Hey, guys!
Welcome to another entry for Thursday Movie Picks.
It’s a series hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves, so if you want to join the party, head over to her blog! It’s pretty easy: check out each week’s topic and come up with 3 to 5 movies that fit the theme.
Today we’ll talk about some pretty iconic verbal altercations in movies, so here we go!
#1 The Empire Strikes Back
This scene between Han and Leia is just everything.
#2 Monty Python and the Holy Grail
It’s impossible not to laugh at this.
#3 Pulp Fiction
Tarantino has one of the most iconic dialogues in movie history. I’m not sure if this 100% qualifies for the topic but I just had to include it.
What’s your favorite verbal altercation in a film? Let me know in the comments!
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The Punk Theory 
Good fits even if I only like two of the films.
I’m not a rabid Star Wars fan, the first time I saw all three I didn’t like them at all but I watched them when I was ill with pneumonia and I allowed that perhaps that wasn’t the ideal circumstances. So when they were rereleased to theatres I gave them another shot and I wasn’t enchanted but they were decent films. I’ve never bothered with any of the followups though.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail is goofy fun. As is the case with most of their humor not all of it lands but when it does it can be hysterical.
I’m in the minority I know but I loathed Pulp Fiction. It definitely had a lot of style but it just wasn’t for me.
I decided the easiest way to zero in on a set of verbal altercations was to do a theme within the theme using one performer. I turned to a master of the verbal tongue lashing-Miss Bette Davis! She was Oscar nominated for all three of these pictures.
The Little Foxes (1941)-At the turn of the 20th century in the deep South the Hubbard brothers and their sister Regina Giddins (Bette Davis) are rapacious jackals whose love of money overrides all things. The brothers steal bonds from Regina’s husband Horace, a good man who abhors their avarice, behind his back for a business deal he refused. When Horace and Regina discover her brothers plan to replace the value of what was taken and keep any profits for themselves Regina wants them arrested and all the profits. But the gravely ill Horace tells her he intends to let them do as they planned as a payback to her for all her meanness through the years of their marriage. It does not go well. They tear into each other, she telling him he resents her because he knows he’s dying and begrudges her having what she wants after he’s gone, he telling her he sees her and her family for the succubi they are. She turns to him and with deadly malice and says “I hope you die…I hope you die soon…I’ll be WAITing for you to die.”
The Star (1952)-Margaret Elliott (Bette) was once a big Oscar winning movie star but now she’s fallen on hard times and is working as a sales clerk in a department store. Recognized by two customers who disparage her behind her back Margaret confronts them in an epic takedown “Take a good look ladies so there’s no doubt! It IS Margaret Elliott and it IS a disgrace! Margaret Elliott waiting on a couple of old bags like you.” One of them tells her they’ll call the manager. “Call the manager” Margaret says “Call the president….call the fire department! I won’t be here. I’m going back where I belong! I AM Margaret Elliott and I intend to STAY Margaret Elliott!”
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)-Jane Hudson (Bette) and her sister Blanche (Joan Crawford) were once great stars. Jane as a child in vaudeville and Blanche later in films by which point Jane had become a troublesome drunken has-been. It all comes crashing down when Blanche is crippled in a mysterious accident and now the sisters, estranged and bitter reside in Blanche’s fading mansion locked in a miserable existence. Almost their every conversation is a verbal conflict but as Jane’s grip on reality becomes ever more tenuous things escalate and when Blanche tells her she wouldn’t be able to do the awful things she does if Blanche wasn’t in a wheelchair Jane screams “But ya are Blanche! Ya are in that chair!”
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Bette Davis is always a great choice to go with! Whatever Happened to Baby Janes is the perfect pick and I’m angry with myself that I didn’t think of it.
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Love your first and third picks!
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Great picks! I’m kicking myself now for not thinking of Pulp Fiction. It’s perfect here.
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Oh man, that scene in Monty Python always kills me. “Now you go away or I shall taunt you a second-timer!” I love these picks.
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That scene just never ceases to be funny, no matter how often you watch it.
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I can never get tired of watching that film. It’s always so funny.
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I almost chose Monty Python which is hilarious and watching this scene made me laugh so much. Love Pulp Fiction which was so out there but so well done. I have the soundtrack to this and the ending part of this scene is on the CD. Empire is also a good fit…gotta love Han and Leia arguing as a pre-sex fun
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The big argument in Marriage Story is probably my winner here.
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Great choice!
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