Here's a vote for Paul Newman's summation speech to the jury in THE VERDICT: "...Today, you are the law..." Screenplay by David Mamet, directed by Sidney Lumet.

The Indianapolis speech is the best monologue EVER.

Just for the record ... that speech was famously written by John Milius on a visit to the Martha's Vineyard set. Much of the movie was ad-libbed and put together on the fly in that way, which is one reason it still seems so fresh.

I met Carl Gottleib, the credited screenwriter on Jaws, a year ago in LA, and what Steve says is true. Not only re Milius, but the "ad-libbed" feel of the movie. Gottlieb would hang out with Spielberg and the primary actors at night, as they'd talk through the next day's scenes, very informal. Then Spielberg would send Carl off to his hotel room, where he would pound out pages into the wee hours, get them to the prod office, and that's what they shot. This went on from about the 4th week of shooting through the end of production.

That movie had disaster written all over it and it's widely been reported that before the movie was released, Spielberg thought his career as a director was over.

Another example of the 'miracle' of movies.

what seemed like a production disaster was in fact a perfect storm...JAWS