|
 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 |
Husbands and Wives (1992)
 Hedgehogs and Foxes Speech
|
Neurotic Sally (Judy Davis) confessing her frigidity during frustrated lovemaking to romantic Irishman Michael (Liam Neeson) in her sublime "hedgehogs and foxes" speech, in the interview scene (with voice-over): ("My mind just gets racing with thoughts. You'd laugh if I told you. I get so mentally hyperactive. I thought that I liked what Michael was doing to me, and it felt different from Jack. More gentle. And... more exciting. And I thought about how different Michael was from Jack. How much deeper his vision of life was. And I thought... Michael was a hedgehog and Jack was a fox. And then I thought... Judy was a fox, and Gabe was a hedgehog. And I thought about all the people I knew, and which were hedgehogs, and which were foxes. Al Simon, a friend, was a hedgehog, and his wife Jenny was a hedgehog. And Cindy Salkind was a fox. And Lou Patrino was a hedgehog...") |
|
| Unfinished Novel About Marriage Speech |
20 year-old student Rain's (Juliette Lewis) reading of writer Gabe Roth's (Woody Allen) brilliant, downbeat unfinished novel about sex and love: ("...It told him something, this business of how mind-boggling numbers of sperm competed for a single egg; it was not the other way around. Of course men would make love at any time and place with any number of women, including total strangers, while females were more selective. They were in each case catering to the demands of one small egg, while each male had millions and millions of frantic sperms screaming wildly, 'Let us out! Please, let us out, NOW!'... Pepkin married and raised a family. He led a warm, domestic life. Placid, but dull. Knapp was a swinger. He eschewed nuptials ties and bedded five different women a week. Students, housewives, nurse, actresses, a doctor, a salesgirl. You name it, it held Knapp between its legs. Pepkin, from the calm of his fidelity, envied Knapp. Knapp, lonely beyond belief, envied Pepkin...What happened after the honeymoon was over? Did desire really grow with the years, or did familiarity cause partners to long for other lovers? Was the notion of ever-deepening romance a myth we had grown up on, along with simultaneous orgasm? The only time Rifkin and his wife experienced a simultaneous orgasm was when the judge handed them their divorce. Maybe in the end, the idea was not to expect too much out of life.") |
|
The
Last of the Mohicans (1992)
"I
Will Find You!"
|
Nathaniel
"Hawkeye" Poe's (Daniel Day-Lewis) famous romantic instruction
to Cora Munro (Madeleine Stowe) in a cave beside a waterfall as
they are pursued by a Huron war party: ("...You stay alive,
no matter what occurs! I will find you. No matter how long it takes,
no matter how far, I will find you!...”) |
|
| Promise
of Revenge |
The chilling,
quietly vitriolic promise of revenge against Colonel Edmund Munro
(the "Grey Hair") (Maurice Roëves) by the villainous
Magua (Wes Studi): ("The Grey Hair's children were under Magua's
knife. They escaped...When the Grey Hair is dead, Magua will eat
his heart. Before he dies, Magua will put his children under the
knife, so the Grey Hair will know his seed is wiped out forever.") |
|
A League
of Their Own (1992)
"There's
No Crying in Baseball!"
|
Baseball team
manager Jimmy Dugan's (Tom Hanks) tirade at his female right-fielder
Evelyn Gardner (Bitty Schram) for making a stupid play: ("Well,
I was just wondering, because I couldn't figure out why you'd throw
home when we've got a two-run lead! You let the tying run get on
second and we lost the lead because of you. Now you start usin'
your head! That's that lump that's three feet above your ass!...Are
you crying?...Are you crying? ARE YOU CRYING? There's no crying!
There's no crying in baseball! Rogers Hornsby was my manager, and
he called me a talking pile of pigs--t, and that was when my parents
drove all the way down from Michigan to see me play the game! And
did I cry?... No! No! And do you know why?... Because there's no
crying in baseball! There's no crying in baseball, no crying!") |
|
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
The
Meaning of "Like a Virgin"
|
The film's opening, in
which various characters (mostly Mr. Brown (Quentin Tarantino))
talk back and forth about the meaning of Madonna's Like a Virgin:
("Let me tell you what Like a Virgin's about. It's all
about a girl who digs a guy with a big dick. The entire song . .
