Ten Great Lines From the Movies,

This column was inspired by another one here at hubpages...Top Ten Famous Movie Quotes by NYLady, I enjoyed it so much that I decided to add some of my favorite movie lines as well.

As a quick review....here are NYLady's Top Ten, and a great Top Ten they are! "There's No Place Like Home," "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn," "Fasten your seat belts, it's gonna be a bumpy ride," "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse," "Here's lookin' at you kid," "May the force be with you," "Go ahead, make my day," "Rosebud," "I see dead people." For her column click here.

Movies are so much of the USA culture, and as NYLady pointed out, some lines enter indelibly into our personal dialogues/conversations.

I couldn't resist joining in on the fun, so here are a few of my favorites, and the movies where they originated...got your popcorn?

During a military trial where insidious corruption at a base is suspected, Jack Nicholson utters this famous line in the 1992 Rob Reiner film A Few Good Men . The Moment? A General, played by Jack Nicholson, while being interrogated by a passionate defense attorney, played by Tom Cruise, blasts forth a diatribe to all those who don't fully understand the scope of military responsiblity. as the general himself perceives it. The result? A great movie line! And while the actor and director are crucial....hey! what's a line of dialogue without the writer??? And in this case the writer was Aaron Sorkin, who went on to right some of the best (patriotic) dialogue in the USA (West Wing, American President).

Just to show how great Rob Reiner films usually are, the next 'Great Line' is from another one of his movies When Harry Met Sally (1989). And as a bit of rarity among great movie lines, the "I'll have..." line is NOT uttered by a major character. The movie's two stars, Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal, had just finished a scene unique to cinema that inspired the reaction-line by an innocent bystander. Indeed, as many now know...it was an 'extra' in a restaurant scene, played by Reiner's mother.

With a female script writer, Nora Ephron, as the genius behind the scene and the line, Ephron is no slouch as a writer. Her parent's were screen writers, she was once married to Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post, and her movies scripts include the semi-autobiographical "Hanging Up" plus such gems as "You've Got Mail" and "Sleepless in Seattle." (And Ephron's newest film, Julie & Julia shows 'CHICK FLICKS' can do Great box office!)

Audiences in the USA have a beloved list of anti-hero film personas; they often think of Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper (Easy Rider), Clint Eastwood (the spaghetti westerns like The Good The Bad and The Ugly) or Marlon Brando (On the Waterfront) in his rebellious 1950's motorcycle jacket or Jack Nicholson (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Five Easy Pieces), even Harrison Ford (Star Wars) but one of the most iconic anti-hero roles ever exposed onto film is Paul Newman's from 1967's Cool Hand Luke. One thing about him, Luke was always "cool" even when in prison and at the mercy of the chain gang boss played by brilliant character actor Strother Martin. Again, like the famous line from When Harry Met Sally, not by Newman, but by the chain boss character.

It was the 1960s...movies about young adults and their particular trials and glories were becoming more popular. (As a refresher in movie history, we know that now teen/young adult movies dominate the screens, but back then, it was more common to see movies starring full adults, Rock Hudson, Jane Wyman, John Wayne, Bing Crosby, Joan Crawford, etc. not movies like Legally Blonde or Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Breakfast Club) One of the most popular 'chick flicks' of the time starred Ryan O'Neal and Ali Macgraw in 1970's Love Story. One reason this movie was so popular, in my opinion, was not only the tear jerker quality, but the escapist quality needed by the USA at the time. The tragedy of the violence that had seemingly pervaded the nation, from assasinations to campus riots to protests at political conventions to the nightmarish quagmire of the Vietnam War had the nation confused and depressed (sound like 2008?); here was a movie with two of the squeaky-cleanest college kids, summer camp counsellors no less, cute to look at, smart, talented, married young adults that author Erich Segal could imagine. Audiences, especially female movie-goers, adored this movie!

Please note! I'm not saying it's a good movie...but the line sure became famous! Urban myth has it that Erich Segal, the writer, and a Harvard professor, wrote it as a lark to show what drivel audiences would devour! (Personally, I believe the same situation occurred with Bridges of Madison County, but that's another column)

Another comment. Always wondered if Ralph Lauren, the fashion billionaire, ever paid a dime of 'finder's fee' to the costume designer of this movie, because this film is what brought preppy East Coast classics to the USA as a whole, a look that has made Ralph Lauren's fortune!

On to action-adventure-thriller movies and away from tear-jerkers! The Steven Spielberg 1975 JAWS, based on novel by Peter Benchley who also wrote the screenplay.

Take three guys -- a scientist, a fisherman, a sheriff, all interested in capturing a big ol' shark, then put 'em in a shark-catching boat, and whatya get...? A Great Movie Line! Actor Roy Scheider delivers the line with just the right combination of dead pan humor and actual (gulp) fear.

Here's a famous movie line uttered by the film's star, Robert DeNiro in Martin Scorcese's 1976 Taxi Driver. Evidently the dialogue with it's famous line is not in the screen play! But ad-libbed between DeNiro and Scorcese. Supposedly, the script only says, "Travis looks in the mirror."

Now, if you're a chick flick type of movie-goer, this isn't your movie, but the line has worked it's way into pretty much every strata of the USA populace!

Tom Hanks gets double billing here, once with "Life is like a box of Chocolates" from 1994's Forest Gump, based on novel by Winston Groom and "There's no crying in baseball" from 1992's A League of Their Own, written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel (who also wrote City Slickers, Fever Pitch, Splash). By career's end, Hanks will probably have as many famous lines as Humphrey Bogart!

Hubpages writer D J Funktual lists "League" as #95 on his list of 100 Funniest Movies. For that column, click here.

"Show me the money" from 1996's Jerry Maguire, directed and written by Cameron Crowe. Sounds like the rallying cry from Wall Street CEO's to Washington D.C. doesn't it??? But, all that aside, this is a movie column.

This movie also had a couple of really popular romantic lines...okay, okay here they are... "You complete me" and "You had me at hello" as part of the love story plot element between Cruise and Rene Zellweger. But the great thing about this movie was that it had enough romance for women, enough sports for men, enough 'can I make a living and not get mired in all the b***s**t that's out there' pathos of modern life....what a combination of themes! Has Cameron Crowe made a bad movie? Well, yeah....but most are great! And this is one of the great ones.

NYLady's column of her Top Ten movie quotes began with "There's no place like home" from Wizard of Oz, so I thought it only fitting somehow that I ended this column with another great line from that iconic family classic film.

Although "Wizard" will be 70 years old in 2009, the movie is still well-loved and well-watched across the generations, and practically a Halloween 'must watch.' but the 'not in Kansas' line comes up across the USA out of the mouths of everyone from farmers, lawyers, big city slickers, small town folk, men, women, boys and girls whenever someone finds themselves way out of their normal frame of reference. A great classic line to end this column!