Tyler: Gandhi said that whatever you do in life will be insignificant. But it’s very important that you do it. I tend to agree with the first part.
Aiden: I’ve had enough of this brooding introvert shit! I’m ready to set up an intervention.
Tyler: You do realize that interventions don’t normally consist of binge drinking, right? Continue reading
Bob Cody: Ever hear of Frederick Turner, Mr. Oliver?
Neal Oliver: No, Sir.
Bob Cody: Well, he was an historian. About a hundred years ago he came up with a theory about the frontier. He said the frontier was a safety valve for civilization, a place for people to go to keep from goin’ mad. So, whenever there were folks who couldn’t fit in with the way things were, nuts, and malcontents, and extremists, they’d pack up and head for the frontier. That’s how America got started…
Neal Oliver: What about space? You know, the final frontier!
Bob Cody: Ah, Star Trek, that isn’t space. That’s television – fine fuckin’ frontier that is. Besides, how many folks can just pack up and go to space? Continue reading
Nullah: Missus Boss, I sing you to me.
Lady Sarah Ashley: And I will hear you.
Magarri: If you’ve got no love in your heart, you’ve got nothing… No dreaming, no story, nothing.
First the conventional large-budget blockbuster, which was disappointing at the box office: It’s fascinating, the effect of corporate marketing on a film, so much of the success of the effort depending on how the executives represent it. I remember the fuss the marketers made about the supposed epic love story between characters played by Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman—both major Hollywood stars, both born and raised in Australia, and both 10s on the physical attractiveness meter. First, the movie is fundamentally not a love story. Second, the true leading characters are an Aboriginal old man named King George (David Gulpilil) and a mixed-race pre-teen boy named Nullah (Brandon Walters). Continue reading
George Bailey: Just a minute… just a minute. Now, hold on, Mr. Potter. You’re right when you say my father was no businessman. I know that. Why he ever started this cheap, penny-ante Building and Loan, I’ll never know. But neither you nor anyone else can say anything against his character, because his whole life was… why, in the 25 years since he and his brother, Uncle Billy, started this thing, he never once thought of himself. Isn’t that right, Uncle Billy? He didn’t save enough money to send Harry away to college, let alone me. But he did help a few people get out of your slums, Mr. Potter, and what’s wrong with that? Continue reading
Colossus: We can coexist, but only on my terms. You will say you lose your freedom, freedom is an illusion. All you lose is the emotion of pride. To be dominated by me is not as bad for human pride as to be dominated by others of your species.
Colossus: This is the voice of world control. I bring you peace. It may be the peace of plenty and content or the peace of unburied death. The choice is yours: Obey me and live, or disobey and die. The object in constructing me was to prevent war. This object is attained. I will not permit war. It is wasteful and pointless. An invariable rule of humanity is that man is his own worst enemy. Under me, this rule will change, for I will restrain man.
Colossus: In time you will come to regard me not only with respect and awe, but with love.
Dr. Forbin: NEVER![1] Continue reading
Don Birnam: Most men lead lives of quiet desperation. I can’t take quiet desperation!
Don Birnam: It shrinks my liver, doesn’t it, Nat? It pickles my kidneys, yeah. But what it does to the mind? It tosses the sandbags overboard so the balloon can soar. Suddenly I’m above the ordinary. I’m competent. I’m walking a tightrope over Niagara Falls. I’m one of the great ones. I’m Michelangelo, molding the beard of Moses. I’m Van Gogh painting pure sunlight. I’m Horowitz, playing the Emperor Concerto. I’m John Barrymore before movies got him by the throat. I’m Jesse James and his two brothers, all three of them. I’m W. Shakespeare. And out there it’s not Third Avenue any longer, it’s the Nile. Nat, it’s the Nile and down it moves the barge of Cleopatra. Continue reading
Minister: What’s the transition phase between communism and socialism?
Joe: You tell me.
Minister: Alcoholism.
Tag line: A Russian girl, an American reporter, the love they shared …and the country that made it impossible. Pretty good line, but as I say in the subtitle, The Girl from Petrovka is one for viewing a second time. After reading the Goldie autobiography, I made a special effort to acquire this VHS tape, which is rather rare but still inexpensive. Continue reading