|
 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 |
Charlotte's Web (1973)
 Charlotte's Farewell
|
Spider Charlotte's
(voice of Debbie Reynolds) touching farewell speech to Wilbur (voice
of Henry Gibson) after his fate has been secured by earning a special
prize at the fair: ("I'm a little tired, perhaps, but I feel
peaceful. Your success today was, to a small degree, my success.
You will live now, secure and safe... You have been my friend. That,
in itself, is a tremendous thing. After all, what's a life, anyway?
We're born, we live a little while, we die. A spider's life can't
help being something of a mess with all this trapping and eating
flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my own life
a trifle... I will not be going back to the barn... I'm done for,
Wilbur. In a while, I'll be dead. I haven't even strength enough
to climb down into the crate...") |
|
The Exorcist (1973)
Mother's
Strident Demands for an Exorcist
|
Chris McNeil's
(Ellen Burstyn) angry insistence to Father Karras (Jason Miller)
that her daughter Regan (Linda Blair) needs an exorcist: ("You
show me Regan's double, same face, same voice, everything. And I'd
know it wasn't Regan. I'd know in my gut. I'm telling you that that
thing upstairs isn't my daughter. Now, I want you to tell me that
you know for a fact that there's nothing wrong with my daughter,
except in her mind. YOU TELL ME FOR A FACT YOU KNOW AN EXORCISM
WOULDN'T DO ANY GOOD. YOU TELL ME THAT!") |
|
Soylent Green (1973)
"Soylent Green Is People!"
|
Detective
Thorn's (Charlton Heston) frantic warning to Police Chief Hatcher
(Brock Peters) as he was dragged off: ("It's people. Soylent
Green is made out of people. They're making our food out of people.
Next thing they'll be breeding us like cattle for food. You've gotta
tell them. You've gotta tell them!... You tell everybody. Listen
to me, Hatcher. You've gotta tell them! Soylent Green is people! We've gotta stop them somehow!") |
|
Female Trouble (1974)
Freakish "Nightclub Act"
|
Grotesquely
disfigured Dawn Davenport's (drag queen Divine) bizarre, freakish
"nightclub act", in which after she jumps up and down
on a trampoline and fondles fish and a gun, she tells the audience:
("Thank you! I love you! Thank you! Thank you from the bottom
of my black little heart! You came here for some excitement tonight
and that's just what you're going to get! Take a good look at ME
because I'm going to be on the front of every newspaper in this
country tomorrow! You're looking at crime personified AND DON'T
YOU FORGET IT! I framed Leslie Bacon! I called the heroin hot line
on Abby Hoffman! I bought the gun that Bremmer used to shoot Wallace!
I had an affair with Juan Corona! I blew Richard Speck! And I'm
so f--king beautiful I can't stand it myself! Now, everybody freeze!
Who wants to be famous? Who wants to DIE for art?!"); when
an audience member leaps up and replies: "I do!", she
shoots him, and when the audience flees, she continues to fire on
them maniacally |
|
Astonishing "Execution Speech" |
Dawn Davenport's
(Divine) astonishing "acceptance speech" on
the electric chair before execution featured a shockingly prescient
speech on the cult of media celebrity: ("I'd like to thank
all the wonderful people that made this great moment in my life
come true. My daughter Taffy, who died in order to further my career.
My friends Chicklette and Concetta who should be here with me today.
All the fans who died so fashionably and gallantly at my nightclub
act. And especially all those wonderful people who were kind enough
to read about me in the newspapers and watch me on the television
news shows. Without all of you, my career could never have gotten
this far. It was you that I burn for and it is you that I will die
for! Please remember, I love every f--king one of you!") |
|
The Godfather, Part 2
(1974)
"This Must All End" Speech
|
Abused and
embittered wife Kay Corleone's (Diane Keaton) denouncement speech
of her crime boss husband Michael (Al Pacino) regarding their marriage:
("Oh! Oh, Michael, Michael, you are blind. It wasn't
a miscarriage. It was an abortion. An abortion, Michael, just like
our marriage is an abortion, something that's unholy and evil! I
didn't want your son, Michael. I wouldn't bring another one of your
sons into this world! It was an abortion, Michael! It was a son,
a son, and I had it killed because this must all end!") |
|
Jaws (1975)
Harrowing Recollection of the Sinking of the USS Indianapolis
|
Quint's (Robert Shaw) recollection of the grisly,
hideous story of the ill-fated USS Indianapolis' crew during
the World War II-era, about an attack of swarming sharks in which
800 sailors perished (and only 316 men survived) in shark-infested
waters: ("...So we formed ourselves into tight groups...the
idea was, the shark comes to the nearest man and he starts poundin'
and hollerin' and screamin'. Sometimes the shark go away. Sometimes
he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark, he looks right into
ya, right into your eyes. Y'know, the thing about a shark, he's
got lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eyes. When
he comes after ya, he doesn't seem to be livin' until he bites
ya, and those black eyes roll over white, and then - aww, then
you hear that terrible high-pitch screamin', the ocean turns red,
and in spite of all the poundin' and the hollerin', they all come
in and rip ya to pieces...") |
|
Love and Death (1975)
Final Thoughts on Life, Love and Death
|
Boris Grushenko's
(Woody Allen) rambling, final thoughts on life and death: ("The
question is - have I learned anything about life. Only that human
beings are divided into mind and body. The mind embraces all the
nobler aspirations, like poetry and philosophy, but the body has
all the fun. The important thing, I think, is not to be bitter...
