Best Speech in Movie History

[Bill Murphy]

[ QUOTE ]
[snip 25th Hour speech by Norton]

[/ QUOTE ]

I thought that movie sucked and the speech was a lame ripoff of Do The Right Thing's slur montage.

[Felix_Nietzsche]

DEATH !!!!!!!!!!
DEATH !!!!!!!!!!
DEATH !!!!!!!!!!

[jeffraider]

diebitter,

What movies are your posts from? I recognize neither but I liked the monologues!

[CallMeIshmael]

This watch I got here was first purchased by your great-granddaddy. It was bought during the First World War in a little general store in Knoxville, Tennessee. It was bought by private Doughboy Ernie Coolidge the day he set sail for Paris. It was your great- granddaddy's war watch, made by the first company to ever make wrist watches. You see, up until then, people just carried pocket watches. Your great-granddaddy wore that watch every day he was in the war. Then when he had done his duty, he went home to your great- grandmother, took the watch off his wrist and put it in an ol' coffee can. And in that can it stayed 'til your grandfather Dane Coolidge was called upon by his country to go overseas and fight the Germans once again. This time they called it World War Two. Your great-granddaddy gave it to your granddad for good luck. Unfortunately, Dane's luck wasn't as good as his old man's. Your granddad was a Marine and he was killed with all the other Marines at the battle of Wake Island. Your granddad was facing death and he knew it. None of those boys had any illusions about ever leavin' that island alive. So three days before the Japanese took the island, your 22-year old grandfather asked a gunner on an Air Force transport named Winocki, a man he had never met before in his life, to deliver to his infant son, who he had never seen in the flesh, his gold watch. Three days later, your grandfather was dead. But Winocki kept his word. After the war was over, he paid a visit to your grandmother, delivering to your infant father, his Dad's gold watch. This watch. This watch was on your Daddy's wrist when he was shot down over Hanoi. He was captured and put in a Vietnamese prison camp. Now he knew if the gooks ever saw the watch it's be confiscated. The way your Daddy looked at it, that watch was your birthright. And he'd be damned if and slopeheads were gonna put their greasy yella hands on his boy's birthright. So he hid it in the one place he knew he could hide somethin'. His ass. Five long years, he wore this watch up his ass. Then when he died of disentary, he gave me the watch. I hid with uncomfortable hunk of metal up my ass for two years. Then, after seven years, I was sent home to my family. And now, little man, I give the watch to you.

[GambleGamble]

This time I can't bring myself to tell him to shut up. Sure he's an [censored]... Sure he's dead... Sure I'm just imagining that he's talking. None of that stops the bastard from being absolutely right. I don't have a chance in hell of outrunning this cop. Not in this heap. The only question left is whether I'm gonna kill him or not. Tough call. For all I know, he's an honest cop, regular guy. Working stiff with a mortgage, a wife and a pile of kids. My hand moves all on its own, sliding on of my guns to my lap and thumbing back the hammer. I don't know what to do...

[RunDownHouse]

While the whole movie is well done, the fact that the entire thing channels tension, excitement, and suspense towards Colonel Jesup's speech makes his monologue from A Few Good Men my frontrunner, in spite of several other excellent candidates.

[Runner Runner]

JERRY
(continuing)
This used to be my specialty. I
was good in a living room. Send
me in there, I'll do it alone. And
now I just... I don't know... but
on what was supposed to be the
happiest night of my business
life, it wasn't complete, wasn't
nearly close to being in the same
vicinity as complete, because I
couldn't share it with you. I
couldn't hear your voice, or laugh
about it with you. I missed my
wife. We live in a cynical world,
and we work in a business of tough
competitors, so try not to laugh --
(directly)
I love you. You complete me.

DOROTHY
Aw, shut up. You had me at hello.


[David H]

Nino Brown's(Wesley Snipes) courtroom speech in New Jack City

I'm not guilty. You're the one that's guilty. The lawmakers, the politicians, the Columbian drug lords, all you who lobby against making drugs legal. Just like you did with alcohol during the prohibition. You're the one who's guilty. I mean, c'mon, let's kick the ballistics here: Ain't no Uzi's made in Harlem. Not one of us in here owns a poppy field. This thing is bigger than Nino Brown. This is big business. This is the American way.

[ThinkQuick]

Check out this link for filmsite.org's long list

[maryfield48]

Reverend: Sisters, bretheren: The Mayor of the City of New York, the Honorable John Pappas.

Mayor Pappas: (Thank you, Reverend.) I was warned not to come here. I was warned. They warned me, "Don't stand behind that coffin." But why should I heed such a warning when a heartbeat is silent and a child lies dead? "Don't stand behind" this coffin. That boy was as pure and as innocent as the driven snow. But I must stand here, because I have not given you what you should have. Until we can walk abroad and recreate ourselves, until we can stroll along the streets like boulevards, congregate in parks free from fear, our families mingling, our children laughing, our hearts joined -- until that day we have no city. You can label me a failure until that day.

The first and perhaps only great mayor was Greek. He was Pericles of Athens, and he lived some 2500 years ago, and he said, "All things good of this earth flow into the City because of the City's greatness." Well, we were great once. Can we not be great again? Now, I put that question to James Bone, and there's only silence. Yet, could not something pass from this sweet youth to me? Could he not empower me to find in myself the strength to have the knowledge to summon up the courage to accomplish this seemingly insurmountable task of making a city livable? Just livable.

There was a palace that was a city. It was a palace! It was a palace and it can be a palace again! A palace in which there is no king or queen or dukes or earls or princes, but subjects all -- subjects beholden to each other, to make a better place to live. Is that too much to ask? Are we asking too much for this? Is it beyond our reach?! Because if it is, then we are nothing but sheep being herded to the final slaughterhouse! I will not go down that way!! I choose to fight back!!! I choose to rise, not fall! I choose to live, not die!! And I know, I know that what's within me is also within you!

That's why I ask you now to join me. Join me, rise up with me; rise up on the wings of this slain angel. We'll rebuild on the soul of this little warrior. We will pick up his standard and raise it high! Carry it forward until this city -- your city -- our city -- his city -- is a palace of God! Is a palace of God!

I am with you, little James.

I am you.