Quote of the day

[iambiguous]

Chess? Of course: Bobby Fischer.

So, what does it mean to go searching for him? After all, there is the man playing chess and then all that other stuff. The weird, megalomaniacal, extreme stuff. For example, was he a Nazi?

The man was…strange. But when you are very, very good at something that only a relatively few folks care about then being really, really strange can draw more attention to what you are good at at. If only [in the beginning] incidentally. But it still puts your thing in the spotlight. So, just as Arnold Schwarzenegger is said to have put bodybuilding on the map, so Bobby Fischer is said to have done the same thing for chess. Though I should point out that chess and bodybuilding are in some respects…worlds removed?

Anyway, aside from the parts that aren’t, this is a true story. Joshua Waitzkin does exist: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Waitzkin

And his story is truly a fascinating one. And though his 15 minutes have long since expired it is still enjoyable to go back to it from time to time in this fantastic movie. How fantastic? Well, it garnered a 100% fresh rating on 34 reviews at RT.

Also, aside from being a tale about a kid who was a prodigy at chess, the movie focuses the beam on other interesting facets of “the human condition” as well. Like the role that competition [and fame] plays in our modern world. What it means to be the best at something…and how one’s life can then become reduced down to staying the best. How this can reconfigure “childhood” into a world utterly alien to most of us. And then [finally] how Josh Waitzkin somehow came to straddle all this and embrace the best of both worlds.


The character of Jonathan Poe (Josh’s young rival) was based on real life young chess prodigy Jeff Sarwer. In the National Primary Championship which the climax of the film is based on, Josh and Jeff actually tied for first place, after which Josh won on tie-breaks. While Sarwer would go on to win the World Championship Under 10, he soon disappeared with his sister and father; the family was known for living a travelling lifestyle (no permanent address, etc.) In the second half of the movie where Josh’s father brings him back to the park to play with Vinnie, real-life Josh Waitzkin and Vinnie (both much older than actors playing them) are visible in the background.

Bobby Fischer denounced the movie, claiming that it was part of a “Jewish conspiracy” to sully his name and make money off him at the same time.Most of the characters who were famous chess players were actually played by themselves (Joel Benjamin, Roman Dzindzichashvili). The one exception is Asa Hoffman. The real Asa Hoffman did not like the way he was depicted in the script (he is shown as being neurotic, when the book describes him as being quite self-aware), and refused to cooperate, so he was played by Austin Pendleton.  IMDb


Searching For Bobby Fischer

Josh [narrating]: In the days before the event, the whole world wondered if Bobby Fischer would show up. Plane after plane waited on the runway, while he napped, took walks, and ate sandwiches. Henry Kissinger called and asked him to go for his country’s honor. Soon after arriving, he offended the Icelanders by calling their country inadequate because it had no bowling alleys. He complained about the TV cameras, about the lighting, about the table and chairs, and the contrast of the squares on the board. You could tell them, he said, it’s too nice of you. None of this has anything to do with chess of course. But maybe it did. If he won, he’d be the first American world champion in history. If he lost, he’d just be another patzer from Brooklyn. On the 10th move of the 21st game, he countered Spassky’s bishop to king with a pawn to rook. And it was all over. He came home an American hero. He bragged to the world he’d beat the Russians. He delivered. He can now command the same money as heavyweight prizefighters. He was invited to dinner by statesmen and kings. Then Bobby Fischer made the most original, unexpected move of all. He disappeared.

Eventually forever.

Josh: You want to go watch the men in the park?
Bonnie [his mom]: What men in the park?

Uh, the patzers?

Bonnie: Josh…it’s O.K. to beat him. You won’t hurt his feelings.

Dad, in other words.

Josh: Can we go to the dealership now?
Fred [his father]: Well, the game’s not over, yet, Josh.
Josh: Yes, it is.

Let's just say that they are not even in the same room together.

Fred: Clearly, you had me come here so I could see all this. But if you really wanted me to say no to letting my son play, you wouldn’t have bothered. You want me to think you want me to say no, but you actually… want me to say yes.
Bruce: You have no idea what I want. What is chess, do you think? Those who play for fun or not at all dismiss it as a game. The ones who devote their lives to it for the most part insist that it’s a science. It’s neither. Bobby Fischer got underneath it like no one before and found at its center, art. I spent my life trying to play like him. Most of these guys have. But we’re like forgers. We’re competent fakes. His successor wasn’t here tonight. He wasn’t here. He is asleep in his room in your house. Your son creates like Fischer. He sees like him…inside.
Fred: You can tell that by watching him play some drunks in the park?
Bruce: Yes!

I missed that part, myself.

Bruce: The first lesson went very well, I think.
Bonnie: Oh, good.
Fred: So were you two talking about chess up there?
Bruce: No, it didn’t come up.

Oh, it came up all right.

Bruce: Mate is four moves from the position in front of you. Don’t move until you figure it out in your head. Don’t look to me for a hint.
Josh: I can’t do it without moving the pieces.
Bruce: Yes, you can. Clear the lines of lint in your head, one at a time, and the king will be left standing alone, like a guy on a street corner. Here, I’ll make it easier for you.
[he sweeps the pieces onto the floor]

And the equivalent of that here, of course.

Bruce: His chess ideas are like pieces of his body he’s reluctant to give up. For instance, he simply can’t cope with being told not to bring his queen out too early in the game. Why shouldn’t he? He’s won many a game in Washington Square doing exactly that, why is this suddenly wrong? What I’m trying to teach him and what he’s learning there are two very different things. Park hustlers play tactics, not position. They rely on wild, unpredictable moves meant to intimidate their opponent. Great in a two-minute speed game for drug money, but it’ll cost Josh dearly in real games.
Fred: Well, he’s learning some new words!
Bruce: I was wondering if you could keep him from playing there so much.
Fred: Sure.
Bonnie: No. It’d kill him not to play in the park. He loves it.
Bruce: It just makes my job harder.
Bonnie: Then your job’s harder.

She'll never really come around, will she?

Bruce [on the phone]: I don’t know why I O.K.'d this anyway.
Fred: He wants to do this.
Bruce: I should’ve dissuaded him. I grew up playing in tournaments. They have nothing to do with what’s important. They’re all about winning and losing. It’s not chess.
Fred: Ah. Chess is art.
Bruce: That’s right.
Fred: No. Chess is you appreciating the beauty of Josh’s play at 60 bucks an hour.

Next up: it's not philosophy.

Josh [narrating]: Bobby Fischer studied chess books while his teachers taught other things. When they told him to put his books away, or took them away, he studied in his head. When a science report came back to him once with the words “not satisfactory” written across the top, he wrote under it just as big, “Tough.”

More to the point, he meant it.

