The Crackpots and These Women: Bartlet's Speech
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- čas přidán 5. 04. 2008
- Great Moments in ''The West Wing'': The ending to Episode 5 of Season 1 of "The West Wing," The Crackpots and These Women. Bartlet gives a speech about Big Block of Cheese Day, UFOs, and a time when our eyes looked towards the heavens, and, with outstretched fingers, we touched the face of God.
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"As we did in the time when our eyes looked to the heavens and with out stretched fingers we touched the face of God." wow that is such an awesome line and that Martin Sheen has the gravitas to pull it off.
For God's sake get the next series written and on the block will ya!
This line is an adaption of the last stanza from the poem "High Flight" by John Magee. czcams.com/video/Qx3WueJWlb/video.html
It was an allusion to the Challenger tragedy. In President Reagan’s address to the nation that evening he said “they slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God.”
It is one of, if not the, single greatest televised addresses from the Oval Office in American history.
It’s from a poem, written by a former test/fighter pilot (or about a test fighter/pilot. Not Aaron this time.
@@fifthbusiness1678 the poem is “High Flight” and I believe it was written by a British fighter pilot in WWII.
I like to think that Josh continued the Big Block of Cheese Days under Santos.
zamira rahim he’s kept a list too
@@kelvinktfong Nothing happens on the list.
And every time he gives Leo's speech
As a tribute to Leo.
TV has never reached this quality since... I've started countless series and they've never come close. This is perfection...
The Newsroom is another... Same writer!
@@jackfruitbananas is it as good as the West Wing?
Have you seen any show that comes close?
Try Mad Men
Rob French : it is very close. Sadly it didn't run long enough (3 seasons) but TOTALLY worth the effort, which is no effort at all because it too is great.
The dialogue of the West Wing is like music.
I think Bartlett argues that very point in an episode.
@@ktoliman that episode when they're getting back from church, and Mrs Bartlet calls him an oratorical snob?😄
I cannot imagine memorizing this speech and then giving it so perfectly.
The music in this moment is just sublime. This series often makes me cry at moments like this, and I think the music is a big part of it. The main theme transitioning into Ave Maria... just perfect.
When Bartlett started talking about eradicating small pox, they ever so subtly introduced into the music "Ave Maria" played by (what I think is ) an oboe. It just perfectly accents the line in that moment.
Got me wistful thinking about Josh's sister. She is a big reason why Josh is who he is today.
Ave Maria also played during Will and MacKenzie's wedding in The Newsroom. I guess Sorkin really likes that song.
This was the moment in the series that hooked me. Beautiful scene
Same
For me it was the first episode where he all but tells Mary Marsch to not let the door hit her on the way out
Martin Sheen was born to play this role. The whole 7 series were almost perfection, I loved this more than anything else on TV at the time and that said as a Brit.
I am a first generation American from Scandinavian parents. This is now my favorite series, ever, not because I believe this is how Washington works but because I wish it was. I have now watched and streamed this series more then half a dozen times and when I need hope, this is where I come.
Alwayssunshine You and me both on watching it several times over, when I need hope in this country after November 2016. I’m just about to start Season 7 again.
I'm not a religious person myself, but this speech simply is on another level.
never noticed before today but when President Bartlet speaks of two nations boldly racing to the stars...the music becomes very reminiscent of Apollo 13s music...it put a smile on my face.
The music transitioning into Ave Maria right as Bartlet begins talking about smallpox is such a beautiful reference to the moment where Josh is explaining that the real catastrophe is going to be nothing more than a vial with a deteriorating rubber cap thrown on the streets in Times Square- all while Ave Maria plays in his office.
Never noticed Charlie right next to Zoey in her first episode….and the frame of Jed, Zoey, and Charlie is great
The president got my crying in the club over here..what a beautiful scene❤❤
Anybody else get goosebumps and tear up?
