I love these writers, so I'm not going to pick a winner. But just choosing quotes was a worthwhile exercise. -- Banter and Repetition -- (Sorkin, The West Wing "Enemies") Sam Seaborn: Say, you mind if I skip the coffee? I wanna nail this thing. Leo McGarry: Oh, forget it. Your first draft was fine. Sam Seaborn: I wanna nail it, Leo Mallory O'Brian: Sam, the President was in on it. Your first draft was fine. Sam Seaborn: Yeah, but still... Mallory O'Brian: You wanna nail it Sam Seaborn: I do Mallory O'Brian: [to Sam about Leo] You're so exactly like him Sam Seaborn: Well, that is the nicest thing you've ever said to me. Thank you. (Tarantino, Pulp Fiction) Brett: We got into this thing with the best intentions and I never... Jules: [Jules shoots the man on the couch] I'm sorry, did I break your concentration? I didn't mean to do that. Please, continue, you were saying something about best intentions. What's the matter? Oh, you were finished! Well, allow me to retort. What does Marsellus Wallace look like? Brett: What? Jules: What country are you from? Brett: What? What? Wh - ? Jules: "What" ain't no country I've ever heard of. They speak English in What? Brett: What? Jules: English, motherfucker, do you speak it? Brett: Yes! Yes! Jules: Then you know what I'm sayin'! Brett: Yes! Jules: Describe what Marsellus Wallace looks like! Brett: What? Jules: Say 'what' again. Say 'what' again, I dare you, I double dare you motherfucker, say what one more Goddamn time! -- Speeches - Build, Rhythm, and Climax. -- (Sorkin, The West Wing "17 People") Toby Ziegler: No, I don't think you did either, sir. I meant that during a night of extreme chaos and fear, when we didn't yet know if we'd been the victims of domestic or foreign terrorism, or even an act of war, there was uncertainty as to who was giving the national security orders and it was because you never signed a letter. So I'm led to wonder, given your condition and it's lack of predictability, why there isn't simply a signed letter sitting in a file someplace. And the answer, of course, is that if there was a signed letter sitting in a file someplace, somebody would ask why. The Commander-in-Chief had just been attacked, he was under a general anesthetic, a fugitive was at large, the manhunt included every federal, state, and local law enforcement agency. The Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware National Guard units were federalized. The KH-10s showed Republican Guard movement in southern Iraq. And twelve hours earlier, an F-117 was shot down in the no-fly, and the Vice President's authority was murky, at best! The National Security Advisor and the Secretary of State didn't know who they were taking their orders from! I wasn't in the Situation Room that night, but I'll bet all the money in my pockets against all the money in your pockets, that it was Leo. Who no one elected! For ninety minutes that night there was a coup d'etat in this country. (Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds) Lt. Aldo Raine: My name is Lt. Aldo Raine and I'm putting together a special team, and I need me eight soldiers. Eight Jewish-American soldiers. Now, y'all might've heard rumors about the armada happening soon. Well, we'll be leaving a little earlier. We're gonna be dropped into France, dressed as civilians. And once we're in enemy territory, as a bushwhackin' guerrilla army, we're gonna be doin' one thing and one thing only... killin' Nazis. Now, I don't know about y'all, but I sure as hell didn't come down from the goddamn Smoky Mountains, cross five thousand miles of water, fight my way through half of Sicily and jump out of a fuckin' air-o-plane to teach the Nazis lessons in humanity. Nazi ain't got no humanity. They're the foot soldiers of a Jew-hatin', mass murderin' maniac and they need to be dee-stroyed. That's why any and every every son of a bitch we find wearin' a Nazi uniform, they're gonna die. Now, I'm the direct descendant of the mountain man Jim Bridger. That means I got a little Injun in me. And our battle plan will be that of an Apache resistance. We will be cruel to the Germans, and through our cruelty they will know who we are. And they will find the evidence of our cruelty in the disemboweled, dismembered, and disfigured bodies of their brothers we leave behind us. And the German won't not be able to help themselves but to imagine the cruelty their brothers endured at our hands, and our boot heels, and the edge of our knives. And the German will be sickened by us, and the German will talk about us, and the German will fear us. And when the German closes their eyes at night and they're tortured by their subconscious for the evil they have done, it will be with thoughts of us they are tortured with. Sound good? -- Working on the same script -- Both apparently did uncredited work on The Rock, one of my favorite movies. I (without any evidence) put Sorkin behind this exchange: Carla: I'm pregnant. Stanley: I'm sorry? Carla: I'm pregnant. Stanley: You're pregnant? Carla: Three weeks. Stanley: How do you know? I mean, how do you know? Carla: Blue - it just turned blue so I went to the doctor. Stanley: Wow. Carla: You didn't mean what you just said, did you? Stanley: When? Carla: Just right now, when you were talking about bringing a child into the world, and having it be an act of cruelty. Stanley: I meant it at the time. Carla: At the time? You said it seven and half seconds ago! Stanley: Well...gosh. Kind of a lot's happened since then. And Tarantino gets this one (in my mind): Stanley: I'll do my best. Mason: Your best? Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and fuck the prom queen. These are such quality writers. So amazing to pick the above and leave dozens of quotable speeches and bits that are seared in memory. Tarantino's obviously a bit more aggressive, uses a bunch of swear words, deals with violence and suspense, and has pop culture references. He also has "cool" and "funny" wrapped up in intense scenes, not an easy feat to pull off. Sorkin is a brilliant pace man, handles a script like a piece of music with each character a different instrument, and is a different stylized speed than pretty much anything. Sorkin's best ability is his beats, where he turns the tone of a scene on a dime. I also personally love Sorkin's idealistic worldview - that the world should be a better place. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I eat it up. :)

Question: Do you know whether Sorkin knew, prior to writing A Few Good Men, that Nicholson was to play Col. Jessup and speak those lines?

A few good men was a play before it ever made to the big screen. fyi, Micheal O'Hare of Babylon-5 faem and who passed away just a few days ago, was one of the actors who played Jessop in the original Broadway production.

Aha! History. Gracias.