one of the best movie conversations ever
 

I love this exchange. I wouldnt change a word of it, nor how it was filmed, or performed by the actors. Nearly perfect filmmaking, IMHO.

I wonder who will recognize it first.



Holden: Can I ask you a question?

Alyssa: Don't even tell me you want to do it again.

H: Why me?...you know...why now?

A: Well because you were giving me that look, and I got all wet...

H: You know what I mean.

A: Why not you?

H: Well, I'm a guy. I mean, you're attracted to girls.

A: I see you've been taking notes. Historically yes, that's true.

H: Then why this?

A: Well, I've given that a lot of thought, you know? I mean, now that I'm being ostracized by my friends, I've had plenty of time to think about it. And what I've come up with is really simple: I came to this on my own terms. You know, I didn't just heed what I was taught: "men and women should be together, it's the natural way," that kind of thing. I'm not with you because of what family, society, life tried to instill in me from day one. The way the world is...how seldom it is that you meet that one person who...just gets you...it's so rare. My parents didn't really have it, there're no examples set for me in the world of male-female relationships. And to cut oneself off from finding that person...to immediately halve your options by eliminating the possibility of finding that one person within your own gender...that just seemed stupid to me. So I didn't. But then you came along. You, the one least likely...I mean you were a guy.

H: Still am.

A: And while I was falling for you, I put ceiling on that, because you were a guy, until I remembered why I opened the door to women in the first place: to not limit the likelihood of finding that one person that could complement me so completely. So, here we are. I was thorough when I looked for you. And I feel justified lying in your arms. Cause I got here on my own terms, and I have no question there wasnt someplace I didn’t look. And for me, that makes all the difference.

H: Well, can I at least tell people that all you needed was some serious "deep dicking"?

All I can say is "fingercuffs." :)

I like the pitchers' mound scene in Bull Durham.
"Candlesticks are always nice."

certainly one of my 10 favorite movies.

Oh.. Without a doubt... John Wayne in McClintock..

JW: Somebody outta hit you. But I won't.... I won't.... The hell I won't! WHACK!!!

Awesome stuff. Gotta love JW...

I don't like KS' dialogue at all. Who talks like that in real life? No one talks like that. Its like what someone would write if they had a long time to think about it and a lot of rewrites. It works on paper, but on the screen it doesn't.

t really annoyed me and ruined the whole movie for me, which was actually pretty good for the most part.

true maximus, Kevin Smith dialogue is definately overly fabricated, but, in my point of view (I consider myself a poet and a critic) his movies aren't supposed to be *real life* - they are decorated commentaries on simpleton life. With the stories that he tells, his movies would be utterly boring if they didn't have dialogue that resembled the rants of random highly-caffienated internet bulletin board users.

You may be right Halx. Its just a pet peeve of mine that movies be real and bring you into their world. Perhaps not all movies have to do that to be effective.

maximusveritas, while I agree, to an extent, with your point about the dialog in Smith's movies, I contend that that has nothing to do with the beauty of the scene I quoted above.

I just watched that movie last night (for the umpteenth time) and I think that the scene feels very real. Sure, few people talk like that. But, in the world created by KS in his movies, many people talk like that, especially the character of Alyssa in this one. So, while it might not be true to the reality that you and I live in, it IS true to the reality of the movie.

What really moves me about this passage is the wonderful way that Alyssa expresses her reasoning. very cool, IMHO.

I used that Chasing Amy dialogue in a paper I wrote in college. Nice!

I remember Smith jokingly said in the "Evening with Kevin Smith" DVD that in his world everyone talks in long monologues.

Heat, the scene between Robert De Niro and Al Pacino at the coffee shop. Its the only good part of the whole movie. Its classic the tension and edge they bring.

Glad

Wait, you mean to tell me that Dogma isn't "real-life?" Man, I thought it was some kind of documentary or something. Now, I don't know what to think............

I always thought this scene from Clerks was rather thought provoking......


RANDAL: You know what else I noticed in Jedi?

DANTE: There's more?

RANDAL: So they build another Death Star, right?

DANTE: Yeah.

RANDAL: Now the first one they built was completed and fully operational before the Rebels destroyed it.

DANTE: Luke blew it up. Give credit where it's due.

RANDAL: And the second one was still being built when they blew it up.

DANTE: Compliments of Lando Calrissian.

RANDAL: Something just never sat right with me the second time they destroyed it. I could never put my finger on it, something just wasn't right.

DANTE: And you figured it out?

