Yet another film about the United States military in which the focus is on something that has almost nothing whatsoever to do with its actual [primary] function in the world. Code Red? That is the crime here?! That’s like focusing on the break-in at the Watergate complex and completely ignoring the Gulf of Tonkin, the illegal bombing of Cambodia, Operation Chaos, COINTELLPRO etc… The secret government -- deep state -- that is always just below the surface here.
In this day and age, the U.S. military exist by and large to sustain a predatory foreign policy, the military industrial complex and the war economy. After World War 2 and the Cold War, “national security” has always been a distant second.
On the other hand, given all that, this is still a truly absorbing movie. And Code Reds [in this context] speak volumes regarding the mentalities of many lifers. These are the Dick Cheney soldiers and they have the potential to become very, very dangerous in the right political context.
A Few Good Men
Galloway: Lieutenant, how long have you been in the Navy?
Kaffee: Going on nine months now.
Galloway: And how long have you been out of law school?
Kaffee: A little over a year.
Galloway: I see.
Kaffee: Have I done something wrong?
Galloway: No, it’s just that when I petitioned division to have counsel assigned, I was hoping that I’d be taken seriously.
Kaffee: No offense taken, in case you were wondering.
Said the Scientologist.
Galloway: Tell your friend not to get cute down there, the Marines at Gitmo are fanatical.
Weinberg: Fanatical about what?
Galloway: About being Marines.
Talk about indoctrination!
Kaffee: Lt. Kendrick…may I call you John?
Kendrick: No, you may not.
Kaffee: Have I done something to offend you?
Kendrick: No, I like all you Navy boys. Every time we’ve gotta go someplace to fight, you fellas always give us a ride.
Just note all of the pitched battles that unfold at Gitmo.
Galloway: Do you think he was murdered?
Kendrick: I believe in God and Jesus Christ, so I’ll say this: Santiago’s death is a tragedy. But he died because he had no code, and no honour. And God was watching.
A fanatical Marine let's call him.
Jessep: You know, it just hit me. She outranks you, Danny.
Kaffee: Yes sir.
Jessep: I wanna tell you something. And listen up, 'cause I realy mean this. You’re the luckiest man in the world. There is nothing on this earth sexier, believe me, gentlemen, than a woman you have to salute in the morning. Promote 'em all, I say, 'cause this is true: if you haven’t gotten a blowjob from a superior officer, well, you’re just letting the best in life pass you by.
A fanatical Marine in command let's call him.
Jessep: You see Danny, I can deal with the bullets, and the bombs, and the blood. I don’t want money, and I don’t want medals. What I do want is for you to stand there in that faggoty white uniform and with your Harvard mouth extend me some fucking courtesy. You gotta ask me nicely.
Dawson: We joined the Marines because we wanted to live our lives by a certain code, and we found it in the Corps. Now you’re asking us to sign a piece of paper that says we have no honor. You’re asking us to say we’re not Marines. If a court decides that what we did was wrong, then I’ll accept whatever punishment they give. But I believe I was right sir, I believe I did my job, and I will not dishonor myself, my unit, or the Corps so I can go home in six months…Sir.
Uh, good point?
Kaffee: You and Dawson, you both live in the same dreamworld. It doesn’t matter what I believe. It only matters what I can prove! So please, don’t tell me what I know, or don’t know; I know the LAW.
Galloway: You know nothing about the law. You’re a used-car salesman, Daniel. You’re an ambulance chaser with a rank. You’re nothing. Live with that.
Uh, who won?
Galloway: Why do you hate them so much?
Weinberg: They beat up on a weakling; that’s all they did. The rest is just smokefilled coffee-house crap. They tortured and tormented a weaker kid. They didn’t like him. So, they killed him. And why? Because he couldn’t run very fast.
Manslaughter let's call it. Taking intentions into account.
Kendrick: Lance Corporal Dawson was given a below average rating because he had committed a crime.
Kaffee: A crime? What crime did he commit? Lieutenant Kendrick? Dawson brought a hungry guy some food…what crime did he commit?
Kendrick: He disobeyed an order!
Ask me about the orders I disobeyed.
Galloway: Why did you ask Jessep for the transfer order?
