Here is a list of the all time best quotes from film characters. This was the ballot the American Film Institute used to put together tonight's special on CBS.
Reading this reminds me of one of the best TV ad campaigns I ever saw. One of the Turner networks was debuting "movies for guys who really like movies" about 10 years ago. The commercials featured nondescript guys approaching strangers and reciting lines that everyone knew (like "Hasta la vista, baby"). The best part were the ones that were more obscure (like "I'm an excellent driver" - I haven't TIVOd the show yet so I can't tell if that one made the top 100, but it is number 290 on the ballot).
They didn't put the first of my favorite quote from my favorite film. So I'll post the full quote here. #355, Orson Welles' Harry Lime in the Third Man, "In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."
Posted by: John Top | June 22, 2005 at 07:30 AM
I love this, and it is a new one to me. Emminently true and widely applicable, I think, as well.
In truth, I haven't gotten through the whole list myself yet.
Posted by: Dave Tufte | June 22, 2005 at 01:17 PM
As it happens the Third Man was written by my favorite (fiction) author, Graham Greene so it's his writing.
Posted by: John Top | June 22, 2005 at 03:11 PM
Ewww ... drunken, pseudo-Marxist, whiny expatriate stuff. I read "The Power and the Glory" about 20 years ago - and it was good - but not good enough to encourage me to read more.
P.S. I much prefer Graham Greene (the actor).
Posted by: Dave Tufte | June 23, 2005 at 01:29 PM