A follow-up to this quiz from 18 months ago: here are some more of the (mostly) very well-known lines from Western cinema that I have occasionally tested and taunted Chinese students with. I've tended, in fact, to use it as an Internet search exercise rather than a straight quiz, because even film students usually exhibit almost zero recognition for any lines like this. It's hard for the Chinese to remember quotations in English, and there just isn't the pop culture background here to reinforce the memory of the great lines. After all, these things probably become fixed in our heads as much through our quoting them at each other as through their original occurrence in the films themselves. [Hence, I'll repeat my previous disclaimer: I wouldn't vouch for the absolute accuracy of the wording in each of these quotes. When we're talking about the prominence of a line in popular culture, frequent repetition outside of the original context will often introduce small changes here and there - and these changes may even occasionally be slight improvements on the original. It's an impossible task to try to verify each of these. So, please don't carp at supposed small inaccuracies. In this context, I think it's enough that a line should be recognisable.]
As usual, I'll add the answers in the COMMENTS below in a week or so. Good luck!
1) “What does it matter what you say about people when they’re dead? He was some kind of a man, that’s all.”
2) “Are you ready, Jack?” “I was born ready.”
3) "Got a light?" [No, really. There is a link to No. 2 above.]
4) “Wake up – time to die!”
5) “Next time I say ‘Let’s go someplace like Bolivia’, let’s go someplace like Bolivia.”
6) “I thought you said your dog didn’t bite?” “It’s not my dog.”
7) "The old man's still an artist with the Thompson."
8) “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this any more!”
9) “I’ll show you the life of the mind!”
10) “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”
11) “No – I’m Spartacus.”
12) “I can’t marry you!” “Why not?” “I’m a man.” “Nobody’s perfect.”
12) “Show me the money!”
14) “Go ahead, punk – make my day.”
15) “I don’t think we’re in Kansas any more.”
16) “When the legend becomes fact... print the legend.”
17) “You don’t have to follow me. You don’t have to follow anyone. You’re all individuals.” “YES! WE’RE ALL INDIVIDUALS!”
18) "Rock stars have kidnapped my son."
19) “What have the Swiss ever given us? The cuckoo clock!”
20) “Come with me, if you want to live.”
ANSWERS now added in the comments below.
20 comments:
By the by, John, I just got around to trying that 'fix' you suggested to me for reverting to the old-look Yahoo Mail, and it doesn't seem to work.
This link - http://us.mg1.mail.yahoo.com/dc/optout?script=no - doesn't seem to lead anywhere.
HELP!!
That's odd, works fine for me and I switched back yonks ago. This is the direct link, the actual "no" button if you will- http://us.mg1.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?ncrumb=XI/V3CSSnOp&.rand=109884728&nmig=no although I haven't seen anyone refer to it directly so I doubt you'll have any more success than you've had so far. Let me know if it works and if not I'll go through the more complicated method I also know of.
Now I'm going to give my answers, in my own little way:
2) is what our blogger has now and then only with the two adjectives switched around
4) is famous in the retro geek community for having a ridiculously difficult video game adaptation- a point and click adventure where good timing (and a FAQ) were essential to get anywhere. It was also released right on the cusp of the introduction of the DVD which meant it came on 5 CDs which was suddenly like going back some years to when games came on 15 floppy disks.
6) A rheum, a bheum, the policeman off 'Allo 'Allo! The French accent is such a joke (and I truly believed that until I was about 13.)
10) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGZ15IHN2_Q but no LOTR this time.
12) That's like Supermarket Sweep or something isn't it?
14) http://www.cludgie.co.uk/wp-content/gallery/pompeypirates/pp_015_001.jpg AND http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEi_m5jqak0 (the .44 no longer being the most powerful handgun in the world)
*continued*
15) The most excellent The Kentucky Fried Movie
17 (& 19) ) Two Python films in one quiz Froog? You are spoiling us.
19) Oh wait, I got confused with the Romans.
