Teenagers and young adults love anarchy as much as they fear it. Struggling against the status quo is a major part of that age, and movies that represent those new ideals play a major role in the lives of people of that age.
When I was in college, much like people I know in college now, quotes in general littered my writing and walls. Even though I was all about defining myself as a separate individual, unique and special, I was also all about finding myself within the confines of the world in which I lived. Movie quotes in particular showed up often as I discovered new characters, movies and ideas that struck me. As I’ve moved through life, some of those movie quotes still resonate in the person I have become.
Movie quotes from The Matrix have never quite left me. One of the loudest of the anti-establishment movies so popular during the 1990s, The Matrix told of a world in which nothing was as it seemed. The Matrix resonated particularly strongly in my world at that time, and I watched it so many times that large portions are still easily brought to mind.
Of movie quotes that demonstrated my belief, however misguided, that I was in an “us versus them” world, The Matrix stands in a class by itself. Take, for example, the following quote:
“The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you’re inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand; most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.”
To a teenager struggling to find purpose, this movie quote, spoken by Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) to Neo (Keanu Reeves) in an attempt to explain the Matrix itself, struck a particular chord. My feelings of being separate, unlike others-all there. People couldn’t understand; they weren’t ready to. But someday, they could be unplugged, and would see as I saw.
Watching a world shuttling through the stages of technology faster than even I and my cohorts, with our enviable amounts of free time broken only by short jaunts to the library or class, could keep up with, Fight Club offered a step away from the fast paced world. Although much of the movie struck me, one movie quote in particular stood out. The line, spoken almost silently by Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), was replayed as often as I could manage and is as follows:
“In the world I see – you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You’ll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You’ll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Tower. And when you look down, you’ll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying strips of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway.”
As testimony to my evolving self, another movie quote from Fight Club, spoken again by Tyler (Brad Pitt), rang true: “People do it everyday, they talk to themselves… they see themselves as they’d like to be, they don’t have the courage you have, to just run with it.”
In an earlier movie that tied anarchy with technology, Hackers showed a group of kids living against the grain, participating in largely illegal activities and doing fine. Cereal Killer (Matthew Lillard) spoke the following movie quote that resonated for a young and confused teenager, not sure whether to embrace the technological revolution or struggle against it:
“FYI man, alright. You could sit at home, and do like absolutely nothing, and your name goes through like 17 computers a day. 1984? Yeah right, man. That’s a typo. Orwell is here now. He’s livin’ large. We have no names, man. No names. We are nameless!”
In the continued struggle for identity and a place to fit in, Foxfire showed camaraderie and purpose that I so desired. Legs (Angelina Jolie) speaks to that part of teenage female-dom in her movie quote ” This is for Goldie. It’s about saving her life… and who we are to her… This is about who we are.” The idea is that adults and the establishment could not help, but friendship could.
Normalcy was also called into question in the movie quote from Benny and Joon (spoken by the character Sam, played by Johnny Depp) ” Oh. Because you know, it seems to me that, aside from being a little mentally ill, she’s pretty normal.” This struck a particular chord as I struggled against depression and general dissonance with the world.
Jodie Foster’s character Nell dredged up movie quotes that brought up several of the issues I was dealing with: escape from a fast-paced world, normalcy and movement away from what was considered “the right sort of life.” Her unbalanced speech patterns defied the usual sort of movie quote, but her ” Chicka, chicka, chickabee. T’ee an me an t’ee an me. Ressa, ressa, ressa me, Chicka, chicka, chickabee” chant demonstrated Nell’s inability to be brought fully into the “real” world, and the fact that sometimes normal isn’t preferable.
The young feminist in me embraced Fried Green Tomatoes. Although the movie came out earlier than some of the others quoted here, movie quotes from that particular movie stayed with me and continue to do so. Ruth (Mary Louise Parker) states the following, upon questioning as to why she would have left with her friend Idgie: ” Because she… she’s the best friend I ever had, and I love her.” The concept of sisterhood was a mantra during that time of my life, and Idgie and Ruth’s relationship was one of the most complete and absolute as far as movie depictions of that were concerned.
Female power and strength also showed itself in the movie quote from Evelyn (Kathy Bates) in Fried Green Tomatoes: ” Towanda!” Although spoken from an menopausal woman trying to reclaim her identity (or perhaps claim it in the first place), “Towanda” also spoke to a young woman trying to find her own power in the world.
Boys on the Side had female power and sisterhood. Robin (Mary Louise Parker again) explains that “I don’t know what it is but there’s something that goes on between women. You men know that because it’s the same for you. I’m not saying one sex is better then the other. I’m just saying, like speaks to like. Love or whatever doesn’t always keep. So you found out what does, if you’re lucky.”
These movies and these quotes, among others, helped me to define myself in an age when nothing was certain.
