John Holt:
Caleb, if I had to ask you why you're so frustrated with Catherine, what would you say?
Caleb Holt:
She's stubborn. She makes everything difficult for me. She's ungrateful. She's constantly griping about something.
John Holt:
Has she thanked you for anything you've done in the last 20 days?
Caleb Holt:
No! And you'd think after I washed the car, changed the oil, do the dishes, washed the house, that she would try to show me a little bit of gratitude, but she doesn't. In fact, when I come home, she makes me feel like I'm an enemy! I'm not even welcome in my own home, dad! That is what really ticks me off! Dad, for the last three weeks I have bent over backwards for her! I have tried to demonstrate that I still care about this relationship. I bought her flowers, which she threw away. I have taken her insults and her sarcasm, but last night was it. I made dinner for her. I did everything I could to demonstrate that I care about her, to show value for her, and she spat in my face! She does not deserve this, dad! I am not doing it anymore! How am I supposed to show love to somebody over and over and over, who constantly rejects me?
John Holt:
[John Holt strokes the wooden cross, and turns to Caleb] That's a good question.
Caleb Holt:
Dad, that is not what I'm doing.
John Holt:
Is it?
Caleb Holt:
No. Dad, that is not what this is about.
John Holt:
Son, you just asked me: how can someone show love over and over again when they're constantly rejected? Caleb, the answer is: you can't love her, because you can't give her what you don't have. I couldn't truly love your mother until I understood what love truly was. It's not because I get some reward out of it. I've now made a decision to love your mother whether she deserves it or not. Son, God loves you, even though you don't deserve it. Even though you've rejected Him. Spat in His face. God sent Jesus to die on the cross for your sin, because He loves you. The cross was offensive to me, until I came to it. But when I did, Jesus Christ changed my life. That's when I truly began to love your mom. Son, I can't settle this for you. This is between you and the Lord. But I love you too much not to tell you the truth. Can't you see that you need Him? Can't you see that you need His forgiveness?
Caleb Holt:
Yes.
John Holt:
Will you trust Him with your life? [Caleb nods; yes]
[at a seminar, Charlie Kaufman has asked McKee for advice on his new screenplay in which 'nothing much happens']
Robert McKee:
Nothing happens in the world? Are you out of your fucking mind? People are murdered every day. There's genocide, war, corruption. Every fucking day, somewhere in the world, somebody sacrifices his life to save someone else. Every fucking day, someone, somewhere takes a conscious decision to destroy someone else. People find love, people lose it. For Christ's sake, a child watches her mother beaten to death on the steps of a church. Someone goes hungry. Somebody else betrays his best friend for a woman. If you can't find that stuff in life, then you, my friend, don't know crap about life! And why the FUCK are you wasting my two precious hours with your movie? I don't have any use for it! I don't have any bloody use for it!
Charlie Kaufman:
Okay, thanks.
Vinny Gambini:
I understand you played a game of pool with Lisa for $200, which she won. I'm here to collect.
J.T.:
How 'bout if I just kick your ass?
Vinny Gambini:
Oh, a counter-offer. That's what we lawyers - I'm a lawyer - we lawyers call that a counter-offer. This is a tough decision here. Get my ass kicked or collect $200. Let me think... I could use a good ass-kickin', I'll be very honest with you... nah, I think I'll just go with the two hundred.
J.T.:
Over my dead body.
Vinny Gambini:
You like to renegotiate as you go along, don't you? Well here's my counter-offer... do I have to kill you? What if I were just to kick the ever loving shit out of you?
J.T.:
In your dreams.
Vinny Gambini:
Oh no no... in reality. If I was to kick the shit out of you, do I get the money?
J.T.:
You kick the shit, out of me.
Vinny Gambini:
Yeah.
J.T.:
Yeah. you get the money.