20) "ARAAARARARARARARARARAAAAAHH!!!" Insert an endless supply of Arnie references here.
So how did I do?
No, that link doesn't do anything for me either - just returns you to your mail homepage view with that dratted 'new look'.
I brace myself for the "more complicated method". Thanks.
Good catch on the Kentucky Fried Movie: You have our gratitude. Although, of course, you realise they were quoting something else?
Intriguing thought about 17; it does sound like Python ("Ja! In BAVARIA - where the trees are made of wood!"), but...
By the way, I played that game you mentioned - for maybe one or two evenings. It was a 'free gift' with the first desktop I ever purchased (back in '98, I suppose that was). Without the benefit of the FAQ... I didn't get anywhere.
I recall discovering that the only way to survive an explosion early on was to use some guy you were handcuffed to (and who, I think, you were supposed to be saving) as a human shield against the blast. But maybe that wasn't the 'right' solution, because in the next episode I couldn't seem to find the contact or the macguffin or whatever it was.
The shooting range practice game was moderately diverting, though.
Well, this one is a little easier (in spots, a lot!) than the last. Of course, I'm aided in a couple cases by having seen the films in question recently (#19 just yesterday!), and in a few others by having just -- also yesterday! -- read this great list of the "best unscripted movie moments." No idea what the criteria might have been, who made the selections, or how "true" any of the accounts are, but it made for fun reading. And provided me with numerous clues to your list.
A nice touch, to have put 7 and 8 back-to-back: AF as object of the one, and subject of the other.
Other than the obvious, I have a vague sense that #11 has been parodied in a movie with... uh... Bill Murray? Mel Brooks?
(There was a twist on the premise of that one in a recent episode of HBO's Game of Thrones. The king's men are searching for his bastard half-brother and know that he left town in a certain group of travelers. They attack the travelers, kill the guards and a few of the guarded, and demand that the survivors turn over the half-brother or they start "taking eyes." A quick thinker among them says it's impossible, because the king's men have already killed the young man they seek, indicating one of the dead bodies -- and directing their attention away from a friend alongside... who is, of course, the real half-brother.)
Ah, the most telling juxtapositions are the ones that aren't really there.
I'm afraid you're confusing Mr Finney with Mr Finch, JES. Easily done - I could readily imagine them swapping a number of roles, particularly that one in No. 8.
It would be a mighty task to try to log all of the subsequent pop culture uses of some of these lines. Wikipedia's usually better than IMDB for that sort of thing, although for No. 11 it merely gives a couple of references to film history books which aren't available online. It does, however, point out (something which I'd quite forgotten) that one of the most famous references to it came in the same director's next film.
I just gave the opening couple of episodes of Season 2 of Game of Thrones a try. I was quite pleasantly surprised in many ways: very good cast and production values, some very good scenes. I'll watch Lena Headey in anything (Queen Gorgo was one of the first of my 'Fantasy Girlfriends' series). And I really like the dwarf character.
But I remain resistant to fantasy genre in general: in a completely unreal setting, I find it very difficult to care about anything.
And it's significant, I think, that after toiling through nearly two hours of this, there's only one character that I like, and I still don't know his name. There's just too much going on, and none of the people doing it are very likable.
Sorry for the delay, I haven't been able to visit the site recently but don't worry, it's not due to technical reasons. Anyway, time to make for lost time:
It's been a while since I watched KFM so you'll have to fill me in, I just remember the Wizard of Oz pastiche (with flame-thrower.)
As for (you meant) 19- I meant two quotes from the same film, not two films; it sounds a lot like "what have the Romans ever done for us?!"
OK, the more complicated Yahoo! Mail switch procedure, brace yourself...
