Customer Reviews

The Dictionary of Film Quotations: 6,000 Provocative Movie Quotes from 1,000 Movies

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is, without a doubt, the WORST source book , or reference book, I have ever seen. The (authors?) have simply taken Hollywood scripts and copied ANY phrases that appeared, without any sense of value or importance. In all honesty, would a quote such as "ouch!", or "Have a nice day!" qualify as worthy of note..or reference?? The amazing thing is how or why, the publishers EVEN BOTHERED with this trash!

This book provides some mild entertainment value, but it is far from a comprehensive guide. There are so many striking omissions both in specific quotes and in films themselves. At the same time, there is included a multitude of useless and unmemorable quotations. The only redeeming quality of this "dictionary" is as a source of random nostalgia. It might provide amusement at a party on Oscar night, but it is not to be mistaken for a reference book.

On balance, I'm disappointed with this book. The selection of quotations is idiosyncratic at best. A movie quotation should either be able to stand on its own, be a statement of some strength if one has seen the move, or, at least, be evocative of the movie itself. I'd say about 10% of the quotations given here really qualify, based on the movies in the book which I've seen. Indeed, based on just those movies, the book omits many major gems (just a single quote from _The Manchurian Candidate_, for example), while tossing in what seem to be almost random pebbles from many others.

Another weakness to the book is that, while an interchange of a few lines is usually enough to give the context of a quotation, in most cases this book gives just a single line, explaining the context in the citation.

Even more irritating is that quotes are cited to the actors, not the characters (though their characters are described in the first citation in each movie). That makes for some odd reading at times.

That having been said, given 6,000 quotes ("provocative" or not), there are bound to be some goodies you've not run across, and there were a number I dogeared for later transcription. I've definitely run across worse specialty quotation books out there.

(And, for the record, the book does actually list both the screenwriters and the original sources, despite one of the other reviews in this section.)

Is it worth the cover price? Probably not. But at a discount, second-hand, or from the library, it's worth a read. The type is easy on the eyes, at the very least, and if nothing else, it just might inspire you to go out and rent one of the films it quotes.

Terrible and worthless book. The chosen quotes are banal.Most important, in a book about film quotations -- they list the director and the film's star -- but don't bother to list the WRITER! The writer! You know, the PERSON WHO WROTE THE QUOTES! ...

Any collection of quotes is bound to reflect the idiosyncracies of the editors, and this collection is no exception. I have no problem with that. So, yes, you will find many quotes you would expect, and the book will miss many quotes that you might consider "provocative" or worthy of inclusion. Your favorite quotable movie is _The Princess Bride_? Well, the authors only provide a couple of quotes from there. Your favorite quotes from a given movie may be there or not. But you will certainly find many provocative and quotable lines from many movies.

The exact selection is not what I find disappointing and irritating in the book. Rather, I am irritated by number of stylistic choices that the editors have made.

Foremost among them is the decision to list quotes with the actor's name, rather than the character name. The character name is mentioned only parenthetically, and only the first time it shows up in any given move. So if you are looking at quote number 15, you may have to backtrack to remember who the character speaking the line is. This is certainly annoying. There is also a bias towards "last line", even when they aren't particularly memorable or provocative.

But perhaps most irritating is the editor's decision to edit long quotes and provide context via captioning rather than quotation. So the long list of memorable long-nose insults from _Roxanne_ is cut to only three lines. And just how provocative is the single word quote, "War", from _Schindler's List_? Well, not at all, unless you read the long caption explaining that this is the answer to the question asked by another character.

Of course, some quotes cannot be put in context except via explanations in the caption. But far too many one-liners appear in the book without the set-up, thus losing their entire point.

The combination of this and other editorial decisions made for an irritating read. I would suggest that you take a look at a copy and decide for yourself if you can stand them before spending the money on buying the book. I know I would have kept my money had I known what I was in for.

I purchased this book a couple of weeks ago, despite reading many of the negative comments from other reviewers. Although some of what has been written about this book is true, I feel that many of the comments are too harsh. It's certainly not a perfect book, but which book on film quotations is better? It contains 6000 quotations, which is an awful lot compared with other books in this area. The index is very good; I haven't found any missing index entries or incorrect page listings in the index. Some reviewers claimed that there wasn't enough "set-up" information in the quotes (surrounding dialog that would place the quote in context). Although that comment is true, the authors do give a brief explanation of the context following the quote, in most cases, enough to understand what the quote is about. Certainly, there is no substitute for watching a film & hearing & seeing a great actor like Humphrey Bogart deliver his lines. Many of the quotations in this book fall flat because they're on paper (or monitor), & not delivered with the intonations we've heard in the films, but that's not the fault of this book's authors (& it's not the fault of the screenwriters either, afterall, it's an audio-visual medium, that's why we go to the theater). While I can't agree with all of the authors' selections (or omissions), I would still rate this as a fine effort & a very useful addition to any film historian's library.

Really disappointing book. The cover claims "6,000 Provocative Movie Quotes", but "How do I look?" or "A doily" hardly qualifies as "provocative". The authors say they aimed for `balance', but who wants `balance' in a reference book? I expected a collection of memorable quotations that could stand alone, not leave me thinking, `maybe it sounds better in the movie'. Sure, there were some good quotations, but the aim seemed to be for quantity, not quality. I, too, found many of the quotes to be banal, unimportant, and unmemorable - not to mention, downright boring. This book is destined for my yard sale.

WHATS THERE IS GREAT BUT NOT ENOUGH FOR THE MONEY.

The most horrible book I have ever read!! Avoid at all costs!!!

Lots of fun for movie junkies! And the earlier reivewer who said the book does not credit writers is WRONG! Each movie title that comes before the quotes lists the director AND THE SCREENWRITER.