|
 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.
| |
| Film
and Brief Title |
Speech |
Example |
Jacob's Ladder (1990)
 Angelic
Advice
|
Angelic and
kindly chiropractor Louis' (Danny Aiello) calming and soothing speech
to troubled soul Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins) to relieve him from
devils and his fear of dying during a treatment session: ("Eckhart
saw Hell too. You know what he said? He said: 'The only thing that
burns in Hell is the part of you that won't let go of your life,
your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away. But they're
not punishing you,' he said. 'They're freeing your soul.' Relax...Good.
So, the way he sees it: if you're frightened of dyin' and, and you're
holdin' on, you'll see devils tearing your life away. But if you've
made your peace, then the devils are really angels, freeing you
from the earth. It's just a matter of how you look at it, that's
all. So don't worry, okay? 'K? Relax...relax. Relax.") |
|
Joe Versus The Volcano (1990)
"Sucking
the Juice Out of My Eyeballs"
|
After
a terminal illness diagnosis, office worker Joe Banks' (Tom Hanks)
expression of his real detestable feelings about his job to boss
Mr. Frank Waturi (Dan Hedaya): ("You look terrible, Mr. Waturi.
You look like a bag of s--t stuffed in a cheap suit. Not that anybody
could look good under these zombie lights. I, I, I can feel them
sucking the juice out of my eyeballs, suck suck suck suck. For 300
bucks a week. That's the news. For 300 bucks a week, I've lived
in this sink, this used rubber...Why, I ask myself, why have I put
up with you, I can't imagine. But I know it's fear, yellow freaking
fear, I’ve been too chicken-s--t afraid to live my life, so
I sold it to you for 300 freaking dollars a week...") |
|
| "Thank
You For My Life" |
The astonishing
fever-dream Joe has when he hallucinates a gigantic full moon on
the horizon, bowing before it and praying: ("Dear God, whose
name I do not know - thank you for my life. I forgot how big...
thank you. Thank you for my life"); and the famous response
by Joe when Patricia Graynamore (Meg Ryan) tells him "I love
you!" before he's about to jump into a volcano: ("I love
you, too! I've never been in love with anybody before, either! It's
great! I'm glad! But the timing stinks. I've gotta go.") |
|
Presumed Innocent (1990)
A
Scorned Woman's Murder Confession
|
Assistant DA Rusty Sabich's
(Harrison Ford) wife Barbara's (Bonnie Bedelia) long confession
about murdering Caroline Polhemus (Greta Sacchi) because of her
affair with Rusty: ("You understand what happened had to happen.
It couldn't have turned out any other way. A woman's depressed -
with herself, with life. With her husband, who had made life possible
for her, until he was bewitched by another woman. A destroyer. Abandoned.
Like someone left for dead. She plans her suicide, until the dream
begins. In the dream, the destroyer is destroyed. That's a dream
worth living for. Now, with such simplicity, such clarity, everything
falls into place. It must be a crime that her husband can declare
unsolved and be believed by all the world. She must make it look
like a rape, but she must leave her husband the clues. Once he discovers
who it was, he'll put the case into the file of unsolved murders.
Another break-in by some sex-crazed man. But all his life, he'll
know that it was her...When her head is turned, she removes the
instrument from her bag and strikes. The destroyer is destroyed.
She takes a cord out that she brought along, and ties her body in
ways her husband described that perverts do. She feels power, control.
A sense that she's guided by a force beyond herself. She takes a
syringe and injects the contents of the Ziploc bag. Leaves the glass
on the bar. Unlocks the door and windows. And goes home. And life
begins again. Until a trial, when she sees her husband suffer the
way she never intended. She was prepared to tell the truth, right
up to the very end. But magically, the charges were dismissed. The
suffering was over. And they were saved!") -- and Rusty's blurted,
sobbed response: "Saved?!" |
|
The Two Jakes (1990)
"You Can't Forget the Past..."
