A good script always contains at least a few lines of eternally quotable dialogue; these lines are almost always spoken by iconic characters. A good character isn’t always a rational one. They may think they have all the answers when they really don’t…or maybe they do? The thing about advice is that’s subjective—tailor-made to either fit the person giving it or the person it is being given to. This is true in life and in film.
It’s wise to never take any piece of art too seriously; for the most part, all cinema is fiction. A lot can be derived from the ambiguity of meaning. When Gordon Gekko says “Greed is good” does he mean to steal from people or just be ambitious in your financial pursuits? In this case, a line of dialogue could have both positive and negative connotation—other times quotes are just so ridiculous we have to respect the fact that they even exist. For better or worse.
There have been some semi-brilliant and downright nonsensical pieces of advice given in cinematic history. Take a gander at what some of the greatest minds in Hollywood have come up with below!
10 Times Characters Gave The Worst Best Advice On Screen
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Chazz Reinhold, Wedding Crashers (2005)
"Grief is nature's most powerful aphrodisiac. Look it up."
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Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
"I'm dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly... stupid.”
What?
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Joker, The Dark Knight (2008)
"if you're good at something never do it for free."
Internships are a thing.
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LaVona Golden, I, Tonya (2017)
"Are you a garden or a flower? In every relationship, your either a garden or a flower. I'm a garden that wants to be a flower, how fucked up am I ..."
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Gandhi, Gandhi (1982)
“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind."
There would probably be one person left with one eye...
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Ernie Hudson, Ghostbusters (1984)
"When someone asks you if you are a god, you say yes!"
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Ace Ventura, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)
"If I'm not back in five minutes... just wait longer."
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David Wooderson, Dazed and Confused (1993)
“It'd be a lot cooler if you did”
This could definitely be used in toxic peer pressure situations.
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Jenny Cavilleri, Love Story (1970)
"Love means never having to say you're sorry."
Well...that's just not true.
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Tyler Durden, Fight Club (1999)
"It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything."