Every time
Wow, a President who can convey a coherent thought. If only
He's an actor. He's not the president. He gets fed lines by great scriptwriters and doesn't come out with this stuff himself. Somebody probably should have told you that before now.
@@Dabhach1 On the other hand presidents, and so many politicians, don't have a fully staffed group of writters, media training people, and so on, right? Not being a babbling, anacoluthon abusing, incoherent speaking mess has little to do with not being an actor.
@@MalakianM2S Or , to put it another way, Trump couldn't do right in your world if he voted for motherhood and apple pie.
@@Dabhach1 Not at all, just pointing out that actors and politicians are fed lines by scripwriters. And don't get me wrong; the babbling mess is a well orchestrated style, what it lacks in clarity and articulation makes for it in gesticulation, allowing the likeminded listener to get his message; if you just listen to him and don't pay attention to the physical cues like gazes, posture and gesticulation his speeches usually make little to zero sense, but if you do it's way easier to develop an emotional connection to the point of view he's conveying.
@@Dabhach1 Golly Joe, you think I don't know Martin Sheen is an actor? You think I don't know this is an idealized version of an American television president?
Watch this clip again, and ask yourself if Donald J Trump is capable of speaking in a complete sentence in an inspiring way without insulting or belittling someone. And while you're doing that remember that this scene talks about big dreams and even mentions eradicating smallpox, while your president believes the debunked conspiracy theory that vaccines give kids autism.
What a dazzlingly brilliant choice you made in the voting booth...
Slipped The surly bounds of Earth poem. Lovely piece of work
High Flight.
RIP John Gillespie Magee, Jr
1922 - 1941
He's actually quoting a poem called "High Flight", by John Travis McGee, an RAF pilot of the Second World War.
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, --and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of --Wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air...
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark or even eagle flew --
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
It's nice that they backed it with Ava Maria
Every Baby Boomer knows those words from the TV signoff every night.
Thank you for sharing that. Beautiful.
This line from High Flight was also quoted in Ronald Reagan's address about the Challenger disaster
One of my favorites to be sure. All the more poignant that the young man who wrote it gave his life while fighting tyranny. It makes you wonder what else he would have written if he has lived.
That drop of the head from Josh at 2:42 is so poignant. He is struck by the sheer weight of emotional and academic intelligence of his boss in a way that the rest of us can only dream. Because it is a dream. This is the calibre of leader we must yearn for and work to become.
Bartlett never ceases to put a lump in my throat.
That was beautiful. The West Wing was truly a special series.
Truly, a beautiful series. Must watch it again soon. "
Here's to absent friends, and the ones who are here now."
Simply one of the greatest shows of all time. I knew even from the previews that it would be a timeless classic.
Outstanding! The background music and the speech! Just perfect television
+MrShubhy I really agree!
I wish this world was our reality....
Amen!
This speech is just so inspiring and gorgeous.
With outstretched finger we reached out and touched the face of god.
It give me chills just thinking it. This show had some great dialogue.
I love the Ave Maria. This show introduced me to it and it is just so beautiful.
I hope you had the opportunity to see the movie Fantasia. Not only is Ave Maria performed beautifully in it, but it follows another beautiful piece of art, Night on Bald Mountain, and the two accentuate each other fantastically.
I feel like we needed this speech during the Covid Crisis.
Yes
Without blame or arrogance
Sorkin is such a great writer.
I hope our nation will one day dream again.
Goosebumps. Every single time.
They used to show this in re-runs...why oh why cant they still! Even in re-runs it would still do better then half the crap they got on now..
Fantastic Speech, bloody touching. So well said.
I MISS THIS SHOW!!!!!
LoL is that Mandy? Best disappearing act Ive ever seen.
The moment I knew I was in love with this show
Touch the face of God - lovely words and also from President Reagan's Space Shuttle speech. At the end of this monologue I swear I heard "Ave Maria"
What will be he next thing that challenges us, Toby? That makes us go farther and work harder?
best show ever on the tube
GOD!! I love this......WOW!