Vinny Gambini:
So, here are my options. Option A: I get my ass kicked or Option B: I kick your ass and collect the 200. I think I'm gonna go with Option B: Kickin' your ass and collecting $200. [Takes off his jacket]
J.T.:
We're gonna fight now?
Vinny Gambini:
Yeah. But first, show me the money.
J.T.:
I have it.
Vinny Gambini:
You have it, then show it to me.
J.T.:
[pause] I can get it.
Vinny Gambini:
You can get it? Okay, get it. Then we'll fight. [Takes his jacket from Lisa]
Professor Freidman:
What you have before you is a cautionary tale. I was the chairman on Mr. Sherman's honour thesis committee. His paper was a wanton assault on every principle this institution holds dear. Now, you should all be open to original thinkers, but his thesis wasn't original. It was an 80 page temper-tantrum. So, instead of re-writing it, he drops out of school. You can see that decision has gotten him far. Behold, ladies and gentlemen, this is what happens when you stray from my syllabus.
Will Sherman:
Um, sir, with all do respect sir, why don't you take your Categorical Imperative, and shove it up your ass.
Gwen Saticoy:
[En route to the Osborne residence] ... You used to be a prosecutor. Why'd you change sides?
Merle Hammond:
Same reason everyone does. Money.
Gwen Saticoy:
Doesn't it ever feel strange, defending people you used to prosecute?
Merle Hammond:
...I learned some of my best tricks in the DA's office.
Gwen Saticoy:
Is that a term they teach in law school? "Trick"?
Merle Hammond:
I can feel that sanctimonious lecture on truth and ethics just hovering over those self-righteous lips of yours.
Gwen Saticoy:
...I'm curious: Is the whole point to trick everybody? The judge, the witnesses, the jury?
Merle Hammond:
Juries aren't bright enough to trick. After all, these are people too dumb to figure a way out of jury duty. Not that I'm complaining, mind you; as far as I'm concerned, the dumber they are, the better.
Gwen Saticoy:
Okay... Let's say I get a group of shoppers from the grocery store. I take them to a hospital, where two neurologists are trying to figure out whether to operate on a patient's frontal lobe, or his cereberal cortex. After the doctors explain the pros and cons of each operation to these shoppers, they still have no idea what should be done... Would you consider THEM dumb?
Merle Hammond:
The jury's obligation is to render a decision based on the facts presented. Nonetheless, I find your defense of them admirable; it isn't often you hear someone speak so highly of sheep.
Gwen Saticoy:
Well, as one of their shepherds, don't you feel any responsibility when they end up roaming aimlessly in some field... far off the mark?
Merle Hammond:
I don't give a damn where they wind up, or how they got there, so long as I win. In law school, you learn LAW; in the *courtroom,* you learn SURVIVAL. Your job is to *get your client off.* And believe me, if I were defending YOU on a murder charge, you wouldn't want it any other way... Whenever anyone preaches about a "fair trial," what they really mean is one that ends in their favor. *That* makes it fair.
He himself, he realized, had always been most abominably frightened, even at the height of his divine power, a frail god upon a rickety throne, afraid of opening letters, of making decisions, afraid of the instinctive knowledge in the eyes of mules, of the innocent eyes of good men, of the elastic nature of the passions, even of the devotion he had received from some men, and one woman, and dogs.
Kaffee:
Lt. Kendrick, was Lance Corporal Dawson given a below average rating on this last report because you learned he had been sneaking food to Private Bell?
Capt. Ross:
Object!
Judge Randolph:
Not so fast. Lieutenant?
Lt. 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?
Lt. Kendrick:
He disobeyed an order!
Kaffee:
And because he did. Because he exercised his own set of values. Because he made a decision about the welfare of another Marine which was in conflict with an order of yours he was punished. Isn't that right.
Lt. Kendrick:
Lance Corporal Dawson disobeyed an order!
