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Once more into the breach…

Dear friends…once more

The Fallon blog has an excellent post featuring rousing motivational speeches that have appeared in film.

Among them are the likes of General Patton (aka George C Scott) and the Spartan captain from 300 (which I have yet to see).

I added a suggestion in the comments - the St Crispians Day speech from Henry V by Shakespeare - performed by Richard Branagh (who ranks up there with Baz Lurhman for making The Bard bearable).



Let's make a list:

What are the most rousing speeches ever?

Martin Luther King - I have a dream

JFK - Ask not what your country can do...


...What happened to oratory?

have we become too cynical? Too postmodern?

Recommend your favourites...

We'll come back to this.

Comments

  1. Anonymous11:39 am

    Now how is this for obscure....
    Eliear Ben Yair, leader of the Zealots oles up atop Herod's fortress at Masada. After three years uner seige by the best of the Roman Empire, and with the next day sure to bring the final breach of the walls, he adressed his people. He asked them to make a choice between capture by the Romans, or choosing their own destiny and dyng, by their own hand, as free men. While his words are lost for all time, Josephus Flavius' reports indicate the tone of what must have been said.

    Now that is rosing and, leaving aside our thought about modern Israel, it created a nationhood exemplified in the line "Masada shall not fall again"

    ReplyDelete
  2. JoeGreenz8:39 pm

    Thanks Ben, I've never really thought about where the term zealot came from.

    ReplyDelete

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