This Be a Man (sometimes titled Survival in Auschwitz), The Reawakening, The Drowned and the Saved, and others. He's truly great because he attempts to understand what really happened.

https://sfmuseo.org/shop/english-books/the-reawakening/

 

[gunhilltrain]

https://www.moonpalacebooks.com/item/ULpFLNJxI5YOvxWX0Ty4Xg

The Drowned and the Saved

 

[YmaOHyd]

How about a movie about the Ottoman Empire not entering World War I (they almost didn't) and therefore there is no genocide of the Armenians. How would you market such a movie? "Who the hell are the Armenians?"

Because the Ottomans have no relationship to the film industry and you can't make a movie about the power of the movies to shape perception about them, especially not one about the Jewish diaspora and how Jews helped build and shape postwar Hollywood.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Because the Ottomans have no relationship to the film industry and you can't make a movie about the power of the movies to shape perception about them, especially not one about the Jewish diaspora and how Jews helped build and shape postwar Hollywood.

Actually, there has been a Turkish film industry for a long time, but I doubt many of their films are seen in America. Yeah, they did make a movie about the Gallipoli campaign from their point of view.

It can be strange to see foreign films about historical events because each country has its own take on what's important. On YouTube, I stumbled onto a Danish mini-series about the Danish-Prussian war of 1864 (called simply 1864) which. almost inadvertently, portrays the Danes as the heroic good guys against the nasty Prussians. There is a whole series of over-the-top Chinese movies showing them as incredible fighters against the hapless Japanese in World War II and against the Americans in the Korean War.

The title of this thread is "Favorite Movie Quotes?" We were rolling along nicely until we brought up Tarantino. Simon, you started it ("Bring Out the Gimp") but then I was foolish enough to respond with an opinion about Quentin.

 

[JessiQueVix]

Mine is not from a movie. its from a Tv series. Peaky Blinders

"Everyone is a whore, Grace. We just sell different part of our bodies."
- Tommy Shelby

 

[CuriousRick]

I am here to kick ass and chew bubble gum. And I am all out of bubble gum.

They Live

 

[lovecraft68]

V introducing himself in V for Vendetta, I can't imagine how many takes this was to get right

“Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition! The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. [laughs] Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it’s my very good honor to meet you and you may call me “V”.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I am here to kick ass and chew bubble gum. And I am all out of bubble gum.

They Live

This is good - let's change course and get to John Carpenter. This is from his favorite of his own films.

"Why don't we just wait here for a little while... see what happens?"

 

[lovecraft68]

This is good - let's change course and get to John Carpenter. This is from his favorite of his own films.

"Why don't we just wait here for a little while... see what happens?"

Guy is a legend. You simply do not get better than the Apocalypse Trilogy.

 

[SimonDoom]

This is good - let's change course and get to John Carpenter. This is from his favorite of his own films.

"Why don't we just wait here for a little while... see what happens?"

A movie that was insufficiently appreciated in its time. I think it came out the same summer as ET. I've always liked it and I think it holds up well.

Another Carpenter movie that I really liked, Star Man, also flew somewhat under the radar and ended with a moving scene in the Arizona meteor crater with this line:

"Good bye, Jenny Hayden."

Another line, a little earlier in that movie:

"You are a strange species. Not like any other. And you’d be surprised how many there are. Intelligent but savage. Shall I tell you what I find beautiful about you? You are at your very best when things are worst."

 

[gunhilltrain]

One last 1776 quote.

Thomson: [reading Washington's letter] The situation is most desperate at the New Jersey training ground in New Brunswick, where every able bodied whore in the co... "WHORE?"... in the colonies has assembled. There are constant reports of drunkenness, desertion, foul language, naked bathing in the Raritan river, and an epidemic of the "French disease." I have placed this town off limits to all military personnel with the exception of officers. I beseech the congress to dispatch the War Committee to this place, in the hope of restoring some of the order and discipline we need to survive. Your obedient...
[drumroll]
Thomson: G. Washington.
Col. Thomas McKean: That man would depress a hyena.

Bathing naked in the Raritan River is such a New Jersey thing to do. And New Brunswick is such a wild town.

 

[SimonDoom]

Another great Carpenter line, from Halloween, the first movie that brought him to prominence:

Laurie: Was that the boogeyman?

Doctor: As a matter of fact, it was.

People today probably can't quite appreciate the impact of Halloween. It wasn't the first or bloodiest slasher/horror movie--Texas Chainsaw Massacre preceded it. It's tame by today's standards. But it combined the thrills of a slasher movie with the good storytelling and pacing and suspense you'd expect from a Hitchcock movie. Carpenter really understood the importance of storytelling in a movie. Plus, he wrote the musical score, and it's probably the best horror film score ever. I'd say it's one of the best film scores, period.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Guy is a legend. You simply do not get better than the Apocalypse Trilogy.