if it turns about that there is a god, I don't think that he is
evil, I think that the worse thing you could say is that he is,
basically, an under-achiever. After all, there are worse things
in life than death. If you've ever spent an evening with an insurance
salesman, you know what I'm talking about. The key is, to not think
of death as an end, but as more of a very effective way to cut down
on your expenses. Regarding love, heh, what can you say? It's not
the quantity of your sexual relations that counts. It's the quality.
On the other hand, if the quantity drops below once every eight
months, I would definitely look into. Well, that's about it for
me folks. Goodbye") |
|
All the President's Men (1976)
Editor in Chief's Cautionary Lecture to Reporters
|
Washington
Post editor Ben Bradlee's (Jason Robards) cautionary lecture
to his two reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein (Robert Redford
and Dustin Hoffman) about their preliminary 'Watergate' findings:
("You know the results of the latest Gallup Poll? Half the
country never even heard of the word Watergate. Nobody gives
a s--t. You guys are probably pretty tired, right? Well, you should
be. Go on home, get a nice hot bath. Rest up - 15 minutes. Then
get your asses back in gear. We're under a lot of pressure, you
know, and you put us there. Nothing's riding on this except the,
uh, First amendment to the Constitution, freedom of the press, and
maybe the future of the country. Not that any of that matters, but
if you guys f--k up again, I'm going to get mad. Goodnight.") |
|
Network (1976)
"I'm As Mad As Hell..."
|
# 6
Howard Beale's (Peter Finch) "mad as hell"
speech to his viewers: ("I don't have to tell you things
are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's
out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's
worth, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the
counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody
anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it.
We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat,
and we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells
us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent
crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things
are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything
everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit
in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting
smaller, and all we say is: 'Please, at least leave us alone in
our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted
radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.' Well,
I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get MAD! I don't
want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you
to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell
you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and
the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All
I know is that first you've got to get mad. (shouting) You've
got to say: 'I'm a human being, god-dammit! My life has
value!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get
up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to
the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell: 'I'm
as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!'...) |
|
| "I Want Angry Shows" |
Smart and driven UBS-TV programmer Diana Christensen's (Faye Dunaway) desire to do anything to improve network ratings, including having a show based upon a real-life terrorist group: ("...the American people want somebody to articulate their rage for them. I've been telling you people since I took this job six months ago that I want angry shows. I don't want conventional programming on this network. I want counter-culture. I want anti-establishment. Now, I don't want to play butch boss with you people. But when I took over this department, it had the worst programming record in television history. This network hasn't one show in the top twenty. This network is an industry joke. We better start putting together one winner for next September. I want a show developed, based on the activities of a terrorist group") |
|
| "We Deal in Illusions" |
Howard Beale's
(Peter Finch) "we deal in illusions" speech, attacking
television itself: ("You people and sixty-two million other
Ameicans are listening to me right now. Because less than three
percent of you people read books. Because less than fifteen percent
of you read newspapers. Because the only truth you know is what
you get over this tube. Right now, there is a whole, an entire generation
that never knew anything that didn't come out of this tube. This
tube is the gospel, the ultimate revelation. This tube can make
or break Presidents, Popes, Prime Ministers. This tube is the most
awesome, god-damned force in the whole godless world...We deal in
illusions, man. None of it is true! But you people sit there day
after day, night after night, all ages, colors, creeds - we're all
you know. You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning
here. You're beginning to think that the tube is reality and that
your own lives are unreal. You do whatever the tube tells you. You
dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children
like the tube. You even think like the tube. This is mass madness.
You maniacs. In God's name, you people are the real thing. We are
the illusion. So turn off your television sets. Turn them off now.
