Top 5 Movie Battle Speeches

Independence Day is right around the corner, and not just the holiday, but the long awaited sequel to the 1996 blockbuster of the same name. This movie was a huge part of my childhood, so much so that one of my birthday parties involved my friends coming over for a sleepover, handing out all the toy guns in the house, building pillow fortresses, and shooting at the television, doing our best to help President Whitmore and Russell Casse stop the alien attackers. It is this movie, more specifically Bill Pullman’s speech, which inspired the list of top 5 battle movie speeches. For the sake of the list I’ll be excluding speeches from sports movies and politicians to focus specifically on people readying themselves for war.

Honorable Mention: Deep Blue Sea

I really wanted to include Samuel L. Jackson’s speech from Deep Blue Sea because it stuck with me. I thought its place in my memory was due to a combination of the speech itself and Sam Jackson getting eaten by a shark mid-sentence. But when I listened to the pep talk again I found that it’s utter nonsense. Not that I would expect much different from Samuel L. Jackson, but what he says to rally the troops is pure gibberish. Which just goes to show a good speech is as much about delivery as it is the words that come out of your mouth.

5) Patton

Patton is the quintessential war movie; the movie won seven Oscars including Best Picture and Best Actor due in large part to the film’s iconic opening. Initially Scott refused to film the scene because he felt the speech would overshadow the rest of the performance (he wasn’t entirely wrong), so the director had to lie to him and tell him it would happen after the film’s intermission. The speech itself uses direct quotes from real-life Patton, though watered down, as the general loved to curse. Additionally, the opening scene as-written was never delivered all at once; rather it’s a collection of lines from letters and speeches given throughout his career. George C. Scott does a fantastic job in the role and shows why Patton was a leader worth following.

4) Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

The Lord of the Rings trilogy has many battles and speeches throughout. There are plenty of good ones, including those done by Samwise and Theoden of Rohan. But it would make sense that Aragorn, the future king of men, would give the most impassioned. Knowing the odds of success were slim, the whereabouts of Frodo unknown, and with only 6000 troops to defend Middle Earth from Sauron’s forces at the Battle of Black Gate, Aragorn acknowledges the fear in his men’s eyes but implores them to stand their ground. One day their courage may fail them, “but it is not this day.” These men know they are running towards certain death but Aragon’s words give them the courage to do it anyway.

3) Animal House

Not every speech is about going to war and killing the man in front of you. Sometimes you need to rally the troops in order to get women to run naked in the streets, embarrass Kevin Bacon, and cause so much public destruction that you question for a half second if you are really supposed to be rooting for these guys. But I hate parades, so ultimately I support their decisions. Only one man can get the Delta fraternity ready for war, and that man is John Belushi. The first half of the speech doesn’t go exactly as planned, but who honestly remembers what country bombed Pearl Harbor? Once Bluto gets a little assistance from the other Delta leaders, these frat boys are ready to show what happens when you mess with a group of juvenile drunks. Those patriotic bleachers didn’t stand a chance.

2) Braveheart

I never watched Braveheart when I was younger because it was so long. I felt like whenever I saw it on TV (and it used to be on all the time) I could go out for an entire day’s worth of activities and when I got back it was still on. When I finally did watch this movie, Mel Gibson had me engaged. Does it matter that a hefty chunk of it is not historically accurate? I would argue no because it is still a gripping story. The Academy probably agreed when they gave the Oscar for Best Director to Mel for his work. His Scottish accent is shaky at best, but by the time you get to this point in the movie you won’t care. When you think battle speech it doesn’t get any more iconic than this one and I don’t know if there is a better line on this list than, “They may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom.” As Trey Parker and Matt Stone once wrote, “Say what you want about Mel Gibson, but the son of a bitch knows story structure.” So true.
​
1) Independence Day

The speech that inspired the list. When your back is up against the wall and your only hope in defeating an alien race out to destroy you is in the hands of a group of crop dusters and Vietnam vets, the words that come out of your mouth better be good. And lucky for the world they are. From the nervous false start at the beginning of the speech, to the very end with the music blaring over the applause you know the aliens don’t stand a chance. I watch this speech every year to get myself ready for our Independence Day and if a speech becomes a required part of one of our nation’s biggest holidays then I would say Bill Pullman did his job delivering the most inspirational call to arms ever.

What do you think of the list? Did I leave any off? Let me know in the comment section. Next week I’ll be reviewing BFG.