Most Quotable Movies: 300
We haven't done one of these "Most Quotable Movie" features in a while. Here's a recent goodie from last year - and one of my favourite films of 2007.
If you had to describe 300 in one word, it would have to be "Stylised". And that visual stylisation carried through to the film's dialogue as well, which was just so deliciously over-the-top and epic. Pretty much every line seems to end with an exclamation mark.
Of course, it's all in keeping with the fact that Frank Miller's graphic novel, on which the film was based, is not meant to be a historically accurate account of the Battle of Thermopylae. Rather, it is history filtered through a patriotic Spartan storyteller who is attempting to inspire soldiers by transforming history, with all its inconvenient greys, into legend, with its stark whites, blacks and archetypes.
Enjoy!
-------------------
Leonidas: This is where we hold them! This is where we fight! This is where they die!
-------------------
Persian Officer: SPARTANS! Lay down your weapons!
Leonidas: Persians...COME AND GET THEM!
-------------------
Leonidas: Give them nothing! But take from them everything!
-------------------
Leonidas: Spartans! Ready your breakfast and eat hearty... For tonight, we dine in hell!
-------------------
Xerxes: Cruel Leonidas demanded that you stand. I require only that you kneel.
-------------------
Persian: A thousand nations of the Persian empire descend upon you. Our arrows will blot out the sun!
Stelios: Then we will fight in the shade.
-------------------
Dilios: We Spartans have descended from Hercules himself. Taught never to retreat, never to surrender. Taught that death in the battlefield is the greatest glory he could achieve in his life. Spartans: the finest soldiers the world has ever known.
-------------------
Leonidas: The world will know that free men stood against a tyrant, that few stood against many, and before this battle was over, even a god-king can bleed.
-------------------
Stelios: Our ancestors built this wall using ancient stones from the bosom of Greece herself. And with a little Spartan help, your Persian scouts supplied the mortar.
-------------------
Dilios: Immortals... we put their name to the test.
-------------------
Stelios: It's an honor to die at your side.
Leonidas: It's an honor to have lived at yours.
-------------------
Gorgo: Spartan!
Leonidas: Yes, my lady?
Gorgo: Come back with your shield, or on it.
Leonidas: Yes, my lady.
-------------------
Leonidas: You there, Ephialtes. May you live forever.
-------------------
Messenger: No man, Persian or Greek, no man threatens a messenger!
Leonidas: You bring the crowns and heads of conquered kings to my city steps. You insult my queen. You threaten my people with slavery and death! Oh, I've chosen my words carefully, Persian. Perhaps you should have done the same!
Messenger: This is blasphemy! This is madness!
Leonidas: This is Sparta!
-------------------
Gorgo: Your lips can finish what your fingers have started... or has the Oracle robbed you of your desire as well?
Leonidas: It would take more than the words than a drunken adolescent girl to rob me of my desire of you.
-------------------
Messenger: What makes this woman think she can speak among men?
Gorgo: Because only Spartan women give birth to real men.
-------------------
Persian: My arm!
Stelios: It's not yours, anymore.
-------------------
Gorgo: Freedom isn't free at all, that it comes with the highest of costs. The cost of blood.
-------------------
Theron/Gorgo: This will not be over quickly. You will not enjoy this.
-------------------
Dilios: Taught never to retreat, never to surrender. Taught that death on the battlefield in service to Sparta was the greatest glory he could achieve in his life.
-------------------
Xerxes: Come Leonidas, let us reason together. It would be a regrettable waste. It would be nothing short of madness for you, brave king, and your valiant troops to perish. All because of a simple misunderstanding. There is much our cultures could share.
Leonidas: Haven't you noticed? We've been sharing our culture with you all morning.
-------------------
Captain: They look thirsty!
Leonidas: Well, let's give them something to drink! To the cliffs!
-------------------
Dilios: We did what we were trained to do, what we were bred to do, what we were born to do!
-------------------
Dilios: Hundreds leave, a handful stay. Only one looks back.
-------------------
Leonidas: Dilios, I trust that "scratch" hasn't made you useless.
Dilios: Hardly, my lord, it's just an eye. The gods saw fit to grace me with a spare.
-------------------
Leonidas: My heart is broken for your loss.
Captain: Heart? I have filled my heart with hate.
Leonidas: Good.