Kaffee: I wanted it!
Galloway: You could have got it anywhere. You just wanted to see Jessep’s reaction. Your instinct was right. Now let’s call Jessep, and end this.
Kaffee: What possible good would that do?
Galloway: He ordered the Code Red.
Kaffee: He did? That’s great! And of course, you have proof? Oh, I forgot, you missed the day that law was taught at Law School?!
Of course, after we invented God, we could always fall back on Judgment Day.
Galloway: You put him on the stand and you get it from him!
Kaffee: Oh, we get it from him! Yes! No problem! We get it from him.
[turns to Sam as if he were Jessup on the stand]
Kaffee: Colonel Jessup, isn’t it true that you ordered the Code Red on Santiago?
Weinberg: Listen, we’re all a little…
Kaffee: [interrupts with game-show buzzer sound] eeehhhhh! I’m sorry, your time’s run out! What do we have for the losers, judge? Well, for our defendants, it’s a life time at exotic Fort Leavenworth! And, for defense counsel Kaffee, that’s right, it’s a court martial! Yes, Johnny! After falsely accusing a highly decorated Marine officer of conspiracy and perjury, Lieutenant Kaffee will have a long and prosperous career teaching…typewriter maintenance at the Rocco Globbo School for Women! Thank you for playing “Should we or should we not follow the advice of the galactically stupid!”
Next up: the equivalent of that here?
Kaffee: Jessup told Kendrick to order the code red, Kendrick did and our clients followed the order. The cover-up isn’t our case - to win Jessup needs to tell the court members that he ordered the code red.
Weinberg: And now you think you can get him to just say it?
Kaffee: I think he wants to say it. I think he’s pissed off that he’s gotta hide from this. I think he wants to say that he made a command decision and that’s the end of it.
[Starts imitating Jessup]
Kaffee: He eats breakfast 300 yards away from 4000 Cubans that are trained to kill him. And nobody’s going to tell him how to run his unit least of all the Harvard mouth in his faggoty white uniform. I need to shake him, put him on the defensive and lead him right where he’s dying to go.
Finally!
Kaffee: Colonel, a moment ago you said you told Kendrick to say that Santiago wasn’t to be touched. He was clear on what you wanted?
Jessep: Crystal.
Kaffee: Can he have ignored the order?
Jessep: Ignored the order?
Kaffee: Or forgot it?
Jessep: No.
Kaffee: Could he have thought, “The old man is wrong”?
Jessep: No.
Kaffee: When Lt. Kendrick talked to the men, any chance they ignored him?
Jessep: Ever been in the infantry, son? Ever served in a forward area? Ever put your life in another man’s hands, and his in yours? We follow orders, son. Otherwise people die. It’s that simple. Are we clear? Are we clear?!
Kaffee: Crystal. One last question, before I call Airmen O’Malley and Rodriguez. If you ordered that Santiago wasn’t to be touched, and your orders are always followed, then why was Santiago in danger? Why would it be necessary to transfer him off the base?
Jessep: He was a substandard Marine. He was being transferred…
Kaffee: That’s not what you said. You said he was transferred because he was in danger. I said, “grave danger?” and you said…we can have the court reporter read it…
Jessep: I know what I said!
Kaffee: Then why the two orders?
Jessep: Sometimes men take matters into their own hands.
Kaffee: But your men never did. Your men obey orders or people die. So Santiago shouldn’t have been in any danger, right?
Jessep: You snotty little bastard.
Ross: You honor, I request a recess.
Kaffee: I’d like an answer to my question.
Judge: The court will wait for an answer.
Kaffee: If Lt. Kendrick gave an order that Santiago wasn’t to be touched, why did he have to be transferred? Kendrick ordered a Code Red, because you told him to! And when it went bad, you signed a phoney transfer and fixed the logs! You coerced the doctor! Colonel Jessep, did you order the Code Red?
Judge: Consider yourself in Contempt!
Kaffee: Colonel Jessep, did you order the Code Red?
Judge: You don’t have to answer that question!
Jessep: I’ll answer the question!
[to Kaffee]
Jessep: You want answers?
Kaffee: I think I’m entitled to.
