Its been 95 years since the very first ‘talkie’ film, The Jazz Singer hit the silver screen to worldwide surprise and acclaim.Thus representing the launch of an exciting new epoch in the history of cinema.
Since then countless movies have inspired us with quotes or dialogue that really seemed to resonate. Whether its Humphrey Bogart saying ‘Here’s looking at you, kid’, or Viola Davisadvising that ‘You is kind. You is smart. You is important’, there are some phrases that just stick with us, from the moment they are spoken in a film.
As well as being a form of entertainment, movies can be educational, inspirational and even an escape from reality too.
So perhaps it’s only natural that we hang on the words in the script. Especially as we, the viewer can often relate to the characters and in particular the situations they find themselves in.
What makes a good movie quote?
But what exactly makes a good movie quote?
Well a recent study from Cornell University* looked in to this in an attempt to ascertain what makes one or two lines in a film a lot more memorable to us than others.
By applying computer analysis to over 1000 movie scripts, researchers found some very insightful clues.
Their study concluded that memorable lines tend to adopt afamiliar sentence structure. They also found they encompassdistinctive words or phrases, which could be applied in other social situations we find ourselves in.
This may explain why phrases like “I’m walking here! I’m walking here!”, as uttered by Dustin Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy, or “You had me at ‘hello” as said by Renée Zellwegerin Jerry Maguire, are often used by people to express particular emotions in certain circumstances.
Interestingly their analysis found that the most memorable quotes tended to have subtle differences in both their word choice and sound. With the more catchy and unforgettable lines including sounds made towards the front of the mouth, as well as more syllables and less coordinating conjunctions.
(* You can link to here – https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2012/05/what-makes-us-remember-movie-line)
The Top 50 Most Famous Movie Quotes
Every movie has a clever or memorable line in it, but which ones are the most famous?
Well we have put our heads together to compile this list of the top most 50 famous movie quotes of all time!
They are not ranked in order, rather by decade to form a kind of timeline of truly memorable quotes.
1930s
“It’s alive! It’s alive!” – Frankenstein, 1931
“It was beauty killed the beast.” – King Kong, 1933
“Magic Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?” – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 1937
“There’s no place like home.” – The Wizard of Oz, 1939
“Elementary, my dear Watson.” – The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, 1939
“Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” – The Wizard of Oz, 1939
1940s
“The stuff that dreams are made of.” -The Maltese Falcon, 1941
“Rosebud.” – Citizen Kane, 1941
“Here’s looking at you, kid.” – Casablanca,1942
“Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.” -The Pride of the Yankees, 1942
1950s
“All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.” – Sunset Boulevard, 1950
“Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.” – All About Eve, 1950
“Stella! Hey, Stella!” -A Streetcar Named Desire, 1951
“You don’t understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I could’ve been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am.” – On the Waterfront, 1954
“Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!” -Auntie Mame, 1958
“Well, nobody’s perfect.” -Some Like it Hot, 1959
1960s
“Bond. James Bond.” -Dr. No, 1962
“A martini. Shaken, not stirred.” – Goldfinger, 1964
“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.” -Cool Hand Luke, 1967
“I’m walking here! I’m walking here!” – Midnight Cowboy, 1969
1970s
“Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.” – The Godfather Part II, 1974
“You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” – Jaws, 1975
“You talking to me?” – Taxi Driver, 1976
“May the Force be with you.” – Star Wars, 1977
1980s
“I am your father.” – Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, 1980
“Here’s Johnny!” – The Shining, 1980
“E.T. phone home.” – E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, 1982
“I’ll be back.” – The Terminator, 1984
“Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads.” -Back to the Future, 1985
“Inconceivable!” – The Princess Bride, 1987
“Nobody puts Baby in a corner.” – Dirty Dancing, 1987
“Snap out of it!” – Moonstruck, 1987
“If you build it, he will come.” – Field of Dreams, 1989
“Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.” – Dead Poets Society, 1989
“I’ll have what she’s having.” -When Harry Met Sally, 1989
1990s
“Hasta la vista, baby.” – Terminator 2: Judgment Day, 1991
“There’s no crying in baseball!” – A League of Their Own, 1992
“You can’t handle the truth!” – A Few Good Men, 1992
“You’re killin’ me, Smalls.” – The Sandlot, 1993
“My mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” – Forrest Gump, 1994
“Houston, we have a problem.” – Apollo 13, 1995
“As if!” – Clueless, 1995
“That’ll do, pig. That’ll do.” – Babe, 1995
“To infinity and beyond!” – Toy Story, 1995
“They may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!” – Braveheart, 1995
“You had me at ‘hello.” – Jerry Maguire, 1996
“I’m the king of the world!” – Titanic, 1997
2000s
“My precious.” – The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers, 2002
“Just keep swimming.” – Finding Nemo, 2003
2010s
“You is kind. You is smart. You is important.” – The Help, 2011
So there you have it, our list of the top 50 most famous movie quotes of all time.
How many of these films have you watched? And which of these quotes is your favourite?