Teacher: Mr. Waitzkin…I’m sure he’s very good at this chess thing, but that isn’t really the issue–
Fred: Chess thing?
Teacher: I’m sorry?
Fred: Chess thing.
Teacher: I’m sure he’s good at it, but I’m worried. To make an analogy–if it was like, say… oh, I don’t know… um, cards, Pinochle. For instance.
Fred: Pinochle.
Bonnie: Fred…
Fred: Bonnie…she’s comparing chess to pinochle. What am I supposed to say to that?
Bonnie: She’s trying to make a point. Maybe we should listen. Vinnie thinks he’s spending too much time at it, too.
Fred: Vinnie? Vinnie’s a drug addict. I’m supposed to listen to his opinion, too?
[he turns to the teacher]
Fred: I’m sorry, but your analogy is a very bad one. If you want to make a comparison to something, have it make sense. Compare it to math or music or art, because otherwise it belittles him and it and me.
Teacher: I don’t mean to belittle you–
Fred: Oh, but you are, you are even the way you’re looking at me.
Teacher: Mr. Waitzkin, I think perhaps–
Fred: I’ll tell you how good he is. He’s better at this than I’ve ever been at anything in my life. He’s better at this than you’ll ever be, at anything. My son has a gift. He has a gift, and when you acknowledge that, then maybe we will have something to talk about.

You tell me:   https://youtu.be/4S-9tk0vKHw?si=lXHRJvG_YMlX8Kr-

Jonathan [after beating Russian Park Player]: Trick or Treat.

Now this will come back to haunt him.

Jonathan’s teacher: He’s been my student since he was 4 years old. His parents have given him to me. Does nothing but play chess. No other interests.
Bruce: He goes to school?
Teacher: Oh, no.
Bruce: Well, that’s great. You should be proud of yourself.
Bruce: I am. You should watch him play. He reminds me of you…only he never gives up. It’s not a part of his character. He’s not going to disappoint his teacher.

Famous last words as they say.

Josh: Dad…Maybe we shouldn’t go to the state finals.
Fred: What are you talking about? Of course we’re going. That’s what we’ve worked so hard for.
Josh: If I win… Everybody will say, “Well, of course he won. He’s a top-ranked player.” But if I lose…
Fred: You won’t lose, Josh.
Josh: What if I do?
Fred: You won’t.
Josh: I’m afraid I might.
Fred: Josh…they’re afraid. They’re terrified of you.

And, sure, for the first few tournaments, they are. And then some.

Josh [to his father]: Why are you standing so far away from me?

Even Fred doesn't know at this point.

Bruce: For all his natural ability, Bobby Fischer studied harder than any player who ever lived. He woke up thinking about chess. He went to bed thinking about it. He dreamt about it. Why? Isn’t it enough to be a natural? If you don’t care about winning, it’s enough, but he wanted to win. He had to be champion, and in order to do that, he had to work, which is what we’re going to do.
Josh: O.K.
Bruce: Promise you won’t argue moves with me, no matter how much you think you’re right.
Josh: I promise.
Bruce: Everything I tell you imagine is coming from him because I know every game he ever played, so, in effect, he’s going to be teaching you, and you’ll become him…All right. Some new rules – no more speed chess. I know you like it, I know it’s fun, but it’s no good. It ruined Arbakov, and it’ll ruin you. And no more games in Washington Square. They’re patzers, and they’re teaching you all the wrong things.
Josh: They’re not patzers.
Bruce: They’re losers, and unless you want to end up just like them, you’ll stay away.
Josh: They’re not patzers.

Well, maybe a few of them...

Bruce: Do you know what the word contempt means? It’s to think of others as being beneath you, to be unworthy of being in the same room with you.
Josh: I don’t feel that.
Bruce: Well, you better start. Because if you don’t think it’s a part of winning, you’re wrong. You have to have contempt for your opponents. You have to hate them.
Josh: But I don’t.
Bruce: They hate you. They hate you, Josh.
Josh: I don’t hate them.
Bruce: Bobby Fischer held the world in contempt.
Josh: I’m not him.
Bruce: You’re telling me.

He'll come around.

Bruce: It’s white’s move.
Josh: How many points is it worth?
Brucei: It’s just an opening move.
Josh: I want to know how much it’s worth.
Bruce: Just do it for its own sake. Do it for the love of the game.
Josh: I want to know how many more points I am away to getting the certificate.
Bruce: Forget the certificate.
Josh: Why?
Bruce: I don’t know.
Josh: What do you mean?
Bruce: I don’t care. It’s. White’s. Move.
Josh: I want the certificate.
Bruce [sighs]: You want the certificate. You have to have the certificate.
[gets briefcase]
Bruce: You won’t move until you get the certificate.
[opens it]
Bruce: Fine. You win.
[gives him a copy of certificate]
Bruce: Here’s your certificate.
[Josh takes it]
Bruce: Fill it out. It doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a piece of paper. It’s a xerox of a piece of paper. Do you want another one
[gives Josh another copy]
Bruce: Do you want 10?
[gives Josh few more copies]
Bruce: Do you want 20?
[continues stacking them on chess board one-by-one]
Bruce: 30? I’ve got a whole briefcase full of them. They don’t mean anything, though.
[Bonnie enters the room]
Bonnie: Get out of my house.
Bruce [sits there grimly a moment and then collects the certificates and prepares to leave]: To put a child in a position to care about winning and not to prepare him is wrong.
Bonnie: Get out of my house.

She'll never come around.

Fred; Look, I know you don’t want to admit it, but he’s right. I mean, you wouldn’t sign your kid up for little league and then not get him a glove. You equip him.
Bonnie: It’s over.
Fred: Bonnie, he’s in a slump. This is a slump. It happens. When you get into a slump, you get out of it eventually. You don’t give up.
Bonnie: This is like baseball to you.
Fred: Hey, this is like anything. If you’re afraid to lose, you lose. If you lose, you get more afraid. He’s afraid.
Bonnie: He’s not afraid of losing. He’s afraid of losing your love. How many ball players grow up afraid of losing their fathers’ love every time they come up to the plate?
Fred: All of them!
Bonnie: He knows you disapprove of him. He knows you think he’s weak. But he’s not weak. He’s decent. And if you or Bruce or anyone else tries to beat that out of him, I swear to God I’ll take him away.

His move.

Vinnie: What’s that?
Josh: Schleimann attack.
Vinnie: Where’d you learn that from, a book?
Josh: My teacher taught me.
Vinnie: Forget it. Play like you used to–from the gut. Get your pawns rolling on the queen’s side. He didn’t teach you how to win, he taught you how not to lose. That’s nothing to be proud of. You’re playing not to lose, Josh. You’ve got to risk losing. You’ve got to risk everything. You’ve got to go to the edge of defeat. That’s where you want to be, boy - on the edge of defeat.
Josh: But…
Vinnie: But what? Play. Never play the board, always the man. You’ve gotta play the man playing the board. Play me. I’m your opponent, you have to beat me. Not the board, beat me.