|
Infidelity/divorce private investigator J.J. "Jake" Gittes' (actor/director Jack Nicholson) voice-over musings about the past, in a post-war late 40s Los Angeles setting, the sequel to Chinatown (1974), as he drove to B&B Homes subdivision in the San Fernando Valley: ("Time changes things like the fruit stand that turns into a filling station. But the footprints and signs from the past are everywhere. They've been fighting over this land since the first Spanish missionaries showed the Indians the benefits of religion, horses, and a few years of forced labor. The Indians had it right all along. They respected ghosts. You can't forget the past any more than you can change it. Hearing Katherine Mulwray's name
started me thinking about old secrets, family, property, and a guy doin' his partner dirt. Memories are like that - as unpredictable as nitro, and you never know what's gonna set one off. Like the clues that keep you on the right track are never where you look for them. They fall out of the pocket of somebody else's suit
you pick up at the cleaners. They're in the tune you can't stop humming, that you never heard in your life. They're at the other end of the wrong number you dial in the middle of the night. The signs are in those old familiar places you only think you've never been before. But you get used to seeing them out of the corner of your eye, and you end up tripping over the ones that are right in front of you...") |
|
Bugsy (1991)
"Just Leap Ahead With Something on Faith"
|
Psychopathic, larger-than-life, flamboyant, and visionary East Coast 40s Jewish gangster Benjamin 'Bugsy' Siegel (Oscar-nominated
Warren Beatty), wearing a ridiculous white chef's hat, attempting to convince his East Coast mobster associates, including long-time confidant Meyer Lansky (Ben Kingsley), of the wisdom of building The Flamingo resort/casino in the Nevada desert with $1 million of their financing, during his daughter Millicent's birthday party: ("It's like another state but it's not another state. A foreign country, Meyer, can always throw you out. Nevada is another state and it's open. If we do this thing right, if we follow the hotel with schools and churches and synagogues, and build all the things that give a city backbone, we'll be in charge before you know it...If you got a state, the whole country is within your reach...Why be bogged down by petty limitations? Open your eyes to the horizons...Since I'm going to be doin' all the work and the partners will be sharing in the success, I think the money should come from them...The Flamingo will make all of our gambling interests legitimate. Meyer, listen, we've known each other since we were too young to f---k. When did I ever ask you to just close your eyes, shut off the thinking, and just leap ahead with something on faith? Never. But I'm asking you now. Do this!") |
|
City Slickers (1991)
Career
Day
|
During career day at his
child's elementary school, Mitch Robbins' (Billy Crystal) morose
forecast of a bleak future of aging for everyone: ("Value this
time in your life, kids, because this is the time in your life when
you still have your choices, and it goes by so quickly. When you're
a teenager you think you can do anything, and you do. Your twenties
are a blur. Your thirties, you raise your family, you make a little
money and you think to yourself, 'What happened to my twenties?' Your forties, you grow a little pot belly you grow another chin.
The music starts to get too loud and one of your old girlfriends
from high school becomes a grandmother. Your fifties you have a
minor surgery. You'll call it a 'procedure', but
it's a surgery. Your sixties you have a major surgery, the music
is still loud but it doesn't matter because you can't hear it anyway.
Seventies, you and the wife retire to Fort Lauderdale, you start
eating dinner at two, lunch around ten, breakfast the night before.
And you spend most of your time wandering around malls looking for
the ultimate in soft yogurt and muttering 'how come the kids
don't call?' By your eighties, you've had a major stroke, and
you end up babbling to some Jamaican nurse who your wife can't stand
but who you call mama. Any questions?") |
|
The Fisher King (1991)
The
Story of the Fool and the King
|
Disillusioned,
half-insane ex-medieval history professor and vagrant Parry's (Robin Williams)
telling, in Central Park while lying on his back on the grass next to despairing DJ Jack Lucas (Jeff Bridges), the story of the Fool and the Fisher King involving the quest for the Holy Grail (the cup from the Last Supper): ("...One
day, a fool wandered into the castle and found the king alone. Being
a fool, he was simple-minded, he didn't see a king, he saw a man
alone and in pain. And he asked the king: 'What ails you, friend?'
The king replied: 'I'm thirsty. I need some water to cool my throat.'
