thursday 13: iconic movie quotes

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1. toto and dorothy

The Wizard of Oz released in 1939, and this line is one of the most often misquoted from the movie.

2. the seduction of Ben

The Graduate was released in 1967, with Mrs. Robinson a woman years older than Ben, the object of her seduction. In truth, Anne Bancroft was only six years Dustin Hoffman’s senior.

3. Harry, with the important questions

This is arguably the most famous line from Dirty Harry (1971), and yet it is also the most often misquoted as “Do you feel lucky, punk?”

4. the ladies of baseball

In truth, the actresses of A League of Their Own (1992) were badass. All of them had to prove they could actually play the game and insisted on doing their own stunts, with one exception. While she could do a split, Geena Davis couldn’t do it in a slide, so a stunt double did that one bit.

5. into the wild blue yonder

This line, and this movie, inspired an entire generation of guys. The number of men I know with “Mav” as a nickname as a result of Top Gun (1986) is astounding. In fact, the US Navy set up recruiting tables in major movie theaters and had the highest applications rate in years in the aftermath.

6. bitey girl

It turns out that the famous line from Jaws (1975) was actually ad-libbed by actor Roy Scheider. And contrary to popular theory, it is thought that Bruce the shark in the movie is actually more fittingly Brucette, as generally only female Great White sharks grow to the length that Bruce is.

7. odd menu choices

The Silence of the Lambs (1991) has some of the creepiest lines of any movie ever, this one just an example. Half the creepy comes from his voice, which Sir Anthony Hopkins has said was inspired by both Truman Capote and Katharine Hepburn.

8. sweet alien boy

E.T. (1982) starred Drew Barrymore and the adorable Elliot. According to the film’s novelization, Elliot was over 10 million years old.

9. Jedis rule

Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) gave rise to one of the most famous lines in movie history. Yet many attribute it to Obi-Wan Kenobi. But it is Han Solo’s line to Luke and General Dodonna during a meeting of rebel pilots.

10. the mother-son dynamic

It’s not always healthy, as we learned from Norman Bates in 1960s Psycho. The movie was so shrouded in mystery that, on the first day, the cast and crew were required to raise their right hands and swear to not divulge even a single word of the plot. Hitchcock even withheld the ending from the cast until it needed to be shot.

11. for the love of Jerry

One of the most romantic lines came from Jerry Maguire (1996), starring Renée Zellweger and Tom Cruise. Ironically, when Zellweger first read the line “You had me at hello,” she thought it was a typo because it didn’t make sense to her. The line also inspired the song “You Had Me From Hello” by Kenny Chesney, who was married to Zellweger for four months in 2005.

12. a lethal little friend

One of Al Pacino’s most famous roles is as Tony in Scarface (1983). His “little friend” is an M16 with a M203 grenade launcher. Incidentally, I’ve shot an M16 many, many times, as it was the weapon of choice for Army soldiers when I was active duty. I’ve also used an M203 on a training range, but just once.

13. and, of course, Katharine

I couldn’t do this without including my beloved Katharine Hepburn, could I? One of my favorite movies is On Golden Pond (1981). This scene is one of my favorites, bittersweetly beautiful. Their chemistry was so strong, yet they’d never worked together or even met each other before filming.