# SECTIONS
 

~ On This Page	~ Other Pages
~ Period Films	~ Return to Main Quotes Page
~ Film Noir	~ Quotes from Specific Films
~ Epics	~ Teen Films
~ War & Military Films
~ Westerns
~ Naval Films & Pirates of the Caribbean

# HISTORICAL \ PERIOD FILMS

"You and I are very much alike. Archeology is our religion, yet we have both fallen from the pure faith. Our methods have not differed as much as you pretend. I am but a shadowy reflection of you. It would take only a nudge to make you like me. To push you out of the light."
        - Rene Belloc, "Raiders of the Lost Ark"

"All your life has been spent in pursuit of archeological relics. Inside the Ark are treasures beyond your wildest aspirations. You want to see it opened as well as I. Indiana, we are simply passing through history. This, this *is* history."
         - Rene Belloc, "Raiders of the Lost Ark"

"Professor of archeology, expert on the occult, and how does one say it? Obtainer of rare antiquities."
        - Intelligence Officer, "Raiders of the Lost Ark"

"Meet me at Omar's. Be ready for me. I'm going after that truck."
"How?"
"I don't know, I'm making this up as I go."
        - Sallah and Indiana Jones, "Raiders of the Lost Ark"

"He's my enemy."
"George?"
"Now what has he ever done to you?"
"Nothing. He's clever that way. You see a man is measured by his enemies."
"So you picked George O'Flaherty, is that it?"
        - Harry Maloney and Gus Maloney, "How Harry Became A Tree"

"Practice aiming to cripple the cabbages, not to kill them!"
        - Harry Maloney to Gus Maloney, trying some target practice, "How Harry Became A Tree"

"What marks out the best servants? The gift of anticipation."
        - Gosford Park

"You have preserved in your own lifetime, sir, a way of life that was dead before you were born."
        - Harold the butler in Elaine May's "A New Leaf"

"Without your glasses, you don't look half bad."
"Without my glasses, nor do you."
        - Hester Wallace deals with an 'admirer', "Enigma"

"I think under the circumstances Miss Wallace, we might risk first names."
        - Tom Jericho & Hester, running from the police, "Enigma"

"That really was a most charming hat Miss Winslow, it seems decidedly wrong to me that a lady of your political persuasion should be allowed to adorn herself with such a very feminine allurement. It looks so awfully like trying to have the best of both worlds."
        - Sir Robert, to Catherine (a suffragette), "The Winslow Boy"

"I hope to meet you again, perhaps in the House of Commons, up in the gallery?"
"Yes, Sir Robert, in the House of Commons but not in the gallery - across the floor."
"Oh, you still pursue your feminist activities? Pity. It's a lost cause."
"Oh, do you really think so, Sir Robert? How little you know about women. Goodbye, I doubt that we shall meet again."
"Oh, do you really think so, Miss Winslow? How little you know about men."
        - Sir Robert & Catherine, parting shots, "The Winslow Boy"

"I bring greetings from your friends the British and from the great Lord Chelmsford."
"And what do your masters say?"
"They are angry and send these demands. They say that you rule in old ways that are wrong; that you kill your people without trial. The Great White Queen herself cannot kill her lowliest subject, though she rules forty lands, each greater than all of Zululand."
        - Messenger and King Ceteseyo, "Zulu Dawn"

"The army doesn't like more than one disaster in a day."
"Looks bad in the newspapers and upsets civilians at their breakfast."
        -  Lieutenants Chard and Bromhead, "Zulu"

"I am a marine with the same job as your Royal marines had in 1833 - that is to take possession of these islands. All that is left is to prevent your men killing a few of mine. Your job, Governor, is to prevent my men killing all your men. They have shown great courage and professionalism. Now it's time you asked them to surrender."
        - Admiral Busser, to Governor Reg Hunt of the Falklands, "An Ungentlemanly Act"

"We don't care about money here."
"That's only because you've always had it."
        - Mrs. Hepburn and Howard Hughes, "The Aviator"

"It's not that I want to have you, only to deserve you."
        - Vicomte de Valmont, "Dangerous Liaisons"

"Remember, I'm better at this than you."
"It's always the best swimmers who drown."
        - Marquese de Mertueil & Vicomte de Valmont, "Dangerous Liaisons"

"Why do you want to be a husband when you can be a lover? Why don't you leave all the boredom of marriage to Gercourt... and keep the excitement of love for yourself?"
        - Marquese de Merteuil to Danceny, "Valmont"

"I will remember you."
"You should, I'm very well known."
        - Dr Klopfer & Dr Stuckart, trading verbal blows, "Conspiracy"

"Though my cage is bigger than your, it's still a cage."
        - Veronica Franco, on the life on a Courtesan, "Dangerous Beauty"

"He was looking for the Scarlet Pimpernel. I pray he found a fool."
        - Sir Percy Blakeney, trying to deceive Chauvelin, "The Scarlet Pimpernel" (1982)

"Why this charade? The mock execution?"
"My dear chap, I never would have dreamt of depriving you of your moment of triumph. Alas, a moment was all I could spare."
        -  Sir Percy, turning the tables on Chauvelin, "The Scarlet Pimpernel"

"The King's army will have more realists than Royalists."
        - D'Hubert, finding his place in post-Napoleonic France, "The Duellists"

"The list is in my control because if it were not my name would surely be on it."
        - Fouche, "The Duellists"

"Nothing sensible goes out of fashion."
        - Leonie, "The Duellists"

"If you can't cry, try talking. Sometimes, talking can bring on the tears. Tears say what you can't say."
        - Sylvain, trying to console Mathilde in "A Very Long Engagement"

"We dreamt of seeing the sea together."
        - Elodie, "A Very Long Engagement"

"Does it hurt when you walk?"
        - Manech's first words to Mathilde, "A Very Long Engagement"

"A family like ours could only push forward one girl. Your beauty benefitted us all."
"You tried to drown me."
"An accident."
        - Bette and Adeline, "Cousin Bette"

"Will you help me as you would a sister?"
"Yes."
"You will be the axe, and I will be the hand that wields you."
        - Bette and Jenny Cadine, "Cousin Bette"

"Jenny, how could you? He's practically a dwarf!"
"Goodness knows you ought to be thankful. I'd have ruined you. You've spent thousands already."
        - Baron Hulot and Jenny Cadine, "Cousin Bette"

"I wonder what on earth can a man do to make a woman love him? I suppose it's ridiculous for men like you and me to want to be loved. We can't be more than tolerated."
        - Mayor Crevel to Baron Hulot, "Cousin Bette"

