I love movies and I am a guy. So I really, really love guy movies.
There are a few things that are undisputed that make up a guy movie and one of them is it has to have one or a few memorable quotes.
It’s the quote that gets repeated anytime guys get together. I wrote about it at About Men Radio. But there are movies that are guy movies determined not just by a quote but rather an entire monologue.
I selected these five not as the top five best ever but simply as five great and memorable monologues.
Wall Street – Michael Douglas Gordon Gekko (1987)
Ahh, the 80s. When corporate greed was acceptable, allowed and admired. The divide between the robber barons and the rest of the population was wide but accepted because the economic meltdown had yet to occur.
In this came an antihero who in his famous monologue explained why greed was good. And we all applauded.
Key quote: “The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good.”
Animal House – John Belushi John Blutarsky (1978)
Classic movie monologues don’t always have to be serious. They can also be from one of the greatest comedy movies ever made. This infamous monologue is delivered brilliantly by the late great John Belushi.
The director John Landis said Belushi had the most expressive face he had ever had the fortune of directing. Think to the laughs he generated in the cafeteria food line scene without ever speaking a word but then near the end he gives one of the most rousing comedic monologues ever delivered on the big screen.
Key quote: “Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?”
Blade Runner – Rutger Hauer Roy Batty (1982)
What would a guy movie be without a great villain? In the great sci-fi adaptation of Phillip K. Dick “Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep,” the villain of the movie, now titled “Blade Runner”— because really, electric sheep?! — delivers a monologue in the pouring rain.
As scripted, the monologue was fantastic and masterfully delivered.
But then Rutger Hauer, playing the part of the replicant Roy Batty, improvised the final line, “Like tears in the rain,” transforming a great monologue to a masterpiece!
Key quote: “All those moments will be lost in time. Like tears in the rain”
Silence of the Lambs – Anthony Hopkins Hannibal Lector (1991)
And while on the topic of villains, has there ever been a larger than life one than Hannibal Lector? Watching the great Sir Anthony Hopkins perform it simply freezes my spine, and it isn’t even the famous Chianti line. It is his final farewell to Clarice. Even though there is an interaction with the film’s protagonist, the delivery of the questions can be pieced together into a single, unforgettable and bone-chilling monologue.
Key quote: “You think if Catherine lives, you won’t wake up in the dark ever again to that awful screaming of the lambs.”
Jaws – Robert Shaw Quint (1975)
The Indianapolis speech from the blockbuster “Jaws.” Very little introduction or explanation is required of this monologue. Any true card-carrying guy can almost completely recite this one. But no one can ever deliver it with the gravitas that the late great Robert Shaw did. Reportedly Shaw did not like his first delivery of it. The following day he re-did the scene and was supposedly very drunk.
Key quote: “…and the ocean turns red and spite of all the poundin’ and the hollerin’ they all come in and rip you to pieces.”