I am looking for films which contain scenes where a major character
delivers a powerful speech that evokes progressive ideals and values.
The situations I'm looking for are those where someone stands up for
the rights of the ordinary person against an attack by person(s) of
power and privilege, or where a person protects the rights of an
innocent person against an angry mob, or in general stands up for
human dignity and decency and the principle of caring for one another
against the darker side of human nature: fear, greed, ignorance,
superstition, and so on.
These scenes will often involve ordinary Americans being mobilized by the
film's hero to stand up for their rights in the face of a "villain" with
substantial economic or political power, or ordinary Americans being
successfully exhorted to "breath a larger air" . . . i.e. respond to
more noble ideals and values, and forgo the impulse to lash out
against someone or
somegroup that has wrongly become the target of their rage.
Here are some examples to give you a sense of what I'm looking for:
- George Baily in Frank Capra's "It's a wonderful life" explaining to
the townspeople who are panicking about the money they have invested
in the savings and loan that each person's money is in a neighbors'
house, so they can't have it back (defending community support and
interdependence against panic)
- The climactic speech in "Mr Smith Goes to Washington."
The scenes need to be substantial, not a one line retort. It's hard
to define substantial precisely, but the two examples should give you
an idea. This is for a research project involving the kind of ideas
and emotions expressed in these situations and how they are conveyed,
so if the "scene" is just a line or two, there's not enough to
consider. As these examples suggest, there has to be substantial
tension in the scene: a lot riding on the outcome.
In general I am not interested in speeches from courtroom scenes where
an individual is found guilty or innocent, unless that individual
clearly represents a broader cause or issue.
I am only interested in scenes set in America. I am only interested
in movies which can be bought or rented on DVD or VHS.
I've quoted a price of $25 for this answer, and I'm expecting five
films to be named for $25. Individuals who can identify less than
five films are welcome to reply and will be paid $5 per suggestion.
In the case of multiple persons suggesting a given film, on the first
person to suggest a given title will be paid. I'll pay for a maximum
of 6 unique films (i.e. $30 maximum for this answer.)
This is the first question I've posted here so apologies in advance
if I've not described this clearly enough. If there is any
contradiction between the pricing as I've described it here and the
official Google policies, the official policies will of course
prevail. Please email me with any questions. |
