Daily Dialogue — February 10, 2012
Deputy Pell: We ain’t interested in your good ol’ Mississippi boy stories, Anderson. You ain’t from here no more. Why’d you leave, anyway?
Anderson: I just wanted a change of scenery. The grits started leavin’ a bad taste in my mouth.
Frank: Well, if that’s how you feel about it, Mr FBI Man… why don’t you drink up that beer and get the hell on out of here and get back to your commie, nigger-lovin’ bosses up north?
Anderson: You must not know my boss — Mr. Hoover. He’s not too fond of commies. He’d be on your side there.
Frank: I don’t give two shits whose side your Mr. Hoover’s on, boy. All I know is we got five thousand niggers in this county who ain’t registered to vote yet. And, as far as I’m concerned, they never will. So you tell your stiff suits up in Washington, DC, that they ain’t gonna change us one bit. Unless it’s over my dead body. Or a lot of dead niggers.
Anderson: You’d kill, Frank? Is that what you’re sayin’?
Frank: I wouldn’t give it no more thought than wringin’ a cat’s neck. And there ain’t a court in Mississippi that’d convict me for it.
Anderson: How about you, Deputy? How are you with wringin’ necks, huh?
Deputy Pell: Just keep pushin’ me, Hoover boy.
Frank: You get this straight, you cornhole fucker. You tell your queer-ass nigger bosses up north they ain’t never find them civil rightsters down here. So you might as well pack up your bags and head your ass up north where you belong.
Anderson: You get this straight, shitkicker. Don’t you go mistakin’ me for some whole other body. Your brain’s in your dick if you think we’ll just fade away. We’re gonna be here ’til this thing’s finished. How about you, Deputy? Is that gun just for show? Or do you get to shoot people once in a while? Thanks for the beer.
— Deputy Pell (Brad Dourff), Anderson (Gene Hackman), Frank (Michael Rooker), Mississippi Burning (1988), written by Chris Gerolmo
http://static.movieclips.com/embedplayer.swf?shortid=mvg5
The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is death threats, suggested by Chris Schipper. Today’s suggestion by Teddy Pasternak.
Trivia: The film was very controversial when it was released. Though fictional, the movie was clearly based on an actual case. Many people felt that too many facts from the real-life case were distorted or left out.
Dialogue On Dialogue: Oftentimes it’s not the death threat that is the punchline of the scene, it’s the response. And Frank’s retort at the end is powerful stuff.