Movie Line that Taught Me Something
 

OK, it's kitschy, and at my age, I should probably know this.

The 'Slack, waiting at my desk today to close the hyoooojest deal my firm's ever done, pulled up Evan Almighty, and while watching it, listening in on a teleconference I'd muted, came this line.

It requires context, and, frankly, imagining Morgan Freeman (as God) delivering it:

Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient?

If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous?

If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?

Life changing? For those (most) of you who are more mature than I am, probably not. For me ... it may be. Which may be sad; but it'd be more sad never to have thought of it that way.

Best,

JP

I watched that movie twice on trans continental flights. Each time, I was oddly struck by the same statement you show above. It was an unexpected jewel of logic that appeared in an otherwise rather clownish movie.

Rather like the writer had an epiphany in the midst of the slapstick.

angela

I'll play along:

God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shiite we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.

- Tyler Durden, Fight Club

now quit badmouthing hollywood and get back to work ;)

Maybe not a line from a movie, per se, but the "point" of the movie GARDEN STATE really got to me: sometimes life hurts like hell, but that is much preferrable to being numb, because being numb isn't living.

maybe morgan freeman was giving you the opportunity to be sad by enlightening you :)

good gawd, one of the worst movies I saw this year

From "Office Space" - "it's like the first day of prison - you either kick someone's ass or become someone's b*tch".

I think it's a generational thing. What is poignant to one age group seems pointless to another.

"A man's got to know his limitations"


Harry Callahan, Magnum Force


Best philosophical line I've heard in a Movie. Appeals as some twits I work with don't, and I see the harm that does.

no, I think self-indulgent tripe transcends generations ;)

I actually like Zach Braff, but I *really* didn't care for the film. Maybe I watched if on the wrong night...

Occasionally reading books, or watching movies I pick up little gems that make me wonder if the writer got really lucky, or if they are just that smart or profound.

I don't know if that line was one of those "deep thoughts", but it also got my attention when I watched the movie, which I thought was pretty good, better than Bruce Almighty, actually.


I had a thought once (yep, just the one). I had been laid off and was working in a crummy job, but it was paying the bills. The customers that I was serving mostly sucked and the environment sucked. I hated the job, but you do what you have to do. One night, the customers were particularly annoying me and I was particularly hating the job. And then I had a thought. I thought that I need to change my attitude, be more humble, less superior, and more tolerant. No matter how many problems someone has or what your impression is of the person, they can always teach you something. There's always something that you can learn from everyone. And if you imagine that everyone can teach you something, then your attitude towards that person should reflect that they can be your teacher.

Maybe some of you agree, maybe not.

And then you smacked the jerk-off customer?

"Sometimes your best just isn't ****** good enough!"

"Yippee Cayeh Mother FKer"
"Come and meet my lil sista"

and whatever Mel Gibson said just before the fight in braveheart.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1198230818.jpg

OK, they haven't made the movie yet?

"Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government!," Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

"I have an M.D. from Harvard. I am board certified in cardiothoracic medicine and trauma surgery. I have been awarded citations from seven different medical boards in New England, and I am never, ever sick at sea. So I ask you: When someone goes into that chapel and they fall on their knees and they pray to God that their wife doesn't miscarry, or that their daughter doesn't bleed to death, or that their mother doesn't suffer acute neural trauma from postoperative shock, who do you think they're praying to? Now, go ahead and read your Bible, Dennis! And you go to your church, and, with any luck, you might win the annual raffle, but if you're looking for God, he was in operating room number two on November seventeenth, and he doesn't like to be second guessed. You ask me if I have a God complex? Let me tell you something -- I am God!"

Alec Baldwin-Malice

My favorite from Office Space:

Peter Gibbons: So I was sitting in my cubicle today, and I realized, ever since I started working, every single day of my life has been worse than the day before it. So that means that every single day that you see me, that's on the worst day of my life.

Dr. Swanson: What about today? Is today the worst day of your life?

Peter Gibbons: Yeah.

Dr. Swanson: Wow, that's messed up.

I agree. It is annoying as hell that it is true, but I believe it is.

It has taken me a long time to really get this.

I was going to post a bit about what my elderly mother has taught me but decided to start a new thread about the things you learn as you grow older.

As for movies: I went through a divorce from my childhood sweetheart after 20 years of what I thought was a largely happy marriage. She came home one day and wanted out. Some of you that "know" me here know this has profoundly effected me/my life as I have mentioned it here before.

I was hurt, I was financially ruined, I was heartbroken and bitter all at the same time. I saw the Tom Hanks' movie "Cast Away" (anyone else notice the title is NOT "Castaway"?) I won't get these quotes exactly correct but words to the effect, "I am so sad I've lost Jenny but I'm so glad I had her on that island". He also says something like, "I learned I have to stay alive because the sun will rise, and you never know what the tide will bring..."

