Best Film Speeches
and Monologues

Part 10



Introduction: Film speeches are normally delivered orally and directed at an audience of three or more people, although there can be exceptions. They are usually persuasive-type speeches, either designed to promote or to dissuade, and they are highly quotable.

Greatest Film Speeches and Monologues: Video store chain Blockbuster Video (in the UK) held a series of polls in late 2003 with its customers to determine the 20 Greatest Film Speeches and Monologues in cinematic history. These are marked in the following lists with this symbol -- and by their original ranking number in the top 20. Although there were some excellent choices in their poll, the results almost completely ignored early films, and entirely disregarded films with speeches made by female characters. Greatest Films has provided this expanded listing of Best Film Speeches and Monologues here of deserving, best film monologues and speeches.

Note: The films that are marked with a yellow star are the films that "The Greatest Films" site has selected as the 100 Greatest Films.

BEST FILM SPEECHES AND MONOLOGUES
(chronological by film title) - pt. 10
Introduction | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 |
Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20

Film and Brief Title

Speech
Example

Annie Hall (1977)

"How I Feel About Life" Opening Monologue

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Comedian Alvy Singer's (Woody Allen) opening monologue (composed of jokes) told directly into the camera, before launching into a narrated autobiography about his life growing up in Coney Island: ("There's an old joke. Uhm, two elderly women are at a Catskill Mountain resort. And one of 'em says: 'Boy, the food in this place is really terrible.' The other one says: 'Yeah, I know. And such small portions.' Well, that's essentially how I feel about life. Full of loneliness and misery and suffering and unhappiness, and it's all over much too quickly...")

A "Cultural Stereotype" Assessment Alvy's "cultural stereotype" assessment of first wife-to-be Allison Porchnik (Carol Kane): ("You're like a New York, Jewish, Left-Wing, Liberal, Intellectual, Central Park West, Brandeis University, Socialist summer camps, and the father with the Ben Shahn drawings, right? Really, you know, strike-oriented, kind of Red-...please stop me, before I make a complete imbecile of myself!")
Closing Thoughts About Relationships Alvy's closing monologue, reminiscing about his relationship with Annie Hall (Diane Keaton): ("After that, it got pretty late and we both had to go, but it was great seeing Annie again and I realized what a terrific person she was and how much fun it was just knowing her, and I thought of that old joke, you know, the, this, this guy goes to a psychiatrist and says, 'Doc, uh, my brother's crazy, he thinks he's a chicken,' and uh, the doctor says, 'Well why don't you turn him in?' And the guy says, 'I would, but I need the eggs.' Well, I guess that's pretty much now how I feel about relationships. You know, they're totally irrational and crazy and absurd and - but uh, I guess we keep going through it...because...most of us need the eggs.")

(National Lampoon's) Animal House (1978)

"Nothing Is Over Until We Decide It Is!"

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Bluto's (John Belushi) factually inaccurate motivational speech after the Delta House Fraternity has been closed: ("Over? Did you say 'over'? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!...What the f--k happened to the Delta I used to know? Where's the spirit? Where's the guts, huh? 'Ooh, we're afraid to go with you, Bluto, we might get in trouble.' Well just kiss my ass from now on! Not me! I'm not gonna take this. Wormer, he's a dead man! Marmalard, dead! Niedermeyer...")

Coming Home (1978)

"There's a Choice to Be Made Here"

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Disabled, wheelchair-bound, partially paralyzed Vietnam vet Luke Martin's (Jon Voight) famous impassioned, tearful "there's a choice to be made here" speech to high school students, to provide a different perspective, after they listened to a Marine recruiter: ("And now I'm here to tell ya that I have killed for my country, or whatever. And I don't feel good about it. Because there's not enough reason, man, to feel a person die in your hands or to see your best buddy get blown away. I'm here to tell ya it's a lousy thing, man. I don't see any reason for it. And there's a lot of s--t that I did over there that I find f--king hard to live with. And I don't want to see people like you, man, comin' back and having to face the rest of your lives with that kind of s--t. It's as simple as that. I don't feel sorry for myself. I'm a lot f--kin' smarter now than when I went. And I'm just tellin' ya, there's a choice to be made here.")

