A few weeks ago, I was riding on a CDTA bus when the vehicle started making a loud clanking sound in the area behind the driver. It went on for about two minutes but seemed longer. Finally, it stopped as quickly as it started. I said aloud, to no one in particular, “Oil can!” A few people laughed, catching my Wizard of Oz movie reference.
I was reminded of a line from the 1991 film Grand Canyon, in which the Steve Martin character says: “That’s part of your problem: you haven’t seen enough movies. All of life’s riddles are answered in the movies.” I’m convinced there is some truth to that.
Two of my favorite transportation quotes are these:
From Midnight Cowboy (1969): I’m walkin’ here! Which, I COULD say daily.
From Starman (1984) – Yellow light – go very fast. Which, unfortunately, is how too many drivers perceive the yellow light.
What are YOUR favorite movie quotes that are related to getting somewhere by foot, by horse, by canoe, or by some more mechanical means?
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IMDB’s top 250 movies mashed into a 2.5m clip
Can’t explain why it pleases me so that SamuraiFrog has come to the same view about the Spike Lee film Do The Right Thing as I had, though SF’s revelation was a bit more recent. I always thought it was the best movie of 1989.
Ever since I did that 100 things about movies, I’ve been thinking about the people and things left out, like Burt Reynolds, Jill Clayburgh, movies made in the Albany area that I DID see, The Absent-Minded Professor series, and the Back to the Future series. Maybe I’ll do another list – in about 20 years…
I don’t have a movie quote, but someting from a TV special I sometimes (still) say when I put the car into gear is, “Next stop, the Island of Misfit Toys” (from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer). Sadly, no one in New Zealand gets that.
I agree with you both about Do The Right Thing and also SamuraiFrog’s discussion of it. But, then, that’s probably not a surprise to you.
You know what the best part of, “I’m walking here!” is? It was a genuine moment because a taxi ran a red light.
My head is empty, so that I cannot remember famous quotes. I am sorry. I came home two hours ago after I had been in Amsterdam, where I met the Canadian blogging friend Kay Davies and her husband and a Dutch blogger Mara. It was great to meet them . Thanks for your visit, Roger. .
Since someone else did a TV quote, I will Too! Put one foot in front of the other, and soon you’ll be walking cross the floor! Put one foot in front of the other, and soon you’ll be walking out the door!
God, I have so many, Roger, being a movie nut as well as just plain nut.
Bill Murray in “What About Bob?” “Baby stepping to the elevator…”
All references to Kevin Kline’s bicycling in “In & Out”
And, although the trip itself is metaphorical, Bette Davis in “All About Eve”: “Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.”
Ah, Do The Right Thing. Just before it was released I heard all the hype about how the main character throws a garbage can through the white-owned pizza shop window, and according to the 1989 corporate media all Those Half Savage Black People Across America were going to watch the movie get bad ideas and go riot. So I went to see it the first weekend and was stunned that no one in the media had mentioned why the place was trashed, the killing of the teenager. Spike Lee eventually delivered a big rant about this point.
I considered it a realistic cartoon, still do. The black folks that I conversed with at the time about the movie seemed more embarrassed by it and not at all inclined to riot.
The movie was nominated for best screenplay at the 1989 Oscars, but nothing else. An outside observer who managed to get into the private lounge for Academy Awards nominees before the event (Robert Crumb) reported that Spike Lee circled repeatedly around the other nominees and no one would talk to him.