1972 DELIVERANCE
Two violent hillbillies humiliate the hikers they find in their territory.
MOUNTAIN MAN
What do you want to do now?
TOOTHLESS MAN
He got a real pretty mouth, ain’t he?
MOUNTAIN MAN
That’s the truth.
He turns to their victim.
TOOTHLESS MAN
You gonna do some prayin’ for me, boy. And you better pray good.
Dir: John Boorman • Scr: James Dickey, based on his novel • Cast: Bill McKinney (Mountain Man), Herbert Coward (Toothless Man)
1973 THE EXORCIST
A demon possessing Regan, a young girl, turns his attention to the priest who hopes to exorcize her.
DEMON
What an excellent day for an exorcism.
FATHER KARRAS
You would like that?
DEMON
Intensely.
FATHER KARRAS
But wouldn’t that drive you out of Regan?
DEMON
It would bring us together.
FATHER KARRAS
You and Regan?
DEMON
You and us.
Dir: William Friedkin • Scr: William Peter Blatty, based on his novel • Cast: Mercedes McCambridge (Demon), Jason Miller (Father Damian Karras)
Author William Peter Blatty could only afford to take time off to write the novel after winning $10,000 [$50,000] on You Bet Your Life, a game show hosted by Groucho Marx. When the film was banned by several local authorities in Britain, enterprising travel companies set up special ‘Exorcist Bus Trips’ to unaffected cinemas.
1978 DAWN OF THE DEAD
One of the survivors of a zombie attack explains why the corpses have risen.
PETER
When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the Earth.
Dir: George A. Romero • Scr: George A. Romero • Cast: Ken Foree (Peter)
1979 ALIEN
Crew members of the Nostromo, an interstellar cargo ship with an alien predator on board, discover their colleague Ash is an android.
RIPLEY
Ash, can you hear me? Ash?
Ash’s head has been torn from his body. His voice sounds electronic now.
ASH
Yes, I can hear you.
RIPLEY
What was your special order?
ASH
You read it. I thought it was clear.
RIPLEY
What was it?
ASH
Bring back life form. Priority One. All other priorities rescinded.
PARKER
The damn company. What about our lives, you son of a bitch?
ASH
I repeat, all other priorities are rescinded.
RIPLEY
How do we kill it, Ash? There’s gotta be a way of killing it. How? How do we do it?
ASH
You can’t.
PARKER
That’s bullshit.
ASH
You still don’t understand what you’re dealing with, do you? A perfect organism. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility.
LAMBERT
You admire it.
ASH
I admire its purity. A survivor. . . unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality.
PARKER
I’ve heard enough of this, and I’m asking you to pull the plug.
Ripley moves to shut Ash down.
ASH
Last word.
RIPLEY
What?
ASH
I can’t lie to you about your chances, but. . . you have my sympathies.
Dir: Ridley Scott • Scr: Dan O’Bannon, Ronald Shusett • Cast: Sigourney Weaver (Ripley), Ian Holm (Ash), Yaphet Kotto (Parker), Veronica Cartwright (Lambert)
1980 THE SHINING
Jack, caretaker of a lonely hotel, has been driven insane by its supernatural inhabitants. Wendy, his wife, tries to escape him.
WENDY
Stay away from me.
JACK
Why?
WENDY
I just wanna go back to my room!
JACK
Why?
WENDY
Well, I’m very confused, and I just need time to think things over.
JACK
You’ve had your whole fucking life to think things over, what good’s a few minutes more gonna do you now?
WENDY
Please! Don’t hurt me!
JACK
I’m not gonna hurt you.
WENDY
Stay away from me!
JACK
Wendy? Darling? Light of my life, I’m not gonna hurt you. You didn’t let me finish my sentence. I said, I’m not gonna hurt you. I’m just going to bash your brains in. Gonna bash ’em right the fuck in!