A chess thing. Straight out of Fresh this time.

Bruce: Still planning on going to Chicago for the nationals?
Fred: Yeah.
Bruce: I’ve seen you both at the park.
Fred: Yeah. We’ve been hanging out there a lot.
Bruce: Think that’s a good idea?
Fred: Yes, I do. He’s playing better than ever.
Bruce: How would you know that?

Now that's a good point.

Bruce: I know you think you’re doing what’s best, but you’re setting him up for the biggest disappointment of his life. That other kid isn’t spending his afternoons riding bikes and playing Pac-Man, I can guarantee you that.
Fred: I’m doing the only thing I know how to do for Josh. I don’t know what else to do.
Bruce: Don’t let him go down there to lose. That’s what you can do for him. You’re his father. Forbid it.
Fred: I can’t do that.
Bruce: Fred…he’s going to get killed. There’s not going to be much left of him. You have no idea what a fall like this can do to you.

Unless, of course...

Josh: I can’t beat him.
Bruce: You might be right. I’m not supposed to say that, but you’d know I was lying if I said anything else.

He might be wrong too.

Vinnie: There it is!

On the other hand, let's run that by Bruce.

Bruce [on a move by Jonathan]: That was a mistake.
Fred: What was a mistake? Who made a mistake?

He's still in way over his head, as it turned out.

Bruce [aloud to himself]: Look deep, Josh. It’s there. It’s 12 moves away, but it’s there. You’ve got him. Take his pawn with your pawn. G takes f6 forking his bishop and rook. Don’t take back with your bishop. You’ll need that to guard e7. He’ll take back, either with his bishop or his knight. When he does, this is the hard part, sacrifice your rook. Capture him on f6 and get him to check. King has to take your rook. He takes f 6. Give him the knight to check e7 forking his king and his rook. He’ll move to safety. King f5. Take his rook with your knight. He’ll take back with his king, and you’ve got him. Don’t move until you see it. Don’t move until you see it. Don’t move until you see it.
[Josh studies the board]
Bruce: He’s got it!
Fred: He’s got it? How do you know he’s got it?
Bruce: He’s got it.

And then some.

Josh extends his hand for Jonathan to shake]
Jonathan: What’s that supposed to mean?
Josh: I’m offering you a draw.
Jonathan: Draw? You’ve got to be kidding.
Josh: You’ve lost. You just don’t know it.
Jonathan: I’ve lost? Look at the board.
Josh: I have. Take the draw, and we’ll share the championship. Take the draw.
Jonathan: Move.

Trick or treat, as they say.

[iambiguous]

Yet another example of just how mysterious the ways of God must be. Of course there are other ways to look at it. But you can always fall back on that if all the other ways are even less palatable. You just have to believe in God.

Besides, what else is there but the brute facticity of nature. Things just are what they are. Shit happens. And there is no sense in looking for some ultimate reason that isn’t there.

This however is only one particular way in which I imagine some of us reacting. Me for instance. I try to imagine being Rocky and am not able to. But then I recognize there are so many other terrible afflictions that are endured daily by the innocent. And Rocky’s condition only occurs in 1 in 22,000,000 births. Should we thank God for that?

And Rocky at least had lots of folks around who loved him. A whole motorcycle gang for example.

And then there was his mother. No one would ever doubt for a second how much she loved her son. But in some respects she did not exactly embody the best of all possible worlds as parents go. She was a bit of a wild woman. A full-fledged one percenter. Sex, drugs and rock n roll. She wasn’t always, well, dependable.

“Looks”. In this culture it is sometimes the center of the universe. Something Rocky Dennis no doubt could have written a book on.

Eric Stoltz spent so much time under heavy makeup that when he arrived for the post production party he had to present I.D. to security to prove that he was Eric Stoltz. Also, when he got there he had to introduce himself to some of the cast and crew because many of them didn’t know what he really looked like.

Florence “Rusty” Tullis, the mother of Rocky Dennis, passed away on November 11, 2006, at age 70 from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident on October 14.

Rusty actually had two sons. The older son, Joshua Mason, passed away in 1987 at age 32 due to complications from AIDS, which he received through a blood transfusion.

The movie ends with Rusty Dennis and Gar visiting Rocky’s grave. In real life, however, Rocky Dennis was not buried. His mother donated Rocky’s body to the UCLA Medical Center for medical study. IMDb


Mask

Doctor [new to Rocky’s case]: As you know plastic surgery is not an option until the skull stops thickening, and there’s no evidence that it will. In fact the cranium is growing at such an accelerated rate, creating pressure on the spinal cord to such an extent that the, uh, prognosis is not good. We, uh, feel that life expectancy is…
Rusty and Rocky [chime in together]: …three to six months.

That spiel started 12 years ago

Rusty: You’re not really going to give us that life expectancy number again, are you? You know for 12 years now I’ve been listening to you guys bullshit me. First you told me he was gonna be retarded, then you told me he was gonna be blind AND deaf. Then you told me he would never do things that regular kids do. If I’d dug his grave every time one of you geniuses told me he was gonna die, I’d be eating fuckin’ chop suey in China by now!

On the other hand, one in 22,000,000 births?

Rusty [to students gawking at her son’s face]: What’s the matter, never seen anyone from the planet Vultron before?

Apparently not.

Rocky [smashing plates]: I hate you going out every night and coming home wasted all the time!
Rusty: It’s none of your goddamn business!
Rocky: You’re my mother!
Rusty: Well, you’re not my warden!

It's complicated.

Carnie [to Ben]: You can ride, kid, but I cannot take the blame for anything that happens to the retard.
Gar: Then I cannot take the blame for anything I do to you!
[Carnie freezes as Gar glares at him]
Gar [in a barely controlled voice]: Take…the…tickets.

Nobody fucks with Rocky.

[after Rusty hires Lorrie to fuck Rocky]
Rocky: Mom, do I look like a freak to you?
Rusty: No.
Rocky: You’ve always been real big on telling me my face doesn’t matter, but it does, doesn’t it? You think that I can’t even get a girl to like me unless you pay for her!
Rusty: I’m sorry. Maybe what I did was wrong. But it had nothing to do with your face.
Rocky: Bullshit, Mom!p.

And then some.

Gar: You know, Rock, your mom sometimes does the wrong things, but for the right reasons.

You buying that?

Rocky: What's his problem, Ma?
Rusty: Nothing. He's just another asshole. You let that negative dreck in and it'll put ya away. You can be a chickenshit and die or be a mensch and keep makin' yourself well.

Too close to call on some days.

Rocky Dennis: You just want to get loaded and laid!
[Rusty slaps him with her hand]

Confirming it basically.

