Fun Friday–Favorite Movies/TV for Dialogue

My cousin Caleb suggested today’s Fun Friday topic—exploring some of my favorite movies/TV when it comes to dialogue. While these may not be some that are considered the “best” when it comes to dialogue (I’ve always heard that Woody Allen’s movies are great for this, but I’ve never been able to watch one all the way through), when I start thinking about movie/TV lines that get stuck in my head, these are the top ones:

5. Once again, I’ve had to include TV in this topic because of LOST. One of the things that the writers of this series did with the very large cast was give certain characters words/phrases that have become their signature. In fact, Lostpedia.com has a special area of the site devoted solely to “regularly spoken phrases.” Could Losties make it through an episode without hearing Hurley say, “Dude”? (Lostpedia actually keeps an episode-by-episode tally of how many times he says it) Or John Locke (or Jack or Ben) saying, “Don’t tell me what I can’t do.” But the ultimate achievement in dialogue in LOST is with Sawyer and his cultural-reference nicknames for everyone on the island (Baby Huey, Cupcake, Freckles, Dimples, Captain Bunny Killer, Shaft, Shaggy, Kenny Rogers, Chicken Little, Deepdish, Grape Ape, Jabba, Han & Chewie, Jumbotron, Muttonchops, Rerun, Dr. Giggles, Crouching Tiger & Hidden Dragon, and my favorite, Gimpy McCrutch):

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4. I’ve quoted a few lines from A Knight’s Tale several times here already, but the dialogue is what really makes this movie so much fun—especially in the role of Chaucer. (Warning, Paul Bettany’s naked bum can be seen in this clip):

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3. The first time I watched the movie Serenity, I had to watch it with the captions on until I got the cadence of their dialogue and figured out the unique words Joss Whedon and the writers wrote for the cast. It began with the TV series Firefly, a science fiction series set in the future where humans had to leave Earth. Because English and Chinese speakers are the highest population, the writers imagined a future where the languages have become somewhat fused–sort of like Spanglish. (Plus, it gives them a creative way for the characters to curse without getting censored.) But the greatest thing about this series/movie is that just when you think you know what someone’s going to say next, they surprise you and pull out something completely random. It was hard to find a good example on YouTube, but hopefully this will demonstrate:

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2. The Princess Bride is one of the most quotable movies I’ve ever seen. It’s just one zinger after another:
— “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”
— “Inconceivable!”
— “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
— “As you wish.”
— “Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while.”
— “You’ve been mostly dead all day.”
— “Have fun storming the castle!”

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1. Several weeks ago, I featured my favorite quotes from Steel Magnolias. This film came out the summer right before I started college, and my friends and I spent the next three or four years quoting it incessantly. There’s a line for every occasion in this movie!

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