Dir: Stanley Kubrick • Scr: Stanley Kubrick, Diane Johnson • Based on a novel by Stephen King • Cast: Shelley Duvall (Wendy Torrance), Jack Nicholson (Jack Torrance)
1981 TIME BANDITS
A malevolent sorcerer seeks a cosmic map which will allow him to travel through time.
EVIL GENIUS
When I have the map I will be free and the world will be different, because I have understanding. . . of digital watches. And soon I shall have understanding of videocassette recorders and car telephones. And when I have understanding of them, I shall have understanding of computers. And when I have understanding of computers, I shall be the Supreme Being! God isn’t interested in technology. He knows nothing of the potential of the microchip or the silicon revolution. Look how He spends His time! Forty-three species of parrots! Nipples for men! Slugs! He created slugs. They can’t hear! They can’t speak! They can’t operate machinery! I mean, are we not in the hands of a lunatic? If I were creating a world, I wouldn’t mess about with butterflies and daffodils. I would have started with lasers, eight o’clock, day one!
He presses a button, unleashing the beam. An assistant screams.
Sorry.
Dir: Terry Gilliam • Scr: Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam • Cast: David Warner (Evil Genius)
As a joke to help with the casting of other main characters, Gilliam had written in the script: ‘The warrior (Agamemnon) takes off his helmet, revealing someone who looks exactly like Sean Connery, or an actor of equal but cheaper stature.’ To the director’s surprise, someone gave Connery a copy. He liked it, and signed up.
1986 THE FLY
Scientist Seth Brundle tries to persuade a stranger to help with his teleportation experiments but his colleague Veronica knows it is too dangerous.
TAWNY
I’m afraid.
SETH
Don’t be afraid.
VERONICA
No! Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Dir: David Cronenberg • Scr: David Cronenberg, Charles Edward Pogue • Based on a story by George Langelaan • Cast: Joy Boushel (Tawney), Jeff Goldblum (Seth Brundle), Geena Davis (Veronica Quaife)
When Jeff Goldblum’s character delivers the line ‘I’m an insect who dreamed he was a man and loved it, but now that dream is over and the insect is awake,’ he is referring to Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis (1915), in which the narrator discovers he has been transformed into a cockroach. Cronenberg’s original conception featured several other biological mutations including an ape/cat hybrid and a child born with butterfly wings, but they were omitted from his final cut. Although a film’s end credits typically give the director top billing, Cronenberg broke with precedent and listed Chris Walas first for his groundbreaking work in creating the special effects make-up for the creature. Walas duly won the Academy Award. Over twenty years later Cronenberg teamed up with the film’s composer, Howard Shore, to create an opera based on the story. It had its first showing at the prestigious Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in 2008.
1990 MISERY
A writer is wounded in a car accident and held helpless by his rescuer, a woman obsesse
d by his work.
ANNIE
There’s nothing to worry about. You’re going to be just fine — I’m your number one fan.
Dir: Rob Reiner: • Scr: William Goldman • Based on a novel by Stephen King • Cast: Kathy Bates (Annie Wilkes)
1991 THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
A serial killer renowned for cannibalism taunts an FBI agent who seeks his help.
LECTER
A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.
Dir: Jonathan Demme • Scr: Ted Tally • Based on a novel by Thomas Harris • Cast: Anthony Hopkins (Dr Hannibal Lecter)
The pattern on the moth’s body in the poster was changed to echo Salvador Dalí’s In Voluptas Mors, which shapes seven naked women into the image of a skull. The Tobacco horn worm moths used in the film received five-star treatment, being flown first-class in special carriers and kept in a climate-controlled room before being costumed in special body shields bearing a skull and crossbones.
1993 SCHINDLER’S LIST
SS officer Amon Goeth rallies his troops before a raid to eliminate the Jewish ghetto in Krakow.
