![]() ![]() We all puzzled over the things our parents said when we were “knee-high to a grasshopper.” Generational linguistic transitions are nothing new. Make my day,” when they’ve never heard of Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry in “Sudden Impact.” When dining with their wives, husbands will have to retire their go-to remark, “I’ll have what she’s having.” Chances are good that the young server has never seen “When Harry Met Sally.” There’s no point in telling somebody to “Go ahead. Take the celebrated 1972 movie “The Godfather.” You may have noticed that nobody below a certain age winces when you make him “an offer he can’t refuse.” All I can say is, “Why didn’t you come to me first?” I would have told you that, today, even a great “Godfather” reference “sleeps with the fishes.”Īnd it looks like you picked the wrong day to slip in quips from another movie classic “Airplane.” Surely, you ask, you can’t mean that? Yes, I do. ![]() It’s time to “Round up the usual suspects.” And when we do, “We’re gonna need a bigger boat.” If he got any of my cultural references that night, I would be “shocked, shocked.”įor the older among us, more and more of our favorite movie catchphrases are ready to board that boat that crosses the historical reference Rubicon, from the realm of witty repartee to cultural oblivion. Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, I walked into one where the young server had no clue about my reference to the husky-voiced actress of the 1950s. “I’m with Lauren Bacall tonight,” I quipped to our waiter. Mary was recovering from a cold that sent her voice several octaves lower. ![]() That struck me one evening when my wife, Mary, and I sat down for dinner at a local restaurant. But to many younger people, our favorite references from old movies are going, if not gone, with the wind. (Which is to say he’s not shocked.)Ī scene in the 1940s classic “Casablanca” that takes place soon before Humphrey Bogart's Rick tells Ingrid Bergman's Ilsa: "Here's looking at you, kid." (Everett Collection)įor many of us older movie fans who will tune in to the 95th Academy Awards on Sunday, the classic “Casablanca” - the 1944 winner for best picture - is still the most quotable film of all time. He’s shocked, shocked at the blank stares he gets when dropping quotes from Hollywood’s classics. You ain't heard nothin' yet!"Īll those movie lines we used to quote? They’re gone with the wind. ![]()
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