For me it was a bit of a revelation. I was really, really sad and upset that my marriage ended but I was glad I had it. I have two wonderful grown children from it and many happy memories. There were very bleak times there for awhile but my life now is good. I have an old house I am fixing up. I have a beautiful woman that loves me, I have a nice old Porsche I have fixed up. My life is good.

Not very profound, especially from an 'archangel', but I like it and repeat it often:

"You can never eat too much sugar".

"Here, we will trade you this ARVN rifle, it's only been dropped once"

Full Metal Jacket

"What we have here is a failure to comunicate"

Struther Martin in Cool Hand Luke

OK, not that I learned anything but they are good lines.

"Sooner or later we have to choose between what is right and what is easy."

Albus Dumbledore, can't remember which flick but I think it was goblet of fire.

Yeah, I like the potter...what of it?

Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Whose gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinburg? I have more responsibility here 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 that my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. I know deep down in places you dont talk about at parties, you don't 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 I provide, then question the manner in which I provide it. I prefer you said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand to post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to!

Jack Nicholson (Col. Jessup)

(I already knew this .. some of you need to learn from it! :D)

In the Dustin Hoffmann/ Steve McQueen classic Papillon, there is a dream sequence. Steve McQueen's charachter is doing time on Devil's Island. His life is utter hopelessness and futility. In his dream he is a young man again. Proud, defiant he faces a French panel of judges.

The judge booms, "You stand accused... of a wasted life."

McQueen is surprised by the charge. Not what he was expecting. The defiance is gone. He hangs his head and mutters " Guilty... Guilty."

That scene has replayed in my head many times. Maybe it stuck a nerve. I don't know. A wasted life. Wow.

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William Munney to (wounded) Little Bill as he looks at him down the barrel of his rifle preparing to end Bill's life.

"Deserve's got nothing to do with it."


The correct line from Cool Hand Luke is:
"What we have here, is failure, to communicate."

My other favorite from that movie:
"My mind's right Boss. My mind's right."

how did you sit through the whole thing is what I want to know.

My life has too much value for me to sit through a crappy movie.

Here is one of my favorite literary quotes, from Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow (which is, by most estimations, one of the most difficult books in the English language to decode into a set of organizing symbologies). The quote is brilliant because it not only says something about life in general, but also acts as a disclaimer to those attempting to decode the book:

"He gets back to the Casino just as big globular raindrops, thick as honey, begin to splat into giant asterisks on the pavement, inviting him to look down at the bottom of the text of the day, where footnotes will explain all. He isn't about to look. Nobody ever said a day has to be juggled into any kind of sense at day's end." (204)

My favorite quote from that movie:

"It's your world, Boss."

That one has stuck in my head for 15 years. It reminds me that I have to abide by the "Boss"'s rules when I'm in his "world". For example, Wayne is the "Boss" of Pelican, and it is his world.

It also reminds me that some people think they are the boss of their own world (like a self-absorbed teenager), when they are really not.

My favorite line and one that I apply in many situations. It has helped me in more tight spots than any. It was the total dialogue performed by Yule Brenner in Westworld. His line you ask? He said nothing the entire movie. His performance taught me the less said is better and you never questioned his motivation for the entire movie.

I absolutely love this passage from Walden:

"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour."

Sean Connery The Rock:
"Losers always whine about giving their best, while the winners are out f***ing the prom queen."

Me:
"There are two kinds of people in the world, ones that get told what to do and ones that tell others what to do, and you get to decide which one you want to be."

No end to 'what you can do' or 'what you can't do'?

"This beer tastes like piss"
"That's because we pissed in it"

Sometimes the answer is simple, even if it's not what we wanted to hear.

No, the double negative is intentional, I think. He's saying if you think effort will compensate for skill, you're wrong - watch how little you get accomplished.

"I'm fixin ta kill you with it .... "

slingblade.

Slacker,

I'm right there with you. Not only with Freeman's quote, which struck a chord with me, but also with putting an important conference call on mute and watching a movie (or some other such distraction).

Thanks for helping me out with the Cool Hand Luke quote Mule, and I know you didn't understand the line from Full Metal Jacket.

Uh yeah? that's what I meant, cuz I'm such a smart fker.

Ha, I think I screwed it up; again!
Thanks PBH, I'm a gonna fix that.
Should've proofed it a little closer before I stole it?
Hey I'm a Christian, plagarism is welcomed.

I've hit "stop" on a few, and walked out of a handful of movies. It was kind of like a trainwreck, and I thought it was going to get better at some point. Never did.

Weren't some of you guys throwing quotes out the same ones slagging the writers and saying they were no-talent, didn't deserve a job, etc? Not that there's any irony in this thread ;)