GOETH
Today is history. Today will be remembered. Years from now the young will ask with wonder about this day. Today is history and you are part of it. Six hundred years ago when elsewhere they were footing the blame for the Black Death, Casimir the Great — so called — told the Jews they could come to Krakow. They came. They trundled their belongings into the city. They settled. They took hold. They prospered in business, science, education, the arts. With nothing they came and with nothing they flourished. For six centuries there has been a Jewish Krakow. By this evening those six centuries will be a rumour. They never happened. Today is history.
Dir: Steven Spielberg • Scr: Steven Zaillian • Based on a novel by Thomas Keneally • Cast: Ralph Fiennes (Amon Goeth)
1995 SE7EN
A serial killer exacts revenge on the detective pursuing him.
JOHN DOE
I visited your home this morning after you’d left. I tried to play husband. I tried to taste the life of a simple man. It didn’t work out, so I took a souvenir: her pretty head.
Dir: David Fincher • Scr: Andrew Kevin Walker • Cast: Kevin Spacey (John Doe)
1995 THE USUAL SUSPECTS
A crippled conman describes the elusive criminal mastermind responsible for the deaths of his colleagues.
VERBAL
Who is Keyser Söze? He is supposed to be Turkish. Some say his father was German. Nobody believed he was real. Nobody ever saw him or knew anybody that ever worked directly for him, but to hear Kobayashi tell it, anybody could have worked for Söze. You never knew. That was his power. The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. And like that, poof. He’s gone.
Dir: Bryan Singer • Scr: Christopher McQuarrie • Cast: Kevin Spacey (Roger ‘Verbal’ Kint)
The quote about the devil is by French poet Charles Baudelaire, although the film-makers were unaware of its origin. Strangely, a similar remark appears in End of Days (1999), also starring Gabriel Byrne and Kevin Pollak.
‘WHO IS KEYSER SÖZE?’
Although filled with compelling characters and memorable dialogue, The Usual Suspects is a rare example of a thriller whose construction feels almost purely intellectual. Through flashbacks, contradiction, ambiguity and visual sleight-of-hand it draws the audience into a world where facts are unreliable and the very concept of ‘writing’ is shown to be a kind of game.
Director Bryan Singer’s inspiration was the line in Casablanca where Captain Renault tells his men to ‘round up the usual suspects’; Singer’s subsequent conception consisted simply of five criminals who meet in a police line-up. When he asked writer Christopher McQuarrie what could have drawn the men together, McQuarrie remembered a true story he had read about a man who murdered his family and disappeared for decades. As McQuarrie began writing in lunch breaks at the law firm where he worked he was distracted by a cluttered notice board and decided to use it as a motif for the story. From these fragments they created a journey that was to be as immersive for its cast as for its audience.
In the line-up and interrogation scenes, shot before the rest of the film, McQuarrie fed the cast questions off-camera and they improvised answers. From the start of the process, the ‘criminals’ seemed to be united against the authorities (the film-makers), refusing to take the shooting seriously and constantly trying to make each other laugh. When Singer upbraided them, they ignored him; in the end he was forced to use the takes where they cracked up, and the editor put the scenes together in a way that showed the men were – quite genuinely – forging relationships with one another.
McQuarrie gave the suspects names from staff members at the law firm and this method of purely random invention became a key part of his storytelling. By the end of the film we realize that ‘Verbal’ Kint’s statement to the detectives has been entirely fabricated using haphazard details from the police station where he is interrogated to provide ‘evidence’ and corroborative detail for his confession.
Singer used a similar trick to ensure realism in the actors’ performances: because the police investigation revolves around exactly who criminal mastermind Keyzer Söze is, the director refused to give any of his cast the answer. Kevin Spacey revealed later that Singer had managed to persuade all the main players that they themselves were the anti-hero. When the film was first screened for the cast Gabriel Byrne (as Dean Keaton) was so shocked to discover he was not the central figure that he fled to the parking lot where he yelled at Singer for an hour. Debate still rages in internet movie chat rooms, where fans who have watched the film dozens of times offer their conclusions: most claim Kint is Söze (his surname means ‘verbal’ in Turkish) while others suggest the lawyer Kobayashi is the only character with enough knowledge to mastermind the entire story. Other aficionados insist Kobayashi himself is a fiction – just a name Kint saw on a detective’s coffee mug.
