Daily Dialogue — December 5, 2014
Private Reiben: Well put your money where your mouth is and do it! Do it! Pull the trigger already!
Sergeant Horvath: You don’t know when to shut up. You don’t know how to shut up.
Corporal Upham: Captain, please!
Captain Miller: Mike? What’s the pool on me up to right now? What’s it up to? What is it three hundred dollars — is that it? Three hundred? I’m a school teacher. I teach English Composition in this little town called Addley, Pennsylvania. The last eleven years, I’ve been at Thomas Alva Edison High School. I was coach of the baseball team in the spring time. Back home when I tell people what I do for a living, they think, well, that, that figures. But over here its a big, a big mystery. So I guess I’ve changed some. Sometimes I wonder if I’ve changed so much my wife is even gonna to recognize me whenever it is I get back to her — and how I’ll ever be able to tell her about days like today. Ryan — I don’t know anything about Ryan. I don’t care. Man means nothin’ to me. It’s just a name. But if — you know — if going to Ramel and finding him so he can go home, if that earns me the right to get back to my wife — well, then, then that’s my mission. You wanna leave? You wanna go off and fight the war? Alright. Alright, I won’t stop you. I’ll even put in the paperwork. I just know that every man I kill the farther away from home I feel.
— Saving Private Ryan (1998), written by Robert Rodat
The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Leadership. Today’s suggestion by Chris Westfield.
Trivia: When Tom Hanks’ character tells the rest of the unit what he does for a living back home, Hanks’ speech was much longer in the original script. But Hanks felt that his character wouldn’t have said so much about himself, and he told director Steven Spielberg so. Spielberg agreed, and the speech was shortened.
Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by Chris: “it’s up to the leader to motivate them. It’s a call back to an earlier scene where it’s just, we do it because we were ordered to, no questions asked. The leader needs to motivate the troops and delve into why it’s really important. Second, it gives more back story into the main character, Capt Miller, without sounding too expository. Third, by explaining why and giving some back story it motivates and refocuses everyone back on the mission. It also, refocuses, us the audience and serves as a nice reminder of what the characters need to do. Finally, it answers that mystery set up in the beginning of what Captain Miller did back home, school teacher, he coaches baseball, he has a wife he wants to get back to. It’s also, a nicely written monologue and potential Oscar bait for that A-list actor you’re trying to get to play your main character.
Perhaps, the biggest take away is to be economical in your writing. This probably took up a page and a half and yet accomplishes so much.
I also noticed that Private Reiben is the biggest dissenter in the bunch. He grows to hate Ryan and in the end respects him for staying to fight instead of taking his easy ticket home. Ryan/Reiben… I’m not sure if that’s a coincidence.”
If you have a suggestion for this theme, please post in comments.