You need to trick the website into thinking you have an old computer, that is- one that cannot output a screen resolution of higher than 800x600 pixels. The site is designed for 1024x768 or higher only and really if your monitor is incapable of this it's really time to upgrade. If the website detects too small a resolution it will give you the option to switch back to the old version. To switch to 800x600 you'll need to go into Display Properties / Settings which can be found in the Control Panel; I can't be more specific here as I don't know which version of Windows you have (or whether you're running Windows at all!) Now that all your graphics look giant and blurry attempt to navigate to the Mail page. Changing the screen resolution may mess with the positions of your desktop's icons, sorry about that. Once you've had the message prompting you to make a choice you can switch back to the native resolution of your (most likely LCD) monitor. You can do this by either finding it somewhere (some screens even tell you if you're not using it) or by changing the resolution gradually upwards until the picture is sharpest and everything fits on the screen at once (too big a resolution will make the screen scroll around when you move the mouse.) Hope this technique works this time!
1) “What does it matter what you say about people when they’re dead? He was some kind of a man, that’s all.”
Marlene Dietrich as former prostitute Tanya, of her former lover, the corrupt police chief Hank Quinlan, now floating dead in the river beside her - in the great noir thriller Touch of Evil (Dir. Orson Welles, 1958).
2) “Are you ready, Jack?” “I was born ready.”
Exchange between Gracie Law (Kim Cattrall) and Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) in Big Trouble In Little China (Dir. John Carpenter, 1986).
3) "Got a light?" [No, really. There is a link to No. 2 above.]
The recurring catchphrase of convict Napoleon Wilson (Darwin Joston) in John Carpenter's Assault On Precinct 13 (1976): the ultra-cool anti-hero professes to be more interested in getting a smoke than anything else, and after each spell of mayhem he asks one of the other characters - in vain - for some fire.
4) “Wake up – time to die!”
'Leon Kowalski' (Brion James), one of the rogue replicants, as he smashes Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) against a dumpster, in Blade Runner (Dir. Ridley Scott, 1982).
5) “Next time I say ‘Let’s go someplace like Bolivia’, let’s go someplace like Bolivia.”
Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) to Sundance (Robert Redford) in Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid (Dir. George Roy Hill, 1969).
6) “I thought you said your dog didn’t bite?” “It’s not my dog.”
A hotel desk clerk (Graham Stark) to Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) in The Pink Panther Strikes Again (Dir. Blake Edwards, 1976). Clouseau bends down to pat the small dog which has apparently been pronounced safe; moments later he rises to his feet again, lifting the dog bodily off the floor as its jaws are now clamped around his fingers.
7) "The old man's still an artist with the Thompson."
Not sure who said this! It was one of the henchmen of Irish mob boss Leo O'Bannion (Albert Finney), expressing admiration of his master's handiwork in seeing off some would-be assassins), in the superb gangster black comedy Miller's Crossing (Dir. Joel & Ethan Coen, 1990). Aha, thank heavens for IMDB! Apparently the goon was called Terry, and was played by one Lanny Flaherty.
8) “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this any more!”
Peter Finch's Oscar-winning role as demented news anchor Howard Beale in Network (Dir. Sidney Lumet, 1976).
9) “I’ll show you the life of the mind!”
The demonic battlecry with which travelling salesman and serial killer Charlie (John Goodman) taunts the pretentious, neurotic writer Barton Fink, in the blood-curdling finale to... Barton Fink (1991), my favourite Coen brothers film.
10) “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”
Clark Gable as Rhett Butler, finally losing patience with Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh), and with the Hays Code of film censorship (this is allegedly the first instance of a cuss word being allowed in an American film), in Gone With The Wind (Dir. Victor Fleming et al, 1939).
PART TWO
11) “No – I’m Spartacus.”
Antoninus (Tony Curtis) and numerous unknown extras in the famous climax to Spartacus (Dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1960). Wikipedia reminded me that Quilty repeats this line as a joke in Lolita, Kubrick's next film.
12) “I can’t marry you!” “Why not?” “I’m a man.” “Nobody’s perfect.”
The closing exchange between the dragged up Jerry (Jack Lemmon) and lovestruck millionaire Osgood Fielding III (Joe E. Brown) in Some Like It Hot (Dir. Billy Wilder, 1959).