So the fool took a cup from beside the bed, filled it with water,
handed it to the king. As the king began to drink, he realized that
his wound was healed. He looked at his hands, and there was the
Holy Grail that which he sought all his life! And he turned to the
fool and said in amazement: 'How could you find that which
my brightest and bravest could not?' And the fool replied: 'I don't
know. I only knew that you were thirsty.' Very beautiful, isn't
it?...") |
|
| The
Whole Point of Life |
DJ Jack Lucas' (Jeff Bridges) tough but devoted girlfriend
Anne Napolitano's (Mercedes Ruehl) response to whether she believes in God:
( "You gotta believe in God! But I don't believe that God created
Man in His image. 'Cause most of the s--t that happens is because
of men. Men were made in the Devil's image. And women were created
outta God. 'Cause, after all, women can have babies--which is kinda
like creating. And which also accounts for the fact that women are
so attracted to men. 'Cause let's face it, the devil is a helluva
lot more interesting. I slept with some saints in my day, believe
me, I know. Eegh-boy! So, the whole point of life, the whole point
of life is for men and women to get married so God and the Devil
can get together--and work it out. Not that we have to get married
or anything. God forbid.") |
|
JFK (1991)
"Your
Only Chance Is to Come Up With a Case"
|
During a secret rendezvous, "X"'s (Donald
Sutherland) spellbinding, 15-minute long paranoic monologue about
a conspiracy encourages New Orleans D.A. Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner)
to investigate Kennedy's assassination, intercut with photographs,
footage, reconstructed behind closed doors meetings, etc. as he
talks: ("Now I can give you the background,
but you have to find the foreground, the little things. Keep digging.
Remember, you're the only person to bring a trial in the murder
of John Kennedy. That's important, it's historic...You don't have
a choice anymore. You've become a significant threat to the national
security structure. They would have killed you already but you
got a lot of light on you. Instead, they're trying to destroy
your credibility. They already have in many circles in this town.
Be honest, your only chance is to come up with a case. Something, anything. Make arrests, stir the s--t storm, hope to reach
a point of critical mass that'll start a chain reaction of people
coming forward, then the government will crack.") |
|
| Dismissal
of the Magic Bullet Theory |
Garrison's
address to the court when he scornfully dismisses the "Magic
Bullet Theory": ("...rather than admit to a conspiracy
or investigate further, the Warren Commission chose to endorse the
theory put forth by an ambitious junior counselor, Arlen Spector,
one of the grossest lies ever forced on the American people. We've
come to know it as the 'Magic Bullet Theory.' This single-bullet
explanation is the foundation of the Warren Commission's claim of
a lone assassin...") and his later speculation of what transpired
("So, what really happened that day? Let's just for a moment
speculate shall we?...") |
|
| Closing
Summary Statement Against Clay Shaw |
Garrison's tearful
closing summary statement against Clay Shaw: ("...Tennyson
wrote, 'Authority forgets a dying king', and this was never more
true than for John F. Kennedy, whose murder was probably one the
most terrible moments in the history of our country. You, the people,
the jury system sitting in judgment on Clay Shaw, represent the
hope of humanity against government power. In discharging your duty,
in bringing the first conviction in this house of cards against
Clay Shaw. 'Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you
can do for your country.' Do not forget your dying king. Show this world that this is still a government of the people, for
the people, and by the people. Nothing as long as you live will
ever be more important"); and then his staring directly into
the camera -- and at the movie audience -- and his issuance of a
challenge: "It's up to you." |
|
Other People's Money (1991)
Corporate
Destruction
|
Andrew Jorgensen's
(Gregory Peck) scathing address to the stockholders of New England
Wire & Cable Co., denouncing corporate raider Lawrence Garfield
(Danny De Vito): ("...There is the instrument of our destruction.
I want you to look at him in all of his glory, Larry "The Liquidator,"
the entrepreneur of post-industrial America, playing GOD with other
people's money. The Robber Barons of old at least left something
tangible in their wake -- a coal mine, a railroad, banks. This man
leaves nothing. He creates nothing. He builds nothing. He runs nothing. And in his wake lies nothing but a blizzard of paper to
cover the pain. Oh, if he said, 'I know how to run your business
better than you', that would be something worth talking about. But
he's not saying that. He's saying, 'I'm going to kill you because
at this particular moment in time, you're worth more dead than alive.'") |
|
| Defending
Corporate Greed |
Larry the
Liquidator's response to Andrew's attack: ("This company is
dead. I didn't kill it. Don't blame me. It was dead when I got here.
