Pop Of King (15) – Lines to live by – (11 czerwca 2004)

One night not too long ago, I agreed to do an appearance for a film society in upstate New York. They were showing Cujo, one of my favorites among the films made from my books and stories. They took me out to dinner beforehand (if you don’t take a fee – which I usually don’t – the best things about these gigs are good talk and free chow), and the older gentleman on my left began mourning that films had lost their language. He claimed that in what he called „the age of the director,” the screenwriter has become almost dispensable, and there are no more great cinema lines. As examples of great lines he cited „Play it, Sam” and „We’ll always have Paris” from Casablanca, „Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” from Gone With the Wind, and „Oh, Auntie Em, there’s no place like home!” from The Wizard of Oz.

I didn’t bother telling him that last one had moss on it long before moving pictures were invented, because I took his point, and could have added a dozen more of my own from Hollywood’s supposed golden age (I’d begin with „Rosebud!” from Citizen Kane and end with „It was beauty killed the beast” from the original King Kong). But I don’t agree that there are no more great lines. Between you and me, I think I might have been sitting next to a gent who had grown a little deaf to them.

I have a theory that Americans fall into two groups: those who are passionate about movies and those who aren’t. Those who are live in families that develop a whole stock of great lines, a kind of inner slanguage that helps to trace a family’s growth just as accurately (and sometimes just as poignantly) as old videotapes or Kodaks in a scrapbook. My own kids are now grown up, but they’re still passionate about the movies, and when I asked them for some of their favorite lines from childhood, they were more than happy to comply.

So here come some lines that track the history of my family. I’m curious to know if any of these resonate with you – if they call up the sort of memories we more ordinarily associate with photographs or pop music. If they do, would you write and say so? And if these aren’t the ones that do the trick for you, which ones do? Please let me know.

One caveat about the short list of King family picks: I’ve arbitrarily excluded most „punch-out lines” – ones made to be repeated, crafted as carefully and cynically as advertising slogans. Ergo, no „Hasta la vista, baby,” „I’m the king of the world,” or „Heeee-eeeere’s… Johnny!” It probably would be fair to add „Ahhh’ll be bock,” from the Terminator series; that one, I’m convinced, became a punch-out line purely by accident (the accident being Arnold’s one-of-a-kind accent). Here goes:

„You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” Roy Scheider, in Jaws. It’s the shocked, wide-eyed delivery that makes the line a classic.
„Fredo, you broke my heart!” Al Pacino to John Cazale, in The Godfather, Part II. (In the days before our good old Welsh corgi died, our youngest son sometimes used to give him a sturdy hug and say, „Marlowe, you broke my snout.”)
„E.T., phone home.” Of course.
„I love the way you wear that hat.” Ned Beatty, in Deliverance. I taught this one to the kids. Beatty’s deadpan delivery still cracks me up every time.
„Some folks call it a sling blade; I call it a Kaiser blade.” Billy Bob Thornton. I sometimes think Sling Blade is nothing but good lines.
„You’re the man now, dog!” A jubilant Sean Connery, in Finding Forrester. Really about the only good thing about this movie… but it’s very good.
The Die Hard punch-out line everyone knows is „Yippie-ki-yay [expletive deleted],” of course, but the one the kids and I went around saying to each other for years was „Oh my God, the quarterback is toast.”
„Michael could.” Tom Hanks, responding to Paul Newman’s exclamation that „None of us will see heaven,” in Road to Perdition.
„And… the flowers are still standing.” Bill Murray, in Ghostbusters.
„Why am I Mr. Pink?” Steve Buscemi, whining in Reservoir Dogs.
„We all have it comin’.” Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven – a much better, truer line than the Dirty Harry make-my-day thing.
„Are you not entertained?!” Russell Crowe, in Gladiator.
„Get away from her, you bitch!” Sigourney Weaver, in Aliens. Now, you could argue this is a punch-out line, written expressly for you to tell your friends so they’ll want to go see the movie, but all the other lines I’ve got here are said by men. My daughter-in-law says guys get all the memorable lines in movies; the women are just there to look babelicious – and this little list suggests she might be right. But maybe when you send in your favorite movie lines she’ll be proved wrong. Fire away.