"Say you love me."
"We made fools of ourselves once. Let's not do so again... you made a mistake and now you are trying to justify it to yourself by saying you love me."
        - Miss Julie and Jean, "Miss Julie"

"Of course I like you too much — when I like, I like too much."
        - Olive Chancellor to Verena Tarrant, "The Bostonians"

"You're afraid of what might happen, but I'm afraid of what is happening."
        - Anne, to his sister Julia, in an Ireland in turmoil, "Anne Devlin"

"He is beyond my reach — and yours."
"Tell the people the truth. They have a right to know the truth."
"You think they don't know? Thanks to him they have food enough and shelter. In these times how many can say the same? Theirs is the silence of consent."
        - Nicholas and the King's Justice, "The Reckoning"

"Between faith and reason lies the true God — power."
        - Lord du Guise, "The Reckoning"

"Isn't marriage your vocation? Isn't it what you're all brought up for?"
        - Lawrence to Lily, "The House of Mirth"

"Is there any final test of genius except success?"
        - Lily, "The House of Mirth"

"Isn't it natural I should belittle all the things I can't offer you?"
        - Lawrence to Lily, "The House of Mirth"

"If you would forgive your enemy, first inflict a hurt on them."
        - Lily, "The House of Mirth"

"I thought that I could manage my own life, but I have been foolish, foolish to the point of being compromised."
        - Lily, "The House of Mirth"

"The rabbit always thinks it fascinates the anaconda."
        - Lily, "The House of Mirth"

"You always told me that the sole object of my upbringing was to teach me to get what I want."
        - Lily to Lawrence, "The House of Mirth"

"My situation is nothing exceptional."
"But you are!"
        - Lily and Sim Rosedale, "The House of Mirth"

"We resist the great temptations, but it is the little ones that pull us down."
        - Lily, "The House of Mirth"

"I don't want to be in the same room with a man that would make me live in a house with no furniture! My daddy would turn over in his grave if he knew, he would just turn over in his grave."
"If your daddy turned in his grave as often as you say he'd turn in his grave, that old man would plow up the graveyard."
        - Baby Doll Meighan and Archie Meighan, "Baby Doll"

"Your husband sweats more than any man I know, and now I can understand why."
        - Silva Vacarro to Baby Doll Meighan, "Baby Doll"

# FILM NOIR

"You won't get into any trouble?"
"I don't mind a reasonable amount of trouble."
        - Brigid and Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart), "The Maltese Falcon"

"I certainly wish you would have invented a more reasonable story. I felt distinctly like an idiot repeating it."
"Don't worry about the story's goofiness. A sensible one would have had us all in the cooler."
        - Joel Cairo and Sam Spade, throwing the police off the scent, "The Maltese Falcon"

"My guess might be excellent or it might be crummy, but Mrs. Spade didn't raise any children dippy enough to make guesses in front of a district attorney, an assistant district attorney, and a stenographer."
        - Sam Spade, "The Maltese Falcon"

"By Gad, Sir, you are a character, that you are. There's never any telling what you'll say or do next..."
        - Kasper Gutman to Sam Spade, "The Maltese Falcon"

"If they hang you, I'll always remember you."
        - Sam Spade to Brigid O'Shaughnessy, "The Maltese Falcon"

"Are you one of those people who cannot imagine the Germans in their beloved Paris?"
"It's not particularly my beloved Paris."
"Can you imagine us in London?"
"When you get there, ask me."
"How about New York?"
"Well there are certain sections of New York, Major, that I wouldn't advise you to try to invade."
        - Rick, fending off Nazi questions, "Casablanca"

"If he ever gets a word in, it'll be a major Italian victory."
        - Captain Renault, watching a French and Italian officer

"As the leader of all illegal activities in Casablanca, I am an influential and respected man."
        - Senor Ferrari

"Might as well be frank, monsieur. It would take a miracle to get you out of Casablanca, and the Germans have outlawed miracles."
        - Senor Ferrari to Victor

"You despise me, don't you?"
"If I gave you any thought I probably would."
        - Ugarte and Rick

"Where were you last night?"
"That's so long ago, I don't remember."
"Will I see you tonight?"
"I never make plans that far ahead."
        - Yvonne and Rick

"How extravagant you are, throwing away women like that. Some day they may be scarce."
        - Captain Renault to Rick

"I stick my neck out for nobody."
"A wise foreign policy."
        - Captain Renault and Rick

"I'm the only cause I'm interested in."
        - Rick

"Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she had to walk into mine."
        - Rick

"If that plane leaves the ground and you're not with him, you'll regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life."
"But what about us?"
"We'll always have Paris. We didn't have, we, we lost it until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night."
"When I said I would never leave you."
"And you never will. But I've got a job to do, too. Where I'm going, you can't follow. What I've got to do, you can't be any part of. Ilsa, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that."
        - Rick and Ilsa

"Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
        - Rick, to Louis, "Casablanca"

"We're living in a time when for most people cinematic history began with Star Wars... but most people make an exception for Casablanca."
        - Roger Ebert, from his commentary for the film

"One of the functions of a fedora hat in the years when they were stylish was to cast oblique shadows across the face of actors — sometimes concealing their eyes, sometimes revealing their eyes, and this could be used very effectively to reflect the mood of the actors who were wearing the hats. Hats, and also cigarettes, were wonderful props that are much missed in modern movies. I don't approve of smoking, except in the movies."
        - Roger Ebert, from his commentary

"As always at night the ground is wet because it photographed better that way."
        - Roger Ebert, on the film's closing scene

"A classic is a film that never gets old no matter how many times you see it. I know what's going to happen and nevertheless it has an effect on me."
        - Rogert Ebert, picking Casablanca as his favourite film of all time

"I don't like your manners."
"And I'm not crazy about yours... but I don't mind if you don't like my manners I don't like 'em myself."
       - Vivian Rutledge (Lauren Bacall) and Phillip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart), "The Big Sleep"

"Then she tried to sit on my lap while I was standing up."
        - Phillip Marlowe meets a client's flirtacious daughter, "The Big Sleep"

"You know you don't look like a man who'd be interested in first editions."
"Well I collect blondes and bottles aswell."
        - Librarian and Phillip Marlowe, "The Big Sleep"

"You go too far Marlowe."
"Oh, those are harsh words to throw at a man, especially when he's walking out of your bedroom."
        - Vivian Rutledge and Phillip Marlowe, "The Big Sleep"

The sexual chemistry between the leads (Bogart and Bacall) positively sizzles with a memorable encounter on the pair's first meeting in which a horse-racing analogy is deliciously spun out. Also here to enjoy are Dorothy Malone as the sexiest bookshop assistant ever to appear on screen and a loose end (in the shape of a dead chaffeur) which even writer Raymond Chandler couldn't explain.
        - Ireland's "Evening Herald" recommending "The Big Sleep"

