{"id":28867,"date":"2016-04-17T22:37:26","date_gmt":"2016-04-17T22:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stephenking.nl\/skfnieuw\/?page_id=28867"},"modified":"2016-04-17T22:37:26","modified_gmt":"2016-04-17T22:37:26","slug":"the-pop-of-king-now-hear-this","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.stephenking.nl\/skfnieuw\/king-family\/columns-king-uit-entertainment-weekly\/the-pop-of-king-now-hear-this\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pop of King: Now Hear This"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\"kingcolumn\"<\/a> Popular culture\u2019s a slippery slope; just ask some of the people, like Vanilla Ice and Andrew Dice Clay, who have slid down its side and right out of view. It\u2019s also possible to start a landslide, as Mel Gibson did with his movie about Jesus last winter and Michael Moore did with his about George W. Bush this summer. I didn\u2019t exactly start a landslide with my June 11 column about popular lines from the movies\u2014the ones that become part of our inner language\u2014but I started enough rocks falling to surprise the editors of this magazine and to startle the hell out of me.When I asked people to send in some of their favorite lines, I thought I might get a few dozen responses, maybe a couple hundred if the column really struck a harmonic note. This one seems to have struck not just a note but a whole chord. At last count, Entertainment Weekly had received over 3,000 responses to the column, each containing as many as 10 movie lines that readers remember fondly. Even with my StuffIt feature working at top speed, it took my computer nearly 15 minutes to download them all, and I\u2019ve spent weeks reading through them. Rarely has time felt so well spent; rarely have I been surprised by so many good memories. I asked the editors at EW to expand the column a little bit this time so I could share some of my favorites of your picks.<\/p>\n

Several readers beat me severely about the head and shoulders for not mentioning the screenwriters who actually crafted these lines. \u201cAs a writer (and sometime screenwriter) yourself,\u201d wrote one, \u201cyou ought to be ashamed to attribute these lines to mere actors.\u201d In fact, I\u2019m not ashamed at all. I do these columns with almost nothing in the way of reference material\u2014as the weary and often horrified fact-checkers at EW can attest\u2014and checking out the screenwriters of often obscure movies that are frequently written by committee (and usually remembered for only one or two good lines) would be a chore and a half. Also, I would argue, the greatest line in the world is only so much dead ink unless and until a great actor gives it life.<\/p>\n

Having said that, let me tell you that the all-time champion line, by your letters, was written by the great William Goldman, whose body of work was mentioned in the responses to my column again and again:<\/p>\n

\u201cHello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.\u201d \u2014 Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin) in The Princess Bride<\/p>\n

I think more than a hundred people sent this one in. In fact, you readers seem to have something of a jones for The Princess Bride.
\n\u201d The editors tallied up your top 25 choices, and three other Princess lines made the list:<\/p>\n

\u201cInconceivable!\u201d \u201cYou keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.\u201d \u2014 Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin)<\/p>\n

\u201cHave fun storming the castle!\u201d \u2014 Miracle Max (Billy Crystal)<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you wish.\u201d \u2014 Westley (Cary Elwes)<\/p>\n

The Princess Bride is (arguably) a chick flick, but all the lines you loved were spoken by men. This seemed to confirm something I wrote in my column, which is that most of the best movie lines are given to men. Readers repeatedly challenged me on this score\u2014\u201cNo, no!\u201d they protested, \u201cnot true!\u201d\u2014and offered up some terrific evidence. Indeed, two of the closest runners-up were from women:
\n\u201cI\u2019ll have what she\u2019s having.\u201d \u2014 Female Diner (Estelle Reiner) in When Harry Met Sally…<\/p>\n

\u201cYou had me at hello.\u201d \u2014 Dorothy Boyd (Ren\u00e9e Zellweger) in Jerry Maguire<\/p>\n

Several other women\u2019s lines worth repeating came up frequently in your letters and e-mails. Two of your favorites are from movies at least half a century old:<\/p>\n

\u201cFasten your seat belts\u2014it\u2019s going to be a bumpy night.\u201d \u2014 Margo Channing (Bette Davis) in All About Eve<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know how to whistle, don\u2019t you, Steve? You just put your lips together… and blow.\u201d \u2014 Marie Browning (Lauren Bacall) in To Have and Have Not<\/p>\n

These next two were mentioned less frequently, but they\u2019re just beauts:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019d been a ranch, they would\u2019ve named me the Bar Nothin\u2019.\u201d \u2014 Gilda (Rita Hayworth) in Gilda<\/p>\n

\u201cVeda\u2019s convinced me that alligators have the right idea: They eat their young.\u201d \u2014 Ida Corwin (Eve Arden) in Mildred Pierce<\/p>\n

And from the fairer sex in the more modern age, readers did come up with at least a pair of worthy specimens:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not too smart, are you? I like that in a man.\u201d \u2014 Matty Walker (Kathleen Turner) in Body Heat<\/p>\n

\u201cGet outta here! And don\u2019t come back for five to seven days!\u201d \u2014 Vada Sultenfuss (Anna Chlumsky) in My Girl<\/p>\n

And, ahem, here are a couple of women\u2019s lines that yours truly wrote (in book form). I\u2019ve included them because (a) they actually made it into the movies and (b) they were quoted by a dozen or so readers in each case. The first made it into a screenplay by the aforementioned William Goldman (may his tribe increase). All I can say is, dat guy must know a good line when he reads one.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t get out of the cockadoodie car!\u201d \u2014 Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) in Misery<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes being a bitch is all a woman has to hold on to.\u201d \u2014 Dolores Claiborne (Kathy Bates) in Dolores Claiborne<\/p>\n

