Alexei’s guide to Aaron Sorkin

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Aaron Sorkin’s screenwriting. It occurred to me today that one of the things he’s good at is memorable speechmaking. Each of his movies has a scene that has, at least for a time, entered the public consciousness and became recognizable on its own. These scenes are all pretty much monologues, spoken with force and drama by one of the movies’ main characters. But my favorite speeches from each of Sorkin’s movies have been other scenes. In each case, they’re scenes of dialogue, with lines spoken by other characters than the ones who speak the more famous lines.

I found this sort of interesting, if somewhat trivial. So without further ado, here’s my guide to scenes in Aaron Sorkin’s three movies, complete with chapter numbers for the DVDs:

A Few Good Men

  • Famous scene: Chapter 26 (“You want answers? / I want the truth! / You can’t handle the truth.”)
  • My favorite: Chapter 24 (“I’m sorry, I keep forgetting. You were sick the day they taught law at law school.”)

Malice

  • Famous scene: Chapter 16 (“You ask me if I have a God complex? Let me tell you something: I am God.”)
  • My favorite: Chapter 24 (“What does anybody want? I want the Red Sox to win the World Series.”)

The American President

  • Famous scene: Chapter 30 (“My name is Andrew Shepherd and I am the President.”)
  • My favorite: Chapter 27 (“They want leadership. They’re so thirsty for it they’ll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there’s no water, they’ll drink the sand.”)

P.S. I realized this afternoon that the first two seasons of The West Wing are available on DVD and I don’t own them. Odd. I couldn’t buy Sports Night or the special edition of A Few Good Men fast enough, but The West Wing DVDs have been out for some time, and I haven’t had desire to buy them. Maybe because the show is still on the air? Or maybe I subconsciously still blame The West Wing for being part of the reason there was never a third season of Sports Night. Now that I’ve thought about it, though, I’m starting to feel a burning sensation in my pocket.

7 thoughts on “Alexei’s guide to Aaron Sorkin

  1. A big fan? :-)

    If I could be any screenwriter, I’d be Aaron Sorkin. Not even for his movies, but for Sports Night and West Wing.

    Pick up seasons 1 and 2 NOW! :-) You owe it to yourself. They can’t put out season 3 fast enough…

  2. A big fan? :-)

    Argh. I hate it when there are typos I don’t catch in these things. This is why professional publications hire editors. It’s spelled right now, though, and you can’t prove it was ever otherwise!

  3. hi, Sports night is my absolute favorite show ever, and i just found out that there was out there a 3rd season and i see you mentioned it, my question is, will they be releasing the 3rd season for the viewing public (me) to view them? cause i saw u wrote they can’t put out season 3 fast enough so if you have any information please feel free to email me at Will19tn@aol.com or VolFiend03@aol.com, PLEAE I NEED TO KNOW!!

  4. Will, I’m afraid there never was a third season of Sports Night, and there never will be. ABC canceled the series after two seasons, and although a few other networks were interested in the show (Showtime, in particular), no deal was made, and no episodes beyond the initial 45 were ever made.

    If you search online, you will find that many fans have written their own “third season”, but these are just stories they have made up, and aren’t official in any way. Certainly, every episode that was ever filmed is available in the DVD boxed set.

  5. I have been a fan of aaron sorkin, for a long time, but i have yet to find a way to send any kind of fan mail. is there a public address that fans can send to aaron sorking? Or is everything confined to bulletin boards on the internet?

  6. yes, i see no one checks this really, but ive been looking for an Aaron Sorkin fan mail address for a while now, if anyone can help me, let me know.

  7. WE NEED YOU!!! West Wing was sensational…appeal to your sense of public duty and start educating us again!

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