1994 - Renaissance Man - St. Crispin's Day Speech

During an all-night drill training exercise in the pouring rain, Private Benitez (Lillo Brancato) is ordered by his Drill Sergeant to stop with this drills and to begin reciting Shakespeare. Now this is all done out of pure spite by the Drill Sergeant because he can see that the recruits have great appreciation and respect for their Teacher Mr. Rago (Danny DeVito). Mr. Rago just happened to also be there this night, in the rain, looking down on Private Benitez and the Drill Sergeant, standing, waiting, and watching. Mr. Rago is there for another purpose altogether, but The Drill Sergeant decides to use this opportunity to discipline Private Benitez and the other recruits, with Mr. Rago looking on. The Drill Sergeant wants them to have no respect for anyone other than Him and Him alone. He is betting that Private Benitez will be unable to recite anything because he assumes both that Private Benitez is not smart enough to learn anything along the lines as Shakespeare and also that Mr. Rago doesn't care enough about his students to try to invest his own time and energy towards teaching something like Shakespeare to them. But to the Drill Sergeant's complete shock and amazement, what comes out of Private Benitez' mouth is inspiring and a true testimony to the awesome teacher and mentor that Mr. Rago really is.
St. Crispin's Day Speech comes from William Shakespeare's play Henry V, and it includes the now very famous phrase " Band of Brothers", which describes Private Benitez and the rest of Mr. Rago's students (the Double D's) very well. At the end of the very long speech, the Drill Sergeant seems humbled and almost ashamed at what he just did, but from that moment on, I think he begins to treat Mr. Rago with much more appreciation and respect.

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