"You ought to pick on someone to steal from that doesn't owe me money."
        - Harry Morgan (Humphrey Bogart) to Marie Browning (Lauren Bacall), "To Have and Have Not"

"What are your sympathies?"
"Minding my own business — and I don't need any advice about continuing to do so either."
        - Captain Renard to Harry Morgan, "To Have and Have Not"

"You know I went to a lot of trouble to get you out of here."
"That's why I didn't go."
        - Harry Morgan and Marie Browning, "To Have and Have Not"

"The only thing standing between you and a watery grave is your wits, and that's not my idea of adequate protection."
        - Billy Dannreuther (Humphrey Bogart), "Beat The Devil"

"A man doesn't tell a women what to do, she tells herself."
        - TR Devlin (Cary Grant) to Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman), "Notorious"

"Look, I'll make it easy for you. The time has come when you must tell me you have a wife and two adorable children... and this madness between us can't go on any longer."
"Bet you've heard that line often enough."
"Right below the belt every time. That isn't fair, Dev."
        - Alicia and Devlin, "Notorious"

"You must lead a gay life."
"I live the life I like to lead."
        - Johnny Farrell and Ballin Mundson, "Gilda"

"I thought we agreed that women and gambling didn't mix."
"My wife does not come under the category of women."
        - Johnny and Ballin, discussing Gilda

*forced* "You're looking very beautiful."
"Why thank you. If there's one thing I love it's a spontaneous, impulsive compliment like that."
        - Johnny and Gilda

"I take care of *everything* that belongs to the boss."
        - Johnny to Gilda

"Doesn't it bother you at all that you're married?"
"What I want to know is, does it bother you?"
        - Johnny and Gilda

"I've more money than I know what to do with. I'm very much in love with you. It's kinda a terrific combination don't you think?"
        - Tom Langford to Gilda

"I hate you so much that I would destroy myself to take you down with me."
        - Gilda to Johnny

"That isn't the way to play it."
"Why not?"
"Cause it isn't the way to win."
"Is there a way to win?"
"There's a way to lose more slowly."
        - Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum) and Kathie Moffat, "Out of the Past"

"I don't want to die."
"Neither do I, baby, but if I have to, I'm going to die last."
        - Kathie Moffat and Jeff Bailey, "Out of the Past"

"I killed him for money — and for a woman. I didn't get the money. And I didn't get the woman."
        - from "Double Indemnity"

"The streets were dark with something more than night."
        - Professor Richard Wanley (Edward G. Robinson), "The Woman in the Window"

"There are only three ways to deal with a blackmailer. You can pay him and pay him and pay him until you’re penniless. Or you can call the police yourself and let your secret be known to the world. Or you can kill him."
        - Richard Wanley, "The Woman in the Window"

"I don't especially like the way I look sometimes, but I never met a man since I was 14 that didn't want to give me an argument about it."
        - Cora Smith (Lana Turner), "The Postman Always Rings Twice"

"Oh, Holly, you and I aren't heroes. The world doesn't make any heroes outside of your stories."
        - Harry Lime, "The Third Man"

"Poor unfortunate girl."
"She was a tramp."
"She was a human being. Let me remind you that even the most unworthy of us has a right to life and the pursuit of happiness."
"From what I hear she pursued it in all directions."
        - Senator and Barbara Morton, "Strangers on a Train"

"Experience has taught me never to trust a policeman. Just when you think one's all right, he turns legit."
        - Sam Jaffe, "Asphalt Jungle"

"You're dumber than you think I think you are."
        - Jake Gittes, "Chinatown"

"Hollis seems to think you're an innocent man."
"Well, I've been accused of a lot of things before, Mrs. Mulwray, but never that."
        - Evelyn Mulwray and Jake, "Chinatown"

"How'd you get past the guard?"
"Well, to tell you the truth, I lied a little."
        - Lt. Escobar and Jake, "Chinatown"

"'Course I'm respectable. I'm old. Politicians, public buildings, and whores all get respectable if they last long enough."
        - Noah Cross, "Chinatown"

"A memorial service was held at the Mar Vista Inn today for Jasper Lamar Crabb. He passed away two weeks ago."
"Why is that unusual?"
"He passed away two weeks ago and one week ago he bought the land. That's unusual."
        - Jake and Evelyn, "Chinatown"

"You'd better sit over here beside me."
"I've been thinking that a long time. Ever since you crossed your legs, to be exact."
        - Philip Marlowe (Robert Mitchum) meets a femme fatale, "Farewell My Lovely"

"Hollywood's the kinda town where they stick a knife in your back and then have you arrested for carrying a concealed weapon."
        - Philip Marlowe (Powers Boothe), in "Marlowe: Smart Aleck Kill"

"You mean this could be good for business?"
"There's nothing like a good murder to give a bar a bit of character."
        - Philip Marlowe (Boothe) consoles a bartender, in "Marlowe: Red Wind"

It was a night when you didn't know your friends but strangers looked familiar. A night like this, the smartest thing to do is nothing: stay home. It was like the wind carried people along with it.
        - Marlowe, during the Santa Ana "Red Wind"

"Which part was she playing: the pawn or the queen?"
        - Philip Marlowe (Boothe), about Lola, in "Marlowe: Red Wind"

"The safety... on the side. Pull it down with your thumb. You can't treat a gun like that, people won't take you seriously."
        - Phillip Marlowe (Danny Glover), advising Lola on how to threaten him, "Fallen Angels: Red Wind"

"I didn't really have any kind of plan. Just figured if you deal enough cards sooner or later you'll have a poker game. The odds can change fast in poker. In the woods I saw the cabin in the distance. I'd have to show my hand, whatever I had."
        - Rick Thurber, preparing for a showdown in "Fallen Angels: Tomorrow I Die"

"When a man stops caring what happens to him, all the strain is lifted off of him."
        - Kid Collins, "After Dark My Sweet"

"What a mess…and for what?"
"It’s just a job man. You’re telling me you’d rather be pushing papers in some white-collar cubicle?"
"This stuff keeps rolling in. We’re just a tollbooth on the highway."
"Singing the vice cop blues again."
        - Crockett (Don Johnson) and Tubbs, "Miami Vice"

"You can stand here with me if you want but you'll have to agree not to talk about the heat."
"I'm a married woman."
"Meaning what?"
"Meaning I'm not looking for company."
"Then you should have said I'm a happily married woman."
        - Ned Racine to Matty Walker, "Body Heat"

