AFI's_100_Years..._100_Movie_Quotes

AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes

AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes

List of culturally impactful quotations from American cinema

Part of the American Film Institute's 100 Years... series, AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes is a list of the top 100 quotations in American cinema.[1] The American Film Institute revealed the list on June 21, 2005, in a three-hour television program on CBS. The program was hosted by Pierce Brosnan and had commentary from many Hollywood actors and filmmakers. A jury consisting of 1,500 film artists, critics, and historians selected "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn", spoken by Clark Gable as Rhett Butler in the 1939 American Civil War epic Gone with the Wind, as the most memorable American movie quotation of all time.

Quick Facts

Criteria

Jurors were asked to consider the following criteria in making their selections:

  • Movie quotation: A statement, phrase or brief exchange of dialogue spoken in an American film.[lower-alpha 1] Lyrics from songs are not eligible.
  • Cultural impact: Movie quotations that viewers use in their own lives and situations; circulating through popular culture, they become part of the national lexicon.
  • Legacy: Movie quotations that viewers use to evoke the memory of a treasured film, thus ensuring and enlivening its historical legacy.

The list

The table below reproduces the quotes as the AFI published them.[2]

More information Rank, Quotation ...

By the numbers

With six quotes, Casablanca is the most represented film. Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz are tied for second, with three each. Sunset Boulevard, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Graduate, and Jerry Maguire each have two quotes.

Rick Blaine (Casablanca) is the character with the most quotes (four); Dorothy Gale (The Wizard of Oz), Harry Callahan (Dirty Harry and Sudden Impact), James Bond (Dr. No and Goldfinger), Norma Desmond (Sunset Boulevard), Scarlett O'Hara (Gone with the Wind), and The Terminator (The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day) have two quotes each.

With five, Humphrey Bogart is the actor with the most quotes (four from Casablanca and one from The Maltese Falcon). Al Pacino, Bette Davis, Marlon Brando, Tom Hanks, and Vivien Leigh have three apiece, while Jack Nicholson, Judy Garland, Gloria Swanson, Dustin Hoffman, Clint Eastwood, Charlton Heston, James Cagney, and Arnold Schwarzenegger have two each. Sean Connery also has two entries, but his two quotes are shared with five other actors.[lower-alpha 7] As well as the five quotes spoken by Bogart, two other quotes on the list (from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and To Have and Have Not) were spoken to him, by Alfonso Bedoya and Lauren Bacall, respectively. Further, "Round up the usual suspects." was spoken in his presence and for his character's benefit by Claude Rains, and "Play it, Sam." is often mistakenly attributed to him; he actually said, "You played it for her, you can play it for me. ... If she can stand it, I can! Play it!"

The line "My precious", from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, is the only quote from a movie released in the 21st century and the only one by a CGI character.

Quotations by decade:

  • 1920s: 1
  • 1930s: 16
  • 1940s: 17
  • 1950s: 9
  • 1960s: 13
  • 1970s: 16
  • 1980s: 17
  • 1990s: 10
  • 2000s: 1

Top years:

  • 1942: 9
  • 1939: 7
  • 1967: 5
  • 1933: 4
  • 1976: 4

Misquotes

See also: List of movie misquotes

A number of the entries are frequently misquoted. The following have become well-known but are incorrect:

  • #4: "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."
  • #7: "I'm ready for my closeup, Mr. DeMille."
  • #9: "Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy ride."
  • #26: "Why don't you come up and see me sometime?"
  • #28: "Play it again, Sam."
  • #35: "We're gonna need a bigger boat."
  • #36: "Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges!"
  • #39: "If you build it, they will come."
  • #40: "Life is like a box of chocolates."
  • #47: "Come back, Shane."
  • #50: "Houston, we've got a problem."
  • #51: "Do you feel lucky, punk?"
  • #57: "Greed is good."
  • #63: "Mrs. Robinson, are you trying to seduce me?"

Real-life sources

A number of the quotes are drawn from real-world events and sources:

More information Rank, Quotation ...

Opening and closing lines

Only "Rosebud," from Citizen Kane, and "Hello, gorgeous," from Funny Girl, are the opening lines of a film. Twelve quotes are closing lines:

More information Rank, Quotation ...