RANDAL: Well, the thing is, the first Death Star was manned by the Imperial army-storm troopers, dignitaries- the only people onboard were Imperials.

DANTE: Basically.

RANDAL: So when they blew it up, no prob. Evil is punished.

DANTE: And the second time around...?

RANDAL: The second time around, it wasn't even finished yet. They were still under construction.

DANTE: So?

RANDAL: A construction job of that magnitude would require a helluva lot more manpower than the Imperial army had to offer. I'll bet there were independent contractors working on that thing: plumbers, aluminum siders, roofers.

DANTE: Not just Imperials, is what you're getting at.

RANDAL: Exactly. In order to get it built quickly and quietly they'd hire anybody who could do the job. Do you think the average storm trooper knows how to install a toilet main? All they know is killing and white uniforms.

DANTE: All right, so even if independent contractors are working on the Death Star, why are you uneasy with its destruction?

RANDAL: All those innocent contractors hired to do a job were killed casualties of a war they had nothing to do with. (notices Dante's confusion) All right, look-you're a roofer, and some juicy government contract comes your way; you got the wife and kids and the two-story in suburbia-this is a government contract, which means all sorts of benefits. All of a sudden these left-wing militants blast you with lasers and wipe out everyone within a three-mile radius. You didn't ask for that. You have no personal politics. You're just trying to scrape out a living.

The BLUE-COLLAR MAN joins them.

BLUE-COLLAR MAN: Excuse me. I don't mean to interrupt, but what were you talking about?

RANDAL: The ending of Return of the Jedi.

DANTE: My friend is trying to convince me that any contractors working on the uncompleted Death Star were innocent victims when the space station was destroyed by the rebels.

Take your pick of any conversation in:

Scent of A Woman

or

Glengarry Glenross

or more recently

Sexy Beast

To name a couple of good conversation movies.

For television, The Sopranos has some of the best dialogue out there.

edit: The conversation between Christopher Walken and Dennis Hopper in True Romance...its incredible

On the point of Kevin Smith movies being unrealistic...I guess in Shakespearean times, everyone talked in iambic pentameter solioquoys?

Some of the conversation in 'Pulp Fiction' is truly memorable. The scene where Bruce Willis is cuddling with his wife and their love talk is great. And of course Walkens speech about the watch.

The conversation on tipping in Reservoir Dogs is a classic.

They aren't so much conversations as they are monologues in American Psycho. But I can't get over the speeches Christian Bale gives about 80's pop music, namely Phil Collins, Whiney Huston, and Huey Lewis & The News. The Business Card scene is classic too.

full metal jacket: boring 2nd half, perfect first. this dialogue is beautiful:

---
HARTMAN
If you ladies leave my island, if you survive
recruit training ... you will be a weapon, you
will be a minister of death, praying for war.
But until that day you are pukes! You're the
lowest form of life on Earth. You are not even
human fucking beings!
You are nothing but unorganized grabasstic pieces of amphibian shit!
Because I am hard, you will not like me. But
the moreyou hate me, the more you will
learn. I am hard, but I am fair! There is no
racial bigotry here! I do not look down on
niggers, kikes, wops or greasers. Here you
are all equally worthless! And my orders are
to weed out all non-hackers who do not pack
the gear to serve in my beloved Corps! Do
you maggots understand that?

-------

Lots of people talk like that. I guess you've never spent more than five minutes inside a comic book shop.

There is a line in Matewan that goes something like, "I wouldn't pee down his throat if his heart was on fire." Gotta love that line.

Ok, here's one from Gross Point Blank that i quote all the time.

"Your a psycho"
"don't...judge until you have all the facts"

or from bonedock saints

Rocco "f@cken, what the f@cken, f@ck, who the f@ck, f@ck this, f@cken, how did you two f@cken f@cks, f@ck.

One of the twins "that certainly illistrates the derversity of the word"

Yup, the beginning in Reservoir Dogs has to be mentioned somewhere in this thread.

i just have one cuestion

Why the hell do i have to be mister pink?

here ya go. this is LONG, its got the opening (talking about Like a Virgin) and them the tiping sceene.
-----
(INT. UNCLE BOB'S PANCAKE HOUSE - MORNING

Eight men dressed in BLACK SUITS, sit around a table at a breakfast cafe. They are MR. WHITE, MR. PINK, MR. BLUE, MR. BLONDE, MR. ORANGE, MR. BROWN, NICE GUY EDDIE CABOT, and the big boss, JOE CABOT. Most are finished eating and are enjoying coffee and conversation. Joe flips through a small address book. Mr. Brown is telling a long and involved story about Madonna.)

