Darth Vader tops movie misquote poll Darth Vader's "Luke, I am your father" has topped a poll of movie misquotes - classic lines now stamped on the common conciousness but which are not actually as they were originally spoken. In fact, Vader told Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back "No, I am your father", as our Star Wars-savvy readers are doubtless aware. The …
This has to be the new quote on the block.
I did nothing wrong.... it was all within the rules.
I sure this one will be quoted in the law courts up and down the land.
Im sure it will be misquoted to be 'I did nothing wrong as predefinded by the honourable lawmakers of this country'
1. No, I am your father. (Star Wars V)
2. Magic mirror on the wall - who is the fairest one of all? (Snow White)
3. Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya punk? (Dirty Harry)
4. Play it, Sam. (Casablanca)
5. Good evening, Clarice. (Silence of the Lambs)
6. Scotty, beam us up! (Star Trek)
7. Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn. (Gone With the Wind)
8. If you build it, he will come. (Field of Dreams)
9. Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore. (Wizard of Oz)
10. Mrs. Robinson - you are trying to seduce me .... Aren't you? (The Graduate)
Courtesy of a bit of googling
Courtesy of someone else who used Wikiquote
P.S. I want the 2 mins back it took me to find this.
> 4. Play it, Sam. (Casablanca)
That is Ilsa telling Sam to play it. The misquote is usually associated with the Bogart character, Rick, when he asks Sam to play the song again;
RICK: You played it for her and you can play it for me.
SAM: Well, I don't think I can remember it.
RICK: If she can stand it, I can. Play it!
Not quite as catchy as the misquote though.
Thinking the biggest misquote of them all was "I love the smell of napalm in the morning - smells like victory" - instead of the complete quotation "I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. It smelled like ... victory". Wonder why it didn't even show up on that list.
And yes, here the original written tale also started the line with the equivalent of "mirror, mirror on the wall..."
Cant believe it, they missed the most iconic miss-quote from Silence of the Lambs:
"I had his liver, with a nice Chianti... <suck> <suck> <suck> <suck>"
is of course
"I had his liver with some fava beans, and a nice Chianti... <suck> <suck> <suck> <suck>"
Or maybe Dr Lector was in a special Atkins diet remake.
As has been mentioned above, misquotes are often used as a means of making a reference without treading on copyright-shaped toes.
Disney's Snow White, on the other hand, is far more insidious. They took the most quoted line of the story and rewrote it, not to improve or to modernise, but simply to poison it. They couldn't copyright "mirror, mirror, on the wall" on the grounds that it's public domain, but they can copyright "magic mirror, on the wall", because it is a "new" derivative work. If kids grow up hearing "magic mirror", then they'll reject the original version as wrong. As Every Single Book of Snow White except the "authorised" Disney version uses this line, they'll get kids to decry the books as "wrong", thus giving Disney a near monopoly on what was a public domain work.
See also "Pinnochio" and "Jimeney Cricket"; "The Little Princess", "The Little Mermaid" and "Happy Ending"; "Sleeping Beauty" and "falling asleep for a few months rather than 100 years so that she could actually meet the prince who woke her up".
Bloody Disney. Won't somebody (else) think of the children????
Are the above nit-pickers seriously trying to suggest that there is such a thing as a "definitive" version of a fairy tale? Surely the whole point of a fairy tale is that they come from the oral tradition and so are the epitome of "Chinese whispers". It's like suggesting there is a right (and, therefore, wrong) version of the old playground classic of "Jingle Bells, Batman smells....".
Ken Hagan, I think you miss Bassey's point. The Grimms were folklorists, collectors of fairy tales rather than their authors. Their original collections contained extensive notes on variants of tales.
The "definitive" versions of most tales that we now attribute to them comes from an abridged collection expressly for children that they produced later.
My favourite is John Wayne's supposed quote, "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do". I've never heard him say this in any film, although countless other stars have said it in imitation. I've heard him say, "A man oughta do what he thinks is right" and "Well, you do what ya gotta do", both in the context of distancing his character from the proposed action, but never the oft quoted line. Am I wrong? Anyone?
As Jose Bernardo B R Silva said at 12:00, the "I love the smell of napalm in a morning..." is a mangled monster of a misquote that appears far too often, I'm surprised it's not making an appearance.
My personal bugbear is when people MEAN to say "Veetcha hwankee Chewbacca" ("At last we have the mighty Chewbacca") and ACTUALLY say "vichy hankie Chewbacca" (Chewbacca is a French tissue"). Huttese is a subtle and nuanced language, don'tcherknow.
The coat fashioned into stormtrooper armour that makes small children shout abuse in the street, thanks!
I looked it up on YouTube and it is:
"I know what you're thinking- "Did he fire six shots or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I've kinda lost track myself. But, being this is a 44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do you, punk?"
This is the first time he uses it, with the bank robbers. I think it is exactly the same (with more venom and an extra bullet, natch) with Scorpio but I can't be bothered finding out for sure.
ISTR it was something more along the lines of:
"I know what you're thinkin', kid. 'Did he fire six shots, or only five?' Well, to tell you the truth, in all the excitement, I kind of lost track myself. But given that this is a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum, and could blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?"
Age. Fac ut gaudeam.
The "Steenkin Badges" misquote wouldn't have been funny if it hadn't been in the wild *long* before "Blazing Saddles". It was, and so was I.
Gawd, what hath we wrought with this internet "history by consensus" crap? IMDB? They are good for titles and cast lists. Much beyond that and you are in the world of "contributing readers" i.e. Wiki-Saucerloon Land. Caveat Emptor.
Two of my faves from the print world are "Elementary, my dear Watson" and "Alas poor Yorick. I knew him well." (Won a quid off me dad with that one, and him with a Complete Works Of Bill S. an' all).
There's another fine misquote left out of the list, although it's probably not been used in years, and it's more the quote of a line that was never said than a mangling of an actual line. I don't care how many voice impersonators mimicked Cary Grant saying, "Judy, Judy, Judy," he never said it. I know, because I've seen Angles Have Wings, the movie it's attributed to, and it's not there.
> Actually, it's: "Luke, my name is Darth Vader. I am your father. Prepare to die."
Actually, the version I remember is more like:
Luke> No, I don't believe you! ... but ... there's no way you could have known that. How could you have known what I got for Christmas?
Darth> Believe me, Luke. Here's how I know. I felt your presents...
(badgers? we don't need no steenkin badgers!)
<< David Prowse was the man in the suit but it was James Earl Jones that did the reading >>
Yes, but what Dave Prowse read out was deliberately different to what James Earl Jones read. Prowse's line, as read on set and then dubbed over later, had Vader telling Luke that Obi-Wan was his father, rather than the actual line that Vader was. Knowledge of the true line was very tightly controlled - even the cast didn't know it - so that the shock of the revelation wouldn't be leaked to the public in advance.
Although we now fully expect Sinister Bad Guy to turn out to be the father of Plucky Good Guy, it's only because ESB made it such an iconic development.
Aw. I'm a geek.
"I know what you're thinkin', kid. 'Did he fire six shots, or only five?' Well, to tell you the truth, in all the excitement, I kind of lost track myself. But given that this is a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum, and could blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?"
i think should read:
"I know what you're thinkin', kid. 'Did he fire six shots, or only five?' Well, to tell you the truth, in all the excitement, I kind of lost track myself. But given that this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and could blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?"
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