Americans have fallen deeply in love with that beguiling conspiracy of light and darkness and color and silence and sound and music that we call the movies. The late director Sidney Lumet said, “Nothing can tell you more about America than the movies.”
In the movie theater — and increasingly on smaller screens — the boundaries between real and reel, the line between reality and movies, wavers and blurs. Something has happened to our American language — and we’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.
You probably recognize the second part of that statement as a borrowing from the film “The Wizard of Oz.” Being transported out of Kansas is one of a passel of expressions from movies that have launched a thousand lips.
The very first Academy Awards ceremony took place during a banquet held in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. There were 270 attendees, and tickets cost $10. When the first awards were handed out on May 16, 1929, movies had just begun to talk. I would love to have been a time traveler rushing into the Blossom Room to announce the luminous future of the Academy Awards ceremony:
“Wait a minute! Wait a minute! You ain’t heard nothing yet!” That’s what Al Jolson said in “The Jazz Singer” (1927), the mother of all talking films. Ever since, lines from the movies have shaped our hopes and dreams and aspirations and have suffused our everyday conversations.
Today I’m making you an offer you can’t refuse — a version of the line in Mario Puzo’s novel, “The Godfather” (1969) and the 1972 film of the same name.
So what’s up, Doc? That’s, of course, from Bugs Bunny’s characteristic question to Elmer Fudd. What’s up is that I hope never to hear from my readers, “What we have here is a failure to communicate” or “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!” The first statement began as a line in “Cool Hand Luke,” and the second is Peter Finch’s furious complaint in “Network.”
May you never sneer at me, “Frankly, my dear. I don’t give a damn,” spoken by Clark Gable in “Gone with the Wind.” Just remember that tomorrow is another day.
Frankly, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship, a line delivered by Humphrey Bogart in “Casablanca.” That film also bequeathed us “Round up the usual suspects” and “Here’s looking at you, kid,” as well as the oft misquoted “Play it, Sam.”
Read on, and make my day — the signature statement of the Clint Eastwood character Dirty Harry in the 1983 film “Sudden Impact,” a line made even more famous by President Ronald Reagan. You’ll make my day because love is never having to say you’re sorry, an enduring sentiment from “Love Story.”
Who you gonna call? — your faithful language columnist! That’s a spinoff from “Ghostbusters,” and, of course, it should be “whom are you going to call?”
Now identify the films whence came the following filmic expressions that inhabit our everyday conversations:
1. They’re ba-a-a-ck!
2. If you build it, he will come.
3. Houston, we have a problem.
4. Life is like a box of chocolates.
5. You talkin’ to me?
6. I coulda been a contender!
7. Why don’t you come up sometime and see me?
8. The end of civilization as we now know it.
9. May the Force be with you!
10. Show me the money!
Answers
1. “Poltergeist”
2. “Field of Dreams”
3. “Apollo 13”
4. “Forrest Gump”
5. “Taxi Driver”
6. “On the Waterfront”
7. “She Done Him Wrong”
8. “Citizen Kane”
9. “Star Wars
10. “Jerry Maguire”
That’s all, folks! Hasta la vista, baby! — and you know where those two lines got their start: “Merry Melodies” and “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”
Please send your questions and comments about language to richard.lederer@utsandiego.com www.verbivore.com