{"id":283,"date":"2005-06-30T17:14:06","date_gmt":"2005-06-30T17:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/?p=283"},"modified":"2005-06-30T17:14:06","modified_gmt":"2005-06-30T17:14:06","slug":"afis_top_100_movie_quotes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/2005\/06\/30\/afis_top_100_movie_quotes\/","title":{"rendered":"AFI’s Top 100 Movie Quotes"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t how this slipped past me, but it seems the American Film Institute<\/a> has released another of those “Top 100 Something-or-other” lists, specifically (as the title of this post indicates) the 100 Greatest Movie Quotes of All Time.
\nThis particular list is a good one, conversationally speaking, because it’s a subject that most everyone is qualified to comment on. Everybody seems has a favorite line from something<\/i>, and it seems to me that trying to stump one another with obscure bits of dialogue has replaced charades as the most popular form of party entertainment in our culture today, at least in the circles in which I run.<\/p>\n

I’m going to spare myself the trouble of retyping and\/or reformatting the list, so you may want to go have a look at it<\/a> on your own. Come back here when you’re finished, I’ll be waiting with a few thoughts…<\/p>\n

Are you back? Great, then let’s discuss…<\/p>\n


\nI don’t know about you, but I was entirely unsurprised by most of the “honorees” on this list. Nearly all of these lines are well-known and frequently appear in everyday usage, even if the movies that spawned them have fallen into obscurity. For example, I’d guess most people are familiar with Mae West’s saucy signature line, “Why don’t you come up sometime and see me?,” but even I was unaware of which Mae West movie it actually came from (She Done Him Wrong<\/i>, in case you missed it).<\/p>\n

Some of the lines on the list, however, didn’t quite live up to my personal definition of “memorable.” Number 41, for instance, from Bonnie and Clyde<\/i>: “We rob banks.” What’s so memorable about that? Bonnie and Clyde<\/i> is a great movie, but not especially quotable. I also probably wouldn’t have included “Plastics,” from The Graduate<\/i> — it’s a single word, meaningless outside of context. If you’re talking about The Graduate<\/i> and you throw out that word, people will get the joke and smile, but if you just slip it into a conversation, no one has any idea that you’re referencing a movie and will likely ask you, “What about plastics?” Silly that it made the list.<\/p>\n

Believe it or not, there were a couple of items on this list that rang absolutely no bells for me. Take number 46, from Now, Voyager<\/i>: “Oh, Jerry, don’t let’s ask for the moon. We have the stars.” Um, okay… not familiar with that one in any way. I am unaware of it being referenced or parodied by other works, like just about every other item on this list has been. It means absolutely nothing to me. Same with Number 62, “What a dump,” from Beyond the Forest<\/i>. Don’t know the movie, don’t know the line.<\/p>\n

There were some lines on the list that I absolutely hate, largely because of overexposure, and I wish they hadn’t been included. I’d be more than happy to never hear about Forrest Gump’s friggin’ box of chocolates ever<\/i> again, and I found Jerry Maguire<\/i> such an aggravating movie that hearing any of its admittedly memorable catchphrases makes me cringe.
\nA couple of items on the list seem to me less memorable than other lines from the same movie. Take Top Gun<\/i>, for instance. Did the people who voted for these items choose the oft-parodied, “You can be my wingman anytime?” No? How about, “Take me to bed or lose me forever?” No, they went with the much less-identifiable, “I feel the need for speed,” a line which could come from a dozen different sources. It just doesn’t scream “Top Gun” to me.<\/p>\n

For the record, I have a problem with the AFI including Kate Hepburn’s speech from On Golden Pond<\/i> or Bill Murray’s goofy fantasy segment from Caddyshack<\/i>, because these are more like monologues than lines, and I think a “movie quote” should be something short and pithy.<\/p>\n

I also have a quibble with the bit from Airplane<\/i>, not because it isn’t funny or memorable, but because it’s an exchange between two characters, not (again) an individual line or catchphrase. But then I guess I didn’t make the rules for this, did I?
\nFinally, did anyone else notice that a couple of the 100 Greatest Movie Quotes were also on that list of Cheesiest Lines in Movie History<\/a> that made the rounds a while back? Well, I guess a line can be cheesy and still be memorable.<\/p>\n

I’ll be back shortly with a list of my own personal favorite movie quotes…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don’t how this slipped past me, but it seems the American Film Institute has released another of those “Top 100 Something-or-other” lists, specifically (as the title of this post indicates) the 100 Greatest Movie Quotes of All Time. This particular list is a good one, conversationally speaking, because it’s a subject that most everyone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film-studies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}