Movie Moments

This week at Malone chapel, all three services (MWF) were entitled, “Cupid & Culture: Relationships & Pop Culture.” Relationships—students’ favorite topic!

On Wednesday, they had a panel of six folks (plus a moderator/interviewer): a couple who had been married 31 years, a couple who had been married five years, and two single folks, both a male and a female.

It was a really interesting discussion. And one of the questions they asked was this: (since, after all, it was about pop culture, too): what is your favorite romantic line/scene in a movie?

All of their examples were entertaining, and prompted me to think of my own—let’s face it, it’s a fun question! As aware as I am how completely unrealistic movies are and can be, I feel like I received a lot of healing/insight/hope relationship-wise from a particular movie I watched at home during one Friday night of my senior year of college.

The movie was one all my favorite movie critics hated, and to be honest with you, I haven’t seen the movie in years.

But after a quick internet search, I found the script to my all-time favorite romantic movie scene—but it’s a conversation between a father and his daughter. Meet Joe Black (1998):

PARRISH: Do you love Drew?

SUSAN: You mean like you loved Mom?

PARRISH: Forget about me and Mom - are you going to marry him?

SUSAN: Probably

PARRISH: Don't get carried away.

SUSAN: Ohhh...

PARRISH: Susan, you're a hell of a woman.
You've got a great career, you're beautiful...

SUSAN: And I'm your daughter and no man
will ever be good enough for me.

PARRISH: Well, I wasn't going to say that...

SUSAN: What were you going to say?

PARRISH: Listen, I'm crazy about the guy -
he's smart, he's aggressive, he could
carry Parrish Communications into the
21st century and me along with it.

SUSAN: So what's wrong with that?

PARRISH: That's for me. I'm talking about you.
It's not so much what you say about
Drew, it's what you don't say.

SUSAN: You're not listening.

PARRISH: Oh yes, I am. Not an ounce of excitement,
not a whisper of a thrill, this relationship
has all the passion of a pair of titmice.

SUSAN: Don't get dirty, Dad...

PARRISH: Well, it worries me. I want you to get swept away.
I want you to levitate. I want you to sing with
rapture and dance like a dervish.

SUSAN: That's all?

PARRISH: Be deliriously happy.
Or at least leave yourself open to be.

SUSAN: "Be deliriously happy". I'm going to do my utmost.

PARRISH: I know it's a cornball thing but love is passion,
obsession, someone you can't live without.
If you don't start with that, what are you going
to end up with? I say fall head over heels.
Find someone you can love like crazy and who'll
love you the same way back. And how do you find him?
Forget your head and listen to your heart.
I'm not hearing any heart. Run the risk, if you get
hurt, you'll come back. Because, the truth is there
is no sense living your life without this.
To make the journey and not fall deeply in love -
well, you haven't lived a life at all. You have to try.
Because if you haven't tried, you haven't lived.

SUSAN: Bravo

PARRISH: Aw... you're tough.

SUSAN: I'm sorry. But give it to me again. The short version.

PARRISH: Stay open. Who knows? Lightning could strike.


At the time I was watching this movie, I had just ended a crappy relationship that, honestly, began and continued not so much that we liked each other, but because we were both available and had fun making out. We had enough in common that we could have made it work, but we definitely were not and never could have been in love.

As “cornball” as it may seem, the scene in this movie was inspiring, and, dare I say, for me, an affirming whisper from God.

The intense love that Parrish had for his daughter, Susan, was incredibly obvious. More than anything, he, who had experienced this kind of love with his wife, wanted her to love completely and be loved completely. And doesn’t God, our father, who loves more than any earthly father ever could, desire the same for us?

Those relationships, I knew, were few and far between---I hadn’t seen a lot of them. But I had seen a few, and these thoughts gave me hope, though I’d NEVER been in a relationship like that before.

I began hoping----and determined to refuse to settle.

But I couldn’t have been more surprised when it lightning actually struck….

Anyway, if you’re still with me after this mammoth post, do you have a favorite romantic movie scene?