The Thing was the first in the trilogy. It's one of those movies where the extreme special effects are terrifying. Also, it's weirdly funny at times and the cast is great.

 

[SimonDoom]

The Thing was the first in the trilogy. It's one of those movies where the extreme special effects are terrifying. Also, it's weirdly funny at times and the cast is great.

I haven't seen the other two films in the trilogy. I'm going to correct that right away.

 

[YmaOHyd]

Catholic Priest: It's the foundation of our belief that Christ is most properly referred to as the Son of God. It's the Son of God who takes the sins of the world upon himself, so that the rest of God's children, we imperfect beings, through faith may enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Eddie Mannix: So God is split?
Catholic Priest: Yes! And no.
Eastern Orthodox Priest: There is unity in division.
Protestant Priest: And division in unity.
Mannix: Padre, I'm not sure I follow.
Rabbi: Young man, you don't follow for a very simple reason: these men are screwballs.

From Hail, Caesar!, one element of a brilliant scene that ends with the extremely combative rabbi delivering the best punchline in the film: 'Eh. I haven't an opinion.'

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum has too many great lines to quote, but one that got quite a workout in 2020 was:

Lycus: Is it... contagious?
Pseudolous: Have you ever seen a plague that wasn't?

 

[Lifestyle66]

I referenced a movie, "The Women" in my latest pending story (going live later this evening).

Meg Ryan plays a wife finding that her husband has a mistress. When angrily talking to her girlfriends and defending herself as a wife, she basically asks what another woman can do that she can't, saying:

"I can suck a golf ball through a garden hose!"

 

[gunhilltrain]

I referenced a movie, "The Women" in my latest pending story (going live later this evening).

Meg Ryan plays a wife finding that her husband has a mistress. When angrily talking to her girlfriends and defending herself as a wife, she basically asks what another woman can do that she can't, saying:

"I can suck a golf ball through a garden hose!"

They must have lifted that from Full Metal Jacket. Kubrick allowed R. Lee Ermy to improvise many of his lines, which he rarely permitted. But he knew a good thing when he saw it. Ermy was hired at first merely to be an advisor. But he had triple qualifications: he was a Marine (you always remain one, remember?), he had been a drill instructor, and he had fought in Vietnam.

"I bet you're the kind of guy who would fuck a person in the ass and not even have the goddamn common courtesy to give him a reach-around."

 

[gunhilltrain]

I referenced a movie, "The Women" in my latest pending story (going live later this evening).

It can be useful to reference a real movie that fits the time and place. For a scene inside the Paradise Theater (that's real too) in 1977, I have a key moment happen at the mid-point of Kentucky Fried Movie.

"Take him to Detroit!"

Paradise Theater

 

[SimonDoom]

They must have lifted that from Full Metal Jacket. Kubrick allowed R. Lee Ermy to improvise many of his lines, which he rarely permitted. But he knew a good thing when he saw it. Ermy was hired at first merely to be an advisor. But he had triple qualifications: he was a Marine (you always remain one, remember?), he had been a drill instructor, and he had fought in Vietnam.

"I bet you're the kind of guy who would fuck a person in the ass and not even have the goddamn common courtesy to give him a reach-around."

The scenes with Ermy are the only scenes I remember from that movie, other than the scene with the Vietnamese prostitute telling the two GIs sitting at the street corner "Me so horny. Me love you long time."

 

[gunhilltrain]

The scenes with Ermy are the only scenes I remember from that movie, other than the scene with the Vietnamese prostitute telling the two GIs sitting at the street corner "Me so horny. Me love you long time."

The battle at the end in Hue City is impressive because it's so focused. As in a real war, I suspect, you only know and see what the Marines see. From earlier in the battle:

"These people we wasted here today are the finest human beings we will ever know. After we rotate back to the world, we're gonna miss not having anyone around that's worth shooting."

 

[Lifestyle66]

It can be useful to reference a real movie that fits the time and place. For a scene inside the Paradise Theater (that's real too) in 1977, I have a key moment happen at the mid-point of Kentucky Fried Movie.

"Take him to Detroit!"

Paradise Theater

I referenced the movie "The women", because it was said by a woman whose husband cheated.

In my story, the wife sits home alone watching that movie on Friday night when she knows her husband is out with his old HS GF. She references that line as her favorite from the movie; "I can suck a golf ball through a garden hose."
Then the next night her husband is still with the GF, when the wife's with a guy at the "Cheated Wives' Club" (name of my story), she thinks it again:

"Then I went back to work on it, like Meg Ryan said, trying to 'suck a golf ball through a garden hose!'"

 

[SimonDoom]

The battle at the end in Hue City is impressive because it's so focused. As in a real war, I suspect, you only know and see what the Marines see. From earlier in the battle:

"These people we wasted here today are the finest human beings we will ever know. After we rotate back to the world, we're gonna miss not having anyone around that's worth shooting."

I need to rewatch the movie.