[after an unpleasant visit with the grandparents, Rusty is about to take a lot of drugs]
Gar [gets a beer from fridge]: If you get wasted off that crap, I’m not gonna stay here and babysit you.
Rusty [scoffs]: You must be confusing me for someone who gives a shit.
Gar: Must be.
Rusty [looks at the drugs in her hand and sighs sadly]: You know, this just isn’t going to work. You’re telling me to do things and I’m just gonna end up hating you again.
Gar: Oh come on. You and your old man have been going through this shit for the longest time I can remember. Got to again, didn’t he? Got you ready for another one of those 2-hour screamers. Gets you to the place where I’m gonna put you through the goddamned wall.
Rusty [snaps back]: Oh fine. Then put me through the goddamned wall. Why should you be any different than any man I’ve known before.
[Gar slams beer bottle down on table and leaves]

Not exactly the mother of the year. But no one doubts her love for Rocky.

Rusty [her final line, after finding that Rocky has passed away in his sleep]: …now you can go anywhere you want, baby.

Katmandu?.

[iambiguous]

Dope dealer looking for a way out of the business. And, who knows, maybe even something in the way of “redemption”. Always easier said than done of course.

And let’s face it, most “day jobs” don’t pay nearly as well. Or offer up as much adrenaline pumping excitement. It always seems to come down [one way or another] to trade-offs.

Like the one between being straight and having to endure all the shit that comes your way just in the course of living your life without being high. Some can handle it and some can’t. But who among us can really know when it’s okay to call it quits and jump off the wagon. Our own trials and tribulations are never theirs. And vice versa.

Anyway, there are two kinds of drug dealers. Those who use and those who don’t. But the job carries so many potential risks that the temptation to use is always right around the corner. So this one plays it safe: He sees a psychic. In fact you wonder: What the fuck is the point of dumping all of this astrology bullshit into the plot? Maybe something about just how little control we have over our lives in a “fated” world?

On the other hand, this is a “white dope for white people” world. They have a small operation but it involves the sort of “clientele” that makes the risk far easier to calibrate. It’s not the sort of sordid stuff that sordid dope dealers often encounter out on the sordid streets.

And then in the midst of it all women are being knocked off left and right in some sort of “upscale” drug related mystery.

It’s really not all that easy fitting the pieces here into a coherent “message”. But you’re welcome to try.

When questioned about what the film’s title meant, Willem Dafoe joked that the other two films in Schrader’s trilogy of loners were titled after the key characters occupations. He jokingly said Schrader thought no one would watch a film if it was just called “Drug Dealer”. IMDb



Light Sleeper

John [voiceover]: Labor Day weekend. Some time for a garbage strike. Everybody is crazy to stock up. They want to score at the last minute and they want it now. Never fails. The faces look alike. You gotta use memory tricks: each has some peculiarity. lt keeps you sharp. A D. D. told me, when a drug dealer starts writing a diary he should quit. l started writing after that. Not every night. Now and then. Fill up one book, throw it out, start another.

If only all the way to the grave.

John [voiceover]: ‘Labor Day’'. ‘‘Union Movement’’. There’s a contradiction in terms.

Want me to explain that to you?

John [to Jealous]: We pay you more, you put up with more. White drugs for white people. Twice the price, twice the safety.

Logical enough for you?

Robert [to John]: Look, we don’t make the laws. 19 is carrying, 20 is dealing. Let him be stupid!

Same with stealing as it turns out.

Theological cokehead: Where was l? All right, so if there’s no God, then how can we conceive of him? l mean, the idea of God presupposes the existence of God. That is the Ontological Argument. That’s Anselm. Listen, this is the good part. lf the idea of God is implanted by God, the ‘‘Sensus Divinitatus’’, the sense of the divine, you know? Then what is the role of human thought? Not faith. Thought.
John [voiceover]: Everybody wants to talk. It’s like a compulsion. My philosophy is: You got nothing to say? Don’t say it. They figure, you can tell a D.D. anything. Things they’d never tell anyone else. Of course they’re stoned to start.
Cokehead: Do you think that all of our thoughts are on a prerecorded tape and planted in our brain at birth? I do.

Doped enough for you?

John: lt’s not like we’re strangers, after all. We were married.
Marrianne: We were not!
John: There was a ceremony.
Marianne: He wasn’t even a minister. He was an astrologer!

That ever happen to you?

John: I miss you.
Marianne: You tried to kill me. You took 10 years off my life, one way or another. I couldn’t hate my mother. I was too busy hating you.
John: I thought I was just killing myself.

Happens all the time, let's say.

Marianne: That’s quite an erection!
John: I never had anything like it stoned.
Marianne: It’s weird. I’m dripping.
John: Let’s disappear.

And the equivalent of that here?

Ann: The UN has some conference. The holiday is over. Peacemakers all over the place trying to score. UN security at every hotel. Even l have been out. Okay? Look, this is where our business is: Europe, Asia, not the fucking streets! But you wouldn’t know crack from Cracker Jacks.
John: Where’s Robert?
Ann: He’s out busting his ass doing your job!
John: lt was a confusion.
Ann: Well, get confused on your day off!
John: And when is that?
Ann: Don’t get wise with me! What do you want me to do? Suck your dick? Fine! You want a raise? Forget it!

Too close to all? Nope, not when it's Susan Sarandon. 

John [voiceover]: I feel my life turning. All it needed was direction. You drift from day to day, years go by. Then a change comes. l am able to change. l can be a good person. What a strange thing to happen halfway through your life. What luck.

Next up: getting direction here.

Cop: Who the fuck gives a shit about you? I could grind you right here. In fact, maybe I will. What do you think about that? Nobody would give a flying fuck. I look like narcotics? I’m homicide, investigating the murder in the park.
John: I don’t read the papers.
Cop: Downtown’s interested how a 19-year-old student with fancy parents got a quarter of uncut coke on her when she was found murdered. This ain’t the type of girl we find cruising Alphabet City to score. Know what I mean? Somebody sold her. Somebody upscale. You’re classy. So I hear. And maybe somebody knows something we need to know. You understand? Delivery boy! Here’s my card. You ask around. Take a week or so. Call me. Tell me something I don’t already know. lt’s either that, leave town, or get your ass busted day in, day out. Got it? Loser…

On the other hand...

Ann [to John]: Strange how things work.

Stranger still [of course] how they ought to work.

[iambiguous]

Identity

“What we know matters but who we are matters more.” Brené Brown

Except when it's the other way around.

“I know the feelings of my heart, and I know men. I am not made like any of those I have seen; I venture to believe that I am not made like any of those who are in existence. If I am not better, at least I am different. Whether Nature has acted rightly or wrongly in destroying the mould in which she cast me, can only be decided after I have been read.” Jean Jacques Rousseau

That makes at least two of us then.

“One of the greatest tragedies in life is to lose your own sense of self and accept the version of you that is expected by everyone else.” K.L. Toth

Want to know a greater one?

“Some people seem to fade away but then when they are truly gone, it's like they didn't fade away at all.”
Bob Dylan

You tell me.

