‘Rosebud’: AFI picks top 100 movie quotes

updated 3:09 p.m. ET June 22, 2005

Marlon Brando was a contender in the American Film Institute’s list of best quotes from U.S. movies. But No. 1 was Rhett Butler’s parting shot to Scarlett O’Hara:

“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”

Clark Gable’s line to Vivien Leigh in 1939’s “Gone With the Wind” led the AFI’s list, announced in the organization’s annual top-100 special that aired on CBS Tuesday.

Brando had the No. 2 and 3 quotes — “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse,” from “The Godfather” and his “I coulda been a contender” speech from “On the Waterfront.”

Judy Garland’s Dorothy Gale came in fourth with “Toto, I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore,” from The Wizard of Oz.” At No. 5 was “Here’s looking at you, kid,” spoken by Rick (Humphrey Bogart) to Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) in “Casablanca.”

Bob Gazzale, producer of the AFI special, expected a “Casablanca” line would top the list, chosen through ballots sent to 1,500 filmmakers, actors, critics and others in Hollywood. Yet once the votes were counted, Rhett’s retort seemed an obvious choice, Gazzale said.

“Frankly, it has become kind of the catch phrase of catch phrases,” Gazzale said. “It’s used in so many different ways. Who hasn’t been in a relationship where you really give it your all, whether you’re a man or a woman, and finally get to the point where you surrender and take back control of the situation with a simple line from the 1930s?”

Two other lines from “Gone With the Wind” made the top 100, Leigh’s “After all, tomorrow is another day” (No. 31) and “As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again” (No. 59).

Rounding out the top 10:

6. “Go ahead, make my day,” Clint Eastwood, “Sudden Impact.”

7. “All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up,” Gloria Swanson, “Sunset Blvd.”

8. “May the Force be with you,” Harrison Ford, “Star Wars.”

9. “Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night,” Bette Davis, “All About Eve.”

10. “You talking to me?”, Robert De Niro, “Taxi Driver.”

“Casablanca” led the list with six quotes, including Bogart’s “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship” (No. 20) and “We’ll always have Paris” (No. 43), and Bergman’s “Play it, Sam. Play ‘As Time Goes By”’ (No. 28).

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Other highlights include Sidney Poitier’s “They call me Mister Tibbs!” (No. 16), “In the Heat of the Night”; Roy Scheider’s “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” (No. 35), “Jaws”; Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “I’ll be back” (No. 37), “The Terminator”; Renee Zellweger’s “You had me at ‘hello”’ (No. 52), “Jerry Maguire”; Peter Sellers’ “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room!” (No. 64), “Dr. Strangelove”; and Charlton Heston’s “Soylent Green is people!” (No. 77), “Soylent Green.”

The oldest line was Al Jolson’s “Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain’t heard nothin’ yet” (No. 71) from 1927’s “The Jazz Singer.” The newest was Andy Serkis’ “My precious” (No. 85) from 2002’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.”

Rowdy comedy was represented (John Belushi’s “Toga! Toga!”, No. 82, from “National Lampoon’s Animal House”), along with horror (Jack Nicholson’s “Here’s Johnny!”, No. 68, from “The Shining”). So was musical comedy (Barbra Streisand’s “Hello, gorgeous,” No. 81, from “Funny Girl”), and epic romance (Leonardo DiCaprio’s “I’m king of the world!”, No. 100, from “Titanic”).

Single words made the list, Orson Welles’ “Rosebud” (No. 17) from “Citizen Kane” and Walter Brooke’s “Plastics” (No. 42) from “The Graduate.”

Super-spy James Bond scored with lines that began with original 007 Sean Connery: “Bond. James Bond” (No. 22) from “Dr. No” and “A martini. Shaken, not stirred” (No. 90) from “Goldfinger.”

The most recent James Bond, Pierce Brosnan, hosted the AFI quotes special. While some critics carp about omissions from AFI’s lists or grouse over the idea of ranking movies, Brosnan said it’s all in fun.

“It’s an intrinsic part of human nature to rank, file, have a No. 1 and No. 2, to make us all feel better, I think, and to show how clever we are,” Brosnan said. “It’s purely entertainment.”

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