-------------------
Xerxes: But I am a generous god. I can make you rich beyond all measure. I will make you warlord of all Greece. You will carry my battle standard to the heart of Europa. Your Athenian rivals will kneel at your feet if you will but kneel at mine.
Leonidas: You are generous as you are divine, O king of kings. Such an offer only a madman would refuse. But the, uh, the idea of kneeling, it's- You see, slaughtering all those men of yours has, uh, well it's left a nasty cramp in my leg, so kneeling will be hard for me.
-------------------
Xerxes: It isn't wise to stand against me, Leonidas. Imagine what horrible fate awaits my enemies when I would gladly kill any of my own men for victory.
Leonidas: And I would die for any one of mine.
-------------------
Xerxes: You Greeks take pride in your logic. I suggest you employ it. Consider the beautiful land you so vigorously defend. Picture it reduced to ash at my whim! Consider the fate of your women!
Leonidas: Clearly you don't know our women.
-------------------
Dilios: "Goodbye my love." He doesn't say it. There's no room for softness... not in Sparta. No place for weakness. Only the hard and strong may call themselves Spartans. Only the hard, only the strong.
-------------------
Gorgo: There's only one woman's words that should affect the mood of my husband. Those are mine.
-------------------
Ephor #2: Trust the gods, Leonidas.
Leonidas: I'd prefer you trusted your reason.
-------------------
Second Statesman: The Ephors have spoken. There must be no march!
Theron: It is the law, my lord. The Spartan army must not go to war.
Leonidas: Nor shall it. I've issued no such orders. I'm here, just taking a stroll, stretching my legs. These, uh, 300 men are my personal bodyguard.
-------------------
Dilios: Sire, any message...?
Leonidas: For the Queen?
[Dilios nods. Leonidas removes the wolf's fang pendant from around his neck, and presses it into Dilios's hand]
Leonidas: None that need be spoken.
-------------------
Dilios: The Ephors choose only the most beautiful Spartan girls to live among them as oracles. Their beauty is their curse. For the old wretches have the needs of men... and souls as black as hell.
-------------------
Leonidas: In the end, a Spartan's true strength is the warrior next to him. So give respect and honor to him, and it will be returned to you. First, you fight with your head...
Gorgo: Then you fight with your heart.
Leonidas: [sees the Captain] What is it?
Gorgo: A Persian messenger awaits you.
Leonidas: Do not forget today's lesson.
Pleistarchos: Respect and honor.
Leonidas: Respect and honor.
-------------------
Dilios: His helmet was stifling, it narrowed his vision. And he must see far. His shield was heavy. It threw him off balance. And his target is far away.
-------------------
Dilios: It's been more than thirty years since the wolf and the winter cold. And now, as then, it is not fear that grips him, only restlessness. A heightened sense of things.
-------------------
Daxos: I see I was wrong to expect Sparta's commitment to at least match our own.
Leonidas: Doesn't it?
[points to Arcadian soldier behind Daxos]
Leonidas: You there, Arcadian! What is your profession?
Free Greek-Potter: I am a potter, sir.
Leonidas: [points to another soldier] And you, Arcadian, what is your profession?
Free Greek-Sculptor: Sculptor, sir.
Leonidas: Sculptor.
[turns to a third soldier]
Leonidas: And you?
Free Greek-Blacksmith: Blacksmith.
Leonidas: [shouting] Spartans! What is your profession?
Spartans: HA-OOH! HA-OOH! HA-OOH!
Leonidas: [turning to Daxos] You see, old friend? I brought more soldiers than you did.
-------------------
Dilios: "Remember us." As simple an order as a king can give. "Remember why we died." For he did not wish tribute, nor song, nor monuments nor poems of war and valor. His wish was simple. "Remember us," he said to me. That was his hope, should any free soul come across that place, in all the countless centuries yet to be. May all our voices whisper to you from the ageless stones, "Go tell the Spartans, passerby, that here by Spartan law, we lie."
-------------------
Dilios: The enemy outnumber us a paltry three to one, good odds for any Greek. This day we rescue a world from mysticism and tyranny and usher in a future brighter than anything we can imagine.
[puts on his helmet]
Give thanks, men, to Leonidas and the brave 300! TO VICTORY!
If you had to describe 300 in one word, it would have to be "Stylised". And that visual stylisation carried through to the film's dialogue as well, which was just so deliciously over-the-top and epic. Pretty much every line seems to end with an exclamation mark.