Turn them off right now. Turn them off and leave them off. Turn
them off right in the middle of this sentence I am speaking to you
now. Turn them off!") |
|
| Husband Berating |
The superb
and moving (and Oscar-winning) monologue in which Max Schumacher's
(William Holden) wife Louise (Beatrice Straight) berates her husband for unfaithfulness
with Diana (Faye Dunaway): ("Get out, go anywhere you want,
go to a hotel, go live with her, and don't come back! Because, after
25 years of building a home and raising a family and all the senseless
pain that we have inflicted on each other, I'm damned if I'm going
to stand here and have you tell me you're in love with somebody
else! Because this isn't a convention weekend with your secretary,
is it? Or -- or some broad that you picked up after three belts
of booze. This is your great winter romance, isn't it? Your last
roar of passion before you settle into your emeritus years. Is that
what's left for me? Is that my share? She gets the winter passion,
and I get the dotage? What am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to
sit at home knitting and purling while you slink back like some
penitent drunk? I'm your wife, damn it! And, if you can't work up
a winter passion for me, the least I require is respect and allegiance!
(sobbing) I hurt! Don't you understand that? I hurt badly!")
-- and Max's response to Louise's query if Diane loves him, dismissing
Diana as shallow and work-obsessed: ("I'm not sure she's capable
of any real feelings. She's television generation. She learned life
from Bugs Bunny. The only reality she knows comes to her from over
the TV set...") |
|
Board Chair's Description of the "New World" |
UBS Chairman
of the Board, corporate pitchman and business magnate Arthur Jensen's
(Ned Beatty) explanation to "mad-hatter" Howard Beale
(Peter Finch) about how the "new world" works: ("You
have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I
won't have it, is that clear?! You think you have merely stopped
a business deal - that is not the case!...There are no nations!
There are no peoples! There are no Russians. There are no Arabs!
There are no third worlds! There is no West! There is only one holistic
system of systems...") |
|
| "Death is Suddenly a Perceptible Thing to Me" |
The middle-aged
Max Schumacher (William Holden), at the end of his affair with emotionless and cold Diana (Faye Dunaway), expressed his guilt about the pain and suffering he had caused, and then described his own impending
mortality: ("...And I feel lousy about that. I feel lousy
about the pain that I've caused my wife and my kids. I feel guilty and conscience-stricken
and all of those things that you think sentimental but which my generation
called simple human decency. And I miss my home because I'm beginning to get
scared s--tless. Because all of a sudden, it's closer to the end than it is
to the beginning, and death is suddenly a perceptible thing to me - with definable
features. You're dealing with a man that has primal doubts, Diana, and you've
got to cope with it. I'm not some guy discussing male menopause on the Barbara
Walters show. I'm the man that you presumably love. I'm part of your life.
I live here. I'm real. You can't switch to another station...I just want you
to love me. I just want you to love me, primal doubts and all. You understand
that, don't you?") |
|
Rocky (1976)
A Fighter and a Boxing Trainer
|
Trainer Mickey's (Burgess Meredith) attempt to
woo Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) to be his manager for his
unlikely title fight: ("Well, what ya need is a manager.
A manager, listen to me. I know, because I've been in this racket
for fifty years...I've seen it all, all of it. Ya know what I've
done?...I have done it all..."), and Rocky's response - a
yelled tirade at a departing Mickey as he descends the stairs:
("What about my prime, Mick? At least you had a prime? I
had no prime, I've had nothin'....") - and then his change
of heart, reconciliation, and acceptance of Mick as his trainer |
|
Taxi Driver (1976)
"All the Animals Come Out at Night" Opening Voice-Over
|
Travis Bickle's (Robert De Niro) rambling, vitriolic
opening monologue (delivered in voice-over) as he reads (or hallucinates)
from his diary about his disgust at the city: ("All
the animals come out at night - whores, skunk pussies, buggers,
queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday a real
rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets. I go all
over. I take people to the Bronx, Brooklyn, I take 'em to Harlem.
I don't care. Don't make no difference to me. It does to some.
Some won't even take spooks. Don't make no difference to me") |
|
| Taxi Passenger's Revenge |
A taxi passenger's
(Martin Scorsese) chilling, shocking threats about killing his unfaithful
wife: ("...I'm gonna kill her. I'm gonna kill her with a .44
Magnum pistol. A .44 Magnum pistol. I'm gonna kill her with that
gun. Did you ever see what a .44 Magnum pistol can do to a woman's
face? I mean it will f---in' destroy it. Just blow her right apart.
That's what it will do to her face. Now, did you ever see what it
can do to a woman's pussy? That you should see. That you should
see what a .44 Magnum's gonna do to a woman's pussy you should see...") |
|
| "You
Talkin' To Me?" Monologue |
Taxi driver
Travis Bickle's (Robert DeNiro) indelible,
much- imitated "You talkin' to me?..." scene belligerently delivered
(to the camera and an invisible enemy) in front of a mirror as he
practices quick-drawing with his guns in his squalid walkup apartment
(ending with the conclusion: "You're dead"):
("You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me?
Then who the hell else are you talkin' to? You talkin' to me? Well,
I'm the only one here. Who do the f--k do you think you're talking
to?") |
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BEST FILM SPEECHES AND MONOLOGUES