. it's a metaphor for big dicks...Like a Virgin's not about
some sensitive girl who meets a nice fella. That's what True
Blue's about. Now, granted, no argument about that...Let me
tell you what Like a Virgin's about. It's all about this
cooze who's a regular f--k machine. I'm talking morning, day, night,
afternoon . . . dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick,
dick... Then one day she meets this John Holmes motherf--ker, and
it's like, whoa baby. I mean, this cat is like Charles Bronson in The Great Escape. He's digging tunnels. She's getting this
serious dick action and she's feelin' something she ain't felt since
forever . . . Pain. Pain...It hurts. It hurts her. It shouldn't
hurt her. You know, her pussy should be Bubble Yum by now, but when
this cat f--ks her, it hurts. It hurts just like it did the first
time. You see, the pain is reminding a f--k machine what it was
once like to be a virgin. Hence . . . Like a Virgin.") |
|
Scent
of a Woman (1992)
"I'll
Show You Out of Order!"
|
Lt. Col. Frank
Slade's (Al Pacino) 'Out of Order' speech to Mr. Trask to defend
high school student Charlie Simms (Chris O'Donnell) at a disciplinary
hearing: ("Out of order, I'll show you out of order! You don't
know what out of order is, Mr.Trask! I'd show you but I'm too old,
I'm too tired, and I'm too f--kin' blind. If I were the man I was
five years ago, I'd take a flame-thrower to this place. Out of order,
who the hell do you think you're talking to? I've been around you
know? There was a time I could see...") |
|
Addams
Family Values (1993)
The
Hypocrisy of Thanksgiving
|
Steely-glaring,
contemptuous Wednesday Addams (Christina Ricci), participating
in a summer camp play at Camp Chippewa about the "First Thanksgiving"
feast as the lead Native American Pocahontas, lambasted the lead
white Pilgrim character with this ad-libbed monologue to the stunned
reactions of everyone: ("Wait!.. We cannot break bread with
you...You have taken the land which is rightfully ours. Years
from now, my people will be forced to live in mobile homes on
reservations. Your people will wear cardigans, and drink highballs.
We will sell our bracelets by the roadsides. You will play golf,
and enjoy hot h'ors d'oeuvres. My people will have pain and degradation.
Your people will have stick shifts. The gods of my tribe have
spoken. They have said: 'Do not trust the pilgrims, especially
Sarah Miller'...And for all of these reasons I have decided to
scalp you and burn your village to the ground.") |
|
The Fugitive
(1993)
"Your
Fugitive's Name is Dr. Richard Kimble"
|
Single-minded
US Marshal Sam Gerard's (Tommy Lee Jones) famous instructions to
his men on looking for escaped fugitive Dr. Richard Kimble (Harrison
Ford): ("Alright ladies and gentlemen, listen up. We have a fugitive that's been
on the run for ninety minutes. Average foot speed over uneven ground
- barring injuries - is 4 miles-per-hour. That will give you a radius of
six miles. What I want out of each and every one of you is a hard-target
search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse,
outhouse and doghouse in this area. Checkpoints will go up at fifteen
miles. Your fugitive's name is Dr. Richard Kimble. Go get him.") |
|
Philadelphia
(1993)
"I
Am Love!"
|
Dying AIDS
patient Andrew Beckett's (Tom Hanks) powerfully transcendental,
impassioned interpretation/translation of a Maria Callas opera to his lawyer
Joe Miller (Denzel Washington), while speaking over the music and pulling his IV with him as he accepted his own impending death: ("Do you like opera?... This
is my favorite aria. It's Maria Callas. This is "Andrea
Chenier", Umberto Giordano. This is Madeleine.
She's saying how, during the French Revolution, a mob set fire to
her house. And her mother died, saving her. 'I look... The place that
cradled me is burning!' Do you hear the heartache in her voice?
Can you feel it, Joe? Now, in come the strings, and it changes everything.
The music - it fills with a hope, and it'll change again, listen. 'I bring sorrow to those who love me.' Oh, that single
cello! 'It was during this sorrow that Love came to me.' A voice
filled with harmony, that said: 'Live still, I am Life! Heaven is
in your eyes. Is everything around you just the blood and mud? I
am divine. I am Oblivion. I am the god that comes down from the
heavens to the Earth and makes of the Earth a Heaven. I am Love! I am Love!'")
|
|
| Opening
Statement to Jury |
Homophobic attorney Joe
Miller's opening statement to the jury to defend his AIDS-afflicted client Andrew
- allegedly fired from his prestigious Philadelphia law firm for having AIDS: ("Ladies and gentlemen of
the jury. Forget everything you've seen on television. There's not
going to be any surprise, last minute witnesses. Nobody's going
to break down on the stand with a tearful confession. You're going
to be presented with a simple fact: Andrew Beckett was fired. You'll
hear two explanations as to why he was fired: ours and theirs.
It's up to you to sift through layer upon layer of truth until you
determine for yourself which version sounds the most true...Now, the behavior of Andrew Beckett's employers may seem reasonable. It does to me. But no matter how you come to judge Charles Wheeler and his partners in ethical, moral, and inhuman terms, the fact of the matter is, when they fired Andrew Beckett because he has AIDS, they broke the law.") |
|
The
Piano (1993)
"My
Will Has Chosen Life!"
|
Ada McGrath's
(Holly Hunter) haunting closing monologue about choosing life over
death (by drowning): ("What a death! What a chance! What a
surprise! My will has chosen life!? Still it has had me spooked
and many others besides! I teach piano now in Nelson. George has
fashioned me a metal finger tip, I am quite the town freak which
satisfies! I am learning to speak. My sound is still so bad I am
ashamed. I practice only when I am alone and it is dark. At night!
