Did you ever notice that, throughout the years, there exists a
handful of movies which have become almost equally famous for a certain
spoken line as for the story itself. For example, most of you have
probably heard the famous quote, "I coulda been a contenda" uttered by a distraught
Marlon Brando. But I'd be willing to bet that only a fraction of the
people who are vaguely familiar with it can identify the movie, the name
of Brando's character or, much less, the plot. The film is On The Waterfront,
winner of the Best Picture Oscar from 1954. Another prize commensurate
with the Oscar garnered by that classic was the grade of A which I
bestowed upon it in my Quarterly Cinema Scan on April 2, 2013.
Along the same lines is this: "What we have here is a failure to communicate." Many have heard, or even used,
that expression -- I heard a basketball analyst use it this year when a guard
errantly passed the ball out of bounds because he mistakenly thought
his teammate would be there -- but I dare say they may be stumped in an
attempt to identify the movie (1967's Cool Hand Luke), the
character or actor (originally spoken by Strother Martin playing the
Captain), and the plot. (I gave the film a B in the same QCS noted
above.)
The list of quotes which have come
close to supplanting, in our collective memories, the stories of the
movies in which they were spoken goes on. Examples include "Make my
day" from 1971's Dirty Harry, "I'll have what she's having" from 1989's When Harry Met Sally, and "The Dude abides" from 1998's The Big Lebowski.
One of the most puzzling instances of a movie line becoming almost an
everyday expression was "Love means never having to say you're sorry."
It comes from the 1970's weeper, Love Story, starring Ryan
O'Neill as Oliver Barrett IV and Ali McGraw as Jenny Cavalleri. He is a Harvard senior from a
wealthy family which has sent generations of sons to that Ivy League
school. She's a Radcliffe student from a blue collar family, and works
in the library where they meet. As you might guess from the title, they
fall in love, but their relationship is star-crossed.
The
famous line is uttered only twice. In the first instance, the couple
has a quarrel and Jenny storms out of their house. When she doesn't
return, Oliver unsuccessfully searches for her all over the
neighborhood and nearby campus. He is beside himself when he walks back
to the house in the pouring rain, only to find his wife sitting on the
front steps, shivering and locked out. Pneumonia is a possibility.
Oliver begins to apologize profusely, but Jenny stops him mid-sentence
and tells him there's no need to apologize. "Love means never having to
say you're sorry." (The second time the line is spoken is near the end
of the movie, but to put it in context more would be a spoiler of
sorts.)
My reaction to Jenny's proclamation:
Huh? What a bunch of hooey. It seems to me just the opposite is true.
If more warring couples found the humility to cough up an apology
instead of insisting on getting in the last dig, peace could be restored
more often and more expeditiously. I am confident my position on the
matter is true, yet the line became a catch phrase in the seventies to
the point where it seemed the majority of the public agreed with it.
Maybe it's simply a matter of the words being more catchy than profound.
Here are the movies I watched at the QE during the first three months of this year.
2. For Whom The Bell Tolls (1943 war drama; during the Spanish Civil War, American explosives expert Gary Cooper holes up in a cave with Republican rebels led by Katina Paxinou, and while waiting for the signal to blow up a strategic bridge, he falls in love with Ingrid Bergman.) C
3. Lillith (1964 drama; mental asylum beauty Jean Seberg is the object of affection from fellow inmate Peter Fonda and staff assistant Warren Beatty.) C+
4. Love Story (1970 romance drama; Ryan O'Neill is a legacy Harvard senior who falls for Radcliffe student Ali McGraw, the daughter of an Italian bakery chef.) B
5. Pride And Prejudice (1940 comedy; Greer Garson, the second oldest of five daughters in a commoner's family, is hesitatingly wooed by Laurence Olivier, a wealthy bachelor who initially isn't sure if Greer is good enough for him.) A-
6. Room (2015 drama; after being kidnapped, impregnated and secretly held captive in a back yard shed for seven years, Brie Larson helps her five year old son, Jacob Tremblay, adjust to the outside world, while she herself confronts a range of obstacles and emotions.) B-
7. Scarlet Street (1945 drama; Edward G. Robinson, an unhappily married painter, gets played for a sucker by a much younger Joan Bennett at the urging of her worthless boyfriend, Dan Duryea.) B+
8. Sense And Sensibility (1995 drama; sensible Emma Thompson and her younger sensitive sister, Kate Winslet, are initially unlucky at love, partly due to the English laws which deprive them of inheriting their father's fortune.) B
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