Jessep: You want answers?
Kaffee: I want the truth!
Jessep: You can’t handle the truth!
[pauses]
Jessep: Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinburg? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That Santiago’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you are entitled to.
Kaffee: Did you order the Code Red?
Jessep: I did the job I…
Kaffee: Did you order the Code Red?
Col. Jessep: You’re Goddamn right I did!
Now, in the context of Hitler and the Nazis [and for some the Commies] this makes sense. There really are legitimate national security concerns. But no way in hell does it make sense in regard to the “terrorists”.
“The man who kills a man kills a man.
The man who kills himself kills all men.
As far as he is concerned, he wipes out the world.” G.K. Chesterton
And how comforting is that!
“The language of love letters is the same as suicide notes.” Courtney Love
Tell that to Kurt?
“Crap.
It's all crap.
Living is crap.
Life has no meaning.
None. Nowhere to be found.
Crap.
Why doesn't anybody realize this?” K-Ske Hasegawa
Well, I do my bit of course.
“Do people look the same when they go to heaven, mommy?"
"I don't know. I don't think so."
"Then how do people recognize each other?"
"I don't know, sweetie. They just feel it. You don't need your eyes to love, right?” R.J. Palacio
Let alone your genitals?
“Sleep would be so welcome. A warm blanket of black to erase everything else. Sleep without dreams. I've heard people talk about the sleep of the dead. Is that what death would feel like? The nicest, warmest, heaviest never-ending nap? If that's what it's like, I wouldn't mind. If that's what dying is like, I wouldn't mind that at all.” Gayle Forman
Anyone here know for sure?
“Every poem should remind the reader that they are going to die.” Edgar Allen Poe
If you choose to interact with thugs be prepared for them [eventually] to seep into the parts of your life reserved for those who are not thugs. But then her husband is in prison. And he is getting out in a week.
This is one of those films where “atmosphere” is all pervasive. It’s brimming with the stuff. And here the atmosphere is ominous—you are always on the edge of your seat waiting for it to bubble up to the surface. And then explode.
You know it’s just a movie but you know these characters are art immitating the real world. Even if it’s not based on “actual events” you know the actual events are out there.
And these fuckers are always double-crossing each other into oblivion.
Look for Blanche. Both of them.
Drive
Nino: Fuck you eating chink food in my fucking restaurant?
Bernie: What’s a Jew doing running a pizzeria?
The "bad guys" let's call them.
Redneck: You’re Shannon’s buddy right? We met last year. You drove me and my brother back from Palm Springs. We hired another wheelman. I spent six months in jail. My brother, he got himself killed. I got this sweet job coming up.
Driver: How ‘bout this. You shut your mouth. Or I’ll kick your teeth down your throat and I’ll shut it for you.
Redneck: Nice seein’ you again.
The "good guy" let's call him.
Shannon: He wouldn’t be able to find pussy in a whore house…
That ever happen to you?
Irene [sitting out in the hall as music blares from her apartment]: Sorry about the noise.
Driver: I was going to call the cops.
Irene: I wish you would.
Yo, Standard!
Driver: What is it you got there? Can I see?
[Benicio hands Driver a bullet]
Driver: One of those men gave you that?
Benicio: They told me not to lose it.
Driver: You want me to keep that for you?
Benicio: Okay.
Even children aren't off limits for some thugs.
Driver: If I drive for you, you get your money. You tell me where we start, where we’re going, where we’re going afterwards. I give you five minutes when we get there. Anything happens in that five minutes and I’m yours. No matter what. Anything a minute on either side of that and you’re on your own. I don’t sit in while you’re running it down. I don’t carry a gun. I drive.
Cook: You look like you’re hard to work with.
Driver [after slapping Blanche and holding her down]: Now, you just got a little boy’s father killed. And you almost got us killed. And now you’re lying to me. So how about this? From now on, every word out of your mouth is the truth. Or I’m going to hurt you.
I certainly believed him.
Driver: Whose money do I have?
He had to ask.
Shannon: How was I supposed to know everything led to Nino?!
Actually, to God, right?
Bernie: Let me tell you something. Anybody…anybody find out you stole from the family, we’re both dead.
