Perfect movie moments
This year, I got a lot of DVD’s for Christmas, and I’ve mostly lazed around the last couple days watching them.
I have come across, what to me, are some of the most perfect moments in movies. A classic:
I look at you with your burnt out face and your big belly and your bear like paws and your shining eye, and I have to say, you’re a credit to the whole male sex. And I’m proud to have you for my friend.
Know the movie? the actors?
it’s Kate Hepburn to the Duke, at the end of Rooster Cogburn. I can imagine nothing better, more wonderful, than being Kate and The Duke at that moment in time. I’ve often wondered if that was scripted or ad libbed- she says it with such conviction.
Another:
Professor Elwell, you’re a little man. It’s not that you’re short. You’re…little, in the mind and in the heart. Tonight, you tried to make a man little whose boots you couldn’t touch if you stood on tiptoe on top of the highest mountain in the world. And as it turned out…you’re even littler than you were before.
Shunderson, (Finlay Currie) to Professor Elwell (Hume Cronyn) in “People will talk”, perhaps, in my mind, Cary Grant’s finest film. If you haven’t seen this movie, you have missed perhaps the high point of human compassion and decency in film.
Try this one on for size:
“King Henry II: Am I the strongest or am I not?
Thomas a Becket: You are today, but one must never drive one’s enemy to despair; it makes him strong. Gentleness is better politics, it saps virility. A good occupational force must never crush. It must corrupt”
From Becket, of course, an interchange between Peter O’Toole, (who, remarkably enough is still alive and working on five projects at once!) and Richard Burton, God rest his soul.
Now this:
Queen Eleanor: Henry?
Henry II, King of England: Hmmm?
Queen Eleanor: I have a confession.
Henry II, King of England: Yes?
Queen Eleanor: I don’t much like our children!
Kate Hepburn, again, to peter O’Toole (who seems to fit the role like no other) in “The Lion in Winter”
No, not all perfect movie moments are serious movies, here’s one the women might shake their heads at but the men will ALL understand:
“How about some more beans, Mr Taggart?”
“I’d say you’ve had enough”
And the inimitable:
“Mongo only pawn… in game of life.”
Blazing Saddles, of course. The penultimate Guy Comedy Flick.
They’re not all from old movies, either:
” You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your fucking khakis. You’re the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world. ”
Tyler Durdin, Fight Club
I can think of many of those moments, the moments, in my mind, when the actors, the directors, the cameramen, the entire industry comes together to create something greater than the sum of it’s parts, and a scene shines through that is imprinted on your mind forever.
What are your perfect movie moments?
Oh, this could be a very long comment. (Might still be, but I’m trying to restrain myself).
“The Woman”
Peggy Day: He beats you. Lucy, how terrible.
Lucy: Ain’t it. When you think of the lot of women on this ranch who need a beatin’ more than I do.
Sylvia Fowler: You simply must see my hairdresser, I DETEST whoever does yours.
Woman at party: So he says ‘I gotta go home on Sunday.’ So I says ‘Why do you got to?’ So he says ‘they always expect me home on Easter Sunday.’ So I say, ‘what do they expect you to do? Lay an egg?'”
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Any and everything from “The Princess Bride.” But most especially:
Inigo Montoya: Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father: prepare to die. Now, offer me money.
[slices Count Rugen’s cheek]
Count Rugen: Yes.
Inigo Montoya: Power too. Promise me that.
[slices Count Rugen’s other cheek]
Count Rugen: All that I have and more. Please…
Inigo Montoya: Offer me everything I ask for.
Count Rugen: Any thing you want.
Inigo Montoya: I want my father back, you son of bitch.
Prince Humperdinck: Tyrone, you know how much I love watching you work. But I’ve got my country’s 500th anniversary to plan, my wedding to arrange, my wife to murder, and Guilder to frame for it. I’m swamped.
Count Rugen: Get some rest. If you haven’t got your health, you haven’t got anything.
Miracle Max: Go away or I’ll call the Brute Squad.
Fezzik: I’m on the Brute Squad.
Miracle Max: You *are* the Brute Squad!
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“It’s the stuff that dreams are made of.”
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[reading a note] “See you soon, id…” “id…” “ids…”
[taking the note] “Idiots”. It’s for you.
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“Dignity . . . always, dignity.”
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“You know what they say. It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”
“Try it.”
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Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love – they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.
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And finally, the movie that has more perfect moments than any other one I can think of:
“What in heaven’s name brought you to Casablanca?”
“My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters.”
“The waters? What waters? We’re in the desert.”
“I was misinformed.”
“Monsieur Rick, what kind of a man is Captain Renault?”
“Oh, he’s just like any other man, only more so.”
“I wasn’t sure you were the same. Let’s see, the last time we met…”
“Was La Belle Aurore.”
“How nice, you remembered. But of course, that was the day the Germans marched into Paris.”
“Not an easy day to forget.”
“No.”
“I remember every detail. The Germans wore gray, you wore blue. ”
“You give him credit for too much cleverness. My impression was that he’s just another blundering American.”
“We musn’t underestimate American blundering. I was with them when they blundered into Berlin in 1918.”
“Where were you last night?”
“That’s so long ago, I don’t remember.”
“Will I see you tonight?”
“I never make plans that far ahead.”
“Oh, monsieur, you are a man. If somone loved you very much, so that your happiness was the only thing that she wanted in the world, but she did a bad thing to make certain of it, could you forgive her?”
“Nobody ever loved me that much.”
“How extravagant you are, throwing away women like that. Some day they may be scarce.”
“How can you close me up? On what grounds?”
“I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!”
[a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]
“Your winnings, sir.”
[sotto voce]”Oh, thank you very much.”
“Everybody out at once!”
“Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.”
“Major Strasser has been shot. Round up the usual suspects.”
And of course . . .
“Sing it, Sam.”
“You must remember this / A kiss is still a kiss / A sigh is just a sigh / The fundamental things apply / As time goes by. / And when two lovers woo, / They still say, “I love you” / On that you can rely / No matter what the future brings-..”
“Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
Jenny
your humble TubaDiva
For my money, there is one perfect movie. And that movie contains a single moment that shines so brilliantly that nothing else in cinema can be seen for its glory:
Margaret More: Father, that man’s bad.
Thomas More: There’s no law against that.
William Roper: There is. God’s law.
Thomas More: Then God can arrest him.
Lady Alice: While you talk, he’s gone!
Thomas More: And go he should if he were the Devil himself until he broke the law.
William Roper: So, now you’d give the Devil benefit of law!
Thomas More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
William Roper: Yes! I’d cut down every law in England to do that.
Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man’s laws, not God’s, and if you cut them down—and you’re just the man to do it—do you really think you could stand upright in the wind that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law for my own safety’s sake.
(From A Man For All Seasons, starring Paul Scofield, Wendy Hiller, John Hurt, Leo McKern, Susanna York, Orson Welles, Nigel Davenport and Robert Shaw. Directed by Fred Zinneman. Screenplay by Robert Bolt. Released in 1966. Won Six Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Scofield) and Best Director.)
Wow, this gets the nod for “longest comments” for sure! Thanks, Jenny, Francis, excellent comments.
“How’s your digestion now?”
Angel Eyes to Tuco after a savage beating, TGTBTU