My light-hearted post about catchphrases prompted a considerable outpouring of suggestions from the readers of this blog, encouraging me to try another game: Last Lines. The classic last line, of course, comes from the same Casablanca that gave us "We'll always have Paris." I refer to Bogart's last words to Claude Rains: "Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." Wikipedia tells me that the line was actually written a month after shooting ended, and Bogart had to be brought back to dub it.
But my all time favorite is a throwaway line delivered by Linda Fiorentino at the very end of Men in Black. She, Will Smith, and Tommy Lee Jones are leaving the scene of their epic engagement with the giant intergalactic cockroach [played with over the top brilliance by Vincent d'Onofrio]. Jones suggests that they consult with Dennis Rodman about some new crisis. "Is he an alien?" Fiorentino ask. Yes, she is told. As she gets in the car, she says ruminatively, "Not much of a disguise."
Probably the most potent, and core rattling last line is Darwin's closing to Origin of Species. After shaking the entire foundation of all metaphysics, theology, ontology, science, myth, culture, you name it - he shook it, he closes with complete awe, wonder, and unabashed humility:
ReplyDelete"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."
And the always humerus last words of Marx before he died:
ReplyDelete"Go away! Last words are for fools who haven't said enough!"
I didn't know Marx had said that. How nice.
ReplyDelete"Nobody's perfect", from Some Like it Hot, has got to be the best last line of any comedy.
ReplyDeleteWhile we're mentioned biology, Watson and Crick's antepenultimate paragraph obviously should be here (especially since the final two aren't too important).
ReplyDelete"It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material."
T. Gent, you are right. I had forgotten that wonderful line by Joe E. Brown. It is priceless.
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