Of course, it's all in keeping with the fact that Frank Miller's graphic novel, on which the film was based, is not meant to be a historically accurate account of the Battle of Thermopylae. Rather, it is history filtered through a patriotic Spartan storyteller who is attempting to inspire soldiers by transforming history, with all its inconvenient greys, into legend, with its stark whites, blacks and archetypes.
Enjoy!
-------------------
Leonidas: This is where we hold them! This is where we fight! This is where they die!
-------------------
Persian Officer: SPARTANS! Lay down your weapons!
Leonidas: Persians...COME AND GET THEM!
-------------------
Leonidas: Give them nothing! But take from them everything!
-------------------
Leonidas: Spartans! Ready your breakfast and eat hearty... For tonight, we dine in hell!
-------------------
Xerxes: Cruel Leonidas demanded that you stand. I require only that you kneel.
-------------------
Persian: A thousand nations of the Persian empire descend upon you. Our arrows will blot out the sun!
Stelios: Then we will fight in the shade.
-------------------
Dilios: We Spartans have descended from Hercules himself. Taught never to retreat, never to surrender. Taught that death in the battlefield is the greatest glory he could achieve in his life. Spartans: the finest soldiers the world has ever known.
-------------------
Leonidas: The world will know that free men stood against a tyrant, that few stood against many, and before this battle was over, even a god-king can bleed.
-------------------
Stelios: Our ancestors built this wall using ancient stones from the bosom of Greece herself. And with a little Spartan help, your Persian scouts supplied the mortar.
-------------------
Dilios: Immortals... we put their name to the test.
-------------------
Stelios: It's an honor to die at your side.
Leonidas: It's an honor to have lived at yours.
-------------------
Gorgo: Spartan!
Leonidas: Yes, my lady?
Gorgo: Come back with your shield, or on it.
Leonidas: Yes, my lady.
-------------------
Leonidas: You there, Ephialtes. May you live forever.
-------------------
Messenger: No man, Persian or Greek, no man threatens a messenger!
Leonidas: You bring the crowns and heads of conquered kings to my city steps. You insult my queen. You threaten my people with slavery and death! Oh, I've chosen my words carefully, Persian. Perhaps you should have done the same!
Messenger: This is blasphemy! This is madness!
Leonidas: This is Sparta!
-------------------
Gorgo: Your lips can finish what your fingers have started... or has the Oracle robbed you of your desire as well?
Leonidas: It would take more than the words than a drunken adolescent girl to rob me of my desire of you.
-------------------
Messenger: What makes this woman think she can speak among men?
Gorgo: Because only Spartan women give birth to real men.
-------------------
Persian: My arm!
Stelios: It's not yours, anymore.
-------------------
Gorgo: Freedom isn't free at all, that it comes with the highest of costs. The cost of blood.
-------------------
Theron/Gorgo: This will not be over quickly. You will not enjoy this.
-------------------
Dilios: Taught never to retreat, never to surrender. Taught that death on the battlefield in service to Sparta was the greatest glory he could achieve in his life.
-------------------
Xerxes: Come Leonidas, let us reason together. It would be a regrettable waste. It would be nothing short of madness for you, brave king, and your valiant troops to perish. All because of a simple misunderstanding. There is much our cultures could share.
Leonidas: Haven't you noticed? We've been sharing our culture with you all morning.
-------------------
Captain: They look thirsty!
Leonidas: Well, let's give them something to drink! To the cliffs!
-------------------
Dilios: We did what we were trained to do, what we were bred to do, what we were born to do!
-------------------
Dilios: Hundreds leave, a handful stay. Only one looks back.
-------------------
Leonidas: Dilios, I trust that "scratch" hasn't made you useless.
Dilios: Hardly, my lord, it's just an eye. The gods saw fit to grace me with a spare.
-------------------
Leonidas: My heart is broken for your loss.
Captain: Heart? I have filled my heart with hate.
Leonidas: Good.
-------------------
Xerxes: But I am a generous god. I can make you rich beyond all measure. I will make you warlord of all Greece. You will carry my battle standard to the heart of Europa. Your Athenian rivals will kneel at your feet if you will but kneel at mine.
Leonidas: You are generous as you are divine, O king of kings. Such an offer only a madman would refuse. But the, uh, the idea of kneeling, it's- You see, slaughtering all those men of yours has, uh, well it's left a nasty cramp in my leg, so kneeling will be hard for me.
