Daily Dialogue — June 22, 2018

Archie Gates: What’s the most important thing in life?
Troy Barlow: Respect.
Archie Gates: Too dependent on other people.
Conrad Vig: What, love?
Archie Gates: A little Disneyland, isn’t it?
Chief Elgin: God’s will.
Archie Gates: Close.
Troy Barlow: What is it then?
Archie Gates: Necessity.
Troy Barlow: As in?
Archie Gates: As in people do what is most necessary to them at any given moment. Right now, what’s necessary to Saddam’s troops is to put down the uprising. We can do what we want, they won’t touch us.

— Three Kings (1999), screenplay by David O. Russell, story by John Ridley

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Heist.

Trivia: In the original posters for the film, David O. Russell gets full writing credit, although the story is based on a draft written by John Ridley. It wasn’t until Ridley took legal action, that he received a “Story by” credit. Ridley blocked a novelization of the screenplay from being published. According to Ridley, he wrote the script as an experiment, to see how fast he could write and sell a script. It took him seven days to write it, and Warner Brothers bought it eighteen days later.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Even thieves need a justification for doing a heist. Here, it’s soldiers who decide to be thieves.