best opening line in a film

When I was a little girl, my mother would remind me each night before bed, to open up my heart to God, for He was kind, merciful,and just. Things changed when my father left a few years later, leaving her to raise me and my brothers in a place on the edge of the Mojave Desert. She never talked of a kind and merciful God again. Instead she spoke of a prophecy. Of a time when all the world would be covered in darkness and the fate of mankind would be decided. One night, I finally got the courage to ask my mother why God had changed, why He was so mad at His children. "I don't know", she said, tucking the covers around me, "I guess He just got tired of all the bullshit".

tony campana wrote:

They call me Ishmail.

Actually, it's "Call me Ishmael."

"Let me tell you what 'Like a Virgin' is about. It's about a girl, who digs a guy, who's got a big..."

Oh yeah, what a good man...

malmo wrote:

RIP Henry Hill

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DfsSTgOXbc7k&v=fsSTgOXbc7k&gl=US

Life's not fair, is it?

The Lion King

The life of a playwright is tough. It's not easy, as some people seem to think. You work hard writing plays, and nobody puts them on! You take up other lines of work to try to make a living...I became an actor...and people don't hire you! So you just spend your days doing the errands of your trade. Today I had to be up by ten in the morning to make some important phone calls. Then I'd gone to the stationery store to buy envelopes. Then to the xerox shop: there were dozens of things to do. By five o'clock I'd finally made it to the post office and mailed off several copies of my plays, meanwhile checking constantly with my answering service to see if my agent had called with any acting work. In the morning, the mailbox had just been stuffed with bills! What was I supposed to do? How was I supposed to pay them? After all I was already doing my best! I've lived in this city all my life. I grew up on the upper east side, and when I was ten years old I was rich! I was an aristocrat, riding around in taxis, surrounded by comfort, and all I thought about was art and music. Now I'm thirty-six, and all I think about is money!

"Nine-Ball is rotation pool, the balls are pocketed in numbered order. The only ball that means anything, that wins it, is the 9. Now, the player can shoot eight trick shots in a row, blow the 9, and lose. On the other hand, the player can get the 9 in on the break, if the balls spread right, and win. Which is to say, that luck plays a part in nine-ball... But for some players, luck itself is an art."

-The Color of Money

This story is about Howard Beale, who was the news anchorman on UBS TV. In his time, Howard Beale had been a mandarin of television, the grand old man of news, with a HUT rating of 16 and a 28 audience share. In 1969, however, his fortunes began to decline. He fell to a 22 share. The following year, his wife died, and he was left a childless widower with an 8 rating and a 12 share. He became morose and isolated, began to drink heavily, and on September 22, 1975, he was fired, effective in two weeks. The news was broken to him by Max Schumacher, who was the president of the news division at UBS. The two old friends got properly pissed.

1879 - the Civil War is over, and the resulting economic explosion spurs the great migration west. Farmers, ranchers, prospectors, killers, and thieves seek their fortune. Cattle growers turn cow towns into armed camps, with murder rates higher than than those of modern day New York or Los Angeles. Out of this chaos comes legendary lawman Wyatt Earp, retiring his badge and gun to start a peaceful life for his family. Earp's friend, John, Doc Holliday, a southern gentlemen turned gunman and gambler, also travels west, hoping the dry climate would relieve his tuberculosis. Silver is discovered in Arizona. Tombstone becomes queen of the boom towns where the latest Pairs fashions are sold from the backs of wagons. Attracted to this atmosphere of greed, over 100 exiled Texas outlaws band together to form the ruthless gang recognized by the red sashes they wear. They emerge as the earliest example of organized crime in America. They call themselves, The Cowboys.

SuppySup wrote:

"Ever since I can remember I've wanted to be a gangster."

Would absolutely have to agree

Not an opening line to a film, but an excellent opening clip to season 4 of The Wire.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N_UuImPL4E

"She came at me in sections -- more curves than a scenic railway.  She was bad.  She was dangerous.  I wouldn't trust her any farther than I could throw her.  She was selling hard, but I wasn't buying."

Not a first line but a good line.

Best closing line:

"All dressed up with no place to go." -Charlie Jones, in "Personal Best" (1982)

"I don't want to be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me. Years ago we had the church. That was only a way of saying - we had each other. The Knights of Columbus were real head-breakers; true guineas. They took over their piece of the city. Twenty years after an Irishman couldn't get a f*cking job, we had the presidency. May he rest in peace. That's what the n*gg**s don't realize. If I got one thing against the black chappies, it's this - no one gives it to you. You have to take it."

- Jack Nicholson as Frank Costello in

The Departed

"I was sheriff of this county when I was twenty-five years old. Hard to believe. My grandfather was a lawman; father too. Me and him was sheriffs at the same time; him up in Plano and me out here. I think he's pretty proud of that. I know I was. Some of the old time sheriffs never even wore a gun. A lotta folks find that hard to believe. Jim Scarborough'd never carried one; that's the younger Jim. Gaston Boykins wouldn't wear one up in Comanche County. I always liked to hear about the oldtimers. Never missed a chance to do so. You can't help but compare yourself against the oldtimers. Can't help but wonder how they would have operated these times. There was this boy I sent to the 'lectric chair at Huntsville Hill here a while back. My arrest and my testimony. He killt a fourteen-year-old girl. Papers said it was a crime of passion but he told me there wasn't any passion to it. Told me that he'd been planning to kill somebody for about as long as he could remember. Said that if they turned him out he'd do it again. Said he knew he was going to hell. "Be there in about fifteen minutes". I don't know what to make of that. I sure don't. The crime you see now, it's hard to even take its measure. It's not that I'm afraid of it. I always knew you had to be willing to die to even do this job. But, I don't want to push my chips forward and go out and meet something I don't understand. A man would have to put his soul at hazard. He'd have to say, "O.K., I'll be part of this world." "

- Tommy Lee Jones as Ed Tom Bell

in No Country for Old Men

"Good morning, Vietnam Nam!"

oh brother wrote:

"Let me tell you what 'Like a Virgin' is about. It's about a girl, who digs a guy, who's got a big..."

Great dialogue in that movie.

"I was born a poor black child."

The Jerk(Steve Martin)

"The world is full of complainers." -M. Emmet Walsh, from Blood Simple