Quotes and Unquotes

Unlike my “never trust anyone over thirty” generation, a recent poll of America’s teenagers showed a majority of them view their parents as their best friends and enjoy not only living with them, but spending their free time with Moms and Pops.

Which doesn’t mean that a cultural generation gap no longer exists, as my recent google search of most popular movie quotes points out. A glance at the top ten of AFI’s 100 Movie Quotes turned up a preponderance of dramas (eight in all) with two of the three top lines emoted by Marlon Brando. But a quick click over to the younger-skewing imdb shows their top ten movie quote pages lean heavily towards comedies (six, seven if you count “Pulp Fiction”) with Will Ferrell starring in four of them.

I bring up these factual flotsam and jetsam because the pieces of dialogue that stick in my head would never be found on either list. Any actor worth their thespian salt will tell you that, given a really juicy piece of dialogue, the trick is to treat it like a throwaway lest you ruin it with overstatement. To my mind, what defines a real pro is mouthing a few innocuous words that flash a glint of what really makes their character tick.

Take Steve Buscemi’s Mr. Pink in “Reservoir Dogs.” Up until the scene between himself and Mr. White (Harvey Keitel), where the two parse exactly how the hell their carefully planned diamond heist went so hideously wrong, he comes across as a hyperactive, motor-mouthed cheapskate who’s probably made it this far in the crime game due to sheer dumb luck, emphasis on the dumb. But as White runs down his remembrance of the blood-soaked massacre inside the jewelry store, Pink brings him up short with a pointed “That’s incorrect.” Not only are the two words intoned with the professorial air of an Oxford don, they’re a far cry from the profanity-laced tirades he’s been spouting off since the beginning of the film. Followed by his astonishingly accurate play-by-play and ultimately correct conclusion that he, White and the rest of their black-suited posse were, indeed, set up, you realize that Pink may just be the smartest color in this criminal Crayola pack.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” intoned by Javier Bardem’s preternaturally stoic homicidal maniac, Anton Chigurh, in the Coen Brothers’ “No Country for Old Men” is next on my list. You may (or may not) remember this line from the nail-biting scene between himself and the good ole boy gas station proprietor. The exchange starts innocuously enough, as Chigurh asks how much he owes for gas and a package of cashews, then quickly turns menacing when the owner innocently inquires after the weather in Dallas. Realizing he’s somehow gotten himself in serious hot water with a bad hombre, the owner falsely claims he’s getting ready to close up shop but, under Chigurh’s relentless questioning, starts floundering like a fish out of water. That’s when Chigurh comes out with the above referenced sentence, but not before slightly choking on one of those cashews. Accompanied by the faintest of gasps, it’s the first time you see a trace of emotion rattle the killer’s cage, even if it is only mild shock at what a simple-minded rube he’s playing with. Maybe Anton is a human being after all, instead of an air gun-toting automaton. (And for those of you who still haven’t seen this terrific flick, I won’t ruin it by commenting further.)

From the horrific to the hopeful, I’ll round out my top three with “Grand Canyon,” an episodic tale of how fate brings together various characters from opposite sides of the racial, social and economic chasm in modern-day Los Angeles. The film starts with wealthy lawyer Kevin Kline taking a wrong turn after a Lakers’ game, ending up on the mean streets of South Central, where his luxury ride promptly breaks down. Menaced by a group of young black men, one of them toting a gun, Kline is rescued by cowboy boot-wearing tow-truck driver Danny Glover. Wanting to show his appreciation for Glover’s one-man cavalry act, Kline takes him out for breakfast, where Glover reminisces about his late elderly father, whom he once asked how he accounted for his longevity as a black man in an often hostile world. “What was his answer?” Kline wants to know. Glover glances up from his plate and replies, “Habit.” Right there, you understand where Glover gets the cojones to not only talk down a pistol-packing car thief but survive, day in and day out, in the urban jungle of LA – keep your well-worn boots on the ground and get the job done.

They may not be on any list of quotable movie quotes, but these ordinary lines, and their extraordinary deliveries, do just that. Unquote.