Who doesn't admire a line of words that stick in your mind and magically recreate a dramatic scene or sequence of scenes that never get out of date? Secure in a timeless vault in your mind. This came to me when I saw Jaws on Turner Classic Movies and, of course, that classic line, "You're going to need a bigger boat." I did some research on how the line got into the movie and turned up a delightful vignette.
Stephen Spielberg was a little known director when he took on the troubled production of the movie jaws in 1974. It was his third movie as a director. The producers rented a huge barge to hold all the camera gear and props used in the filming that was all on water (the crew named the barge SS Garbage Sale). The cost-cutting producers hired a small boat to push the barge around and it was inadequate for the job. Everyone picked up the phrase, "You're going to need a bigger boat." and it was used on the set when anything went wrong from breakdown of equipment to late food delivery.
In the movie after the first sighting of the shark, the Brody character ad-libbed the crew's line, "You're going to need a bigger boat" and they kept the line in the movie.
Other great lines came to mind. "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn " was Clark Gable's Rhett Butler's reply to his manipulative wife, Vivian Leigh's Scarlett O'Hara's pleading, "What's to become of me?" in the 1939 movie, Gone With The Wind. The curse word, "damn" in a movie shocked the nation but became a movie classic.
Whose heart doesn't beat a little faster upon hearing Humphrey Bogart say to the gorgeous Lauren Bacall in the 1943 Casablanca, "Here's looking at you, kid?"
Listen to Don Vito Corleone in the 1972 movie, The Godfather: "I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse."
Bette Davis in 1950's All About Eve: "Buckle your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night."
There are so many more from wonderful flicks: Dr. Strangelove. Taxi Driver. Wizard of Oz. On The Waterfront. Sunset Boulevard. Name your favorites.
