Thanks to a heads up from Awards Daily I bring you the following video featuring what are said to be the 25 greatest unscripted lines in films… per YouTube user “mewlists” of course.
Personally I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the video (using the word “unscripted” for some of these seems a bit wrong based on what I’ve read about them) and Jeff Wells over at Hollywood Elsewhere is already disputing the inclusion of Dustin Hoffman’s Midnight Cowboy encounter with a cab as he uploaded the audio commentary by producer Jerome Hellman disputing Hoffman’s claim that he improvised the line saying, “The taxi cab driver was an actor and the scene was carefully scripted.”
As for the other 24 scenes, the complete list of films included goes like this…
- Being John Malkovich
- Caddyshack
- Dumb and Dumber
- The 40-Year-Old Virgin
- Good Will Huntin
- The Dark Knight
- Aliens
- Tootsie
- The Usual Suspects
- The Warriors
- The Godfather
- Dr. Strangelove
- Saving Private Ryan
- Jaws
- Empire Strikes Back
- Reservoir Dogs
- Casablanca
- Annie Hall
- The Shining
- Blade Runner
- Midnight Cowboy
- A Clockwork Orange
- Taxi Driver
- The Silence of the Lambs
- Full Metal Jacket
The most noticeable consistency is the inclusion of four Stanley Kubrick films. Have a watch at the video below and if you’re interested in a few other famous unscripted lines, I found this list right here that includes everything here plus 53 more, and again, I can’t vouch for the accuracy of these things, though they are fun to read and watch.
Any unscripted scenes or lines from films that you’re aware of that you wish were included? One scene I personally like that was improvised was Indiana Jones shooting the swordsman in Raiders of the Lost Ark, it’s a scene I think many of today’s filmmakers could learn from rather than the long, drawn-out and same-old, same-old fight scenes we get nowadays.