MR. BROWN
Let me tell you what Like a Virgin's about. It's all about a girl who digs a guy with a big dick. The entire song-- it's a metaphor for big dicks.

MR. BLUE
No, it ain't. It's about a girl who's very vulnerable. She's been fucked over a few times and then she meets a guy who's very sensitive.

MR. BROWN
Whoa! whoa...time out Greenbay. Tell that fucking bullshit to the tourists.

JOE
Toby? Who the fuck is Toby?

MR. BROWN
Like a Virgin's not about some sensitive girl who meets a nice fella. That's what True Blue's about. Granted, no argument about that.

MR. ORANGE
Which one's true Blue?

NICE GUY EDDIE
You ain't heard True Blue? It was a big ass hit for Madonna. I don't even follow that Tops of the Pops shit, and even I've heard of True Blue.

MR. ORANGE
Yeah, so - I ain't saying I ain't heard of it. You know; all I asked is how's it go. Excuse me for not being the world's biggest Madonna fan.

MR. BLONDE
Personally, I can do without her.

MR. BLUE
I used to like her early stuff-- Borderline. When she got all into that Papa Don't Preach phase, I tuned out.

MR. BROWN
You guys are like making me lose my train of thought here. I was saying something. What was it?

JOE
Oh, Toby's that little Chinese girl. What was her last name?

MR. WHITE
What's that?

JOE
It's an old address book I found in a coat I haven't worn in a coon's age. What was that name?

MR. BROWN
What the fuck was I talking about?

MR. PINK
You said True Blue was about a sensitive girl who meets a nice guy, but Like a Virgin was a metaphor for big dicks.

MR. BROWN
Ok. Let me tell you what Like a Virgin's about. It's all about this cooz who's a regular fuck machine. I'm talking morning, day, night, afternoon-- dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick.

MR. BLUE
How many dicks is that?

MR. WHITE
A lot.

MR. BROWN
Then one day she meets this John Holmes motherfucker, and it's like, whoa, baby. This cat is like Charles Bronson in the great escape. He's digging tunnels. She's getting this serious dick action and feeling something she ain't felt since forever-- pain. Pain.

JOE
Chu? Toby Chu?

MR. BROWN
It hurts. It hurts her. It shouldn't hurt her. Her pussy should be bubbleyum by now, but when this cat fucks her, it hurts. It hurts just like it did the first time. You see, the pain is reminding a fuck machine what it was like to be a virgin. Hence: Like a Virgin.

JOE
Wong.

MR. WHITE
Give me that fucking thing.

JOE
What the hell do you think you're doing? Give me my book back.

MR. WHITE
I'm sick of fucking hearing it, Joe. I'll give it back to you when we leave.

JOE
What do you mean when we leave? Give me it back now.

MR. WHITE
For the past 15 minutes now, you've been droning on about names. Toby... Toby... Toby... Toby Wong... Toby Wong... Toby Wong... Toby Chung... Fucking Charlie Chan. I've got Madonna's big dick coming out of my left ear and Toby the Jap I-don't-know-what, coming out of my right.

JOE
Give me that book.

MR. WHITE
Are you going to put it away?

JOE
I'm going to do whatever the fuck I want with it.

MR. WHITE
Well, then, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to keep it.

MR. BLONDE
Hey, Joe, want me to shoot this guy?

MR. WHITE
Shit. You shoot me in a dream, you better wake up and apologize.

(They laugh.)

EDDIE
You guys been listening to K-Billy's Super Sounds of the Seventies weekend?

MR. PINK
Oh, yeah, man, that's fucking great isn't it?

EDDIE
Can you believe the songs they been playing?

MR. PINK
You know what I heard the other day? Heartbeat (It's a Love Beat) by Little Tony deFranco and the deFranco family. Man I haven't heard that since I was in fifth fuckin' grade.

EDDIE
When I was coming down here, The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia came on. I ain't heard that song since it was big. When it was big, I must of heard it a million trillion fucking times. This is the first time I ever realized the girl singing the song is the one who shot Andy.

MR. BROWN
What? You mean you didn't know Vicki Lawrence was the one who shot Andy?

EDDIE
I thought the cheating wife shot Andy.

MR. ORANGE
They say that at the end of the song.

EDDIE
I know, motherfucker! I just heard it! That's what I'm talking about!

(They laugh.)

I must have zoned out during that part before.

JOE
All right. I'll take care of the check. You guys can get the tip. Should be about a buck apiece. And you, when I come back, I want my book.

