Daily Dialogue — July 30, 2015

“There’s the television. It’s all right there — all right there. Look, listen, kneel, pray. Commercials! We’re not productive anymore. We don’t make things anymore. It’s all automated. What are we for then? We’re consumers, Jim. Yeah. Okay, okay. Buy a lot of stuff, you’re a good citizen. But if you don’t buy a lot of stuff, if you don’t, what are you then, I ask you? What? Mentally ill. Fact, Jim, fact — if you don’t buy things — toilet paper, new cars, computerized yo-yos, electrically-operated sexual devices, stereo systems with brain-implanted headphones, screwdrivers with miniature built-in radar devices, voice-activated computers…”

— 12 Monkeys (1995), written by David Webb Peoples & Janet Peoples

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Madness.

Trivia: Terry Gilliam was afraid that Brad Pitt wouldn’t be able to pull off the nervous, rapid speech. He sent him to a speech coach but in the end he just took away Pitt’s cigarettes, and Pitt played the part exactly as Gilliam wanted.

Dialogue On Dialogue: In a mad post-apocalyptic world, James is perhaps the maddest of them all. And yet, there is truth in his words, often the case with mad prophets.