Monday, June 3, 2013

Movie Quotes in Real Life

Lately I've been thinking about some of the quotes from favorite movies that I use every now and then in real life, usually to avoid saying something directly, or just to be amusing or mysterious, to see if the person I'm with recognizes the quote. This is a real-life version of oblique dialogue, used in fiction and movies when a character says something but means something else. As an example of oblique dialogue, in Deliverance (one of my favorites movies, but not one I quote from much), the Burt Reynolds character says early in the movie, "I don't believe in insurance. There's no risk in it."  Now, obviously, he's not really talking about insurance, except as way of insulting the insurance salesman Bobby (Ned Beatty) behind his back. He's really talking about risk, and  the line foreshadows the inordinate amount of danger the men soon find themselves in. In the film, you can tell the line is important in a poetic way, because Burt Reynolds pauses before he says it, just as he also pauses before saying, "Sometimes you have to get lost, before you can find anything."

Here's a list of a few of the quotes I actually use, and what they mean.  The lines may or may not be quoted verbatim, but it's how I remember and use them:

  • "You're not going to act this way on the boat, are you?" (Jaws).  Everybody always quotes the "bigger boat" line, a fine line indeed, but this line, uttered by Brody when Quint abuses Hooper the first time he meets him, points to the human conflict in the story, which is really the center of the movie. This line is great for saying, "Are you always an asshole like this?" 
  • "Do you have some jurisdiction here that I should know about?" (A Few Good Men). I use this line to say, "You're being bossy, and I really don't think you have any power, do you?"
  • "Thank you for that fine forensic analysis." (Titanic).  Old  Rose says this at the beginning of the movie. It basically means, "Shut the hell up. You're boring us."
  • "Who do you think you're talking to?" (Less Than Zero). James Spader says this line, and I always thought it was a cool moment. Even though it's a fairly ordinary thing to say, something you hear in all sorts of movies, it's not something you hear as much in real life, if you think about it.  I think in that way, the line symbolizes how much more assertive and conflict-oriented characters are as opposed to real people. And actually, this line, not really being oblique, is something I don't say in real life.  But I really want to.
  • "Be nice." (Roadhouse). The other bouncers laugh at Dalton (Patrick Swayze) when he tells them to handle rough customers this way.  I think about this quote (though, again, this one's not one I say so much) whenever I'm dealing with difficult people or students who have problems. You can be assertive and stick to your own rules while still being nice. Yes, occasionally you must be less than perfectly nice when dealing with someone who's abusive or who takes a nasty tone, but even then, you can adopt a Zen attitude (remember Dalton's philosophical training) and remember that conflict is best dealt with by taking the anger out of the situation. Another saying of Eastern origin goes, "If something started in anger, it will end in shame." Being angry is sometimes productive, but usually it gets us nowhere. 
  • "I am proud neither of what I have done, nor what I am doing." This quote, also from A Few Good Men, comes from a character who is struggling with a heavy moral dilemma, but I find it can be used in much more mundane circumstances and covers a lot of typical human situations. Most of us, after  all, are not proud of some of things we've done. It's best used for truly silly situations, though, like when you've forgotten to buy hot dog buns and you've resorted to using white bread for the hot dogs. 

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