"Maybe you shouldn't dress like that."
"This is a blouse and skirt. I don't know what you're talking about."
"You shouldn't wear that body."
        - Ned Racine to Matty Walker, "Body Heat"

"You aren't too smart. I like that in a man."
        - Matty to Ned, "Body Heat"

"You better take me up on this quick. In about 45 minutes, I'm going to give up and go away."
        - Ned to Matty, "Body Heat"

"I think I've underestimated you Ned. I don't know why it took me so long. You've started using your incompetence as a weapon."
        - Peter, "Body Heat"

"Any time you try a decent crime, you got fifty ways you're gonna f**k up. If you think of twent-five of them, then you're a genius... and you ain't no genius. You remember who told me that?"
        - Teddy Lewis, with some wisdom for Ned, "Body Heat"

"Well now that you're here, what are you going to do in our little town?"
"Whatever there is to do."
"There's only two things to do in this town. You got a TV?"
"Nope."
"Well then, you're down to one thing. Lotsa luck!"
        - Dolly Harshaw and Harry Madox, "The Hot Spot" (1990)

"In this life you gotta take what you want, you can't sit around waiting for someone to give it to you."
        - Harry Madox, "The Hot Spot"

"We know you robbed the bank and you know you robbed the bank. That makes it unanimous."
        - The Sheriff, "The Hot Spot"

"You're a real tough guy, huh?"
"No. You're the tough guy. I'm worse."
        - Frank Sutton and Harry Madox, "The Hot Spot"

"Harry my darling, I don't think you'll ever have much luck explaining it to her."
        - Dolly to Harry, "The Hot Spot"

"Yes indeed, I found my level and I'm living it."
        - Harry, stuck in "The Hot Spot"

"I would like to pose the following two questions for discussion: Why, in the noir genre, is it always raining? And what do the people do during the day?"
        - Terry Thorpe, signing off to his film class, "A Slight Case of Murder"

"I'm being framed, can't you see that?"
        - Terry Thorpe, caught in a net of his own making, "A Slight Case of Murder"

"When you get out on the street it's very simple: there are the good guys and the bad guys."
"And you're the good guys?"
"Damn right... and we're all that stands between you and them."
        - Lt. Remy McSwain and DA Anne Osborn, "The Big Easy"

"New Orleans is a marvelous place for coincidence."
        - Attorney Lamar Parmentel, "The Big Easy"

"Walk down the right back alley in Sin City, and you can find anything..."
        - Marv, "Sin City"

"I love you baby."
"Always and never."
        - Dwight and Gail, "Sin City"

"It's time to prove to your friends that you're worth a damn. Sometimes that means dying, sometimes it means killing a whole lot of people."
        - Dwight, "Sin City"

"I'm no rat... besides, in a town this bent, who's there to rat to, anyway?
        - James Gordon, "Batman Begins"

"It started that night and it started with a woman. It always starts with a woman."
        - Harry Lovecraft, "Cast a Deadly Spell"

"That's quite a tie."
"Oh, thanks."
"Put up much of a fight?"
        - Olivia Hackshaw and Harry Lovecraft, "Cast a Deadly Spell"

"What makes me special is I'm my own man. When I started out I said there were things I'd do and things I wouldn't do. A lot of guys start out like that, and a lot of them sell out along the way. But the more who fall, the easier it gets... My collar may be a little frayed, and maybe I need a shoeshine. But nobody's got a mortgage on my soul. I own it. Free and clear."
        - Harry Lovecraft, "Cast a Deadly Spell"

"Can I look in his room?"
"This is a rooming house, ain't a museum."
"Well how about you rent it to me, for say five minutes?"
        - Harry Lovecraft, tracking down a suspect, "Cast a Deadly Spell"

"Someone's throwing lesser demons at you... and you don't even carry a rabbit's foot."
"I can handle it."
"Well I'm not worried about you Phil, I'm worried about the people who might get in the way."
        - Detective Bradbury and Harry, "Cast a Deadly Spell"

"You were so good at jigsaw puzzles. You're lousy at living but great at games."
        - Harry Borden to Harry, "Cast a Deadly Spell"

"I was tired as hell but I could afford to be tired now... I needed it to be morning. I wanted to hear doors opening, cars start, and human voices talking about baseball and the weather. I wanted to make sure there were still folks out there facing life with nothing up their sleeves but their arms. They didn't know it yet, but they had a better shot at happiness and a fair shake than they did yesterday."
        - Harry Lovecraft, "Case a Deadly Spell"

"My address is—"
"I know the address."
"Of course you do. And pick me up — like a gentleman, not like a cop."
        - Madeleine Linscott and Officer Bleichert, "The Black Dahlia"

"I tried to tell myself I was the sturdy leg in our little triangle. I was worried it was true."
        - Bucky Bleichert

"Listen, I'm withholding evidence for you. It's a fair trade but it shakes me."
        - Bucky to Madeleine

"The basic rule of homicide applies: nothing stays buried forever — corpses, ghosts..."
        - Bucky

"I don't get modern art."
"I doubt modern art gets you either. I do."
        - Bucky and Madeline

"You lied to me!"
"I lied for you! I lied for us."
        - Bucky and Kay Lake

"I've had to point my gun at a lot of people this week. Haven't had a chance to shoot anybody yet. What do you think?"
        - Bucky

"We're in a club in New Jersey. It's the Fifties, and I'm mingling with the crowds — now when I say mingling, what I mean is scouting for who I would sleep with that night."
        - Lenny Morris, enjoying the 'rat pack' lifestyle, "Where The Truth Lies"

"Having to be a nice guy is the toughest job in the world when you're not."
        - Lenny Morris, "Where The Truth Lies"

"I'd always been fascinated by how someone could cross the line between who they were and who they could let themselves become."
        - Karen O'Connor, after a trip through the looking glass, "Where The Truth Lies"

"Where the Truth Lies" is film noir right down to the plot we can barely track; we're reminded of William Faulkner asking Raymond Chandler who did it in "The Big Sleep" and Chandler saying he wasn't sure. The movie departs from film noir and enters the characteristic world of Atom Egoyan in its depiction of sex... The sad and desperate nature of this sex is a reminder of such Egoyan films as "Exotica."  The sex really isn't the point of the scenes in question; it's the application of power, and the way that showbiz success can give stars unsavory leverage with young women who are more impressed than they should be.
        - Roger Ebert, "Chicago Sun Times"