-------------------
Xerxes: It isn't wise to stand against me, Leonidas. Imagine what horrible fate awaits my enemies when I would gladly kill any of my own men for victory.
Leonidas: And I would die for any one of mine.
-------------------
Xerxes: You Greeks take pride in your logic. I suggest you employ it. Consider the beautiful land you so vigorously defend. Picture it reduced to ash at my whim! Consider the fate of your women!
Leonidas: Clearly you don't know our women.
-------------------
Dilios: "Goodbye my love." He doesn't say it. There's no room for softness... not in Sparta. No place for weakness. Only the hard and strong may call themselves Spartans. Only the hard, only the strong.
-------------------
Gorgo: There's only one woman's words that should affect the mood of my husband. Those are mine.
-------------------
Ephor #2: Trust the gods, Leonidas.
Leonidas: I'd prefer you trusted your reason.
-------------------
Second Statesman: The Ephors have spoken. There must be no march!
Theron: It is the law, my lord. The Spartan army must not go to war.
Leonidas: Nor shall it. I've issued no such orders. I'm here, just taking a stroll, stretching my legs. These, uh, 300 men are my personal bodyguard.
-------------------
Dilios: Sire, any message...?
Leonidas: For the Queen?
[Dilios nods. Leonidas removes the wolf's fang pendant from around his neck, and presses it into Dilios's hand]
Leonidas: None that need be spoken.
-------------------
Dilios: The Ephors choose only the most beautiful Spartan girls to live among them as oracles. Their beauty is their curse. For the old wretches have the needs of men... and souls as black as hell.
-------------------
Leonidas: In the end, a Spartan's true strength is the warrior next to him. So give respect and honor to him, and it will be returned to you. First, you fight with your head...
Gorgo: Then you fight with your heart.
Leonidas: [sees the Captain] What is it?
Gorgo: A Persian messenger awaits you.
Leonidas: Do not forget today's lesson.
Pleistarchos: Respect and honor.
Leonidas: Respect and honor.
-------------------
Dilios: His helmet was stifling, it narrowed his vision. And he must see far. His shield was heavy. It threw him off balance. And his target is far away.
-------------------
Dilios: It's been more than thirty years since the wolf and the winter cold. And now, as then, it is not fear that grips him, only restlessness. A heightened sense of things.
-------------------
Daxos: I see I was wrong to expect Sparta's commitment to at least match our own.
Leonidas: Doesn't it?
[points to Arcadian soldier behind Daxos]
Leonidas: You there, Arcadian! What is your profession?
Free Greek-Potter: I am a potter, sir.
Leonidas: [points to another soldier] And you, Arcadian, what is your profession?
Free Greek-Sculptor: Sculptor, sir.
Leonidas: Sculptor.
[turns to a third soldier]
Leonidas: And you?
Free Greek-Blacksmith: Blacksmith.
Leonidas: [shouting] Spartans! What is your profession?
Spartans: HA-OOH! HA-OOH! HA-OOH!
Leonidas: [turning to Daxos] You see, old friend? I brought more soldiers than you did.
-------------------
Dilios: "Remember us." As simple an order as a king can give. "Remember why we died." For he did not wish tribute, nor song, nor monuments nor poems of war and valor. His wish was simple. "Remember us," he said to me. That was his hope, should any free soul come across that place, in all the countless centuries yet to be. May all our voices whisper to you from the ageless stones, "Go tell the Spartans, passerby, that here by Spartan law, we lie."
-------------------
Dilios: The enemy outnumber us a paltry three to one, good odds for any Greek. This day we rescue a world from mysticism and tyranny and usher in a future brighter than anything we can imagine.
[puts on his helmet]
Give thanks, men, to Leonidas and the brave 300! TO VICTORY!
Comments
Persian Officer: SPARTANS! Lay down your weapons!
Leonidas: Persians...COME AND GET THEM!
(I believe this is still written on a Greek military coat of arms, or something).
Persian: Our arrows will blot out the sun!
Stelios: Then we will fight in the shade.
Leonidas: Spartans! Ready your breakfast and eat hearty... For tonight, we dine in hell!
And the original ancient monument on the site of the battle does/did read:
"Go tell the Spartans, passerby, that here by Spartan law, we lie."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Thermopylae_in_popular_culture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Thermopylae