Great Sign Offs.

Sign Offs and Sound-Bytes.

A list compiled by Odeon Cinemas some time back (Article: Daily Mirror) of the great parting shots of the movie industry was a round up of all the usual suspects, though curiously enough Rick and Louis's little exchange at the end of Casablanca did not make it into the top ten. No accounting for taste! And surely a true measure is when it moves off the silver screen and into everyday language. Words to be credited to Richard Storton of Odeon Cinemas. No women made it on to the list, though I would make a great case for Katy Jurado in High Noon, even though it wasn't at the end of the film and there were any number of lines. Arnold Schwarzenegger topped the list with "I'll be back" and who could argue with that. James Cagney made it to number nine with "Made it Ma! Top of the world!" in White Heat, but I remember The Roaring Twenties and if my memory serves me well he went out on a high there as well. Sometimes though great lines move in the other direction and ole Rooster coming through the trees "Fill your hands you sons of bitches!" was originally uttered, I believe, by one Kid Sligo who made it into the wrong century and came out shooting. Reference that to Ireland's Own. Other favourites that didn't make it onto the list would have to be Jules for his little biblical scene in one of the best gangster films ever made "Pulp Fiction". And then there's "Yeah, I'm Will Munny... I could go on but I'll finish with a poem recited at the funeral of a great broadcaster and one that did make it onto the list. Here's Roy,

From, The Blade Runner.

I've seen things you wouldn't believe

Attack ships on fire of the shoulders of Orion

I've watched C-beams glitter in the dark

Near the Tanhauser gate

All of these moments will be lost in time

Like tears in the rain....

Time to die.

Photo: Ruins of Athlumney Castle, Navan.