Five different actors were used to play Söze as their conflicting viewpoints are explored, and the whole film initially seems to be an impenetrable construction of interlocking fictions. On repeated viewing, however, it displays a masterful confidence in its deceptions and once the truth is revealed a multitude of details prove that a careful observer might have followed the plot without distraction. As if to prove how much he enjoyed baffling us along the way, writer McQuarrie has a cameo as a police officer at the end when he just turns to the camera and laughs.
1997 THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE
Satan – in the form of a New York lawyer – warns that God will not save the human race from its own greed and selfishness.
MILTON
You sharpen the human appetite to the point where it can split atoms with its desire. You build egos the size of cathedrals. Fibre-optically connect the world to every ego impulse. Grease even the dullest dreams with these dollar-green, gold-plated fantasies until every human becomes an aspiring emperor, becomes his own god. Where can you go from there? And as we’re scrambling from one deal to the next, who’s got his eye on the planet? As the air thickens, the water sours. Even the bees’ honey takes on the metallic taste of radioactivity — and it just keeps coming, faster and faster. . . And then it hits home: you gotta pay your own way, Eddie. It’s a little late in the game to buy out now. Your belly’s too full, your dick is sore, your eyes are bloodshot, and you’re screaming for someone to help. But guess what? There’s no one there.
Dir: Taylor Hackford • Scr: Jonathan Lemkin, Tony Gilroy • Based on a novel by Andrew Neiderman • Cast: Al Pacino (John Milton)
1997 DECONSTRUCTING HARRY
The Devil offers his view on life.
THE DEVIL
It’s like Vegas. You’re up, you’re down, but in the end the house always wins.
Dir: Woody Allen • Scr: Woody Allen • Cast: Billy Crystal (The Devil)
1999 AUSTIN POWERS: THE SPY WHO S
HAGGED ME
Dr Evil explains to his son why he abandoned him.
DR EVIL
You’re semi-evil. You’re quasi-evil. You’re the margarine of evil. You’re the Diet Coke of evil. Just one calorie, not evil enough.
Dir: Jay Roach • Scr: Mike Myers, Michael McCullers • Cast: Mike Myers (Dr Evil)
2000 AMERICAN PSYCHO
A jaded killer hires two prostitutes to amuse him.
PATRICK
Do you like Phil Collins? I’ve been a big Genesis fan ever since the release of their 1980 album, Duke. Before that, I really didn’t understand any of their work. Too artsy, too intellectual. It was on Duke where Phil Collins’ presence became more apparent. I think Invisible Touch was the group’s undisputed masterpiece. It’s an epic meditation on intangibility. At the same time, it deepens and enriches the meaning of the preceding three albums. Christy, take off your robe. Listen to the brilliant ensemble playing of Banks, Collins and Rutherford. You can practically hear every nuance of every instrument. Sabrina, remove your dress. In terms of lyrical craftsmanship, the sheer songwriting, this album hits a new peak of professionalism. Sabrina, why don’t you, uh, dance a little. Take the lyrics to ‘Land of Confusion’. In this song, Phil Collins addresses the problems of abusive political authority. ‘In Too Deep’ is the most moving pop song of the 1980s, about monogamy and commitment. The song is extremely uplifting. Their lyrics are as positive and affirmative as anything I’ve heard in rock. Christy, get down on your knees so Sabrina can see your asshole. Phil Collins’ solo career seems to be more commercial and therefore more satisfying, in a narrower way. Especially songs like ‘In the Air Tonight’ and ‘Against All Odds’. Sabrina, don’t just stare at it, eat it. But I also think Phil Collins works better within the confines of the group than as a solo artist, and I stress the word artist. This is ‘Sussudio’: a great, great song, a personal favourite.
All the Best Lines Page 18