Nino: What fucking family? The family who still calls me a fucking ****! To my face!
Hey, it's a "show me the money" world.
Driver: [to Bernie] You know the story about the scorpion and the frog? Your friend Nino didn’t make it across the river.
Of course, in the end, nobody does.
Driver [on the phone with Irene]: Can I talk to you? I won’t keep you long. I have to go somewhere and I don’t think I can come back. But I just wanted you to know. Getting to be around you and Benicio was the best thing that ever happened to me.
My guess: At the time he probably meant it.
Bernie: Here’s what I’m prepared to offer. You give me the money, the girl is safe. Forever. Nobody knows about her. She’s off the map. I can’t offer you the same. So, this is what I would suggest. We conclude our deal. We’ll shake hands. You start the rest of your life. Any dreams you have, or plans, or hopes for your future…I think you’re going to have to put that on hold. For the rest of your life you’re going to be looking over your shoulder. I’m just telling you this because I want you to know the truth. But the girl is safe.
Who needs money when you're dead? In the book though he takes it.
Bottom line: Liberal to the core. Another expose on the “best and the brightest”. In other words, with the actual nature of our political and economic system no where to be found.
Someone called this the Spinal Tap of politics. True. Only this comes much, much, much closer to reality. It’s less that they are morons than their proximity to the most dangerous buttons on earth.
Comedies don’t get blacker than this. Or funnier. Promoting war or preventing it? Really, what’s the difference?
It got a 94% fresh rating at RT. What idiots could not possibly like it? Is Tony Blair, Dick Cheney or Dubya Bush a film critic?
This really is a funny movie. And, in the context of, say, the war in Iraq, infuriating. These fucking dolts [along with our “leaders”] are running the country!
And all because there really is no way to know for sure what is “the right thing to do”. And because money doesn’t talk, it screams. Mostly from the general direction of the military industrial complex. Completely invisible here though.
In The Loop
Malcolm: Diarrhea? This is the minister of international development here, he should be talking about food parcels…not fucking, arse-spraying mayhem!
And there is a difference.
Judy: It’s a scheduled media appearance by this department’s secretary of state so it falls well within my purview.
Malcolm: Within your purview?
Judy: Yes.
Malcolm: Where do you think you are, some fucking Regency costume drama? This is a government department, not a fucking Jane Austen novel.
And there is a difference.
Malcolm [on phone]: He did not say “unforeseeable”. You may have heard him say that, but he did not say that.
Actually, he either did or he didn't. I forget.
Suzy: He sounded like a chicken with a wasp up his ass.
Toby: You give me a week, I’ll have him sounding like a chicken without a wasp up its ass.
You tell me.
Malcolm: We’ve already got enough fucking Pentagon goons here to stage a fucking coup d’état.
Next up: Code Orange.
When it happens here.
Judy: Why wasn’t I told about this?
Malcolm: Why the fuck would I tell you about it? I told you to fuck off twice.
Malcolm: You, hey, put the snifter out there that if the BBC ambushes a minister with another surprise question about the war, I’ll drop a bomb on them.
Judy: I can’t do that, can I? That’s political.
Malcolm: Does that not fit within your purview, Marie Antoinette? Why don’t you just scuttle off back to fucking Cranford and play around with your tea and your cakes and your fucking horse cocks. Let them eat cock!
Just in case you missed the reference.
Malcolm: “Climbing the mountain of conflict”?! You sounded like the Nazi Julie Andrews!
Let's get back to her a year from now.
Simon: Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! Why didn’t we nail the line?
Judy: Simon, I did try to warn you…
Simon: Yes, you tried to warn me, but you didn’t actually stop me, did you…
Judy: Well I can’t tackle you to the ground…
Simon: …by shouting ‘train’ at somebody as they get hit by a train? You should go ‘train! there’s a fucking train!!’
You know, if there is one.
Liza: “PWIP PIP”? Oh, God, it already has an acronym.
TEHTY: That ever happen to you?
Gen. Miller: Twelve thousand troops. But that’s not enough. That’s the amount that are going to die. And at the end of a war you need some soldiers left, really, or else it looks like you’ve lost.
