Daily Dialogue — June 23, 2014

INT. CLUB HOUSE LOCKER ROOM — NIGHT

Billy lets himself out and walks down the hall to the locker room — regards Jeremy Giambi -

JEREMY: Yeah!

He’s not even aware of Billy. It’s just like any other night as far as Jeremy Giambi is concerned. He dances to a CD of funk music as he dresses, until he becomes aware of Billy standing there, and smiling, he kills the music.

JEREMY: (NERVOUS LAUGH) What?
BILLY: Getting swept by the Red Sox at home. Having Long lead off the ninth with triple in a one-run game and not being able to score a runner from first with nobody out, is that fun?
JEREMY: No.
BILLY: Then what the fuck are you having fun for?! (CALMLY) This is what losing sounds like.

He heads out.

— Moneyball (2011), screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin, story by Stan Chervin, book by Michael Lewis

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Sports Speech, suggested by Kalen. Today’s suggestion by Jon Raymond.

Trivia: First baseball movie to be nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award (Oscar) since Field of Dreams (1989) twenty-two years earlier.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by Jon: “I think it serves as one of the most powerful sports speeches ever. And it’s not the dialogue alone. It’s the context. It’s the action and the acting all around. It’s the situation of having lost. At this moment, not before the game, Billy has the greatest opportunity to illustrate to the players the reality of the situation and where they are failing in not taking it seriously.”

Jon’s point is accentuated when you compare the scene as written to the scene as shot. Dialogue stripped down, then dramatic visual and audio moments: Billy slamming a bat against a locker; tossing bat on the floor; a long deafening silence; finally flinging water cooler onto the floor.

Movies are primarily a visual medium. This little scene reminds us of this fact yet again.

Note: Could use your suggestions for this week’s theme. Thanks!

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