Like a tantalizing mirage, film noir haunts modern filmmakers. Noir is the genre of night, guilt, violence and illicit passion, and no genre is more seductive. But the best noirs were made in the 1940s and 1950s, before directors consciously knew what they were doing ("We called them B movies," said Robert Mitchum). Once the French named the genre, once a generation of filmmakers came along who had seen noirs at cinematheques instead of in flea pits, noir could never again be naive... Women are rarely allowed to be bold and devious in the movies; most directors are men, and they see women as goals, prizes, enemies, lovers and friends, but rarely as protagonists. Turner's entrance in "Body Heat" announces that she is the film's center of power.
        - Roger Ebert, from his review of "Body Heat"

The Hollywood film noir of the pre-television era had a look and feel that audiences instinctively reacted to, even if they didn't know the French term for those American films made of darkness, despair, cynicism, double-crosses, street-smarts and murder. The best of them were filmed in black and white, cheaply, with actors who might have been gifted or not, but who all looked as if they'd spent too much time staying up late at night.
        - Roger Ebert, from his review of "Union City"

Individually, these three people are hopeless loners. Together, they are a danger, because they are just smart enough to think up plans they're stupid enough to try... Film noir, we are reminded, is not about action and victory, but about incompetence and defeat.
        - Roger Ebert, from his review of "After Dark My Sweet"

The working out of her elaborate plot to get what she does want makes this a tightly-constructed thriller that offers some of the same satisfactions as old-fashioned noir pictures. But noir was long ago divorced from the sense of sin and malign fate that created it and dragged into the sunlight — specifically the all-forgiving Southern California sun — where it has never quite managed to retain its old imaginative power.
        - James Bowman, reviewing "Mini's First Time", "American Spectator"

Film noir, while often centering on tales of cops and crooks and private eyes, usually reflects a darker world than that inhabited by such characters in other movies or even in real life. In place of the frothy romanticism at which Hollywood used to be so adept come haunted visions of doomed men and women for whom love is replaced by blind passion and sexual obsession, which often erupts in violence and cold-blooded murder. Deceit and duplicity run their crooked courses through these stories, pervaded by an atmosphere of impending doom. Women are predators, ensnaring weak-willed men, yet, like the men they enslave, they have no control over their lives.
Many elements went to form the distinctive products of the movement. Among them are dramatic camera angles and stark, angular sets, visual images of rain-lashed streets, fog-bound runways, sharply contrasted lighting and empty, echoing public buildings. The sun rarely shines in the world of film noir; indeed, many of the classic movies were shot in either real or simulated darkness. The urban junhles of film noir are peopled with troubled souls who haunt streets which Raymond Chandler described as 'dark with something more than night'.
        - Bruce Crowther, "Film Noir: Reflections in a Dark Mirror"

Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid... He must be a man of honor, by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it... He will take no man's money dishonestly and no man's insolence without due and dispassionate revenge. He is a lonely man and his pride is that you will treat him as a proud man or be very sorry you ever saw him... If there were enough like him, I think the world would be a very safe place to live in, and yet not too dull to be worth living in.
        - Raymond Chandler, describing his character Phillip Marlowe, "The Simple Art of Murder"

A time when every booze-party ends in a fight and meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands’ necks.
        - Raymond Chandler, on the disturbing effects of the Santa Ana Winds, "Red Wind"

I think he might seduce a duchess, and I am quite sure he would not spoil a virgin.
        Raymond Chandler, about Philip Marlowe

Film noir evolved from the American crime thrillers that rose to pulp prominence between 1920 and 1940. Hollywood took those tales and put the focus on cynics, fall guys, sluts, heists, and murders most foul. The huge screens in movie theaters provided lurid masks for the resentments that pulse within Americana. Our hatred of the upper class and of goody-two-shoes morality got plenty of play. So did our repulsive puritanical troubles with sexual attraction, our reluctant but ultimate belief in the righteousness of force, and our tendency to answer life's pervasive horrors with conspiracy theories.
Noir's popularity was inevitable. How could American audiences resist the combative stance of an unimpressed hero whose ethos could be reduced to: "Is that so?" How could they fail to be lured by all of the actresses cast as Venus' flytraps? Everything in film noir takes place at the bottom, in the sewers of sensibility. It holds that the force of the world is not only indifferent to, but obviously bigger than, the individual, which is why personal satisfaction, whether illegal or immoral, is the solution to the obligatory ride through an unavoidably brittle universe.
A black and white phenomenon, film noir is thought to have achieved its greatest heights between 1945 and 1950, though the apparent moment of final brilliance arrived in 1958's Touch of Evil, directed with the heightened imagination of genius by Orson Welles. As a genre, film noir appeared as an antidote to the Hollywood conventions of pristine character and fulfilled romance because its creators sensed that "rah rah" was no longer the best prescription for the blues. Possessed of a shrewd aesthetic that was both meretricious and rebellious, film noir generously utilized sex and violence, firmly rooting itself in American culture.
        - Stanley Crouch, "Slate Magazine"

90s noir... is noir without any moral compass whatsoever... everybody is corrupt, out for his own ends and willing to sell out those to whom he owes obligations with little or no provocation... Even if this were true of human kind, it would be fatal for a movie to say so. Simply put, when everybody is morally on a par, each trying to do down the next, it is boring. In classic noir, even when the characters themselves were all treacherous, there was always a stern moral presence visible above and behind them, ensuring that their treacheries came to nothing in the end. It was a vision of divine judgment so bleak as to create in us sympathy even for the worst of characters... Wild Things, by contrast, is just a tale of one clever villain getting the better of another clever villain until the cleverest villain of all is the only one left standing.
        - James Bowman, reviewing "Wild Things"

I want Sam Spade's work day. I want to arrive late, unshaven and hungover, and make an outrageous pass at my curvy secretary. She makes me a coffee and holds my calls. A knock, and a beautiful rich brunette enters — you know the type. She offers me five big ones to follow her no-good husband. I drink four whiskeys while she talks and start a drunken rant about dames like her in this crazy mixed-up world. She pulls a gun outta nowhere and forces me to kiss her. Why can't work be like that?
        - Pat Fitzpatrick, in Ireland's "Sunday Independent"

>> Quotes from Teen Noir >> Brick >> Veronica Mars
>> More Film Noir quotes at Classic Noir [external]

# EPICS

"You must understand that beside your pleasure there's such a thing as other people's happiness. You're willing to ruin a whole life for the sake of your own amusement. Well amuse yourself if you must with women of your own rotten breed. They're armed against you with the same experience."
        - Pierre Bezukhov, protecting Natasha Rostov from Anatole Kuragin, "War and Peace" (1956)

"Do you believe a man can change his destiny?"
"I believe a man does what he can until his destiny is revealed."
        - Katsumoto & Nathan Algren, "The Last Samurai"