The music playing behind him...there was a bit of Ave Maria in it..perfect.
Absolutely correct
“Oh I Have Slipped
The Surly Bonds of Earth...
Put Out My Hand
And Touched the Face of God ”
god damn i love this show
Wow!! Brilliant!!
it always makes me laugh and then it always gives me the chills
"What will be the next thing that challenges us, Toby?" "Surely we can do it again." "Here's to absent friends and the ones that are here now."
So many great lines in this speech. If only we had vision like this coming from the White House now.
and with outstretched fingers, we touched the face of god
I'm not sure there has ever been a better said, or written line, in the tv history
it was taken from a poem, apparently by Magee -- Sorkin apparently hoped the audience would not be well-read enough to notice
Ahhhh High Flight. A favorite of mine.
I have a great love of, and a vast command of, language myself and so I very much like to see it in others. Partly for the cue to the speaker or writer's intellect, partly for the sheer joy of it, and partly as a personal reminder and goad to attention and action. I like to remind myself as well that it can be used by those thus gifted for terrible manipulation and purpose as well however.....
Aaron Sorkin should have been a politician the way he can write
Peggy Noonan took that line from John Gillespie Magee Jr.'s poem 'High Flight'. You should probably brush up on your own history before pointing the finger.
liverpoollishgirl And Reagan got it from John Magee who wrote High Flight in 1941. It was such a well known phrase when Reagan said it that I didn’t think he needed to give a citation.
@liverpoollishgirl See above regarding origin of "touched the face of God"..
Didn't he write for Clinton? I am getting older and may have imagined it...
With the recent hearing and debate about UFO's in the US Congress the past days, I was reminded of the simple explanation Sorkin wrote and Martin Sheen delivered of objects that get identified.
@SGMD84 My sentiments EXACTLY!!! The first four seasons - before the departure of Aaron Sorkin were astoundingly good - then from season five on it was like watching a bad Invasion of the Body Snatchers movie!!!
"I have good words. I have the best words" - our enlightened, intellectual, esteemed leader, his Majesty, Donald. J Trump.
Frump wouldn't make a pimple on Martin's ass
You are joking, right?
Absent friends who are here now... 🎶unchained melody
I wish I could live my entire life during a Bartlet administration....
I'm an atheist, and this show never fails to give me a religious experience.
My favorite West Wing scene ever.
Netflix has them all.
this was the moment i completely fell in love with the west wing
@trooper707 that is, it is from John Gillespie Magee, killed in a mid air collision in WW2 during a training run. To be fair, Magee was a real life hero, Reagan played one in the movies.
@SatyaVenugopal Yeah, Sheen is really amazing in this role.
I can't say much more than wow, Wow!!!!!!!!
I never noticed that "Ave Maria" played in the background of that speech before.
Didn't later on in the series President Bartlet said it was bad luck to toast with water? I just noticed that in this scene.
As we've all asked...WHERE are the real politicians like this today?? Don't you think they should be out there, somewhere, ready to actually lead?
i think at this point it is up to us to become those leaders. to take the anvil away from the old system and with weight of the peoples voice behind our hammers, forge a new one. A new system for a new age
Call me a cynic, but until the people who run the system acknowledge the need for the system to change I don't think we'll be seeing it any time soon. Better that we break away entirely and begin a new system ourselves than try to convince those stuck in their ways to see the light.
@amolchan001 Andrew Shephard is the US president played by Michael Douglas in "The American President," which is another one of Aaron Sorkin's written works. Ironically, Martin Sheen played his chief of staff in the movie.
Wow!
Just the last five words, and I think you mean the Challenger disaster. Also, Peggy Noonan (Reagan's primary speechwriter, and likely the woman who wrote those words for him in the first place) was a consultant for this show, so I suspect it was a nod to her as well. Anyway, you know what they say - great writers steal from the best.
