Wednesday, May 9, 2012

That's Why Helicopters Were Not Deployed

Words, sentences, lines, quotes; these things take up residence in my head and stay there. Forever.
From poems, movies, TV, books. I like the way something sounds or the way it's worded and it burrows it's way into my brain and stays there ad infinitum.

Natural Born Killers. Robert Downey Jr. plays Wayne Gale, a reporter covering and exploiting the murderous crime spree of Mickey and Mallory Knox ( Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis). Gale helps Mickey and Mallory escape from prison; they take him with them promising to make him their last victim. Of course he is not thrilled about this and refuses to believe it until the inevitability finally sinks in.
Along the way he believes that he has become one of them, that he has been radically transformed into a psycho, that a bond has been formed. After the prison break Gayle keeps up a running commentary for the camera, at one point wondering why helicopters were not deployed to help in saving him.

Just before Mickey and Mallory exterminate him, there is this conversation:

Wayne Gale: "I thought a bond developed between us."
Mickey: "No. Not really. You're scum, Wayne; you did it for RATINGS. You don't give a shit about us or anybody else except yourself; that's why nobody gives a shit about YOU. That's why "helicopters" were not "deployed".

The tone Mickey uses in saying that last sentence is absolutely perfect. Il fabuloso. I LOVE the way he says it.

I don't think helicopters will be deployed to save my fledgling NHSLC career.



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