Movies have been part of our lives for more than one hundred years and there aren’t yet enough studies to measure the influence they have on modern society. The more memorable a character, the more people will want to imitate - in dress, attitude or manner of speaking. I was writing in a previous post about the red jacket James Dean wore in ‘Rebel Without a Cause’ which became a fashion statement for a generation. But fashions change and such a jacket would be irrelevant today, just as there are few young men out there who would consider copying John Travolta’s haircut in ‘Grease’. In 1978, when the movie came out, that meant something, it was cool, today not anymore.
One thing that doesn’t seem to go out of style are famous one liners or catchphrases who have made their way into popular culture. You can hear them in everyday conversation, some are referenced in memes and gifs, which are after all a recent invention and it is not uncommon to see young people using phrases from classical movies they have never watched. Case in point - I’ve heard my 11-year old son saying ‘Hasta la vista, baby’, although he has no idea who Arnold Schwarzenegger is and ’Terminator 2’ came out some 18 years before he was born.
Unsurprisingly, the first memorable movie quote dates back to 1927, when the first ‘talkie’ was released - ’The Jazz Singer’. One can imagine the impact a movie with recorded sound had on people used to watching silent films. Suddenly, it became cool to quote from the movie:
’Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain't heard nothin' yet!’
Actually, this ‘you ain’t heard nothin’ yet!’ seems oddly familiar, it’s just a thing people say without any idea where it comes from.
A few years ago, the American Film Institute created a ballot to establish the 100 Greatest Movie Quotes of All Times, not only to determine the most memorable lines, but also to measure the cultural impact of movies.
‘Movie Quotes that viewers use in their own lives and situations; circulating through popular culture, they become part of the national lexicon.’(AFI poll)
Of the 400 phrases on the ballot, the best line ever was judged to be ’Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn’, Rhett Butler’s final words to Scarlett O’Hara at the end of ’Gone With the Wind’(1939). When is it appropriate to use the phrase? Whenever you’re fed up with someone, just as Rhett Butler has had enough of putting up with a whimsical woman like Scarlett. And it applies perfectly to everyday life - who hasn’t been in a situation that’s just too much, you simply can’t take it anymore and you just feel like slamming the door like Rhett and be done with it.
As ’Gone With the Wind’ is one of the greatest movies ever it is not surprising that other two quotes from it made it to the Top 100: ’After all, tomorrow is another day!’ and As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again. Both of them, lines we can relate to.
The most represented movie in the top 100 is ‘Casablanca’(1942). I’m sure most of you will read the following line in Humphrey Bogart’s voice: ’Here’s lookin at you, kid!’. There’s nothing you can do, the words are etched into our collective mind and we instantly associate them with him. And, of course, the words we console ourselves over a lost love ’We’ll always have Paris’. Maybe you and your loved one were never in Paris, but you must have been somewhere together, there’s a special place where you once were happy and you’ll always have that…
’I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse.’ This is the kind of one liner that needs no explanation, everybody can hear Marlon Brando saying the words in ’The Godfather’. No matter what you do in life, it’s cool to quote Don Corleone, a fascinating character you’d like to emulate, without, of course, all the nastiness and the dangers of being a mafia boss. Maybe you’re just preparing your strategy to ask for a raise, why feel nervous and small when you can go into that meeting feeling like Vito Corleone?
If you’re a movie-lover like me, you must have seen ’E.T.’(1982) at some point. And you must have used the phrase ’E.T. phone home’ - you don’t have to be an alien to feel sad and homesick, you must have felt the need to ‘phone home’ at some point in your life. Another famous quote on the same theme is from ‘The Wizard of Oz’ (1939) ‘Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore’, a line that made it to the subsequent versions of the movie, so even today’s children can reference it.
If I were to say ’Here's Johnny!’, I don’t think there would be any question as to who this Johnny might be. Playing Johnny in ‘The Shining’ is an outstanding moment in Jack Nicholson’s impressive career. Chances are you don’t go around chasing people with an axe like the character in Stephen King’s horror book, but it’s fun to say it! Speaking of Jack Nicholson, I’m sure you can hear him yelling ’You can't handle the truth!’, his most memorable line in the 1992 ’A Few Good Men’. Chances are you’ve used the same phrase caught up in a particularly heated argument. Just as you might have used Robert De Niro’s classical one liner ’You talking to me?’ from ’Taxi Driver’ (1976). Of course, De Niro’s driver is crazy, just as Norman Bates in ’Psycho’, which also made it to the top 100 with a very disturbing line ’ A boy’s best friend is his mother’.
Feeling in love and happy? You might just quote from Titanic’ and spread your arms like Leonardo Di Caprio ‘I’m the king of the world’. It’s a perfect moment, let’s not spoil it thinking of what might happen when the iceberg shows up.
Something’s wrong and you don’t know what to do, there’s the ’Apollo 13’ one liner you might want to use ’Houston, we have a problem’. Maybe they won’t remember the movie and the technical problems of the Apollo mission, but whoever hears you using that phrase will immediately know you need help.
Want to wish someone luck in a difficult endeavor, it’s OK to say ’May the Force be with you!’, the famous line from the 1977 ’Star Wars’. Personally, I’m not a fan of the series, but I know what it means, it’s part of our modern culture. Just as you don’t have to be a ’Lord of the Rings’ fan to know what ’My precious!’ means. Something you like very much, it doesn’t have to be the ‘one ring to rule them all’, it could be just a humble donut you’re excited to buy and you can imitate Gollum, just to emphasize how much you wanted that donut.
The American Film Institute put it only on the 48th position, but many film critics consider it the best one liner ever. ’Nobody’s perfect’, the fabulous last line in the 1959 classical movie ’Some Like It Hot’. Jack Lemmon trying to explain to the besotted comical-looking millionaire why they cannot get married. The funny little man shoots down every argument until an exasperated Jack Lemmon takes off his wig and announces he’s a man. The millionaire doesn’t even flinch ‘Nobody’s perfect’.
Every group of friends, every family has its favorite movie quotes, a line they like to say as a way to reference the shared memory of a movie they’ve enjoyed together, the bond created over that film. According to the American Film Institute, as a society, every time we quote a movie line ‘we evoke the memory of a treasured film, thus ensuring and enlivening its historical legacy’.
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References: American Film Institute
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