12) “Show me the money!”
Under-pressure sports agent Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise), goaded by his star client Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jnr), in Jerry Maguire (Dir. Cameron Crowe, 1996) - one of the most widely repeated of 'recent' movie catchphrases.
14) “Go ahead, punk – make my day.”
This is one of those rooted in the popular psyche, but not 100% accurate. Inspector Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood), the ruthless hero of the Dirty Harry series of action films, frequently addressed people he was about to take down as 'punk', but it seems he did not do so on this occasion. Moreover, many people assume that this line dates from the beginning of the series, 1971's Dirty Harry, but in fact it did not appear - minus the 'punk' - until the fourth of the five films, Sudden Impact (Dir. Clint Eastwood, 1983); I suspect the line, or something like it, had already become associated with the character in popular culture, and the screenwriter felt obliged to finally use it in one of the films.
15) “I don’t think we’re in Kansas any more.”
Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland) to her dog Toto upon arrival in the Land of Oz, in The Wizard of Oz (Dir. Victor Fleming et al, 1939). I don't think it is quoted - as John suggested it was above - at the end of the extended Enter The Dragon pastiche in Kentucky Fried Movie (I believe the only two lines directly quoted from The Wizard of Oz are "I'm melting! I'm melting!" and "There's no place like home."), but it has been quoted scores of times in other movies and TV shows over the years.
16) “When the legend becomes fact... print the legend.”
Newspaperman Maxwell Scott (Carleton Young), reassuring Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart) that the truth is best left buried, in the frame story to The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (Dir. John Ford, 1962).
17) “You don’t have to follow me. You don’t have to follow anyone. You’re all individuals.” “YES! WE’RE ALL INDIVIDUALS!”
Brian Cohen (Graham Chapman) trying in vain reason with the crowd in Monty Python's Life of Brian (Dir. Terry Jones, 1979).
18) "Rock stars have kidnapped my son."
Troubled mum Elaine Miller (Frances McDormand) impulsively confessing her anxieties to her class of university students in Almost Famous (Dir. Cameron Crowe, 2000).
And finally....
19) “What have the Swiss ever given us? The cuckoo clock!”
Another slight misquotation... but a common - and eminently recognisable - distillation of the famous 'cable car speech' (supposedly improvised by Orson Welles) on the shortcomings of conventional morality, delivered by racketeer Harry Lime (Welles) to his old friend Holly Martins (Joseph Cotton) in The Third Man (Dir. Carol Reed, 1949). There is a reminiscence of "What have the Romans ever done for us?" in The Life of Brian (probably the Pythons were influenced - consciously or subconsciously - by this), and in many other things. I met a German chap the other day who was adamant that the original of the 'cuckoo clock' disparagement of the Swiss came from a speech by Mussolini!
20) “Come with me, if you want to live.”
Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) to Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), introducing himself in a disco as he rescues her from her first encounter with an evil robot assassin in, of course, The Terminator (Dir. James Cameron, 1984) - previously used in my brief rundown of favourite cinematic pick-up lines.
I've got one- "Blame is for God and small children." which I'm assuming is a deliberately malformed famous quote or some-such.
I've no idea. A good line, but not a famous one, I would say.
I agree but it stood out for me when I saw the film recently because it sounded like it might be imitating something else. Damn good film Papillon though. Ah, let the butterfly out of the net then didn't I.
No way?! I liked it when I first saw it as a kid, but I don't think I've ever caught it again. And it must be nearly 40 years ago that it came out - so, forgive the lapse of memory!
By the way, I just got around to implementing your screen resolution dodge.
It took me about 45 minutes - because my connection speed is so clunky, and because I have five or six different accounts I need to reset. But it all seems fine now.
A very straightforward fix! Thank you.
Glad to hear it.
I'm not sure what the reason for having so many separate accounts is but if you'd rather that all you messages congregated in one place, you can set up forwarding and/or pushing to other account from the account's settings page.
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