In talking to people about their favorite movies, I'm surprised how many people admit, upon further questioning, that it isn't really the whole movie that they love, but a particular speech embedded within the movie that they find themselves returning to again and again for entertainment, for inspiration, for enlightenment. Which got me thinking about movie speeches that I find myself returning to over time. I don't pretend that this is a definitive list, but I would argue that all of these speeches know how to bring the goosebumps if you're in the right mood for them.
- "Greed is Good" - Wall Street (1987). "The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind." Decades from now, scholars won't need textbooks and analysis to understand the 1980-2010. That era's narcissistic, Darwinian flaws are all laid bare in this marvelously succinct speech by Michael Douglas in his role as Gordon Gekko, an unrepentant arbitrageur, stock trader, and corporate raider.
- "America Isn't Easy" - The American President (1996). "We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things, and two things only: making you afraid of it, and telling you who's to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections." Seriously, they should consider making this speech part of the required curriculum in every civics classes in every high school in America. It reminds us that democracy is hard, that our election process is dangerously superficial, and that we need serious people to address the serious problems that our nation faces. [Michael Douglas again: the man knows how to pick a role!]
- "People Will Come" - Field of Dreams (1989). "For it is money they have, and peace they lack ..." intones James Earl Jones in this paean to the nostalgic (albeit impossibly sentimentalized) notion of a past time when dads bonded with their sons over playing catch, our love of baseball united us as a nation, and a part of us still embraced the possibility of magic.
- "St Crispin's Day" - Henry V (1989).
"This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."
Probably unfair to throw this one in, since Shakespeare was the screenwriter! While Kenneth Branaugh does a brilliant job of delivering this powerful speech, it's the soaring rhetoric of the language that catches your breath and wrenches it out of your lungs. Each time I replay this scene, I'm struck anew by the realization that people join the military today for basically the same reasons they did 1000 years ago: for honor, for glory, for brotherhood, and for the hope of immortality.
- "Today We Celebrate Our Independence Day" - Independence Day (1996). "We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!" Another speech designed to rally the troops, but with a more global message. Because, face it, if we can't all agree that aliens intent on destroying humanity deserve to die, what hope is there that the nations of the world will ever find common ground?
- "The Most Important Discovery of My Life" - Beautiful Mind (2002). "I've always believed in numbers; and the equations and logics that lead to reason. But after a lifetime of such pursuits, I ask,"What truly is logic? Who decides reason?" My quest has taken me through the physical, the metaphysical, the delusional -- and back. And I have made the most important discovery of my career, the most important discovery of my life: It is only in the mysterious equations of love that any logic or reasons can be found." This speech is a powerful reminder that mankind's pursuit of science and understanding must be tempered by humanity and, yes, love.
- "I'll Be There". Grapes of Wrath (1940). "Wherever there's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever there's a cop beating up a guy, I'll be there. I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad. I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry and they know supper's ready…And when the people are eatin' the stuff they raise, livin' in the houses they build, I'll be there too." We intuitively know that the people we love go on living even after they leave us, but this universal truth has never been stated with such simplicity and grace as in this scene from the immortal John Steinbeck classic.
- "I'm the Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth" - The Pride of the Yankees (1942). "People all say that I've had a bad break. But today -- today I consider myself the luckiest man
on the face of the earth" intones the great Lou Gehrig in his final speech before thousands of adoring Yankees fans as he announces his forced retirement from baseball due to the diagnosis of the genetic disease we now know as ALS. This speech is a lovely reminder that happiness isn't about getting everything you want; it's about being wise enough to appreciate everything you have.
- "Closing Argument" -To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). "And so, a quiet, humble, respectable negro, who has had the unmitigated temerity to feel sorry for a white woman, has had to put his word against two white peoples. The defendant is not guilty. But somebody in this courtroom is." The irony of this great quote is, of course, that almost everyone in the courtroom is guilty - perhaps not of the crime of beating poor Mayella Ewell, but of perpetuating the grotesque racism that has led to Tom Robinson's trial (and, in the end, his death). There are lots of magnificent courtroom speeches in the movies (indeed, this spot almost went to the great Bible speech from Inherit the Wind), but to my mind, none that can hold a candle to this lyric plea for social justice, delivered with brilliant reserve by Gregory Peck.
- "Was it over when the Germans Bombed Pearl Harbor?" - Animal House (1978). I had to include this speech because it is just so uniquely American. How like us, as a country, to charge into the breach armed only with a shaky (at best) understanding of history but an unshakable sense of moral authority.
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