Continuing the American Film Institute list of best film quotes, compiled in 2005, as selected by judges who comprised film artists, critics and historians. Selection criteria of the quotes included cultural impact and legacy, for example, to what extent the quote had become part of everyday language and the memories of the film as a result of the quote. Selections were from films shown in American cinemas, hence there is a weighting for American films. There have also been many superb films since 2005.
The list below provides the movie quotes on their own at first to enable you to see if you can identify the film and the actor speaking the line. This is followed by an identification and some trivia.
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95. “Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.
94. “I feel the need – the need for speed.”
93. "Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!"
92. "Cinderella story. Outta nowhere. A former greenskeeper, now, about to become the Masters champion. It looks like a mirac...It's in the hole! It's in the hole! It's in the hole!"
91. “Who’s on first?”
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95. “Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.
Spoken by Robin Williams as John Keating in Dead Poets Society (1989)
Trivia:
- Director Peter Weir chose to shoot the film in chronological order to better capture the development of the relationships between the boys and their growing respect for Mr. Keating.
- The poem by Henry David Thoreau that is featured on the front page of the poetry book Neil receives is not an original poem by Thoreau. Rather, it is a rearrangement of sentences from his work "Where I Lived", Chapter 2. The passage containing the quotes seen in the movie actually reads
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, ..."
- The part of John Keating was once intended for Dustin Hoffman. The film was also going to be Hoffman's directorial debut before Hoffman withdrew from the film. Liam Neeson had originally landed the leading role to be directed by Jeff Kanew, but lost it to Robin Williams when director Peter Weir came on board. Bill Murray
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94. “I feel the need – the need for speed.”
Spoken by Tom Cruise as Lt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell and Anthony Edwards as Lt. Nick "Goose" Bradshaw in Top Gun (1986)
Trivia:
- Tom Cruise actually had to wear lifts in his scenes with Kelly McGillis. Cruise is 5'7" while McGillis is 5'10".
- Riding on the back of this film's success, the US Navy set up recruiting booths in the major cinemas to try and catch some of the adrenaline charged guys leaving the screenings. They had the highest applications rate for years as a result.
- Matthew Modine turned down the Tom Cruise role because he objected to the film's Cold War politics. Patricl Swayze, Emilio Estevez, Nicolas cage, John Cusack, Matthew Broderick, Sean Penn, Michael J Fox, Scott Baio and Tom Hanks all turned down the role of Maverick. Charlie Sheen, Jim Carrey, Rob Lowe, Eric Stoltz and Robert Downey Jnr were considered for the role of Maverick. Sheen would later go on to spoof the role in the 1991 comedy Hot Shots! (1991)
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93. "Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!"
Spoken by Rosalind Russell as Mame Dennis in Aunti Mame (1958)
Trivia:
- Reportedly, the character of Auntie Mame was based on Patyrick Dennis’s real-life aunt, Marian Tanner. A good-natured eccentric, who lived to be nearly one hundred years old, Ms. Tanner's advice to those seeking a more interesting, adventurous life was to never be afraid to try a new experience and to keep an open mind about everything and everybody.
- The line, "Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death," does not appear in the book. It is derived from the stage play, where it was originally, "Life is a banquet and most poor sons-of-bitches are starving to death." Though "damn" and "hell" are both heard in the film, "sons-of-bitches" was apparently thought too rough.
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92. "Cinderella story. Outta nowhere. A former greenskeeper, now, about to become the Masters champion. It looks like a mirac...It's in the hole! It's in the hole! It's in the hole!"
Spoken by Bill Murray as Carl Spackler in Caddyshack (1980)
Trivia:
- Bill Murray improvised the "Cinderella story" sequence from two lines of stage direction. Director Harold Ramis simply asked Murray to imagine himself announcing his own fantasy sports moment. Murray simply asked for four rows of 'mums and did the scene.
- Carl Spackler was originally a silent character in the script inspired by Harpo Marx. But after Bill Murray was cast, Harold encouraged Murray to speak and improvise.
- Harold Ramis based the character of Carl Spackler on the first actor to be filmed in the role who was a shell-shocked war veteran. He couldn't remember his lines or act, so Murray replaced him.
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91. “Who’s on first?”
Spoken by Bud Abbott as Dexter in The Naughty Nineties (1945)
This sequence has been the subject of a previous Bytes post. Read it by clicking on:
Trivia:
- The scene of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello doing their classic "Who's on First" routine is run continuously at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. It is regarded as the best version of this routine in existence.
- The laughter that can be heard faintly in the background during the "Who's on First" routine belongs to the film crew and director Jean Yarborough. After numerous re-takes trying to eliminate it, Yarbrough just couldn't get the crew - or himself - to stop laughing during the routine, no matter how many times they heard it. So he just gave up and left the giggling in.
- Although Abbott & Costello did not create "Who's On First," they copyrighted it as the "Abbott and Costello Baseball Routine" in 1944. "Who's On First" is generally believed to have been written by John Grant, who created many of Abbott and Costello's famous word-play dialogues, though a similar routine involving towns named "What" and "Which" appears in the 1931 Wheeler and Woolsey film "Cracked Nuts."
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