MR. WHITE
Sorry. It's my book now.

JOE
Hey, I changed my mind. Shoot this piece of shit, will you?

(They laugh.)

EDDIE
All right. Everybody cough up some green for the little lady.

Come on. Throw in a buck.

MR. PINK
Uh-uh. I don't tip.

EDDIE
You don't tip?

MR. PINK
No - I don't believe in it.

EDDIE
You don't believe in tipping?

MR. BLUE
You know what these chicks make? They make shit.

MR. PINK
Don't give me that. She don't make enough money, she can quit.

(Mr. Blonde laughs.)

EDDIE
I don't even know a fucking Jew who'd have the balls to say that. Let me just get this straight. You don't ever tip, huh?

MR. PINK
I don't tip because society says I have to. Alright, I mean I'll tip if somebody really deserves a tip, if they really put forth the effort, I'll give 'em something extra, but I mean this tipping automatically is for the birds.

(Eddie laughs.)

I mean as far as I'm concerned they're just doing their job.

MR. BLUE
Hey, this girl was nice.

MR. PINK
She was OK - but she wasn't anything special.

MR. BLUE
What's special, take you in the back and suck your dick?

(They laugh.)

EDDIE
I'd go over 12% for that.

MR. PINK
Hey Look, I ordered coffee, right? Now we've been here a long fuckin time, and she's only filled my cup three times. When I order coffee, I want it filled six times

MR. BLONDE
Six times? Well, you know, what if she's too fucking busy?

MR. PINK
Words "too fucking busy" shouldn't be in a waitress' vocabulary.

EDDIE
Excuse me, Mr. Pink - the last fucking thing you need's another cup of coffee.

MR. PINK
Jesus Christ - I mean these ladies aren't starving to death. They make minimum wage. You know, I used to work minimum wage. And when I did, I wasn't lucky enough to have a job society deemed tip-worthy.

MR. BLUE
You don't care they're counting on your tips to live?

(Mr. Pink rubs two of his fingers together.)

MR. PINK
You know what this is? It's the world's smallest violin playing just for the waitresses.

MR. WHITE
You don't have any idea what you're talking about. These people bust their ass. This is a hard job.

MR. PINK
So's working at McDonald's, but you don't feel the need to tip them, do you? Why not? They're servin ya food. But no, society says don't tip these guys over here, but tip these guys over here. That's bullshit.

MR. WHITE
Waitressing is the number one occupation for female noncollege graduates in this country. It's the one job basically any woman can get and make a living on. The reason is because of their tips.

MR. PINK
(pauses) Fuck all that.

(They all laugh.)

MR. BROWN
Jesus Christ!

MR. PINK
Hey, I'm very sorry that the government taxes their tips. That's fucked up. That ain't my fault. It would appear that waitresses are just one of the many groups the government fucks in the ass on a regular basis. You show me a paper says the government shouldn't do that, I'll sign it. Put it to a vote, I'll vote for it. But what I won't do is play ball. And this non-college bullshit you're giving me, I got two words for that: "Learn to fuckin type." Cause if you're expecting me to help out with the rent, you're in for a big fuckin' surprise.

MR. ORANGE
Hey - he's convinced me. Give me my dollar back.

EDDIE
Hey! Leave the dollars there.

JOE
All right, ramblers, let's get ramblin'. Wait a minute. Who didn't throw in?

MR. ORANGE
Mr. Pink.

JOE
Mr. Pink? Why not?

MR. ORANGE
He don't tip.

JOE
He don't tip? What do you mean you don't tip?

MR. ORANGE
He don't believe in it.

JOE
Shut up. What do you mean you don't believe in it? Come on, you, cough up a buck, you cheap bastard. I paid for your goddamn breakfast.

MR. PINK
Alright - since you paid for the breakfast, I'll put in, but normally I would never do this.

JOE
Never mind what you normally would do. Just cough in your goddamn buck like everybody else. Thank you.

RADIO

believe it or not, on rare moments people really DO talk like a kevin smith script. sometimes you're just "Zoned" in and everything is clear.

Man, that opening speech to reservoir dogs rules! I love that film. Thanks for posting the transcript, I really enjoyed reading it again.

-C.S. Flim

Al Pacino's "baird boy" speech in Scent of a Woman.

My votes go for Pulp Fiction, the scene at the beginning where travolta and jackson talk about the foot massages, as well as where travolta and thurman talk at the diner.

The other would be Reservoir dogs... the tipping.

