Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.

Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

Network - Mad as Hell Scene - Top 50 Movie Monologues

Peter Finch, Network
Here is Peter Finch's "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" moment that won Peter Finch his posthumous Oscar.

Key moment: "So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it and stick your head out and yell, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!'"

Network - "There is no democracy" [english subtitles] - Top Fifty Monologues

Ned Beatty, Network
The "I'm mad as hell" Finch moment may have won him the Oscar, but it is this scene that is the true show-stopper in Sidney Lumet's film. Screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky was about eight billion years ahead of his time.

Key moment: "You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it!"