Halloween (1978)

A Chilling Description of the Evil Michael Myers

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Dr. Sam Loomis' (Donald Pleasence) chilling description of the unredeemable, unreachable Michael Myers: ("I met him fifteen years ago. I was told there was nothing left. No reason, no, uh, conscience, no understanding and even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, of good or evil, right or wrong. I met this six year old child with this blind, pale, emotionless face, and the blackest eyes, the devil's eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach him and then another seven trying to keep him locked up because I realized that what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply evil...")

Superman: The Movie (1978)

Flying Over Metropolis with Superman

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Lois Lane's (Margot Kidder) internal monologue as she flies over Metropolis with Superman (Christopher Reeve): ("Can you read my mind? Do you know what it is you do to me? I don't know who you are. Just a friend from another star. Here I am like a kid out of school. Holding hands with a god. I'm a fool. Will you look at me, quivering, like a little girl, shivering. You can see right through me. Can you read my mind? Can you picture the things I am thinking of. Wondering why you are. All the wonderful things you are? You can fly. You belong to the sky. You and I can belong to each other. If you need a friend, I'm the one to fly to. If you need to be loved, here I am. Read my mind.")

Watership Down (1978)

The Rabbit Creation Myth

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The opening narration - a rabbit creation myth: ("Long ago, the great Frith made the world. He made all the stars, and the Earth lived among the stars. He made all the animals and birds, and at first, he made them all the same. Now, among the animals in these days was El-Ahrairah, the prince of rabbits. He had many friends, and they all ate grass together. But after a time, the rabbits wandered everywhere, multiplying and eating as they went. Then Frith said to El-Ahrairah, 'Prince Rabbit, if you cannot control your people, I shall find ways to control them'...”).

Apocalypse Now (1979)

"The Smell of Napalm in the Morning"

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# 1

Lt. Col. Kilgore's (Robert Duvall) beachside monologue during a raid: ("You smell that? Do you smell that? ... Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for twelve hours. When it was all over I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like ... victory. Someday this war's gonna end ...")

"I've Seen the Horror" Col. Kurtz' (Marlon Brando) 'horror' speech about hacked-off arms of inoculated children: ("I've seen the horror. Horrors that you've seen. But you have no right to call me a murderer. You have no right to call me a murderer. You have a right to kill me. You have a right to do that, but you have no right to judge me... It's impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror. Horror has a face, and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not, then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies...")

Being There (1979)

Contempt Toward Chauncey

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Black cook Louise's (Ruth Attaway) contemptuous speech as she watches TV and sees the adoration by society for Chance-Chauncey Gardiner (Peter Sellers): ("It's for sure a white man's world in America. Look here: I raised that boy since he was the size of a piss-ant. And I'll say right now, he never learned to read and write. No, sir. Had no brains at all. Was stuffed with rice pudding between th' ears. Shortchanged by the Lord, and dumb as a jackass. Look at him now! Yes, sir, all you've gotta be is white in America, to get whatever you want. Gobbledy-gook!")

The Jerk (1979)

That's All I Need

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The dim-witted, long drawn-out bumbling of the 'jerk' Navin R. Johnson (Steve Martin) about keeping some trivial possessions in his "That's All I Need" speech to Marie Kimble Johnson (Bernadette Peters): ("Well, I'm gonna go then. And I don't need any of this. I don't need this stuff and I don't need you. I don't need anything -- except this, this ash tray, and that's the only thing I need is this! I don't need nothin' but this - just this ash tray, and this paddle game. The ash tray and the paddle game - and that's all I need, and this - the remote control. The ash tray, the paddle game and the remote control, that's all I need. And these matches. The ash tray, and these matches, and the remote control, and the paddle ball. And this lamp. That's right. This paddle game, and the remote control, and the lamp and that's all I need. And that's all I need too! I don't need one other thing. Not one - I need this - the paddle game and the chair and the remote control and the matches, for sure. Well, what are you looking at? What do you think I am, some kind of a jerk or something? And this. That's all I need. The ash tray, the remote control, and this paddle game, and this magazine and the chair...I don't need one other thing, except my dog (The dog growls at him) I don't need my dog")



Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

Arguing to Have Custody of Son

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Separated husband and nurturing father Ted Kramer's (Dustin Hoffman) eloquent and heart-felt court defense of his right to have custody of son Billy (Justin Henry) over his estranged ex-wife Joanna (Meryl Streep), and his admission that he's not a perfect parent: ("If I understand it correctly, what means the most here is what's best for our son. What's best for Billy. My wife used to always say to me: 'Why can't a woman have the same ambitions as a man?' I think you're right. And maybe I've learned that much. But by the same token I'd like to know, what law is it that says that a woman is a better parent simply by virtue of her sex? I've had a lot of time to think about what it is it that makes somebody a good parent? You know, it has to do with constancy, it has to do with patience, it has to do with listening to him. It has to do with pretending to listen to him when you can't even listen anymore. It has to do with love, like she was saying. And I don't know where it's written that it says that a woman has a corner on that market, that a man has any less of those emotions than a woman does. Billy has a home with me. I've made it the best I could. It's not perfect. I'm not a perfect parent. Sometimes I don't have enough patience 'cause I forget that he's a little kid. But I'm there. We get up in the morning and then we eat breakfast, and he talks to me and then we go to school. And at night, we have dinner together and we talk then and I read to him. And we built a life together and we love each other. If you destroy that, it may be irreparable. Joanna, don't do that, please. Don't do it twice to him.")

Manhattan (1979)

Struggling to Write a Novel

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Isaac Davis' (Woody Allen) narration of failed attempts as he struggles to find the perfect opening for his new novel: ("'Chapter One. He adored New York City. He idolized it all out of proportion.' Uh, no, make that: 'He-he...romanticized it all out of proportion. Now... to him... no matter what the season was, this was still a town that existed in black and white and pulsated to the great tunes of George Gershwin.' Uh, now let me start this over...") and later: ("'He was as... tough and romantic as the city he loved. Behind his black-rimmed glasses was the coiled sexual power of a jungle cat.' -- I love this! -- 'New York was his town. And it always would be.'")
"Why Is Life Worth Living?" Isaac's idea for a new book, dictated into a tape recorder, forcing recollections of all the things that made life for him worth living: ("...Well, all right, why is life worth living? That's a very good question. Well, there are certain things I-I guess that make it worthwhile. Uh, like what? Okay. Um, for me ... oh, I would say... what, Groucho Marx, to name one thing... um, and Willie Mays, and um, uh, the Second Movement of the Jupiter Symphony, and, um, Louis Armstrong's recording of Potatohead Blues... um, Swedish movies, naturally ... Sentimental Education by Flaubert ... uh, Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra ... um, those incredible apples and pears by Cézanne... uh, the crabs at Sam Wo's... Tracy's face...")

The Muppet Movie (1979)

Kermit Talking to Himself

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The enchanting, revelatory internal dialogue Kermit the Frog (voice of Jim Henson) has with himself when stranded in the desert late at night: ("...Well, then...I guess I was wrong when I said I never promised anyone. I promised me.")
Kermit's "I've Got a Dream" In their last showdown, Kermit's diatribe at the persistent Doc Hopper (Charles Durning) - the owner of the Doc Hopper's French Fried Frog Leg Restaurant chain: ("Hopper, what's the matter with you? You gotta be crazy chasin' me halfway across the country. Why are you doin' this to me? ...I've got a dream too. But it's about singing and dancing and making people happy. That's the kind of dream that gets better the more people you share it with. And, well, I've found a whole bunch of friends who have the same dream. And, well, it kind of makes us like a family. You have anyone like that, Hopper? I mean, once you get all those restaurants, who are you gonna share it with? Who are your friends, Doc? Those guys? ...I don't think you're a bad man, Doc. But I think if you look in your heart, you'll find you really want to let me and my friends go to follow our dream. But if that's not the kind of man you are and if what I'm saying doesn't make any sense to you, well, then, go ahead and kill me.")

Caddyshack (1980)

Caddying for The Dalai Lama

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Speech-impaired greenskeeper Carl Spackler's (Bill Murray) recounting of caddying for the Dalai Lama in Tibet to anothr incredulous caddy: ("So I jump ship in Hong Kong and I make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper at a course over there in the Himalayas...A looper, you know, a caddy, a looper, a jock. So, I tell them I'm a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald... striking. So, I'm on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one -- big hitter, the Lama -- long, into a ten-thousand foot crevice, right at the base of this glacier. And do you know what the Lama says?... Gunga galunga...gunga -- gunga galunga. So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say: 'Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little somethin', you know, for the effort, you know.' And he says: 'Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.' So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.")


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Created in 1996-2008 © by Tim Dirks. All rights reserved.