“If you understood everything I said, you’d be me” Miles Davis

Of course, you know my own take on that.

“You should never make fun of something that a person can't change about themselves.” Phil Lester

What, even virtually?

[iambiguous]

For most of us the “panic room” is the nearest closet. Or maybe we jump out of the window or hide under the bed. But if you are affluent enough you can afford the real thing. In other words, you can afford to purchase a home in which there is a “formal dining room”. Not to confused with the “casual dining room”. Oh, and a “working elevator”. You know, to get to the bedrooms. And six “working fireplaces”.

Of course even for the filthy rich there is still the law of unintended consequences to contend with. And Murphy’s Law. After all, the thugs aren’t in the house an hour before they are able to pump propane gas into the panic room.

And the one thing you don’t want to do when you need to be inside the panic room is to leave something that you need in order to, say, survive outside the panic room. Vital medications for example. Also, it’s best not to keep the one thing that the crooks are after in the panic room with you. Only here admittedly they don’t even know that it is in there!

And if the panic room has a separate phone line to the cops, it might be a good idea first to actually hook the damn thing up.

In other words, we are dealing here with people: the human all too human kind.

Then there’s gang that invades the house. The kind where there is as much contention within their own ranks as there is between them and the folks whose home they are invading.
What could possibly go wrong?

According to David Fincher, Kristen Stewart grew more than three inches during filming of this project. She was smaller than Jodie Foster when the production started and towered over her when the final shots were done.

Nicole Kidman replacement Jodie Foster substantially altered the tone of the film. Beforehand director David Fincher saw his heroine as a glacial Hitchcock/Grace Kelly role model. With Foster in the lead, however, the part instantly became much grittier, more political.

David Fincher agreed that the film’s production was an arduous one, remarking it as a “logistical nightmare.” The lighting issue during the filming process was particularly difficult due to the complexity of the security cameras used in the mansion that send surveillance images to the television in the panic room. IMDB


Panic Room

Meg: That’s strange.
Evan: What?
Meg: Is this room smaller than it should be?
Evan: You’re the first person to notice.
[he pushes on a portion of the wall…a door opens]
Evan: No one from our office had the slightest idea. It’s called a panic room. A safe room. A castle keep in medieval times. They’re in vogue in high-end construction. One can’t be too careful about home invasion.

"The US experiences approximately 1.5 million home invasions yearly, making it a common yet serious threat to residential security." 

Lydia [in the panic room]: This is perfect. The alarm goes off in the middle of the night. What will you do? Call the police and wait till Tuesday? Traipse downstairs in your underthings to check it out? I think not.
Evan: Concrete walls. Buried phone line, not connected to the house’s main line. Call the police, nobody can cut you off. You have your own ventilation system. A bank of surveillance monitors that covers nearly every corner of the house.
Meg: This whole thing makes me nervous.
Lydia: Why?
Meg: Ever read any Poe?

Even watched. any Dateline episodes?

Meg: What’s to keep somebody from prying open the door?
Evan: Steel. Thick steel. Very thick steel. Full battery backup, so even if the power’s out it’s still functional.

What could possibly go wrong? Let's find out.

Junior: This is still a good plan. Fuck that! This is a great plan. It’s just got a slight twist.
Burnham: Yeah. Felony kidnapping. Thirty years.

You know, if they get caught.

Meg [on loudspeaker]: We’re not coming out, and we’re not letting you in! Get out of my house!
Sarah: Say fuck!
Meg: You fuck!
Sarah: Mom! “Get the fuck out of my house”!
Meg: Get the FUCK out of my house!

Of course, that makes all the difference in the world. Just notv this time.

Junior: How do we get into that room?
[Burnham laughs]
Junior: Hey! What is funny about this? Is this shit funny to you?
Burnham: Well, I spent the last 12 years of my life building these rooms specifically to keep out people like us.

Irony, let's call it.…

Burnham [to Raoul and Junior]: Building panic rooms. This is what I do for a living; if some idiot with a sledgehammer could break in, do you really think I’d still have a job?

Next up: where there's a will?

[Raoul pumps propane gas into the panic room]
Junior: Worst that’s gonna happen is…is they’ll pass out. They’ll have a hang over.
Burnham: How are we gonna get in there if they pass out, Junior?
Junior [pauses]: Okay, cut it back a little.

Playing it by ear, as it were.

Raoul: Don’t you take no tone with me, jerkwad, 'cause I’ll shove it up your ass and snap it off.Junior: You know what? You’re a bus driver, “Raoul”! You live in Flatbush! So don’t start spouting some Elmore Leonard bullshit you just heard because I saw that movie too.

Any of that Elmore Leonard bullshit spotted here?[/b]

Junior [rummaging through the medicine cabinet]: How do you live in New York and not have a single percocet?!

So, is that actually a good point?

Burnham: He’s telling the truth.
Raoul: Yeah, he’s telling the truth…you know how I know? Cause when I do this…
[Raoul points the gun at Burnham]
Raoul: …people don’t lie.

That'll do it.  Especially in the movies.

Burnham: Do you need this?
[Sarah nods yes]
Burnham: Can you do it yourself?
[Sarah nods no]
Burnham: What happens if you don’t get it?
Sarah [weak whispering]: Coma. Die.

God's will, let's say.

Raoul: This kid has seen my face.
Burnham: Yeah, well, that’s not my problem.
Raoul: Yeah it is. You’re here with me. You’re on the hook too.
Raoul [looking at Sarah]: Do one. Same price for the rest.
Burnham: Stay the fuck away from me.

What a team!

[Meg smashes the house’s security cameras with a sledgehammer]
Raoul: Why the hell didn’t we do that?

So, what would you do for  $22 million in unregistered bearer bonds?

[iambiguous]

This is a set up. A political narrative disguised as something more analogous to a…universal truth?

About dancing!

A small town steeped in evangelical Christianity. Those who run the town have decided that dancing [along with rock and roll and all the usual culprits] is the Devil’s work. So it is banned. It is literally against the law to dance!

What could possibly be more reactionary?

And yet let’s face it: we all have our own renditions of this. There are behaviors that we abhor [for any number of personal/political reasons] and we sure as shit want there to be a law against those engaging in them.

But dancing?

Well, there is all manner of dancing. Dirty dancing for example. Are there no lines at all to be drawn when it is being engaged publically?

Here if you are of a particular political persuasion the good guys and the bad guys are easily recognized. After all, they are drawn like cartoons. But don’t think choices like this can’t be considerably more complex and ambiguous. In other words, with arguments one hell of a lot more sophisticated than those of Reverend Moore.

And we are talking about sex here, aren’t we? I mean, come on. And how many contradictory political narratives are there colliding with respect to this particular human behavior?