For every memorable line spoken by a woman, I got at least a dozen about women. I can\u2019t quote them all but here are a few of the best, starting with my absolute favorite:<\/p>\n

\u201cI gave her my heart and she gave me a pen.\u201d \u2014 Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) in Say Anything…<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody puts Baby in a corner.\u201d \u2014 Johnny Castle (Patrick Swayze) in Dirty Dancing<\/p>\n

\u201cLove your suit.\u201d \u2014 Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) in The Silence of the Lambs<\/p>\n

Honorable mention in the \u201cabout women\u201d category goes to a famous Tom Hanks quote. My wife reminded me of it first, then half a dozen readers chimed in:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no crying in baseball!\u201d \u2014 Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks) in A League of Their Own<\/p>\n

Speaking of baseball, everyone remembers \u201cIf you build it, they will come,\u201d but there\u2019s another one from the same film, answering the question \u201cIs this heaven?\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, it\u2019s Iowa.\u201d \u2014 Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) in Field of Dreams<\/p>\n

And, speaking of Midwestern states:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is Ohio. I mean, if you don\u2019t have a brewski in your hand, you might as well be wearing a dress.\u201d \u2014 Jason Dean (Christian Slater) in Heathers<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t the only person who remembers the dialogue from James Dickey\u2019s Deliverance with affection. Besides the Ned Beatty line I quoted, these two, both delivered by fellows of considerable breeding (inbreeding, that is), came up again and again:<\/p>\n

\u201cI bet you can squeal like a pig.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGit them panties down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also on the subject of underwear:<\/p>\n

\u201cSon, you got a panty on your head.\u201d \u2014 Guy in a Truck (John O\u2019Donnal) to Nicolas Cage in Raising Arizona<\/p>\n

Underwear aside, here are five other lines of apparently enduring popularity:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ve got here… is failure to communicate.\u201d \u2014 Captain (Strother Martin) in Cool Hand Luke<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the smell of napalm in the morning.\u201d \u2014 Kilgore (Robert Duvall) in Apocalypse Now<\/p>\n

\u201cShow me the money!\u201d \u2014 Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.) in Jerry Maguire<\/p>\n

\u201cFunny like I\u2019m a clown? I amuse you?\u201d \u2014 Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci) in GoodFellas<\/p>\n

\u201cYou talkin\u2019 to me? Well, I\u2019m the only one here.\u201d \u2014 Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) in Taxi Driver<\/p>\n

And, just to round things off, here are some others that I particularly liked. And I\u2019m sure I bypassed any number of diamonds, simply because I missed the films that provide the necessary context. But, hey, speaking of Diamonds:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are two types of people in this world: those who like Neil Diamond, and those who don\u2019t.\u201d \u2014 Bob Wiley (Bill Murray) in What About Bob?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the years, honey. It\u2019s the mileage.\u201d \u2014 Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) in Raiders of the Lost Ark<\/p>\n

\u201cGame over, man! Game over!\u201d \u2014 Hudson (Bill Paxton) in Aliens<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a tumah!\u201d \u2014 John Kimble (Arnold Schwarzenegger) in Kindergarten Cop<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you enjoy… knives?\u201d \u2014 Harold (Bud Cort) in Harold and Maude<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t handle the truth!\u201d \u2014 Colonel Jessup (Jack Nicholson) in A Few Good Men<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd in the morning, I\u2019m making waffles!\u201d \u2014 Donkey (Eddie Murphy) in Shrek<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it safe?\u201d \u2014 Dr. Szell (Laurence Olivier) in Marathon Man<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy does it cry, Smeagol?\u201d \u2014 Gollum (Andy Serkis) in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers<\/p>\n

\u201cI have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and I\u2019m all out of bubble gum.\u201d \u2014 Nada (\u201cRowdy\u201d Roddy Piper) in They Live<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, for goodness\u2019 sakes, get down off that crucifix. Someone needs the wood.\u201d \u2014 Adam\/Felicia (Guy Pearce) in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert<\/p>\n

\u201cThese go to 11.\u201d \u2014 Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) in This is Spinal Tap<\/p>\n

Okay, enough. These things are fun, but I don\u2019t want to drown you in them. Let me leave you with four of my personal favorites, lines which to me sort of symbolize the power movies have over our minds, our emotions… and our memories.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey call me Mister Tibbs!\u201d \u2014 Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier) in In the Heat of the Night<\/p>\n

\u201cGentlemen, you can\u2019t fight in here. This is the War Room!\u201d \u2014 President Muffley (Peter Sellers) in Dr. Strangelove<\/p>\n

\u201cLook how they massacred my boy.\u201d \u2014 Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) in The Godfather<\/p>\n

\u201cStand up. Your father\u2019s passing.\u201d \u2014 Reverend Sykes (William Walker) in To Kill a Mockingbird<\/p>\n

Do we remember what we see in the movies? You bet. But if this little landslide of responses proves anything, it proves that we also remember what we hear in them.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Popular culture\u2019s a slippery slope; just ask some of the people, like Vanilla Ice and Andrew Dice Clay, who have slid down its side and right out of view. It\u2019s also possible to start a landslide, as Mel Gibson did<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":4585,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-28867","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenking.nl\/skfnieuw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenking.nl\/skfnieuw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenking.nl\/skfnieuw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenking.nl\/skfnieuw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenking.nl\/skfnieuw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28867"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenking.nl\/skfnieuw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28871,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenking.nl\/skfnieuw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28867\/revisions\/28871"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenking.nl\/skfnieuw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stephenking.nl\/skfnieuw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}