I think of my piano in its ocean grave, and sometimes of myself
floating above it. Down there everything is so still and silent
that it lulls me to sleep. It is a weird lullaby and so it is --
it is mine.") |
|
Schindler's List (1993)
"Today
Is History"
|
Amon Goethe's
(Ralph Fiennes) chilling speech on the extermination of Jews from
Krakow, Poland: ("Today is history. Today will be remembered.
Years from now the young will ask with wonder about this day. Today
is history and you are part of it. Six hundred years ago when elsewhere
they were footing the blame for the Black Death, Kazimierz the Great,
so called, told the Jews they could come to Krakow. They came. They
trundled their belongings into the city. They settled. They took
hold. They prospered in business, science, education, the arts.
They came here with nothing. Nothing! And they flourished. For six
centuries, there has been a Jewish Krakow. Think about that....By
this evening, those six centuries are a rumour. They never happened.
Today is history.") |
|
| Schindler's
Farewell to the Workers |
Oskar Schindler's
(Liam Neeson) farewell to his workers, announcing the unconditional
surrender of Germany: ("I'm a member of the Nazi party. I'm
a munitions manufacturer. I'm a profiteer of slave labor. I am a
criminal. At midnight, you'll be free and I'll be hunted. I shall
remain with you until five minutes after midnight after which time,
and I hope you'll forgive me, I must flee"); after he convinces
the guards to leave, Schindler asks for a moment of prayer: ("In
memory of the countless victims among your people, I ask us to observe
three minutes of silence.") |
|
True Romance (1993)
How Sicilians Acquired Their Skin Color
|
# 15
Clifford Worley's (Dennis Hopper) bold insults:
("...In fact, I don't know if you know this or not, Sicilians
were spawned by niggers... It's a fact. Sicilians have nigger
blood pumpin' through their hearts. If you don't believe me, look
it up. You see, hundreds and hundreds of years ago, the Moors
conquered Sicily. And Moors are niggers. Way back then, Sicilians
were like the wops in northern Italy. Blond hair, blue eyes. But,
once the Moors moved in there, they changed the whole country.
They did so much f--kin' with the Sicilian women, they changed
the blood-line forever, from blonde hair and blue eyes to black
hair and dark skin. I find it absolutely amazing to think that
to this day, hundreds of years later, Sicilians still carry that
nigger gene. I'm just quotin' history. It's a fact. It's written.
Your ancestors were niggers. Your great, great, great, great,
great-grandmother was f--ked by a nigger, and had a half-nigger
kid. That is a fact. Now tell me, am I lyin'?") |
|
Clerks (1994)
Anti-Smoking
Diatribe
|
An anonymous
convenience store customer's (Scott Schiaffo) sudden diatribe against
the cancer-causing smoking industry: ("Do we actually have
to throw hard-earned dollars on a counter and say, 'Please, please,
Mr. Merchant of Death, sir; please sell me something that will give
me bad breath, stink up my clothes, and fry my lungs'... Friends,
let me tell you about another bunch of hatemongers that were just
following orders; they were called Nazis, and they practically wiped
a nation of people from the Earth... just like cigarettes are doing
now! Cigarette smoking is the new Holocaust, and those that partake
in the practice of smoking or selling the wares that promote it
are the Nazis of the Nineties! He doesn't care how many people die
from it! He smiles as you pay for your cancer sticks and says, 'Have
a nice day.'") |
|
| "Advanced"
Job Working in a Convenience Store |
Slacker Randal
Grave's (Jeff Anderson) uncensored reply to convenience store employee
Dante Hicks (Brian O'Halloran) when he claimed: "I'm not even
supposed to be here today": ("...You sound like an asshole!
Jesus, nobody twisted your arm to be here - you're here of your
own volition. You like to think the weight of the world rests on
your shoulder, like this place would fall apart if Dante wasn't
here. Jesus, you over-compensate for having what is basically a
monkey's job. You push f--kin' buttons! Anybody could waltz in here
and do our jobs. You - you're so obsessed with making it seem so
much more epic, so much more important than it really is. Christ,
you work in a convenience store, Dante - and badly I might add.
I work in a s--tty video store, badly as well. You know, that guy
Jay's got it right, man, he has no delusions about what he does.
Us - we like to make ourselves seem so much more important than
the people that come in here to buy a paper or God forbid, cigarettes.
We look down on them as if we're so advanced. Well, if we're so
f--king advanced, what are we doin' working here?") |
|
Four
Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
Funeral
Speech
|
Matthew's
(John Hannah) poignant reading of W. H. Auden's Funeral Blues at the moving funeral of "splendid bugger" Gareth (Simon
Callow), following his sudden heart attack: ("Stop all the
clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with
a juicy bone, Silence the pianos and with muffled drum, Bring out
the coffin, let the mourners come...") |
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BEST FILM SPEECHES AND MONOLOGUES