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Words of Wisdom from the Movies
“As a lawyer, I’ve had to learn that people aren’t just good or bad. People are many things.”
This line is spoken by Paul Beigler, a fictional small-town lawyer brilliantly played by Jimmy Stewart in the courtroom drama Anatomy of a Murder. I don’t want to have to summarize the whole movie (if you haven’t seen it, though, please make sure to do so; it’s a great flick and also features George C. Scott in what I believe was his film debut), so I’m going to oversimplify the context of the scene.
Basically, Beigler is trying to convince a woman named Mary Pliant to help him gain testimony from another person that her old friend and benefactor, Barney Quill, raped a woman. Mary Pliant is reluctant to believe or help prove this accusation about a man who was always so kind and loving to her, which is what leads to Beigler speaking the line I just quoted.
It’s a line that has always stuck with me and comes to my mind from time to time when I learn of respected figures who are then revealed to have committed awful crimes. I thought of the line during the recent news stories involving Bill Cosby, and again this evening when talking on the phone with my sister. My sister just learned that a member of her ward (the Mormon term for a congregation), a seemingly very spiritual and kind family man who had only a few weeks earlier delivered a very moving talk in church, has just been arrested for molesting his daughter. He had been molesting her for the past five years and had threatened his family that he would kill them if any of them reported it, but (thank God) the daughter finally went to the authorities.
My sister’s understandably shaken by the news. I think most if not all adults understand that you never really know for certain whether someone you know is leading a double life, but it’s always shocking to learn that a seemingly decent person can in fact commit and hide such monstrous crimes. I mentioned the line from Anatomy of a Murder to my sister as we talked.
It’s a quote that I really do believe. While it can be easy to sort people as “good” or “bad,” the fact is that everyone is a mix of both. An individual can be sincere in doing good towards others in many aspects of their life, yet also do some despicable things to others in other aspects of their life. The good a person does does not excuse their crimes or pardon them from the justice they must face, but neither does one’s crimes invalidate the value of the good that they do either, or their sincerity in doing so.
In the simplest terms, people are complicated. This is not a new or earth-shattering observation, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard or read that little nugget of truth expressed as affectingly (to me personally) as in that scene from Anatomy of a Murder.
Which brings me to the topic of this post. As much as I love movies, generally I don’t look to them as fonts of wisdom. The primary goal of movie producers are, after all, to just make an entertaining and popular product for their audience. And when movies do attempt to impart some moral lesson, observation on life, or inspirational creed, the words they use often don’t rise above the cliche or even banal (“Follow your heart,” “All you have to do is believe in yourself,” “On our own, we can’t beat [the big bad], but together we can!”). However, a screenwriter sometimes writes a line of dialogue that really is profound or eloquent and can change, or at least help clarify, the way we think about something.
So I wanted to ask the Ricochetti: What are lines from movies that you think are true words of wisdom to remember? I’m not talking about just favorite lines of dialogue, but specifically the ones you found to be powerful/insightful and that have stuck with you through the years.
Published in Entertainment
Another one from TV: “Good men don’t need rules. Now is not the time to find out why I have so many.” -The Doctor
Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down,
The medicine go down,
The medicine go dooooown…
Or just a piece of chocolate helps when things look bad.
I am sorry for the family of the molestor.
“Come to my room in a half hour and bring some rye bread” – Jimmy Durante in The Man Who Came To Dinner
This exchange is from Railway Station for Two (1982). (Russian: Вокзал для двоих.) Punchline is at the end.
“Uncle” Misha (played by the late Nonna Mordyukova): We’ll have to see yet who takes more care of the people, me or them.
Platon Sergeyevich: Who “them?”
Uncle Misha: Have you ever seen the fruits they sell at stores? The fruits and vegetables are no good. I feed the people with good produce, and what about those state shops? Their watermelons are unripe, tomatoes stale, pears wooden. And I nurse each berry like a small baby!
Vera: It’s true.
Uncle Misha: Those warehouses don’t know how to keep produce. Neither fruits, nor vegetables, nor berries! And that’s so because it belongs to nobody!
https://youtu.be/FeORJzNTyd0?t=54m37s
(I can’t vouch for the English translation. I’ve listened to that last line over and over and am not quite sure how they got from there to the English subtitles. I hope it’s a good translation. Maybe there is someone who speaks Russian who could help us know for sure.)
https://youtu.be/FeORJzNTyd0?t=54m37s
Start at 54:37
An ambiguous one from the Dark Knight:
“Because sometimes the truth isn’t good enough.
Sometimes people deserve more.
Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded.”
“…. I could be wrong.”
“Have you ever said that and actually meant it?”