And I give Clerks the number 1 postion. Not very real with certain people... but very real with the geeks I used to know.

The last conversation in Pulp Fiction with Travolta and Jackson in the diner. Before Vincent (Travolta) goes to the toilet.
Pretty cool, but I have to say, without Samuel L. Jackson's screen presence, and the way he can deliver his lines, it would not have half the impact.

Also the tipping scene from RD.

The most amazing bit of dialogue in a movie has to be the scene between Christopher Walken and Dennis Hopper in True Romance. Both actors have so much presence, it's amazing to watch them interact throughout the scene. If you want to read the script check it out here: http://www.pg.ru/scripts/true_romance.html

To find the scene search for "INT. TRAILER v DAY" and read on.

Jason Abels

Travoltas speech in the begining of swordfish was kinda cool, i liked it, talking about movies and such:

Gabriel: You know what the problem with Hollywood is? They make shit. Unbelievable, unremarkable shit. Now I'm not some grungy wannabe filmmaker that's searching for existentialism through a haze of bong smoke or something. No, it's easy to pick apart bad acting, short-sighted directing, and a purely moronic stringing together of words that many of the studios term as "prose". No, I'm talking about the lack of realism. Realism; not a pervasive element in today's modern American cinematic vision. Take Dog Day Afternoon, for example. Arguably Pacino's best work, short of Scarface and Godfather Part 1, of course. Masterpiece of directing, easily Lumet's best. The cinematography, the acting, the screenplay, all top-notch. But... they didn't push the envelope. Now what if in Dog Day, Sonny REALLY wanted to get away with it? What if -- now here's the tricky part -- what if he started killing hostages right away? No mercy, no quarter. "Meet our demands or the pretty blonde in the bellbottoms gets it the back of the head." Bam, splat! What, still no bus? Come on! How many innocent victims splattered across a window would it take to have the city reverse its policy on hostage situations? And this is 1976; there's no CNN, there's no CNBC, there's no internet! Now fast forward to today, present time, same situation. How quickly would the modern media make a frenzy over this? In a matter of hours, it'd be biggest story from Boston to Budapest! Ten hostages die, twenty, thirty; bam bam, right after another, all caught in high-def, computer-enhanced, color corrected. You can practically taste the brain matter. All for what? A bus, a plane? A couple of million dollars that's federally insured? I don't think so. Just a thought. I mean, it's not within the realm of conventional cinema... but what if?

I mean, granted its not the best, i just thought it was done rather well by him.


Eh, when morpheous(sp) tells neo the truth in the original matrix, explains the war, what happened etc, that was pretty cool.


And though short, the speechs from Fight club "you are not a beautiful and unique snowflake etc etc"

I dont know if it qualifies as a 'conversation' but the "you think i'm fucking funny" scene in Goodfellas is great!

Also "On the Waterfront" with Brando talking about how he could have been a "contender" is very powerful

Apocalypse Now is a very quotable movie but it all seems to be in the monologue (sp?) by Willard, Kilgore's surfing bit or Kurtz's speech at the end, rather than as a conversation.

You always know two things about a David Mamet script. First, the male-female dialogue will be so juicy it drips from their chins. Second, the guy will always get the upper hand.

The conversation between Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, and Kevin Spacey's characters near the end of SE7EN is a very memorable and classic scence as everything worked: the direction, the editting, the performance, and the dialogue.

Any conversations from Coen brothers movies are good.
for monologues, I like:
Atticus Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird
Tom Hanks character in Cast Away, at the end:
".....tomorrow the sun will rise........and who knows what the tide could bring?"
I always dug that.

heheheh! way to go eggy!

everytime Christopher Walken speaks, its a gem.

"I'm an angel. I kill newborns while their mamas watch. I turn cities into salt. And occasionally, when I feel like it, I tear little girls apart. And from now till kingdom come... the only thing you can count on... in your existence... is never understanding why."

see, pure gold :)

I stiil think the courtroom scene in "A Few Good Men" is right up there as far as dialouge.

I use the "I don't give DAMN what you think you are entitled to." quote whenever it is appropriate.

Cheech Marin's monolog in From Dusk Til Dawn -

"We got all kinds of pussy! Black pussy. White pussy. Pink pussy. Sweet pussy. Smelly pussy. Bald pussy. Hairy pussy... etc."

Another great dialogue writer is Hal Hartley... Like Kevin Smith his conversations aren't so much about matching real conversations... that isn' the point.

They have a rythm and pace that is just too perfect.

David Mamet is another great writer for this, too.