Loosely based on events that took place in the small, rural, and extremely religious farming town of Elmore City, Oklahoma in 1978. Dancing had been banned for nearly 90 years until a group of high school teenagers challenged it.

With the Principal’s knowledge, 24-year-old Kevin Bacon attended the Payson Utah High School as “Ren McCormack”, a transfer student from Philadelphia to get into his role. With his narrow tie and new-wave haircut, he was treated pretty much like in the film.

The scenes where Chris Penn’s character had to learn how to dance were added to the script because Penn really could not dance.

Madonna auditioned for the role of Ariel Moore. IMDb


Footloose]

Reverend Moore: If our Lord wasn’t testing us, how would you account for the proliferation, these days, of this obscene rock and roll music, with its gospel of easy sexuality and relaxed morality?

Next up: God tests us with gangster rap.

Mr. Gurntz: He was trying to teach that book down at the school.
Mrs. Allyson: Slaughterhouse-Five, isn’t that an awful name?
Ren: Yeah it’s a great book…Slaughterhouse-Five, it’s a classic.
Mr. Gurntz: Do you read much?
Mrs. Allyson: Maybe in another town, it’s a classic.
Ren: In any town.
Mr. Gurntz: Tom Sawyer is a classic!

How about here...a classic? Or is this always about politics?

Willard: Well, you won’t get any of that here.
Ren: What’s that?
Willard: Dancing. There’s no dancing, Ren.
Ren: Why?
Willard: It’s illegal.
Ren: Jump back!

Next up: "jump back!" here.

Willard: It started when kids got killed in a car wreck. Whole town went bananas, blaming it on the music, liquor and dancing. Now they’re just convinced it’s all a sin.
Ren: Who’s convinced?
Student: Whole damn town.

And only one man -- Ren -- can turn it all around.

Ren: You really can’t dance here, man? I can’t believe that.
Willard: It’s true. This isn’t the only place either. You’d be surprised. Places upstate you can’t dance. Places in Kansas and Arkansas. All over the place. My cousin lives in Montana, and ya can’t dance where she lives either.

Next up: Trump bans dancing,

Ariel: What’s the music?
Reverend Moore: I think it’s Haydn, chamber pieces.
Ariel: And that kind of music’s okay?
Reverend Moore: It’s uplifting. It doesn’t confuse people’s minds and bodies.

So, maybe that explains me, right?

Factory boss [to Ren]: Boy, a lot of folks are gonna give you problems right off…because you’re an outsider. You’re dangerous. They’re always gonna worry about ya. And this is only one little corner of the world.

Dangerous outsiders? Here? Let's name names. One in particular, of course.

Reverend Moore: I was down in Denver last year for about a week at a Bible convention. And the whole time I was there, people would come up and ask me, ‘‘Reverend, how can you live in such a small town… so far away from the hustle and bustle of the 20th century?’’ I’d say to them, ‘‘You’d never ask me that if you could just once, just for one minute experience the feeling of family that comes from knowing that all of our lives are tied up with each of us. That we feel all the same joys the same sorrows, and that we care. Each and every one of us cares for the other.’’

Of course, that's not all bullshit. Just enough of it.

Ariel: 'Bout five years ago these kids were playing highway tag and they were drunk. One car hits the other one, and they both go over the bridge. Dead. That’s when they started passing laws against booze against dancing and drinking. I don’t know. My father had a field day.
Ren: Your father? Why?
Ariel: My older brother was one who got killed.

That'll do it.

Ren [addressing the town council, reading from his notes in the Bible]: From the oldest of times, people danced for a number of reasons. They danced in prayer…or so that their crops would be plentiful…or so their hunt would be good. And they danced to stay physically fit and show their community spirit. And they danced to celebrate. And that is the dancing we’re talking about. Aren’t we told in Psalm 149 “Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song. Let them praise His name in the dance”? And it was King David - King David, who we read about in Samuel - and what did David do? What did David do?
[paging frantically through Bible]
Ren: What did David do?
[audience laughs]
Ren: David danced before the Lord with all his might…leaping and dancing before the Lord.
[smacks table in front of Reverend Moore]
Ren: Leaping and dancing!
[stands up straight]
Ren: Ecclesiastes assures us that there is a time for every purpose under heaven. A time to laugh and a time to weep. A time to mourn and there is a time to dance. And there was a time for this law, but not anymore. See, this is our time to dance. It is our way of celebrating life. It’s the way it was in the beginning. It’s the way it’s always been. It’s the way it should be now.

Amen?

[iambiguous]

Abortion

“Since Pussy never had thought, nor would she think, that women shouldn't have abortions, she had to come to terms with the realization that to be human, and woman, includes the possibility and even the act of murder.” Kathy Acker

That's my point too. One of them.

“I could feel the baby being torn from my insides. It was really painful....Three-quarters of the way through the operation I sat up....In the cylinder I saw the bits and pieces of my little child floating in a pool of blood. I screamed and jumped up off the table....I just couldn't stop throwing up....” Randy Alcorn

Like the other side doesn't have their own horror stories.

“Governments who manipulate population growth have two choices: making maternity pleasant, or making it inescapable.” Kate Millett

Let's think up a third.

“If the Constitution doesn’t say anything about a woman’s right to abortion, I’m damn sure it doesn’t say anything about the rights of the unborn.” Israel Morrow

Yeah, what about that?

“Many of those who accuse the Christian God of being a 'genocidal god' because of the Flood, support the genocidal killing of millions of children in their mother’s wombs, which is a double standard fallacy!” Ken Ham

You know, if God even exists.

“A healthy young man can produce in a week or two enough spermatozoa to double the human population of the Earth. So is masturbation mass murder? How about nocturnal emissions or just plain sex? When the unfertilized egg is expelled each month, has someone died? Should we mourn all those spontaneous miscarriages?” Carl Sagan

Woke?

[popeye1945]

Biology is the measure and the meaning of all things.

[henry quirk]

Le corp humaine pourrait bien n’être qu’une apparance. Il cache notre réalité, il s’épaissit sur notre lumiére ou sur notre ombre.

The human body may well be only an appearance. It hides our reality, it thickens over our light or our shadow.

-A. Jacobi

[promethean75]

"Because we have for millenia made moral, aesthetic, religious demands on the world, looked upon it with blind desire, passion or fear, and abandoned ourselves to the bad habits of illogical thinking, this world has gradually become so marvelously variegated, frightful, meaningful, soulful, it has acquired color - but we have been the colorists: it is the human intellect that has made appearances appear and transported its erroneous basic conceptions into things."

- Freedrich Neecha

[promethean75]

"The reason why tariffs are okay is because 10 year old girls don't have to be able to afford five dolls... they can have just two or three and be fine. Now excuse me i have to attend a board meeting at one of my five hotels."