Said Tony Soprano.
Malcolm: You say nothing, okay? You stay detached. Otherwise that’s what I’ll do to your retinas.
Simon: Right, can I go to bed now, please?
Malcolm: No, no, no, no. We are gonna stay here, and you are gonna rehearse saying nothing.
Simon: Am I being tortured?
“Free will is an illusion. Our wills are simply not of our own making.” Sam Harris
He's compelled to remind us.
“Free-will doesn't include shit-happens, unless that's the goal of one's intention.” Toba Beta
How about you? Does yours?
“Are we just radio sets? Tuned to a particular frequency? Are our brains simply tapping their potential from an invisible but universal thought cloud? Seriously, what is the source of our thoughts? How do artists create art? How do writers write? What is it that is doing the creating?” Abhaidev
More to the point [I'm sure] tuned to AM or FM?
“The choices we’re working with here are a block universe, where past, present and future all coexist simultaneously and everything has already happened; chaos, where anything can happen and nothing can be predicted because we can’t know all the variables; and a Christian universe in which God made everything and it’s all here for a purpose but we have free will anyway.” Audrey Niffenegger
On the other hand, which one should it be?
“It made you wonder: How much of our lives was just luck or good timing, and how much was actually choice? How could it be that tiny serendipitous events could change everything? And if lucky events could change everything, could minor mishaps have the same power?” Aditi Khorana
Absolutely maybe!
“Our minds are information vacuums. Either we fill them with thoughts of our choosing or someone else will.” Ray A. Davis
Malcolm Fucking hung up, haven’t you? You fucking hoity-toity fucking…
Tourist: Hey, buddy? Enough with the curse words, all right?
Malcolm: Kiss my sweaty balls, you fat fuck.
He doesn't though.
Karen: Yes, Assistant Secretary, on point six, it feels like there’s already been an assumption that we’re invading and don’t you think that we should discuss the practical implications? I mean, this is, after all, the War Committee.
Linton: This is the Future Planning Committee.
Karen: Well, unofficially, it is called the War Committee.
Linton: Well, Karen, unofficially, we can call anything whatever we want. I mean, unofficially, this is a shoe, but it’s not, Karen, it is a glass of water. And this is the Future Planning Committee.
Gen. Miller: Well, unofficially, this appears to be bullshit.
Sometimes it's hard to tell which side of the pond they're on here.
Malcom: Linton! Linton!
Linton: Mr Tucker, isn’t it? Nice to see you again.
Malcolm: Are you fucking me about?
Linton: Is there a problem, Mr Tucker?
Malcolm: I’ve just come from a briefing with a nine-year-old child.
Linton: You’re talking about AJ. AJ is one of our top guys. He’s a Stanton College Prep, Harvard. One of the brightest and best.
Malcolm: Well, his briefing notes were written in alphabetti spaghetti. When I left, I nearly tripped up over his fucking umbilical cord.
The best and the brightest? Ask me about them...nicely.
Gen. Miller [to Karen, about Linton]: He’s got his little cannons and he’s got his little guns, and…This is the problem with civilians wanting to go to war. Once you’ve been there, once you’ve seen it, you never want to go again unless you absolutely fucking have to. It’s like France.
I've been there. To war, not France.
Gen. Miller: I’m a voracious reader. I’m the Gore Vidal of the Pentagon.
Karen: Gore’s gay.
Gen. Miller: No, he’s not!
Karen: I beg to differ, but…
Gen. Miller: He’s gay? 'Cause I’ve been saying that Gore Vidal line.
Karen: He is gay.
Gen. Miller: [pause] Guess I’d better stop saying that then.
You know the one, right?
Suzy: Has she got big tits?
Toby: Oh, Christ alive. Yes, actually, she has. She’s got massive tits. Yes. Look them up on Google Earth. They’ve got their own postcode. They’re so enormous that they actually suck in other tits from the surrounding area.
Toby: Suzy, this is probably going to sound a bit odd under the circumstances, but…
Suzy: A quickie?
Meanwhile, back in Baghdad...
Gen. Miller: No, you’re doing Linton’s dirty work. You’re his English bitch and you don’t even know it. I bet if I went into your hotel room tonight, I’d see you on all fours, little fishnets on, him hanging onto the back of you.
