"Is this the greatest melodramatic line ever?" Topic

Flash, Flash, I love you, but we only have fourteen hours to save the Earth!

Is this the greatest melodramatic line ever uttered, in a scenario that is most suitable to be wargamed? Flash Gordon, Saviour of the Universe (or Looney Verse).

No, this is the the most melodramatic:

Luke Skywalker: He told me enough! He told me you killed him!
Darth Vader: No. I am your father.

Always makes me groan 30+ years later.

Both are equally melodramatic, but the Flash line wins for being used in Queen's soundtrack to the movie.

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One's camp, and meant to be.
The other is serious, and meant to be.
Both are delivered perfectly for their intent.

Honestly, the only reason anyone would groan at Vader's line is if you already knew the surprise. I didn't, and was stunned.

But actually, the most melodramatic line in any movie, anywhere, anytime is:

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!"

Closely followed by "KHAAAAAAAANNNNNNNN!!!!!"

Most melodramatic by far is from Empire Strikes Back…

Leia: I love you.
Han: I know.

LIKE A B.A.W.S.

"Mrs. Bates …?"

"At least I had YOU Johnny!" -Starship Troopers

"I'm leaving TMP and NEVER coming back"

And kreoseus2 wins!

+100 to kreoseus2!

DING DING DING
We have a winner!
kreoseus2 for the win with a knock out!

Max: Fritz! Fritz, get up for God's sake! Get up! They've killed Fritz! They've killed Fritz! Those lousy stinking yellow fairies! Those horrible atrocity-filled vermin! Those despicable animal warmongers! They've killed Fritz! Take that! Take this! Take that, you green slime! You black hearted, short, bow-legged…
Fritz: Max! Max, I'm okay! I'm okay max. Just a scratch. Look I'm all right.
Max: Oh. Oh, damn. There you go again, stepping on my lines, raining on my parade, costing me medals. Oh, damn.
[Accidentally shoots Fritz]
Max: Ohh. Oh, Fritz? Fritz, get up for God's sake! Get up! They've killed Fritz! They've killed Fritz! Those lousy stinking yellow fairies! Those horrible atrocity-filled vermin! Take that! Take that! They killed Fritz!

Bah. Amateurish drivel from third-rate hacks compared to the incomparable masterpiece that is

"Imperial battleship, halt the flow of time!"

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The shining moment of that fim, really. Brilliantly written, and a delivery worthy of Shakespeare.

"For He Is The Kwisatz Haderach!!!"-say that fast, 10 times.

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@Chief Lackey Rich: Oh gawd… one weeps for Christopher Plummer, having to say that line (and wear that get up). He must have really needed the cash.

Flash Gordon is great but…..

Captain Stransky: I will show you how a true Prussian officer fights.
Sargeant Steiner: Then I will show you, where the Iron Crosses grow.

Tsk, TMP is slipping.

The line of course is….

'The Gun is Good!'

"Love means never having to say you're sorry." (Followed by a consumptive cough.)

Ah, but jpattern, the standard is greatest melodramatic line, not worst or even most. So you may indeed have selected "worst" or "most" with your pick, but certainly not "greatest."

Wow Chief Lackey Rich.
Starcrash is on my netflix queue right now…

"To crush your enemy, to see them driven before you, to hear the lamentations of the women."

Richard Widmark "… If he fires one, I'll fire one!"

Wally Cox "Firing One sir!"

The Bedford Incident.

My favorite: "Ere this night does wane, you will drink the black sperm of my vengeance!" – from 'Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls', written by Roger Ebert

"We'll always have Paris…"

Most melodramatic? Probably Scarlett.. "As God is my witness.. etc…"

"General Lee. I have no division"

The shining moment of that fim, really. Brilliantly written, and a delivery worthy of Shakespeare.

Here. Now you can torture yourself with the rest of this…. film.

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"Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania"

My submission:

"it's alive!"

Stated 13 times in a row without any other dialogue in the original Frankenstein.

"Is that cannon fire, or my heart beating?"

"77's by the sound of 'em, and getting closer."

From "The Running Man", as Fireball descends from the sky in his jet pack

<Amber> "Jesus Christ!"

<Richards, in best Ah-nuld tone) "Guess again!"

Kwisatz Haderach, give a dog a bone.
This old man came rolling home.

My vote is for Waterloo, when Napoleon gets advised to abdicate at the beginning.

"I WILL NOT. NOT. NOT!!!"

Leigh

'You Improvise – You Adapt – You Overcome'

or

'Surrender is not in our Creed'

or

"My name is Gunnery Sgt. Highway, and I've drank more beer and pised more blood and banged more quif than all you numbnuts put together."

Clint Eastwood, as Gunnery Sgt 'Gunny' Highway USMC in 'Heartbreak Ridge'.

Come to think of it, more drama than melodrama. You can get all the melodrama you want straight between the eyes on any page of TMP these days!

Amen, to that Sparker

Deathrace 200:

to the hero, who has a bomb in place of his hand
"Is that a grenade?"

response:
"It's a hand grenade"

Oh lotsa good stuff here. Not from a movie but from the venerable Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom video game. Arrogantly smug bad guy is about to kill your wingman.

Bad guy: "Any famous last words Major?" sneeringly delivered.

Todd "Maniac" Marshall: "YEAH! KISS MY A…" as the com signal breaks up.

I use that line a lot in aerial games when I lose a plane.

Salut y'all!

Bruce the Texas Grognard

Arthur "Are you just a dream….Merlin?"

Merlin "A dream to some…a NIGHTMARE TO OTHERS!"

Man you guys are good! I drew a blank with the title but after reading these posts can think of 100s. We should have a poll! I do think kreoseus2 won hands down however.

VR
James Mattes

No. This is.

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"Play 'La Maseillaise.' Play it!"

A wonderful moment from a film full of them.

All the best,

John.

"You heroic HORSE'S ASS!" (Cross of Iron)

"He's in MY world now!" (Cross of Iron)

"We're even now." (Cross of Iron)

"Where is your platoon, Sergeant Steiner?"
"You are my platoon." (Cross of… OK you get the picture)

jpattern beat me to it. nothing is worse than Love Story, and the rest of that movie can't top that god awful final line

The line most pregnant with anticipation for the answer (equivalent to waiting for the announcement of an Academy Award), full of emotion (hope and dread included), presaging displays of melodrama from the participants that are never the same twice and performed to a level equal to that of the most professional actors is:

"Who da baby daddy?"

"Life! Life do you hear me? Give my creation…Life!"

"What knockers"

-Young Frankenstein

That 80's Flash Gordon movie was so bad only 3 actors careers survived it. Max von Sydow, Timothy Dalton and Brain Blessed.
You don't see any of the others any more.

I had to look up melodrama just to get a true picture of what it means. So I present to you for your consideration this.

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How much melodrama do you know gets turned into it's own song.

"They are ready to die for you: can you ask for more?"
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(and, no, they are not SS: for 'political correctness' sake in the movie they were dressed as Panzer crewmen of the Wehrmacht)

This one is not bad either:
"Lo there do I see my father…"
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"And you can't *!$$ on hospitality. I won't allow it!" – Troll 2

But it's not just the words – the melodrama of any quote is in the gesticulations. What would "KHAAAAAAAAAAAN!" be without the teeth grinding, lip tremor, hand wringing and seismic head-shaking?

"The king and his men
stole the queen from her bed"
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You expect me to talk?

No, Mr Bond, I expect you to die!

- Goldfinger (1964)-