Kaffee:
Yeah, but it wasn't a real order, was it? I mean it's peace time. He wasn't being asked to secure a hill or advance on a beach head. Surely a Marine of Dawson's intelligence can be trusted to determine, on his own, which are the really important orders and which orders might, say, be morally questionable? Lieutenant Kendrick? Can he? Can Dawson determine on his own which orders he's going to follow?
Lt. Kendrick:
No, he cannot.
Kaffee:
A lesson he learned after the Curtis Bell incident, am I right?
Lt. Kendrick:
I would think so.
Kaffee:
You know so don't you, Lieutenant.
Capt. Ross:
Object!
Judge Randolph:
Sustained.
Kaffee:
Lieutenant Kendrick, one final question. If you had ordered Dawson to give Santiago a code red...
Lt. Kendrick:
[Interrupting, exasperated] I SPECIFICALLY ORDERED THOSE MEN NOT TO TOUCH SANTIAGO!
Kaffee:
...would it be reasonable to think he would have disobeyed you again?
Capt. Ross:
Lieutenant, don't answer that!
Kaffee:
You don't have to, I'm through.
Capt. Ross:
Lieutenant Kendrick, did you order Lance Corporal Dawson and Private Downey to give Willie Santiago a code red? [Kendrick initially refuses to answer, sensing he's been caught lying]
Capt. Ross:
Lieutenant Kendrick! Did you...
Lt. Kendrick:
No, I did not!
Mrs. Clack:
[Edward Walker tells the group he has sent Ivy to the towns to fetch medicines] What have you done?
Edward Walker:
He is the victim of a crime.
Mrs. Clack:
We have agreed never to go back. Never
Edward Walker:
What was the purpose of our leaving? Don't forget, it was out of hope of something good and right.
Robert Percy:
You should not have made decisions without us!
Edward Walker:
I'm guilty, Robert! I made a decision of a heart, I cannot look into another's eyes and see the same look I see in August's without justification! It is too painful, I cannot bear it!
Mrs. Clack:
You have jeopardized everything we have made.
Edward Walker:
Who do you think will continue this place, this life? Do you plan to live forever? It is in them that our future lies, it is in Ivy and Lucius that this way of life will continue. Yes I have risked, I hope I am always able to risk everything for the just and right cause. If we did not make this decision, we could never again call ourselves innocent, and that in the end is what we have protected here, innocence! That I'm not ready to give up.
August Nicholson:
Let her go. If it ends, it ends. We can move towards hope, that's what's beautiful about this place. We cannot run from heartache. My brother was slain in the towns, the rest of my family died here. Heartache is a part of life, we know that now. Ivy is running toward hope, let her run. If this place is worthy, she'll be successful in her quest.
Mrs. Clack:
How could you have sent her. She is blind.
Edward Walker:
She is more capable than most in this village. And she is led by love. The world moves for love. It kneels before it in awe.
Lance Armstrong:
Could I get a bottle of water. - - Hey, aren't you Peter La Fleur?
Peter La Fleur:
Lance Armstrong!
Lance Armstrong:
Yeah, that's me. But I'm a big fan of yours.
Peter La Fleur:
Really?
Lance Armstrong:
Yeah, I've been watching the dodgeball tournament on the Ocho. ESPN 8. I just can't get enough of it. But, good luck in the tournament. I'm really pulling for you against those jerks from Globo Gym. I think you better hurry up or you're gonna be late.
Peter La Fleur:
Uh, actually I decided to quit... Lance.
Lance Armstrong:
Quit? You know, once I was thinking about quitting when I was diagnosed with brain, lung and testicular cancer, all at the same time. But with the love and support of my friends and family, I got back on the bike and I won the Tour de France five times in a row. But I'm sure you have a good reason to quit. So what are you dying from that's keeping you from the finals?
Peter La Fleur:
Right now it feels a little bit like... shame.
Lance Armstrong:
Well, I guess if a person never quit when the going got tough, they wouldn't have anything to regret for the rest of their life. But good luck to you Peter. I'm sure this decision won't haunt you forever.
