To my delight, no one brought up ObamaCare at the dinner table yesterday. My niece’s husband, Ron, and I reminisced about old movies, particularly The Magnificent Seven (1960), which features one of the oddest and most compelling exchanges in the history of westerns. The bandit Calvera, played with gusto by Eli Wallach, and his men ride into the village they plunder annually and meet a band of hired gunmen, played by Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter and Horst Buchholz. The ensuing conversation has existential touches, which make it even more impressive -- absurd, perhaps, but rousing. The entire script is posted on Drew’s Script-O-Rama: http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/m/magnificent-seven-script-transcript.html Here’s the dialogue from one of my all-time favorite movie scenes, written by the late William Roberts. Kudos, sir. I added the actors' names. In a couple of instances, I may have the wrong speaker.
Wallach: l should have guessed. When my men didn´t come back, l should have guessed. How many of you did they hire?
Brynner: Enough.
Wallach: New wall!
Brynner: There are lots of new walls. All around.
Wallach: They won´t keep me out.
Brynner: They were built to keep you in.
Wallach: Did you hear that? We´re trapped! All forty of us! By these three. Or is it four? They couldn´t afford to hire more than that.
Dexter: We come cheaper by the bunch.
Wallach: Five! Even five won´t give us too much trouble.
Brynner: There won´t be any trouble - if you ride on.
Wallach: Ride on? l´m going into the hills for the winter. Where am l going to get food for my men?
McQueen: Buy it or grow it.
Bronson: Or maybe even work for it!
Wallach: Seven! Somehow, l don´t think you´ve solved my problem.
Brenner: Solving your problems isn´t our line.
McQueen: We deal in lead, friend.
Wallach: So do l. We´re in the same business, huh?
McQueen: Only as competitors.
Wallach: Why not as partners? Suppose l offer you equal shares?
McQeen: ln what?
Wallach: Everything. To the last grain.
Buchholz: And the people in the village? What about them?
Wallach: l leave it to you. Can men of our profession worry about things like that? May even be sacrilegious. lf God didn´t want them sheared, he would not have made them sheep. What do you say?
Brynner: Ride on.
Wallach: You hear that, Sotero? You hear what he said? Ride on. To me! (Wallach angrily thrusts his thumb at his chest at least twice) You tell him to ride on before l become angry. Him, and the others! Because if l leave with empty hands, everybody in this village will answer to me when l come back!
Brynner: You won´t come back.
Wallach: Why not?
Brynner: You won´t have any guns. Take them off right now and drop them.
Wallach: Generosity. That was my first mistake. l leave these people a little bit extra and they hire these men to make trouble. lt shows you: sooner or later, you must answer for every good deed.
And the guns blaze.
We also mentioned famous lines spoken by Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney, Jackie Gleason and Art Carney. It was a lot of fun, at least for the two of us. My great nephew Ronnie, on the heels of a $16,500 scholarship offer from Farleigh Dickinson, received one for $9,000 from St. John's. He and his dad's band mates were recently supposed to play a bluegrass gig. They were the next act up when one of the members of the preceding group collapsed due to diabetic complications during its last song. Junior has yet to appear on any Pastimes CDs. I suspect he will be on the next, if there is one. As for his sister Danielle, 14, she quit the JV basketball team and is obsessing about a large dresser she no longer wants in her room.
I ran the floating book shop from the car today, as it wasn't as warm as had been predicted. My thanks to the man and woman who bought novels in Russian.
Vic's 4th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/bszwlxh
Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3
Vic's Website: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/
Vic's Short Story Collection (Print or Kindle): http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/6b86st6
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tiny.cc/94t5h
Vic's Horror Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3
Vic's Rom-Com Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/kny5llp
Vic’s Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
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