"What we have here...is failure...to communicate."
I have only seen this movie about 20 times so I may be wrong. Is there not a fabulous play on the word "here" so that it sounds to the ear as "hee-ya"?
The scene with Strother Martin playing the horse auctioneer to Mattie Ross (Kim Darby) in "True Grit" is also great. The dialog of that movie is one of kind. It also delivers another great quote:
"That's bold talk for a one-eyed fat man!"
==Robert Duvall (Ned Pepper) to Rooster Cogburn (John Wayne).
The rejoinder by Rooster is doubly memorable.
And there is John Wayne's monologue about his wife and son while he is intoxicated. Ahhh!
Frank
Absolutely right! I've told my wife that I could just listen to that movie without the picture and still enjoy it immensly. I've seen it about 100 times and never get tired of it.
"What we've got here is ... failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach."
Strother Martin WAV audio file
As McCloud used to say, "Thair yuh go."
I think I see why there has been some confusion about Strother Martin's 'failure' line. Later in the movie, Paul Newman mockingly echoes that line, and here is exactly what he says (with WAV audio file appended):
"What we got here is a failure to communicate."
Paul Newman WAV audio file
And, to repeat Strother's lines and audio:
"What we've got here is ... failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach."
Strother Martin WAV audio file
Notice that Newman says "we got" instead of "we've got", and also puts an 'a' in front of "failure", which Strother did not.
That cinches it for me, anyway!
Best regards...