"I made you!"
"You caused me to be. It's not the same thing."
        - Hannibal and Scipio, bitter enemies and rivals, "Hannibal"

"Why did you choose this life?"
"What life?"
"To be a great warrior."
"I chose nothing. I was born and this is what I am."
        - Briseis and Achilles, "Troy"

"Let me tell you a secret, something they don't teach you in your temple. The Gods envy us. They envy us because we're mortal, because any moment may be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed. You will never be more lovely than you are now. We will never be here again."
        - Achilles, "Troy"

"It's a high ransom she charges for nine months lodging in the womb."
        - Alexander, unimpressed by his mother's demands, "Alexander"

"What man is a man who does not leave the world better?"
        - Balian's motto, "Kingdom of Heaven"

"We fight over an offense we did not give, against those who were not alive to be offended."
        - Balian, "Kingdom of Heaven"

"Deep rotting fear. They are infected with it. Fear is a disease. Strike it from your heart."
        - Flint Sky to Jaguar Paw, describing fleeing refuguees, "Apocalypto"

# WAR & MILITARY

"You want answers?"
"I want the truth!"
"You can't handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom... You need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it!"
        - Col. Nathan Jessep & Lt. Danny Kaffee, "A Few Good Men"

"I wanted to meet stimulating and interesting people of an ancient culture, and kill them. I wanted to be the first kid on my block to get a confirmed kill."
        - Joker in 'Full Metal Jacket'

"God has a hard on for marines, because we kill everything we see."
        - Sgt. Hartman in 'Full Metal Jacket'

"Upon my signal, unleash hell."
        - Gladiator

"Are all Americans as anxious as you to get themselves killed?"
"Not anxious to die, sir, just anxious to matter."
         - Lt. Rafe McAuley, "Pearl Harbor"

"You're a rotten drunk. Always have been."
"Well, you're a lousy friend. That's a new development."
        - Danny and Rafe, "Pearl Harbor"

"That's bullshit, McAuley, but that's very good bullshit."
        - Capt. Jimmy Doolittle, "Pearl Harbor"

"Do you know what Top Secret means?"
"Yeah, it's the kind of mission where you get medals, but they send them to your relatives."
        - Doolittle and Rafe, "Pearl Harbor"

"There's nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer."
       - Capt. Jimmy Doolittle, "Pearl Harbor"

"I'm giving my heart to Danny. But I'll never look at another sunset without thinking of you."
        - Evelyn, "Pearl Harbor"

"Nothing in our lives will ever be as important as this."
        - Lt. Col. Mucci, preparing for "The Great Raid"

"What do you think he's saying?"
"He's trying to land them."
"I'd just get a slap in the face."
"You mustn't frighten them. Machaty begins by asking the way. Say, to the Officers' Mess."
"But doesn't he know where it is?"
"It's a device. Women like to help you when you're in trouble when... they don't feel threatened.
It's how you break the ice."
"Did Machaty tell you that?"
"It's common knowledge."
"I guess English is important after all."
        - Karel and Slama, figuring out to talk to English RAF girls, "Dark Blue World"

"I'm afraid I'm lost. I'm trying to find my way to London."
        - Slama, playing the fool for Susan, "Dark Blue World"

"I kinda like this place, it's like a war theme park."
        - Roland Bozz, "Tigerland"

"Would you look at how fast they put the names of all our guys who got killed?"
"That's a World War One memorial."
"But the name's are the same."
"They always are."
        - Johnson & The Sergeant, as 1st infantry division fights in France again, "The Big Red One"

"Did I kill the guy that killed me?"
"Yes."
        - Kaiser & The Sergeant, "The Big Red One"

"Perhaps they'll only execute the officers?"
"I think we all just got promoted."
        - William Travis and Davy Crockett, as the 'Jolly Roger' is raised, "The Alamo"

"We will sell our lives dearly."
        - Lt. Col. William Travis, leading the line, "The Alamo"

# WESTERNS

"You gonna do something? Or are you just gonna stand there and bleed?"
        - Wyatt Earp to Johnny Tyler, "Tombstone"

"My dear you've set your gaze upon the quintessential frontier type. Note the lean silhouette... eyes closed by the sun, though sharp as a hawk. He's got the look of both predator and prey."
        - Fabian to Josie,  describing Wyatt Earp, "Tombstone"

"What makes a man like Ringo, Doc? What makes him do the things he does? ...What does he want?"
"Revenge."
"For what?"
"Being born."
        - Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, "Tombstone"

"Doc, why you doin' this?"
"Wyatt Earp is my friend."
"Hell, I got lots of friends..."
"I don't."
        - Jack Johnson and Doc Holliday, "Tombstone"

"McLaury, seeing you would be a nice change. I understand most of your enemies got it in the back."
        - Doc Holliday, "Wyatt Earp"

"You're giving me signs that grieve my soul."
        - Jesse James to Bob Ford, "The Assassination of Jesse James..."

"This town reminds me of something out of the Bible."
"What part of the Bible?"
"The part just before God got angry."
        - Wild Bill Hickock arrives in Deadwood, "Wild Bill"

"Maybe this isn't the way it was... it's the way it should have been."
        - Introduction, "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean"

"I am the law in this area."
"What has qualified you as such?"
"I know the law since I have spent my entire life in its flagrant disregard. But I had never killed a man before. Oh, I had shot at some... in self-defense or blind fright, but I never hit anyone. So God must have directed my bullets."
        - Judge Roy Bean explains to Reverend LaSalle, "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean"

"There's going to be law, and order and progress and civilization and peace, above all peace - and I don't care who I have to kill to get it."
        - Judge Roy Bean, outlining how things will be, "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean"

"All men stand equal before the law and I will hang a man for killing anyone including chinks, greasers or niggers. I am very advanced in my views and outspoken... I am the law and the law is the handmaiden of justice."
        - Judge Roy Bean, dispensing justice, "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean"

"The only lynching around here will be done according to the law."
        - Judge Roy Bean, "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean"

"Tweren't a standup fight. You shot him in the back, Judge."
"Standup fight? Hell no, I laid down to steady my aim. I don't hold with giving outlaws a chance - less'n it be a chance to go somewhere else."
        - Deputy and Roy Bean, after Roy shoots outlaw Bad Bob in the back, "...Judge Roy Bean"

"We can't win, the law's on his side, yes, the law. I didn't say nothing about justice."
        - Hector, to Rose Bean, "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean"

"Go to hell!"
"Yes ma'am. I'm on my way."
        - Maria Grant and Bill Dolworth, "The Professionals"