- Donald J. Trump, President of the United States of America

[iambiguous]

City Island is a real place. It’s in the Bronx. As in New York City. But when you think of the Bronx [or, rather, when I think of the Bronx] you don’t think of places like this. Instead, you think of places like the urban hellhole depicted by Tom Wolfe in Bonfires of the Vanities. The place Sherman McCoy and Maria Rushkin stumbled into [in the film] after missing the exit ramp to Manhattan.

But then I’ve only ever been in Manhattan myself so what do I know.

This is a very small island. A “fishing village”. That’s right, in the Bronx.

Okay...pause...let’s start with one particularly dysfunctional family…

All the best family movies do, of course. After all, what sort of material can be gleaned from a fully functioning one?

They all sort of love each other. Just as they all sort of know jack-shit about each other. In part it’s the culture. There are so many different directions in which to go in this “modern world” what are the odds that the folks in your family will pick the same ones?

Anyway, sit in on one “conversation” at the dinner table and you wonder how the hell they ever manage at all. You know, not to kill each other.

For example, note the look on Tony’s face the first time he sits down at the dinner table with them.

And they all have, well, secrets.


City Island

Vince [voiceover]: You asked me about my worst secret…my most personal secret. The secret of all my secrets. Well, like most of us…I guess I have a few.

Want to hear mine?

Michael: What were all those pauses for?
Actor: What were they? What do you mean?
Michael: You said 2 lines and I counted 4 pauses in 2 lines. Why do you need a pause before you say, “what”?
Actor: Oh, he’s stalling for time.
Michael: Why? I mean does he love her or does he not love her?
Actor: He does love her.
Michael: So what the hell do you need to pause for? Listen. We have the Collar Moratorium on pauses. Five years of my life is gone out the window listening to pauses in this room. I can’t do it anymore. So we gotta cut out the pauses. In 2000 years of theatre history you’ll never find anybody pausing. The only pause - they either talk or they listen.

Next up: the occasional pause that refreshes. Or so they tell you.

Tony: Can I ask you, like, why I’m chained to a Ford?
Vince: I’m gonna unchain you, Tony, but first I gotta tell you something. You see this house here? That’s my home. My grandfather built this home and I share it with my family.
Tony: Oh, you got them chained up in the house too?
Vince: You’re gonna get real nice food and a real nice place to live for the first time in 3 years, so you better behave yourself.
Tony: And all this because you knew my bitch mother?
Vince: Well, I gotta admit, you know, Nan could be difficult sometimes. But…she was also…
Tony: A drunk and a whore.
Vince: Why do you call her that?
Tony: She used to punish me for not boosting cases of vodka from the liquor store I worked at, by screwing my friends. Which base does ‘drunk’ and ‘whore’ not cover?
Vince: Don’t you have any fond memories of her?
Tony: Well, at least she was around. My father left before I was born.
Vince [pauses]: What do you know about him?
Tony: He’s dead.
Vince: That’s too bad.
Tony: Eh, the only thing that’s too bad, is I didn’t get a chance to visit his deathbed and dance in his ugly face for leaving me with that bitch.
Vince: Okay, let’s go.

Guess who Vince is?

Vince: Shit, my wife.
Tony: Is that what you call her? “Shit, my wife.”
Vince [putting out his cigarette]: I don’t smoke.
Tony: Yeah, I can tell.

Next up: pausing between puffs.

Joyce [Mom]: Anybody home?
Vince Jr.: I’m here. So is dad. He’s out back, handcuffed to some biker dude.

Didn't surprise me.

Joyce [lighting cigarette]: My husband thinks I quit.Tony: One good thing about the joint, they don’t let you smoke anymore so…I quit inside.
Joyce: Being in prison and not being able to smoke? That’s like being in jail!

Let's run this by...you know.

Vince: But to me, it was all bullshit.
Molly: What do you mean?
Vince: Well, because I pretended as though I, you know, that’s the way I talk to the guys inside. But actually that’s the way my son, Tony, talks to the guys inside.
Molly: No, that’s so much better. You co-pted someone else’s experience and filtered it into your own personality…in order to create a character. That’s not bullshit, Vincent. That’s acting.
Vince: That’s acting? You’re allowed to do that?

Let's run this by...you know.

Joyce [to Tony]: This is gonna be his new career, building things. He gets discouraged when things take too long. Like more than an hour. And him and his poker games. Does he really think I buy that crap?

Buying and selling crap here. Between pauses.

Molly: My three secrets.
Vince: They’re beautiful.
Molly: Thank you.
Vince: Where are they?
Molly: With my husband in Schenectady.
Vince: What are they doing up there?
Molly: The real question is, what am I doing down here?

Want me to tell you?

Vivian: I’m not a hooker!Tony: Showing your tits for money, what’s that called, ‘librarian’?!

Good point?

Vince Jr.: Well, mom, you were right. Dad did have sex with Tony’s mom.

I missed that.

[iambiguous]

Although some will lump The Deer Hunter in with all the other “Vietnam war movies”, that particular conflict itself really has very little at all to do with the film. The scenes involving the war were hardly what one would call typical and they are known mostly for generating lots of complaints [about racism] from the Vietnamese themselves regarding how they were portrayed in the film.

No, instead this is much more a film about an American working class culture that generates personalities like this that then go out into the world [war or no war] and generate the sort of consequences we see unfolding up on the screen. That and the way in which any war can change the men lucky enough to survive it. If you can call the lives of the men here the “lucky” ones.

And then [somehow] this is all linked to deer hunting…and then [later] to Russian roulette.

And the betting. As in 13 Tzameti, men here bet on those playing Russian roulette. Who will live and who will die. But since there is only blind luck involved in “playing” it, what exactly are they betting on? Sure, gambling on something that involves skill or training or shrewd calculation makes sense. But here it is nothing but fortuity. So it must be a metaphor for something more…profound?

In fact, the closest the film does come to examining the Vietnam war in a political context is in noting how Michael, Steven and Nick seem eager to go over there and do their bit to serve their country: to preserve the noble cause of human freedom. Not that this argument is completely baseless. It is merely the manner in which decisions like this are made largely by rote. They are men. They are Americans. American men are patriotic. And America stands for freedom around the globe.

It’s as simple as that. Just ask them.

In other words, what military industrial complex? what war economy? what government lies?

The scene where Savage is yelling, “Michael, there’s rats in here, Michael” as he is stuck in the river is actually Savage yelling at the director Michael Cimino because of his fear of rats which were infesting the river area. He was yelling for the director to pull him out of the water because of the rats…it looked real and they kept it in.

Director Michael Cimino convinced Christopher Walken to spit in Michael’s face. When Walken actually did it, Robert De Niro was completely shocked, as evidenced by his reaction. In fact, De Niro was so furious about it he nearly left the set. Cimino later said of Walken, “He’s got courage!”

During some of the Russian Roulette scenes, a live round was put into the gun to heighten the actors’ tension. This was Robert De Niro’s suggestion. It was checked, however, to make sure the bullet was not in the chamber before the trigger was pulled.