It's too late for prayers... You know, at one time, there must've
been dozens of companies making buggy whips. And I'll bet the last
company around was the one that made the best g--damn buggy whip
you ever saw. Now how would you have liked to have been a stockholder
in that company? You invested in a business and this business is
dead. Let's have the intelligence, let's have the decency to sign
the death certificate, collect the insurance, and invest in something
with a future.") |
|
The
Silence of the Lambs (1991)
"You
Look Like a Rube"
|
Hannibal Lecter's
(Anthony Hopkins) mocking assessment of Clarice Starling (Jodie
Foster), after she gives him a questionnaire to answer: ("You're
so-o ambitious, aren't you? You know what you look like to me, with
your good bag and your cheap shoes? You look like a rube. A well-scrubbed,
hustling rube, with a little taste. Good nutrition's given you some
length of bone, but you're not more than one generation from poor
white trash, are you, Agent Starling? And that accent you've tried
so desperately to shed - pure West Virginia. What does your father
do? Is he a coal miner? Does he stink of the lamp? You know how
quickly the boys found you. All those tedious, sticky fumblings
in the back seats of cars, while you could only dream of getting
out. Getting anywhere, getting all the way to the F...B...I");
and then after Clarice retorts, he adds his famous line of dialogue:
("A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with
some fava beans and a nice Chi-an-ti. You fly back to school now,
little Starling. Fly, fly, fly. Fly, fly, fly.") |
|
The
Crying Game (1992)
The
Fable of the Scorpion and the Frog
|
Doomed prisoner
Jody's (Forest Whitaker) impassioned retelling of the fable about
the scorpion and the frog to sympathetic captor Fergus (Stephen
Rea): ("...and as they both sink beneath the waves, the frog
cries out, 'Why did you sting me, Mr. Scorpion? For now we both
will drown!' Scorpion replies, 'I can't help it. It's in my nature!'") |
|
A Few Good Men
(1992)
Courtroom Defense about 'Code Red'
|
# 2
Col. Nathan R. Jessup's (Jack Nicholson) courtroom
tirade: ("You can't handle the truth! Son, we live in a world
that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with
guns. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lieutenant Weinberg? I have
a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom.
You weep for Santiago, and you curse the Marines. You have that
luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know - that
Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives; and my existence,
while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You
don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk
about at parties, you want me on that wall -- you need me on that
wall. We use words like "honor,"
"code," "loyalty." We use these words as the
backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as
a punch line. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain
myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the
very freedom that I provide and then questions the manner in which
I provide it. I would rather you just said "thank you"
and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon
and stand the post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think
you are entitled to!") |
|
Glengarry
Glen Ross (1992)
Sales
Pitch: A-B-C ("Always Be Closing")
|
Consulting super-salesman
Blake's (Alec Baldwin) rousing, motivational, hostile, in-your-face,
foul-mouthed, challenging ultimatum of a "sales contest"
for real estate salesmen of Chicago's Premiere Properties: ("...we're
adding a little something to this month's sales contest. As you
all know, first prize is a Cadillac Eldorado. Anybody want to see
second prize? Second prize's a set of steak knives. Third prize
is you're fired. You get the picture? You're laughing now? You got
leads. Mitch and Murray paid good money. Get their names to sell
them! You can't close the leads you're given, you can't close shit,
you are shit, hit the bricks pal and beat it 'cause you are
going out!... Because only one thing counts in this life! Get them
to sign on the line which is dotted! You hear me, you f--king faggots?
A-B-C. A-always, B-be, C-closing. Always be closing! Always be
closing! A-I-D-A. Attention, interest, decision, action. Attention:
do I have your attention? Interest: are you interested? I know you
are 'cause it's f--k or walk. You close or you hit the bricks! Decision:
have you made your decision for Christ?! And action. A-I-D-A;
get out there!...") |
|
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BEST FILM SPEECHES AND MONOLOGUES