"You bastard."
"Yes sir. In my case an accident of birth. But you, you're a self-made man."
        - J.W. Grant and Rico, "The Professionals"

"You know, there are only two things more beautiful than a good gun: a Swiss watch or a woman from anywhere. You ever had a Swiss watch?"
        - Cherry Vallance to Matt Garth, "Red River"

"I don't think it's nice, you laughin'. You see, my mule don't like people laughing. He gets the crazy idea you're laughin' at him."
        - The Man With No Name (Clint Eastwood), "Fistful of Dollars"

"The dead can be very useful sometimes. They've helped me out of tough spots more than once."
        - The Man With No Name, "Fistful of Dollars"

"When a man's got money in his pocket he begins to appreciate peace."
        - The Man With No Name, "Fistful of Dollars"

"God is on our side because he hates the Yanks."
"God is not on our side because he hates idiots also."
        - Tuco and The Man With No Name, "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly"

"There's another old saying, Senator: Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining."
        - Fletcher, "The Outlaw Josey Wales"

"I didn't surrender, but they took my horse and made him surrender. They have him pulling a wagon up in Kansas I bet."
        - Chief Lone Watie of the Cherokee, "The Outlaw Josey Wales"

"It's always like that. Whenever I gets to likin' someone, they ain't around for long."
"I notice when you gets to dislikin' someone, they ain't around for long neither."
        - Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood) and Chief Lone Watie, "The Outlaw Josey Wales"

"Enemies Bob? You been talking about the Queen of yours again? On Independence Day?"
        - Little Bill to English Bob, "The Unforgiven"

"Bob, if I ever see you again I'mm just gonna start shooting and figure it's self defence."
        - Little Bill, running English Bob out of town, "The Unforgiven"

"You just shot an unarmed man."
"He should have armed himself if he's gonna decorate his saloon with my friend."
        - Little Bill and Bill Munny (Clint Eastwood), "The Unforgiven"

"I sure do miss my bed."
"You said that last night."
"No last night I said I missed my wife, tonight I just miss my goddamn bed."
        - Ned Logan and Bill, "The Unforgiven"

"I wanna go to San Francisco. That's what I want..."
"Listen to me now... You see life in San Francisco is still just life. Now if you want only one thing too much it's likely to turn out a disappointment. The only healthy way to live as I see it is to learn to like all the everyday, ordinary little things."
"Yeah like what?"
"Like a sip of good whiskey of a evening... or say a fesity gentleman like myself."
        - Lorie and Gus McCrae, "Lonesome Dove"

"I'm surprised you dare bring that girl to my house."
"Why, I thought you liked Lorie."
"I do like her. I mind, though. She's so young, and pretty."
"I told you what happened. It's accident she's even on this trip!"
"Oh? I never notice you having 'accidents' with ugly girls."
        - Clara Allen and Gus McCrae, "Lonesome Dove"

# BLAZING SADDLES

Hedley Lamarr: My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives.
Taggart: God darnit Mr. Lamarr, you use your tongue prettier than a twenty dollar whore.

Hedley Lamarr: Unfortunately there is one thing standing between me and that property - the rightful owners.

Taggart: I got it.
Hedley Lamarr: What?
Taggart: Let's kill every first born male child in Rock Ridge.
Hedley Lamarr: Too Jewish.

Governor: We've gotta protect our phoney-baloney jobs! He must do something!

Bart (holding gun to his head): Drop it or I'll blow this nigger's head all over this town.

Bart: Are we awake?
Jim: We're not sure. Are we black?
Bart: Yes, we are.
Jim: Then we're awake, but very puzzled.

Bart: A man drink like that and he don't eat, he is going to DIE.
Jim: When?

Bart: I better go check out this Mongo character.
[Bart reaches for his gun]
Jim: Oh no, don't do that.
Bart: Why not?
Jim: If you shoot him, you'll just make him mad.

Jim: You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know... morons.

Olson Johnson: All right, we'll give some land to the niggers and the chinks, but not the Irish.

Hedley Lamarr: I want you to round up ever vicious criminal and gun slinger in the west. Take this down... I want rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers and Methodists.
Taggart: Could you repeat that, sir?

# FILMS AT SEA

"It reminds me of the heady days of Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin when the world trembled at the sound of our rockets. Now they will tremble again - at the sound of our silence. The order is: engage the silent drive."
        - Captain Ramius, "The Hunt For Red October"

"I had no idea that the study of nature could advance the art of naval warfare."
        - Captain Jack Aubrey, to Doctor Stephen Maturin, "Master & Commander"

"Though we be on the far side of the world this ship is our home. This ship is England."
        - Captain Jack Aubrey, "Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World"

"How long do you think the men can stand it?"
"As long as the officers can."
        - Master Fryer and Lt. Bligh, fighting through the storm, "The Bounty"

"Brave men are not forgotten."
"Thank you, sir, but sometimes they don't live long enough to be remembered."
        - The captain and Brian Hawke (Errol Flynn), "Against All Flags"

"It's hard to imagine what part of your life would require me to speak Latin?"
        - William Shaw meets Morgan the Pirate, "Cutthroat Island"

"You must understand Sir James that you are a pawn and I must remove you from the playing board."
        - Lord Durant, "Swashbuckler"

"What do you want?"
"Well, I was thinking, girl, it's very easy to get off a ship without your clothes on — but it's not so easy to get back on again."
        - Ned Lynch, with a chivalrous offer to Jane Barnet, "Swashbuckler"

"Don't get provoked; Never fight fair when you're fighting for your life."
        - Ned Lynch, with some lessons for Jane, "Swashbuckler"

"A gentleman knows when to fight and when to lay down his sword. You were a gentleman once Lynch, or have you forgotten?"
"I'm not a gentleman — I'm an Irishman."
        - Lord Durant and Ned Lynch, "Swashbuckler"

# PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL

"You are without a doubt the worst pirate I've ever heard of."
"Ah, but you have heard of me."
        - Commodore James Norrington (Jack Davenport), temporarily apprehending Jack Sparrow

"I intend to see to it that any man who sails under a pirate flag or wears a pirate brand gets what he deserves: a short drop and a sudden stop."
        - Commodore Norrington

"And then they made me their chief..."
        - Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), finishing off a larger than life story

"Will, how many times must I ask you to call me Elizabeth?"
"At least once more, Miss Swann, as always."
        - Elizabeth Swann (Kiera Knightley) and Will Turner (Orlando Bloom)

"You need to find yourself a girl mate. Or perhaps the reason you practice three hours a day is that you already found one, and are otherwise incapable of wooing said strumpet."
        - Jack, to Will

"I'm dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly... stupid."
        - Jack

