No Rebuttals: The Top 10 Movie Debate Scenes

Life is full of impromptu mini-debates, disagreements, arguments, but rarely do they come to as perfectly satisfying a conclusion as the famous movie-line back-and-forth in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall. When archetypal neurotic Alvy Singer (Allen) confronts an obnoxious fellow moviegoer who has been pontificating about Marshall McLuhan’s esoteric media theories, the man — a Columbia professor — indignantly responds that his “insights into Mr. McLuhan have a great deal of validity.” At that point, Alvy pulls McLuhan himself from behind a nearby movie poster and watches, blissfully, as the legendary philosopher crushes the Columbia prof with the famous words: “I heard what you were saying. You know nothing of my work.” To paraphrase Alvy’s parting lines (spoken directly to the camera): Boy, if only life, and debates, were really like that.

Fighting Words: “How you ever got to teach a course in anything is totally amazing.”