Noonan, the conservative speech-writer, ridiculed this show.
She got it from the poem entitled "High Flight", written by a RAF pilot in WWII
@jfallas The line you're thinking of from Regan's speech was "They slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of god"
This inspired me more than the current 2020
Whimp we got at the whitehouse
I AGREE WITH YOU.
The line “… touched the face of God.” a paraphrase of the last line of High Flight by John Gillespie Magee Jr.
With the follow up of "here's to absent friends" it comes across as a bit of a callback to Reagan's speech after the Challenger explosion.
it is true with everyone of them the inspiring part
Yeah, I immediately thought "Challenger?" when he said that.
The touched the face of God was used by Reagan after Challenger. Written by speechwriter Peggy Noonan, who was an advisor on the show.
Rather than the West Wing Theme. You can hear Ave Maria play.
The crackpots and these women episode.
LEO
How could you possibly remember that ten years ago there was a 188 million dollar
debt increase off a 22 billion dollar deficit?
BARTLET
[hand in chest] God, I was right?
LEO
Ah, see, that’s what I thought.
Bartlet laughs and LEO smiles. The senior staff walk in.
BARTLET
Everyone! Come in. Come on in. Hey, listen up everybody. Zoey’s down from Hanover.
I’m making chili for everyone tonight.
@alexandraicobii I AGREE WITH YOU THE END OF THE SPEECH GETS ME EVERY TIME.
High Flight. Didn't one of the Astronauts quote parts of it during the Apollo 1 Congressional investigation into the accident?
@BelieveIt1051
Our Nation's Public School System is testament to the fact that, not only is free education a right, but is our nation's greatest responsibility...
WE don't EVER want to be a country where only the rich can afford education....
..
Season 5 is a bit unfocused but Season 6 and & 7 are great
you said it right ... never had
lol Josh "yeah, right!"
0:43 - Always thought Josh saying "Yeah right!" was incredibly offensive.
Like he's saying "Your daughter's gonna be bangin' EVERYONE , sir!"
No I literally gasped out loud and said "Josh no"
I wonder what staff level you had to be to get to go to this exclusive president's chilli club
I miss the Civility and leadership of this presidency
Hey! People are sitting while the President's standing! Call Dr. Jacobs!
What song was playing at the end of this? I mean, I know....do you?
Something to think that Zoe is the first member of Jeb's family to appear in the series.
Is that "Ave Maria" @2:25?
This is one of a couple scenes (along with them in the kitchen earlier in this episode) that makes me wonder about the back story between Josh and Zoey. I don't think anyone else would have the moxie to say "Yeah, right, about her celibacy in front of her dad. Jed and Leo have been friends for a long time. Josh's dad and Leo were friends for a long time. Seems like Josh has known Zoey since she was little, sort of in a big brother role. What do you think?
Josh did not know Jed before he went to New Hampshire at the start of the campaign. He would have met Zoey, Elizabeth, and probably Ellie during that campaign
now here's the ultimate question: President Josiah Bartlet or President Andrew Shephard?
@BelieveIt1051
YES, they're investments in our future....
and although FINANCIAL investments (like stocks & bonds. your house, etc) CAN fail to pay off financially (as evidenced by the current recession...), I think they pay off in other areas instead then, through life experiences, lessons learned, etc
You have my sympathies if your degree isn't currently helping you with employment... The recession has been hard on a lot of us (me too!!) , but education is never wasted, in the long run.
What season is?
@SatyaVenugopal literaly never had
Didn't like seasons 5-7?
The writing, the delivery, the scored. My God.
Aaron Sorkin is God.
this was epic man i miss good television now u just have crap shows like keeping up with the kardashian wtf
After every time I hear Trump's press conference on T.V., I have to watch a snippet from West wing to stop my head spinning.
I need the fiction to reduce the suffering inflicted by the reality.
Music at 2:27?
Ave Maria