"Make it so!"

Movies should be quotable. After all, it is not just the visuals that get the audience hooked, it is excellent writing. Excellent writing usually leads to excellent quotability. Quotability is bonding material in our household.

Our family has seen certain movies enough times that dialogue is permanently etched into our brains, ready to be accessed at an appropriate--or silly--life moment. My 22 year-old filmmaker son might disagree, but 1998’s The Parent Trap is the most quotable movie ever. I am not sure why, but that fun, improbable story contains little diamonds of dialogue that my girls and I constantly apply to life situations. It makes us laugh, and therefore, bond. A few years ago, we discovered that a family we know and love quotes that movie all the time: true kindred spirits.

We quote from the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises (Spock, James Kirk and Jean Luc Picard emitted some especially worthy quotes--who said, “Earl Grey, hot,” “You have been and always will be, my friend,” and  “Khaaaaaan!”?), the Lord of the Rings Trilogy (since our son became engaged in New Zealand this past Christmas, we have made a lot of “one ring” and “my precious” references), and of course the six-part 1995 production of Pride and Prejudice.

My sister Lois and I tend to use Pride and Prejudice lines regularly in conversation. We used to watch it during Christmas vacation together when we stayed at her home. But when Tim and I moved to seminary, we met the witty Kevin Merrit, who does a killer impression of Mr. Collins, and we discovered more nerdy friends who quote P and P like we do.

I was thinking of listing some quotes here, but out of context, the lines don’t make much sense. They are meaningful when shared with someone who knows the film and also how the line applies to life right now. A good film is powerful that way, because its impact continues long after the audience leaves the theater, or long after you turn off the Blu-ray player.