Welcome to FTS’ brand new feature Word Around the Campfire where all of the FTS’ contributors take turns answering the question or topic of the month. This month we’re looking at our review writing process and style.

The Dude: “Just take it easy man.”
Walter Sobchak: “I’m perfectly calm Dude.”
The Dude: “Yeah, waving the fucking gun around?”
Walter Sobchak: “Calmer than you are.”
The Dude: “Will you just take it easy?”
Walter Sobchak: “Calmer than you are”

– The Big Lebowski

There are so many movie quotes that I love dearly for different reasons. I love quoting lines from my favorite comedy movies with friends and laughing just as hard as if we were watching the films all over again, but there are simply too many of those to choose from. So instead, I’ll choose one that left an impact on me the moment I heard it. It’s actually:

“I don’t want to survive; I want to live!”

-Wall-E

It’s such a poignant line that drives home the heavy themes of this particular Pixar flick, while also speaking deeply to my own attitude and philosophy toward life, or at least, what I try to keep in mind from day to day.

The quote I use the most often is the very bland and everyday “There’s a beverage here!” from The Big Lebowski, because I’m clumsy and regularly find myself spilling any kind of drink I’m holding, so it’s one I find myself using often. It’s not my favourite, though. No, that of course comes from the greatest film ever made, Jurassic Park, and its greatest hunter/game warden, Bob Peck’s Robert Muldoon. All along he has been the voice of reason, the man with the real doubts and fears of how dangerous the velociraptors are, having spent the most time with them and witnessed first hand what they can do, so it’s only right that they be the ones to take him out. This scene plays out just as Sam Neill’s Dr. Grant described in the earlier, child-traumatizing scene, when Muldoon spies a raptor ahead of him, very carefully assembles his gun, but is then taken out not from the front, but from the side. Just as he notices the second raptor, Muldoon utters the immortal:

“Clever girl”

– Muldoon in Jurassic Park

acknowledging with deserved respect that he has been defeated. It’s one of those other lines that can be used very often, and I do so as much as I can.

There are so many great movie quotes, some that make me cry hard, others that make me laugh hard. Or just those that make me want to yell “FUCK YEAH”. But my favorite quotes are quotes that I actually use in my everyday life and the ones I use the most are from movies I watch regularly with friends. My favorite quote thus has to be a little piece of dialogue from Harry Potter… and the Chamber of Secrets. Not the best movie of the series – by far. But I do love this one for the world-building but also and especially for some of the over-the-top performances. My quote is during the student duel between Malfoy and Harry, when tauntingly, Malfoy asks Harry:

Malfoy: “Scared, Potter?”
Harry: “You wish.”

– Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

My sister and I make use of this quote way too often. It’s just hilarious in some weird way and oddly usable.

“It’s a mystery of human chemistry and I don’t understand it, some people, as far as their senses are concerned, just feel like home.”

-Rob in High Fidelity

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

– Ferris in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

My favorite quote is from History of the World Part 1, when Mel Brooks (as Moses) stands on a rock with three tablets and says:

“The Lord, the Lord Jehovah has given unto you these fifteen… [drops one of the tablets] Oy! Ten! Ten commandments for all to obey!”

– Moses in History of the World Part 1

Genius.

My favorite quote comes from The Usual Suspects, and it is

“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist”.

– Verbal in The Usual Suspects

The way this quote defines the film makes it all the more iconic to me. Something said so simply has such far-reaching implications.