I’m sure this has been asked before but Best Line Deliveries IYO? So, not best lines (though they could be), but ones where the actor took it to a place you weren’t expecting and made the film better/more memorable because of it. I mean, obvs, #spoilers…
Network (1976) – I know it’s an over referenced movie (according to the subs rules) and while it’s got a lot of good things going for it, my focus today is on the acting (of both) but particularly Faye Dunaway’s stumbling “Then don’t leave me.” It’s haunting and one of my favs.
[https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxLs1fXbOtYvQ7ZNONCrCySlfE3-sULjmT?si=WHvLaZjEKlBqblA5](https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxLs1fXbOtYvQ7ZNONCrCySlfE3-sULjmT?si=WHvLaZjEKlBqblA5)
Black Swan (2010) – This could be such a corny scene but it works because of Portman and her “It’s my turn!”
[https://youtu.be/O51arcoVA2Q?si=deIC-sa5yOr-buC9](https://youtu.be/O51arcoVA2Q?si=deIC-sa5yOr-buC9)
IJ: Temple of Doom (1984) – “A boat?! We’re not sinking, we’re crashing!!!” Yes, yes, Kate Capshaw is annoying af in the movie but her scream and line delivery make her memorable. I’ve always seen Willie as sort of a comedic relief character and not a genuine love interest. Prob nostalgia but she (and Shortround) make the movie for me. Lol
[https://youtu.be/abFpTmkxlxU?si=QPQ9jS0ETeQaMrIg](https://youtu.be/abFpTmkxlxU?si=QPQ9jS0ETeQaMrIg)
[https://youtu.be/0u-z-p0rOuw?si=HibVTp1vPxnqnUbn](https://youtu.be/0u-z-p0rOuw?si=HibVTp1vPxnqnUbn)
Erin Brockovich (2000) – A pretty simple and common line but I just love her delivery of “I’m not talking to you bitch.”
[https://youtu.be/qxEAJiVBNF0?si=zJp7YFp3mEFwsY10](https://youtu.be/qxEAJiVBNF0?si=zJp7YFp3mEFwsY10)
I left out my all time favorite since it’s from GF2 and I’m sure you can shortlist it. It just breaks my heart 😉 every time because there’s like conflicting emotions he’s conveying and he does it perfectly.
Discuss. Have a good weekend everyone!
by kilgore9898
16 Comments
[Frances McDormand’s monologue](https://youtu.be/0Erg09oOpmo?si=MD_2E3VXvrxKOdqY) to the smug priest in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is just so damn brutally delivered. The moment I watched it, I knew that she was a lock for another Oscar:
> Y’know what I was thinking about today? I was thinking ’bout those street gangs they had down in Los Angeles, those Crips and those Bloods? I was thinking about that buncha new laws they came up with, in the 1980’s I think it was, to combat those street-gangs, those Crips and those Bloods. And, if I remember rightly, the gist of what those new laws were saying was if you join one of these gangs, and you’re running with ’em, and down the block one night, unbeknownst to you, one of your fellow Crips, or your fellow Bloods, shoot up a place, or stab a guy, well then, even though you didn’t know nothing about it, and even though you may’ve just been standing on a streetcorner minding your own business, what these new laws said was you’re still culpable. You’re still culpable, by the very act of joining those Crips, or those Bloods, in the first place. Which got me thinking, Father, that whole type of situation is kinda like your Church boys, ain’t it? You’ve got your colors, you’ve got your clubhouse, you’re, for want of a better word, a gang. And if you’re upstairs smoking a pipe and reading a bible while one of your fellow gang members is downstairs fucking an altar boy then, Father, just like those Crips, and just like those Bloods, you’re culpable. Cos you joined the gang, man. And I don’t care if you never did shit or you never saw shit or you never heard shit. You joined the gang. You’re culpable. And when a person is culpable to altar-boy-fucking, or any kinda boy-fucking, I know you guys didn’t really narrow that down, then they kinda forfeit the right to come into my house and say anything about me, or my life, or my daughter, or my billboards. So, why don’t you just finish your tea there, Father, and get the fuck outta my kitchen.
Include a clip if you have one!
I was just making a mental list of my favorite lines in film. Not specifically their deliveries but nevertheless. My favorite delivery would have to be the [King Kong speech in Training Day.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C716C8V9bQ&pp=ygUXa2luZyBrb25nIHRyYWluaW5nIGRheSA%3D)
Two from Batman Forever:
**1)** Bruce solving the first riddle: *”Numbers on my face, 10 through 12. The answer is a clock.”*
The rhythm of that line delivery, the cool and abrupt he drops in “the answer is a clock” = best live-action depiction of Batman as detective/genius (not saying it takes a genius to figure out that riddle, but Kilmer folds that into the performance because he treats it like a weightlifter picking up a small dumbbell)
It’s at the beginning of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogjotKi2-vw
**2)** Commissioner Gordon: *”Go! GO! Go, go!”*
One of the most joyful moments in any movie, superhero or not. Probably Pat Hingle’s best moment in the whole franchise. Also love the “wait a minute….WAIT a minute!” bit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1rxehkhH3M
Brad Pitt’s last line in Killing Them Softly. It comes off as corny if delivered by another actor.
I will never got over the way Ewan McGregor said the word democracy as Obi-Wan Kenobi. The passion, the pain. Unforgettable.
https://youtu.be/CyX5dhHKVpQ?si=O62rn8ubH68etSeP
He chose ….. poorly.
[As soon as possible?!](https://youtu.be/yMRmV1Sj6j4?si=KClCEciKGUkQBDc-&t=40s)
Alec Baldwin, exiting a wrecked car with an underage girl in State and Main:
“Well THAT happened.”
[“You are a toy!” ](https://youtu.be/rlNRY6mWmdw?si=MsDL9V6S8QGyHJia) from Toy Story
https://youtu.be/1Expe7hf6MU?si=2yq8iKU5B8DeeKzg
I heard you paint houses
Tombstone, Powers Boothe. Curly Bill – “WELL… BYE”
Cate Blanchett in Notes on A Scandal “They loathed you at school, all of them, I was the idiot who bothered, but only because no one told me you’re a fucking vampire. Is that what you want? To roll around on the floor like lovers? You wanna fuck me Barbara?!”
Colonel Jessup in A Few Good Men, “Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg?”
“Is that the best you can do you pansies?”
https://youtu.be/NYknJmoDDPs?si=qUnn822wFsvnNffy
The ending to Michael Clayton is nearly spot on perfection from two pros.