“No.”
–Blue Bloods
Can’t be sure of the exact quote; can’t find it online. But from The Cowboys.
The herd has been rustled, John Wayne is dead. The kids jump Mr. Nightlinger, the chuck wagon cook, and tie him up to get to the guns locked up in the wagon.
Mr. Nightlinger: You’re going to get yourselves killed…
Slim Honnicutt: We’re going to finish the job.
The only thing notable from Karate Kid 3:
Mr. Miyagi coaching Daniel, who is laying terrified on the mat after just getting a beat down, “Get up Daniel-san. It’s ok lose to opponent; Must not lose to fear.”
Late Soviet era bureaucrat: “The only way to stop a spontaneous initiative is to organize it and head it.”
This is in Forgotten Melody for a Flute (1987), part 2, at about 11:20
Gunny Highway: “Marines shouldn’t be sitting on their sorry “bottoms” filling out requisitions for equipment they should already have.”
This pretty much summarizes my 28 years in government, including 10 years in the Marines.
In The Score, a heist movie about breaking into the Montreal customs house, old thief Robert Deniro says to young thief Edward Norton: “write down everything you want now and expect to spend the next 25 years working to get it.”
I think back to all the things I wanted at 18–a wife and family, a good job and publishing a book– and see it’s taken almost 18 years to get them.
“Failure is not an option.”
Ed Harris in “Apollo 13”
“Don’t you know that hurts?”
Burt Lancaster as “Elmer Gantry” to a pimp slapping a whore before Lancaster clocks him.
“They’ll be waiting for us.” Ernest Borgnine to William Holden in “The Wild Bunch.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.” William Holden to Ernest Borgnine.
“How many of you did they hire?” Eli Wallach in “The Magnificent 7”
“Enough.” Yul Brynner
“There you are, Norton – the people. Try and lick that!”
James Gleason at the conclusion of “Meet John Doe”
If we’re going to list great Lebowski quotes we’ll be here forever.
A good follow-up quote (although I can’t remember where it comes from) is “some men just need a good killing.”
“When you have to shoot, shoot. Don’t talk.” – Eli Wallach in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
At the end of Fargo, when Marge Gunderson is hauling in one of the criminals she has a short monologue that includes this:
“And for what? For a little bit of money. There’s more to life than a little money, you know. Don’tcha know that? And here ya are, and it’s a beautiful day.”
Roger Ebert referred to this as Shakespearean. I don’t know about that, but I think its simple profoundness is beautiful.
“Next time you have the chance to kill someone, don’t hesitate.” – Marco, Die Hard, just before getting ventilated.
William Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!
Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
William Roper: Yes, I’d cut down every law in England to do that!
Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned ’round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man’s laws, not God’s! And if you cut them down, and you’re just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake!
A Man for All Seasons
From the same (something particularly apt during the primary season):
Sir Thomas More: I think that when statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties, they lead their country by a short route to chaos.
And of course, the ultimate classic:
Mongol General: Hao! Dai ye! We won again! This is good, but what is best in life?
Mongol: The open steppe, fleet horse, falcons at your wrist, and the wind in your hair.
Mongol General: Wrong! Conan! What is best in life?
Conan: Crush your enemies. See them driven before you. Hear the lamentations of their women.
Mongol General: That is good! That is good.
Conan the Barbarian
There’s some real wisdom in these lines, though I’m not exactly sure what it is:
Ok, but what about ‘a lot of money’?
One of the greatest movie lines ever uttered.
Another great line from that movie.
Deserves got nothing to do with it.
I’m not sure if that line is a font of wisdom, but that movie does contain several:
“They go up.”
“When someone asks you if you’re a god, you say yes.”
“Slow down. Chew your food.”
“Personally, I liked the university. They gave us money and facilities, we didn’t have to produce anything! You’ve never been out of college! You don’t know what it’s like out there! I’ve worked in the private sector. They expect results.”
“Back off, man. I’m a scientist.”
“If there’s a steady paycheck in it, I’ll believe anything you say.”
“Print is dead.”
“Listen… do you smell something?”
“If I’m wrong, nothing happens! We go to jail – peacefully, quietly. We’ll enjoy it! But if I’m right, and we can stop this thing… Lenny, you will have saved the lives of millions of registered voters.”
“Oh, my *God*. Look at all the junk food! You actually eat this?”
“I love this plan! I’m excited to be a part of it! LET’S DO IT!”
Not a line to live by, but one that explains the attitude of many in government.
“If God had not wanted them sheared, he wouldn’t have made them sheep.”-Saltero “The Magnificent Seven”
“Mongo only pawn in game of life.”