Malcolm: Oh, that’s nice, that’s nice. That’s tough talk coming from a fucking armchair general. Why don’t you put your feet up on a poof and go back to sleep?
Gen. Miller: Tucker, you might be a scary little poodle fucker, back there in London, but here you’re nothing. You know what you look like? A squeezed dick. You’ve got a little blue vein running up the side of your head. See, that’s where I’d put the bullet. But I’d have to stand back, cos you look like you’d be a squirter.
Meanwhile, back in Kabul...
Malcolm: We have got the fucking intelligence.
Simon: I haven’t seen it.
Malcolm: The intelligence we’ve got is so deep, so fucking hard, it’ll fucking puncture your kidneys.
Simon: Where’s it coming from?
Malcolm: There is an informant. Ice Man.
Simon: Ice Man?
Malcolm: I don’t name them. Ice Man. Yeah. And the fact is, the stuff that he’s given us is… I’ve seen it. It would make your blood run cold and clot and turn your insides into fucking black puddings.
For those of you who might have forgotten, that’s “Curveball”.
Malcolm: Right. Was it you?
Simon: No, it wasn’t. No. What?
Malcolm: You do know what I’m talking about, don’t you?
Simon: No. And…And…whatever it was, I almost certainly didn’t do it.
Malcolm: Was it you, the baby from Eraserhead?
Toby: No, no.
Malcolm: Then it must have been you, the woman from The Crying Game.
Judy: It wasn’t me.
Was it you?
Gen. Miller: So you’re not resigning?
Karen: Are you still playing the hawk?
Simon: Well, in…in a way I’m playing a much cleverer game than that. I’m a fake hawk.
Gen. Miller: [pause] A what?
Simon Foster: …Fake hawk?
Gen. Miller: [pause] You’re an idiot. Or are you being a fake idiot?
The best and the brightest!
Gen. Miller: So you’re not resigning?
Karen: Are you still playing the hawk?
Simon: Well, in…in a way I’m playing a much cleverer game than that. I’m a fake hawk.
Gen. Miller: [pause] A what?
Simon Foster: …Fake hawk?
The best and the brightest!
Gen. Miller: My loyalty is to the kids. I am a soldier.
Karen: You’re not a soldier.
Gen. Miller: I’ve been a soldier my whole life! What do you mean I’m not a soldier? I’m a soldier! Look at the uniform - what, do you think I’m one of the fucking Village People?
Karen: When did you shoot a guy last?
Gen. Miller: What, just because I haven’t shot someone in fifteen years. I’m not a soldier? You know, the Army doesn’t make you drag some bullet-ridden bloody corpse into the Pentagon every five years to renew your soldier’s license!
Karen: The war is unnecessary! And if you were a good general, you’d have some balls!
Gen. Miller: Look, shut up about my balls. My balls have been around. You’ve got no idea where my balls have been.
Karen: I can talk about your balls all you want, cos I remember when…
Gen. Miller: Oh, I fucked you once 20 years ago, and I never hear the end of it! Every time we’re together, I hear this shit. I don’t even remember it!
Karen: Come on, Chad. We have to draft resignation announcements.
Chad: Actually, I think I might stay with the General, if that’s OK. If he’s staying, I might stay with him, see what assistance I can furnish.
Karen: OK…General Shrek and his faithful, talking donkey.
A bunch a fuckin losers? Sure. Nickel and dime stuff day after day after day. But you still practice not saying it to their face. If you’re in the neighborhood.
And they ain’t exactly living their lives like zombies. This being, you know, a man’s world.
Still, sometimes I think folks like Scorsese and Tarantino make films like this so they can use the N word. He said in jest.
Supposedly the film is based on actual experiences in Scorsese’s life. Well, it’s up to you to figure how true that is.
98% fresh rating at RT. One critic out of 48 didn’t like it. “Doesn’t cut it for me, I’m afraid”, said Luke Thompson of New Times. Sometimes I feel that way too. But sometimes I don’t.
Mean Streets
Scorsese [voiceover]: You don’t make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets. You do it at home. The rest is bullshit and you know it.