"I am not obsessed with treasure."
"Not all treasure is silver and gold, mate."
        - Will and Jack

"This is the fastest ship in the Caribbean."
"You can tell them that after they've caught us."
       - Elizabth and Anamaria, as the 'Black Pearl' gains on 'The Interceptor'

"You've burned all the food, the shade, the *rum*! Why is the rum gone?"
"One, because it is a vile drink that turns even the most respectable men into complete scoundrels. Two, that signal is over a thousand feet high. The entire Royal Navy is out looking for me; do you really think that there is even the slightest chance that they won't see it?"
"But why is the rum gone?"
        - Jack and Elizabeth, marooned on a desert island

"There'll be no living with her after this..."
        - Jack, after Elizabeth's plan works

"Whose side is Jack on?"
"At the moment?"
        - Elizabeth and Will

"Where's Elizabeth?"
"She's safe, just like I promised. She's all set to marry Norrington, just like she promised. And you get to die for her, just like you promised. So we're all men of our word, really. Except for Elizabeth who is, in fact, a woman."
        - Will and Jack

"It's not possible!"
"Not *probable*."
        - Captain Barbarossa and Jack, as he escapes death another time

"This is just like what the Greeks done at Troy. Except they was in a horse instead of dresses..."
       - Pirate Ragetti, executing a cunning plan

"I thought we might have to endure some manner of ill-conceived escape attempt."
        - Commodore Norrington, temporarily apprehending Jack (again)

"Commodore! What about Sparrow?"
"I think we can afford to give him one day’s head start."
        - Lt. Gilette and Commodore Norrington

"Here for an example of English repression in all its glory..."
        - Jack Davenport (aka Cmdr Norrington), introducing one of his scenes on the DVD commentary

"It's Mini Me!"
"Yes, here we see a miniature Keira Knightley, singing her little song at the front of a boat. Obviously a very troubled child."
       - Keira Knightley and Jack, audio commentary as the younger version of Elizabeth appears

"Look at that cleavage!"
        - Keira Knightley's repeated exclamation on the DVD commentary whenever a bodice appears

"You have to have a stunt girl? To run up some *stairs*?"
        - Jack, not impressed with Keira's stunt work

"I'm doing a lot of eyebrow acting at this point... remind me when I crack a smile in this film."
        - Jack Davenport, on the DVD audio commentary with Keira Knightley

"Somewhat symbolically, he's whacking his anvil."
        - Jack Davenport, commenting (in MST3K style) on Will Turner, hard at work in the blacksmith's

"Women. Can't live with them — can't live with them. It can only get bitter."
        - Jack Davenport, not impressed as his character is given the run around by Keira's

"You've never gone on the ride (Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean), have you?"
"No, I was too busy reading books about naval procedure..."
        - Keira Knightley and Jack Davenport, discussing their alternative research strategies for the film

"Those of us who played English characters — myself, Keira, Jonathan — we were told by the production that we weren't allowed to get tans. Which is a bit odd, as we were playing English people who lived in the Caribbean. Some of us took it seriously, the no-tanning rule—"
"—and others didn't—"
        - Jack Davenport and Keira Knightley, struggling to be historically accurate

"I haven't got a girlfriend anymore so I may as well go pirate hunting..."
        - Jack Davenport, commentary for his closing scene

"Like learning to do a tango when you don't have a partner."
        - Jack Davenport, on choreographing CGI fight scenes

"I never met a sword I didn't like."
        - Jay Wolpert, from the Writers' DVD Audio Commentary

"I love writing strong women, such as Elizabeth, because they don't have the weapons that strong men have. Women don't have that easy way out so their strength has to come in more subtle and complex ways, and that's always a challenge."
        - Jay Wolpert, from the Writers' DVD Audio Commentary

"Raiders of the Lost Ark on the high seas."
        - How one of the writers (Stuart Beattie?) imagined Pirates

"We weren't trying to make a naturalistic or accurate reflection of piracy — we were trying to make an accurate reflection of the romantic image of piracy."
        - Stuart Beattie, from the Writers' Commentary

While I’m sure that Pirates of the Caribbean will make millions at the box office, Depp’s approach hints at a broader weakness in Hollywood. The major studios appear to find it ever more difficult to offer us classic cinema which believes in itself. The idea of making a proper swashbuckling historical adventure that appeals to the adventurous adolescent in all of us appears to be beyond film-makers, who can’t approach the genre without wanting to subvert it. It seems as though irony has entered Hollywood’s soul. The problem with movies like Pirates of the Caribbean is that they draw us in by appealing to our childhood memory of the adventures of Robert Louis Stevenson or Captain Marryat, only to spoil it all by piling on unnecessary computer-generated images, incredible supernatural plot twists and gratuitously anachronistic pop cultural references. The lack of the studios’ faith in the capacity of classic adventure to hold young minds is dispiriting. There is clearly an appetite for what I suspect Hollywood would dismiss as Boy’s Own stuff.
        - Michael Gove, "The Times"

There is nothing so tedious a nonstop excitement.
        - Stephanie Zacharek, reviewing "Dead Man's Chest", "Salon"

>> More quotes from the audio commentary courtesy of "One Day's Head Start"

"Why is the rum always gone?"
        - Captain Jack, "Dead Man's Chest"

"Elizabeth Swann, there is more to you than meets the eye, isn't there? And the eye does not go wanting."
       - Captain Sao Feng

"Aye, we're good and lost now... For sure you have to be lost to find a place that can't be found."
        - Barbossa

"Did no one come to save me just because they missed me?"
        - Jack to the gang

"Our fates were always intertwined, Elizabeth. But never joined."
        - Admiral Norrington, to Elizabeth

"James Norrington, do you fear death? ... I'll take that as a 'no'."
        - Davy Jones, after Norrington stabs him

Mistress Ching: "Who is this traitor?"
Barbossa: "Most likely not one among us."
...
Elizabeth: "Where's Will?"
Jack: "Not among us."
        - The Pirate Brethren have a traitor

"It's not living forever that's the problem, Jacky. It's living with yourself — forever."
        - Captain Teague to Jack

"And that was without a single drop of rum."
        - Jack, after a spectacular escape

"Think like the whelp. Think like the whelp. Think like the whelp..."
        - Jack, using Will's methods to escape from a cell

"Barbossa! Barbossa, marry us!"
"I'm a little busy!"
        - Elizabeth and Barbossa, in the maelstrom

Orlando Bloom has grown into his role. Finally, Will Turner has becomes something a little more interesting than a one-dimensional hero type. There's a little Han Solo in this Luke Skywalker.
        - James Berardinelli, reviewing "At World's End"

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