See also

Notes

  1. AFI defines an American film as an English language motion picture with significant creative and/or financial production elements from the United States. Additionally, only quotations from feature-length American films released before January 1, 2004, were considered. AFI defines a feature-length film as a motion picture of narrative format that is typically over 60 minutes in length.
  2. Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta repeats Brando's speech in Raging Bull.
  3. The ballot entry for this quote included the word "got," which was removed from the AFI web page at some point.
  4. Often misattributed to Dirty Harry.
  5. Paul Newman repeats the line later in the film, mocking the prison warden, though he says "a failure", rather than simply "failure." Also heard quoted in this form.
  6. This paraphrases a line from The Tempest by William Shakespeare: "We are such stuff as dreams are made on" (often misquoted as "made of")
  7. Also George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig.
  8. Appears in some form in a total of 25 films; Dr. No, From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die, The Man with the Golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, A View to a Kill, The Living Daylights, Licence to Kill, GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day, Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, Spectre, and No Time to Die.
  9. According to The Annotated Wizard of Oz, "[L. Frank] Baum [who quotes the phrase in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz] appears to be playing with the famous sentiment of John Howard Payne's 1823 song, 'Home, Sweet Home' [the melody of which, by Sir Henry Bishop, is played over several repetitions of the line]: 'Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.' ... Baum's irony was apparently lost on the makers of the famous movie. Arthur Freed, assistant to the producer Mervyn LeRoy, was responsible for making 'There's No Place Like Home' the theme of the 1939 MGM picture....He was adamant that Dorothy repeat 'There's No Place Like Home' when she clicks her heels together three times.'" Michael Patrick Hearn (Ed.), The Annotated Wizard of Oz, p. 77, n. 1.
  10. Mae West paraphrased the line in her next film, I'm No Angel, as "Come up and see me sometime". Hence the line in She Done Him Wrong is often misquoted as "Why don't you come up and see me sometime?"
  11. Sometimes claimed to be an ad lib.
  12. Often misquoted as "Play it again, Sam", including in the title of a 1972 Woody Allen film.
  13. Popularly misquoted as "Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!", most likely from Blazing Saddles, in which the line is so worded.
  14. An actual quotation from Lou Gehrig's retirement speech.
  15. The line is based on an actual message from Apollo 13. Astronaut Swigert said "Houston, we've had a problem here," then Lovell repeated "Houston, we've had a problem".
  16. Often misquoted as "How he got in my pajamas, I'll never know." The time frame also varies ("yesterday," "once," etc.).
  17. The scene from the film in which this line appears is also excerpted in the movie's trailer, but in the trailer the sequence is edited so that Gekko's line occurs as simply "Greed is good." This shorter version of the line has become more popular – and more widely quoted – than the fuller version.
  18. This maxim is attributed to several military strategists, notably Sun-tzu, Chinese general.
  19. Often misquoted as "Well, here's another fine mess you've gotten me into!"
  20. Although occurring in the 1949 film, this line did not become a widespread catchphrase until after the 1961 premiere of Edward Albee's play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. In the opening scene of that play, Martha quotes this line and then (since she has apparently forgotten) she asks George which of Bette Davis's films it is from.
  21. This line, which does not appear in any of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories, was first said onscreen in The Return of Sherlock Holmes. The line's first occurrence is in the stage play Sherlock Holmes, written entirely by William Gillette with Doyle's approval, for which Gilette listed Doyle as co-author.
  22. An ad-lib. The line is Ed McMahon's signature introduction of Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show.
  23. A longtime Jolson catchphrase also heard, with variations, in his earlier Vitaphone short film "A Plantation Act" (1926).
  24. Usually misquoted as: "No more wire hangers, ever!"
  25. Frequently heard as "...Twas beauty killed the beast"
  26. Later, "Vodka Martini, shaken, not stirred." In the film You Only Live Twice, accidentally "Stirred, not shaken."
  27. Appeared in multiple other films.
  28. Although "Who's on first" appeared in numerous other Abbott and Costello films prior to 1945, the one featured in The Naughty Nineties is considered the best rendition of the sketch.

References

  1. [1]
    "AFI 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes: The 100 Greatest Movie Quotes Of All Time". American Film Institute.
  2. [2]
    "AFI's List of Nominated Quotes". American Film Institute. Retrieved December 22, 2019.
  3. [3]
    Baer, William (2008). Classic American Films: Conversations with the Screenwriters. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood. pp. 201–202. ISBN 978-0-313-34898-3. Reportedly an ad lib. Commonly misheard as "We're gonna need a bigger boat," as for example at the Urban Dictionary.
  4. [4]
    "During the 'Gay Nineties' period, George M. coined [this as] his famous curtain speech ..."
    -- "Obituary: George M. Cohan, 64, Dies at Home Here". The New York Times. New York. November 6, 1942. Retrieved December 29, 2018.
  5. [5]
    Originally a quote by Muhammad Ali, who repeatedly "yelled that sentence". YouTube.[dead YouTube link] soon after winning his first bout against Sonny Liston in 1964.
  6. [6]
    "Luckiest Man". Baseball Hall of Fame. Retrieved April 18, 2020.
  7. [7]
    "Apollo Expeditions to the Moon: Chapter 13". history.nasa.gov. Retrieved April 18, 2020.
  8. [8]
    ""Heeere's Johnny!" is top U.S. TV catchphrase". Reuters. December 6, 2006. Retrieved April 18, 2020.
  9. [9]
    "George M. Cohan, 64, Dies at Home Here". New York Times. 2010. Archived from the original on January 10, 2017. Retrieved April 18, 2020.
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