In The Hole
Julie and I actually got to watch TV together the other night (it was like getting married again, except for the flowers). John, trying very hard to adjust to the scheduleless summer and failing miserably, ended up pulling a 36-hour shift of boredom and crashed around 8pm, leaving the adults to be...adults. I'm not getting into details.
We ended up watching the American Film Institute's Top 100 Movie Quotes show, which allowed my movie wonk full reign. We came in at #65 (counting down to #1), which was, "Elementary, my dear Mr. Watson" from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1929), and the rest of the evening was spent guessing.
We got disappointed at times; some of our picks had already passed (actually, #66 was "Get your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!" from Planet of the Apes, one I was waiting for) and others never showed up, including "My name is Inigo Montoya...", which was on the nominated 400 list, I found out, but never made it to the top.
The criteria, by the way, included this:
MOVIE QUOTE
A statement, phrase or brief exchange of dialogue spoken in an American film. (Lyrics from songs are not eligible.)
CULTURAL IMPACT
Movie Quotes that viewers use in their own lives and situations; circulating through popular culture, they become part of the national lexicon.
LEGACY
Movie Quotes that viewers use to evoke the memory of a treasured film, thus ensuring and enlivening its historical legacy.
Some guesses showed up later. "What -- we have here -- is a failure -- to---COMMUNICATE" from Cool Hand Luke (Strother Martin) had to be there, and it was, if not in the top ten. It was obvious (they gave hints) that #1 would be "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" from Gone With The Wind, so we dispensed with that. And despite the indication that Casablanca won the contest with seven quotes (I know this film backward and forward, and still even I missed the highest placing one, which was "Here's looking at you, kid"; shame on me), there was room for speculation and some of ours was right, and gee...we sat down and watched something together.
Then there were those that made sense but just didn't cross our brains during the commercials. "E.T. phone home." "You talkin' to me?" "I love the smell of napalm in the morning!" "Love means never having to say you're sorry." "They call me Mister Tibbs."
And when they announced, during the last break, that two of the three final quotes were delivered by one actor (Jimmy Stewart, Marlon Brando, or Clark Gable), I knew it was Brando, "I coulda be a contender" and "I'll make him an offer..."
After wandering through the AFI site yesterday, though, I realized that something Julie had said was right: Memorable movie quotes are heavily weighted toward the beginnings of film. Maybe it's because they've been skipping through our collective consciousness longer; maybe they wrote better back then; maybe maybe maybe.
And they're just movies, but you might be surprised at how often you quote Shakespeare and don't know it, so it becomes less trivial and more ingrained, I guess, in our lives.
And, of course, we know there will be lines we'll always have. My wife and I share shorthand ("Y'now, I worry about you, little fella. You got a place to sleep tonight?" -- It's A Wonderful Life) from movies that covers a lot of ground in a few words. Moments that don't need translation.
Anyway, it was a fun hour or so, despite host Pierce Brosnan looking bored and ineffectual (and despite the fact there were two Bond quotes, "shaken, not stirred" and the classic one), but when I read the website's listing of all the quotes, I kept thinking about the future.
Not 2105. Not 200 years of film-making. My future, and what I'll say. I'll always say, "My name is Inigo Montoya..."; I'll maybe say it on my deathbed. And maybe I'll carry the Stewart quote and the Fonda quote and the John Wayne quote and the Nicholson quote from Five Easy Pieces and some others.
The stuff that dreams are made of. The beginning of a beautiful friendship and a bumpy ride. Giving a damn. Always saying I'm sorry, filling my gun, seizing the day, holding on tight, and away we're gonna go, go, go. Say hello to my little friend. La-dee-dah. How he got in my pajamas I don't know, but there's no crying in baseball. Shane, Shane, come back. Hey, Stella, I'm walking here, and even if I see dead people momma always said life was like a box of chocolates; in other words, if you build it, he will come, even if you don't have no stinkin' badges and need a bigger boat and can't handle the truth. As long as you know how to whistle, Steve, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
But I can see myself, 75 and walking in the yard, remembering dogs and joys and hopes and dreams, and movies, and picking up a stick or a club or a tool, and knowing #92 by heart:
Cinderella story. Outta nowhere. A former greenskeeper, now, about to become the Masters champion. It looks like a mirac...It's in the hole! It's in the hole! It's in the hole!
9:22:31 AM 
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