The slapping in the Russian roulette sequences was 100% authentic. The actors grew very agitated by the constant slapping, which, naturally, added to the realism of the scenes.

Robert De Niro recently explained that the scene where Michael visits Steve in the hospital for the first time was the most emotional scene that he was ever involved with. He broke down in tears while discussing the scene in AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Robert De Niro (2003).

The deaths of approximately twenty-eight people who died playing Russian roulette were reported as having been influenced by scenes in the movie.  IMDb


The Deer Hunter

Mike: I’ll tell ya one thing. If I found out my life had to end up in the mountains, I’d be all right. But it has to be in your mind.
Nick: What? One shot?
Mike: Two is pussy.
Nick: I don’t think about one shot that much anymore, Mike.
Mike: You have to think about one shot. One shot is what it’s all about. A deer has to be taken with one shot. I try to tell people that. They don’t listen.

Huh? Forget about it. Only a real man would understand.

Steve [at the bar]: It’s a Green Beret! Hey! Whoo!
Mike: No kidding. Jerry! Jerry, give the man a drink. Hey! Give him a drink! Sir! Sir!
[the Green Beret doesn’t respond…just stares out in space]
Mike: I wanna talk to the man. I wanna talk to the man. We’re goin’ over there. Sir, Mike Vronsky. We’re goin’ airborne, sir. What’s it like?
Nick: I hope they send us where the bullets are flyin’.
Mike: That’s right. Where the fighting’s the worst.
Green Beret [raising his glass as though to toast the war]: Fuck it.
Mike: Fuck it? What did he say?
Nick: Fuck it.
Mike: Fuck it. That’s what I thought. W-- Well, what’s it like over there? Can you tell us anything?
Green Beret: Fuck it.

That would be like asking me, as I recall.

Banner across the hall: SERVING GOD AND COUNTRY PROUDLY

Fuck it?

Nick: Think we’ll ever come back ?
Mike: From Nam? Yeah.
Nick: You know something? The whole thing, it’s right here. I love this fuckin’ place. I know that sounds crazy. If anything happens, Mike, don’t leave me over there. You got-- You gotta-- Just don’t leave me. You gotta promise me that, Mike. Hey. No, man, you got–you gotta-- You gotta promise definitely.
Mike: You got it, pal.

Of course, we know how that turned out.

Mike: Nicky, listen. It’s up to us now. It’s me and you.
Nick: What about Steven?
Mike: Forget him. He ain’t gonna make it.
Nick: Who do you think you are? God?
Mike: Look at him. He’s in a daze. He ain’t comin’ out. He’s in a dream.
Nick: Mike, what are you saying?
Mike: I’m saying forget him. Get it through your head - or you and me are both gone too.

Fast forward to Mike visiting Steven in the hospital... 

Mike: We gotta play with more bullets.Nick: What?
Mike: More bullets…
[a gunshot]
Mike: I gotta get more bullets in the gun.
Nick: What?
Mike: We gotta play with more bullets.
Nick: More bullets in the gun?
Mike: More bullets in the gun.
Nick: How many more bullets?
Mike: Three. That means we gotta play each other.
Nick: More bullets against each other?
Mike: We gotta do it!
Nick: What? Are you Crazy?
Mike: Nicky, it’s the only way. I’ll pick the moment. The game goes until I move. When I start shootin’, go for the nearest guard, get his gun and zap the fucker!

And [being scripted] it works!

Nick [looking at a pile of corpses]: People inside doing it for money?
Frenchman: Sometimes a great deal of money. I cannot play this kind of game myself. But I’m always–how do you say–looking out for those things quite different, quite rare. You saw this before?
Nick: Up north.
Frenchman: Oh, yes. Of course.
Nick: Gotta go.
Frenchman: But you must come in. I insist. Of what is there to be afraid of after this war? War is a joke. A silly thing.
Nick: I’m going home, ace!
Frenchman: Naturellement I pay my players…cash, American.
Nick: You got the wrong guy, ace.
Frenchman: But you must come in. I insist…I can make you very, very rich.

Or, getting back to that pile of corpses, very, very dead.

Stan: Wait, wait! To Nick and Steve!
John :To Nick and Steve.
Mike: Nick and Steve.
John: You look great.
Mike: How’s Angela ?
John [glum]: Not so good, Mike. Worse since she talked to him.
Mike: Talked to who?
John: Steven.
Mike: She talked to Steve? I didn’t know he was back.
Stan: You didn’t know he’s back? Oh, Jesus.
Mike: No, I didn’t know. Is he back?
John: You-- You-- You didn’t–
Mike: Where is he? Where is he? Where is he?
John: I don’t know.
Mike: Just answer me. Where is he? Just tell me where he is?
John: I don’t know where he is, Mike. Angela wouldn’t tell us.
Mike: What do you mean?
John: She wouldn’t talk to anybody!

Fast forward to, well, you know.

Mike [on the phone[: Steve? Stevie?
Steve: Hey, I gotta go, Mike. I gotta go. Curfew, man.

"Just leave me the fuck alone.", I'm thinking.

Steve: Come here with me for a minute. It’s something I gotta show you. Yeah. Yeah. Angela, she keeps sending me socks. But it’s not socks I gotta show you, Mike.
[he opens the sock drawer and it’s stuffed with 100 dollar bills]
Steve: This-- This comes every month from Saigon. I don’t understand. I don’t understand. That place is gonna fall any day now.
Mike: It’s Nicky, Steve.

Just the way he said gave me goosebumps. 

Steve: Where’s a guy like Nick get money like this?
Mike: I don’t know. Cards, maybe.

Nope. But that's as far as it goes.

Mike: I came 12,000 miles back here to get you…What’s the matter with you? Don’t you recognize me? Nicky, I love you, you’re my friend.
[Nick spits in his face]

As he was directed to. 

[Nick pulls the trigger on a gun, clicking on an empty chamber]
Mike: What are you doing? We don’t have much time, Nick. Is this what you want? Is this what you want? I love you, Nick.
[Michael pulls the trigger, clicking on an empty chamber]
Mike: Come on, Nicky, come home. Just come home. Home. Talk to me.
[he looks at Nick’s track marks]
Mike: What did you do to your arms? Do you remember the trees? Do you remember all the different ways of the trees? Do you remember that? Do you remember? Huh? The mountains? Do you remember all that?
Nick [smiling in recognition]: One shot.
Mike: One shot, one shot.
[Nick pulls the trigger, shooting himself in the head]
Mike: Nicky, Nicky, no, Nick, no!! No! No! You can’t!

Now join them all in a somber rendition of God Bless America. After all, what did they know about "the deep state", the MIC and the war economy?

[Phil8659]

I am now going to quote, the Encyclopedia Britannica, in pig Latin.

[Impenitent]

et tu oinkers?

-Imp