Well, we do now.
Charlie [voiceover]: Okay, I just come out of confession, right? Right. And the priest gives me the usual penance: Ten “Hail Marys”, ten “Our Fathers”, ten whatever. Next week, I’ll come back and he’ll give me another ten “Hail Marys” and… …another ten “Our Fathers” and… I mean, you know how I feel about that shit. Those things, they don’t mean anything to me. They’re just words. Now, that may be okay for the others, but it just doesn’t work for me. I mean, if I do somethin’ wrong, I just want to pay for it my way. So, I do my own penance for my own sins. It’s all bullshit except the pain. The pain of hell. The burn from a lighted match increased a million times. Infinite. Now, ya don’t fuck around with the infinite. There’s no way you do that. The pain in hell has two sides. The kind you can touch with your hand; the kind you can feel in your heart…your soul, the spiritual side. And ya know…the worst of the two is the spiritual.
Finally, the Mob and the Lord explained.
Charlie [voiceover]: You know something? She is really good-lookin’. I gotta say that again. She is really good-lookin’. But she’s black. You can see that real plain, right? Look, there isn’t much of a difference anyway, is there. Well, is there?
Well, is there?
Joey: We’re not payin’ because this guy…this guy’s a fuckin’ mook.
Jimmy: But I didn’t say nothin’.
Joey: And we don’t pay mooks.
Jimmy: A mook? I’m a mook?
Joey: Yeah.
Jimmy: What’s a mook?
Johnny Boy: What’s a mook?
Charlie: I don’t know.
Jimmy: What’s a mook? You can’t call me a mook.
Joey: I can’t?
Jimmy: No!
Joey [punching him in the face]: I’ll give you mook!
[All hell breaks loose]
Hey, this ain’t exactly the Godfather here.
Teresa: You help yourself first.
Charlie: Bullshit, Teresa. That’s where you’re all wrong! Francis of Assisi had it all down. He knew.
Terresa: What are you talkin’ about?
Charlie: He knew.
Teresa: What are you talkin’ about? Saint Francis didn’t run numbers.
As far as we know?
Michael [showing a picture of his new girlfriend]: You think she’s good-looking? She’s smart, too. She’s gonna be a teacher.
Tony: Let me see that. Oh, I know this girl.
Michael: Yeah?
Tony: Yeah…I saw her kissing a n***** under a bridge.
Michael: What? What do you mean?
Tony: A n*****. As in black. A n*****.
Michael: But what do you mean?
Tony: [rolls his eyes] I mean…kissing. Her lips on his lips. Kissing.
Michael: [worried] I kissed her.
Take this to wherever your brains compel you to.
Charlie: I swear to God, if you open your mouth about any of this…
Johnny Boy: About what?
Charlie: You know what I’m talkin’ about.
Johnny Boy: About what? You two? Who cares? I won’t even say nothin’ to my aunt and uncle. The guys don’t give a shit. What do they care? I won’t even say nothin’ to your uncle, Giovanni. I wanted to ask you somethin’, Charlie. I always wondered about her. This is the God’s honest truth. I always wondered about what happens when she comes. She get a fit?
She'll lose control again.
Johnny Boy: You too good for this ten dollars? It’s a good ten dollars. You know Michael, you make me laugh. You see, I borrow money all over this neighborhood, left and right from everybody, I never pay them back. So, I can’t borrow no money from nobody no more, right? So who would that leave me to borrow money from but you? I borrow money from you, because you’re the only jerk-off around here who I can borrow money from without payin’ back, right? You know, 'cause that’s what you are, that’s what I think of you: a jerk-off. You’re a fucking jerk-off! You’re laughing 'cause you’re a jerk-off. I’ll tell 'ya something else,
[lights ten dollar bill on fire]
Johnny Boy: I fuck you right where you breath, because I don’t give two shits about you or nobody else.
[Michael jumps at Johnny Boy and they both fight but Charlie breaks them up, Johnny Boy pulls out a gun]
Johnny Boy: Come on… Come on… fuck face! Come on… ‘ya motherfucker! Motherfucker!.. come on! I got somethin’ for 'ya asshole!
