Part of The American Film Institute (AFI 100 Years... series), AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes is a list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema. The American Film Institute revealed the list on June 21, 2005, in a three-hour television program on CBS. The program was hosted by actor Pierce Brosnan and had commentary from many Hollywood actors and filmmakers. A jury consisting of 1,500 film artists, critics, and historians selected "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn," spoken by Clark Gable as Rhett Butler in the 1939 American Civil War epic Gone with the Wind as the most memorable American movie quotation of all time.
Criteria
Jurors were asked to consider the following criteria in making their selections:
- Movie Quotation: A statement, phrase or brief exchange of dialogue spoken in an American film. Lyrics from songs are not eligible.
- Cultural Impact: Movie quotations that viewers use in their own lives and situations; circulating through popular culture, they become part of the national lexicon.
- Legacy: Movie quotations that viewers use to evoke the memory of a treasured film, thus ensuring and enlivening its historical legacy.
The list
The table below reproduces the quotes as the AFI published them.
Trivia
With six movie quotes featured, Casablanca is by far the most represented film on this list. The next two most represented films are Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz, with three featured quotes each. Sunset Boulevard, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Graduate and Jerry Maguire each have two featured quotes.
Rick Blaine (Casablanca) is the character with the most quotes (four); Dorothy Gale (The Wizard of Oz), Harry Callahan (Dirty Harry and Sudden Impact), James Bond (Dr. No and Goldfinger), Norma Desmond (Sunset Boulevard), Scarlett O'Hara (Gone with the Wind) and The Terminator (The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day) have two quotes each.
With five, Humphrey Bogart is the actor with the most quotes; Al Pacino, Bette Davis, Marlon Brando, Tom Hanks, and Vivien Leigh all have three; while Jack Nicholson, James Cagney, Judy Garland, Gloria Swanson, Dustin Hoffman, Clint Eastwood, Charlton Heston, and Arnold Schwarzenegger have two each. Sixty-three of the other sixty-four actors appear once each. Sean Connery also has two entries, but his two quotes were spoken by five other actors as well as him.
The line, "My precious." from the movie The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, is the only quote that comes from a movie released after the year 2000 and the only quote by a CGI character.
Quotation distribution by decade
- 1920s: 1
- 1930s: 16
- 1940s: 17
- WW II years (1939â€"1945): 21
- 1950s: 9
- 1960s: 13
- 1970s: 16
- 1980s: 17
- 1990s: 10
- 2000s: 1
Top years:
- 1942: 9
- 1939: 7
- 1967: 5
- 1933: 4
- 1976: 4
Footnotes
External links
- AFI 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes
- AFI's 100 Years, 100 Movie Quotes (Musical Montage) on YouTube
