Love, Bigotry and Movie Monologues - the Best

Cherished classics such as Pride of the Yankees gave us Gary Cooper's "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth" speech. Flash forward to Animal House and John Belushi's impassioned monologue to rally his housemates, with the question "Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?"

I love the 1967 classic Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Spencer Tracy's last film co-starred his long-time love Katharine Hepburn with Sidney Poitier as the fiancé of their daughter, played by Katharine Houghton. Spencer Tracy's final monologue still brings tears to my eyes; possibly for some of the same reasons Hepburn has tears glistening on her cheeks. A father's love and reality check make this one of the best movie monologues ever.

John Prentice (Poitier) seems the dream match for most affluent parents of daughters in the 1960s. He's a well-respected doctor, handsome and well-dressed. A nine-day relationship may seem a little sudden, but the Draytons (Tracy & Hepburn) can get past that. Upon meeting Joanna's (Houghton) fiancé, their liberal attitudes get a workout.

The social commentary throughout the film is bent with bigotry on both sides of the fence. Prentice's parents are as opposed to a mixed-race marriage as Joanna's. The Drayton's housekeeper Tillie tells John "I don't like to see a member of my own race getting above himself."

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner takes place over the course of a single day filled with discussion as to whether the parents will actually bless the union of their children. As dinner approaches, Spencer Tracy brings the truth of love and the challenges John & Joanna will face into full focus in a lengthy monologue.

"I admit that I hadn't considered it, hadn't even thought about it but there is nothing, absolutely nothing that your son feels for my daughter that I didn't feel for Christina."

A father recognizing that the most important thing is that the man his daughter wants to marry actually loves her makes me weep. Tracy continues to explain that it just doesn't matter what the parents think, the only thing that matters is what the couple feels.

Even in California in 1967, mixed-race marriages were not common. Tracy's monologue delves into the fact that there are so many arguments against John and Joanna marrying, but the worse thing in the world would be for them to ignore their love because of those arguments.

"There'll be 100 million people right here in this country who will be shocked and offended and appalled and the two of you will just have to ride that out, maybe every day for the rest of your lives."

It's worth watching Spencer Tracy's monologue from Guess Who's Coming to Dinner here if you haven't seen the movie or just to refresh your memory. The transcript of the speech is available in the quotes section of the film's page on IMDB.

Sources: YouTube ; IMDB ; Civil Rights Information