Michael: You don’t- you don’t have the guts to use that.
Johnny Boy: Oh, I don’t have the guts, huh? Come over here, I’ll shove this up yer ass! Come on!
[Michael leaves]
Johnny Boy: Hey asshole, this is for you asshole! He’s a fucking asshole!
The orgies are the least of it. Most of it revolves around some rather pithy [and witty] observations regarding human sexuality. Anything goes all the way around here.
It’s really about the holes in our head we can’t fill…by, for example, becoming preoccupied with filling all the other ones.
It’s over the top at times – like going back to the days of the hippies – but how many films like this are there from which to draw comparisons.
Shortbus
Jesse: Are you a top or a bottom?
Severin: I beg your pardon?
Jesse: I mean in real life.
Severin: This is real life.
Jesse: Let me put it this way: do you think we should get out of Iraq?
Not many in the middle there.
Jesse: Can you describe your last orgasm?
Severin: It was great. It was like time had stopped and I was completely alone.
Jesse: Were you sad afterwards?
Severin: Yeah.
Jesse: Why?
Severin: 'Cause time hadn’t stopped and I wasn’t alone.
Let's get back to them.
Jesse: If you could have any super power what would it be?
Severin: The power to make you interesting.
Let's get back to them.
Jamie [to Sofia, the “couples counselor”]: Come on, give me a breakthrough, you gave him a breakthrough!
Sofia: You don’t just dole out the breakthroughs!
Jamie: Sure you can. Really, give yourself a breakthrough.
Sofia: I don’t need a breakthrough!
Jamie: We all need breakthroughs!
Sofia: Sit down! Sit down!
[She slaps him]
Sofia: I am so sorry…I’m not going to charge you.
He tried to imagine a breakthrough here...
Justin [to Sofia]: These bitches sucking cock and eating ass…then they show up at the buffet and say they’re vegan.
Tee-hee?
Bitch [to Sofia]: So you’re a sex therapist and you’ve never had an orgasm?
“Yeah, all right, but everyone knows they torture people," mumbled Sam.
"Do they?" said Vimes. "Then why doesn't anyone do anything about it?"
"'cos they torture people.” Terry Pratchett
"Or else!" on steroids?
“It is obvious that leftists are not cool-headed logicians systematically analyzing the foundations of knowledge. They are deeply involved emotionally in their attack on truth and reality.” Theodore Kaczynski
Next up: the logic of what he did.
“It's a fool that looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart.” Joel Coen
Or, for some, it's a fool who doesn't.
“Logic is immaturity weaving its nets of gossamer wherewith it aims to catch the behemoth of knowledge. Logic is a crutch for the cripple, but a burden for the swift of foot and a greater burden still for the wise.” Mikhail Naimy
He left out a context, but point taken.
“You say that I'm nobody, and you agree that nobody's perfect.
Based on logic, I'm a perfect person according to your opinion.” Toba Beta
See what I mean?
“How can we satisfy ourselves without going on in infinitum? And, after all, what satisfaction is there in that infinite progression? Let us remember the story of the Indian philosopher and his elephant. It was never more applicable than to the present subject. If the material world rests upon a similar ideal world, this ideal world must rest upon some other; and so on, without end. It were better, therefore, never to look beyond the present material world.” David Hume
Jamie: Ah! You got a boner!
Shabbos Goy: That’s my cell phone, you fuckin’ albino butch faggot!
Leave me out of it.
Jamie: Was that the first time someone sang the National Anthem into your ass?
Ceth: No.
Next up: the gerbil.
Sofia [to Severin]: You are so far behind you think you are first.
Behind what, you might ask.
Severin [to Sofia]: Look I know I can help you have an orgasm, and maybe you can help me to, like, have a real human interaction with someone.
Fair is fair.
Justin [looking at the clients of the Shortbus, having group sex]: It’s just like the 60’s. Only with less hope.
A hell of a lot less hope.
Justin [looking at the orgy]: Oh my God, for a minute there I thought that man didn’t have an arm.
Let's not go there, okay?
Justin: As my dear departed friend Lotus Weinstock used to say: “I used to wanna change the world. Now I just wanna leave the room with a little dignity.”
