Daily Dialogue — March 17, 2015

Dick Jones (on video): Hello, buddy-boy. Dick Jones here. I guess you’re on your knees about now… begging for your life. Pathetic. You don’t feel so cocky now, do you?
Bob Morton (to Boddicker): Whatever he’s paying you, I’ll double it right now.
Dick Jones: You know what the tragedy is here? We could have been friends. But you wouldn’t go through proper channels. You went over my head. That hurt. But life goes on. It’s an old story, the fight for love and glory. It helps if you think of it as a game. Every game has a winner… and a loser. I’m cashing you out, Bob.

— RoboCop (1987), written by Edward Neumeier, Michael Miner

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Competition. Today’s suggestion by RealThndrMonkey.

Trivia: Writer Edward Neumeier was an executive at Universal and hated his job so he jacked it in to pursue his dream of writing a screenplay about a robot that became a cop. Coincidentally fellow scribe Michael Miner was working on a script about a human cop who becomes a robot. It was a natural progression for the two to join forces.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by RealThndrMonkey: “Had the scene been simply between Morton and Jones, I think the impact would have been less. Throw Boddicker (played brilliantly by Kurtwood Smith) into the mix, have him say one line earlier in the scene (which is repeated just about any time ROBOCOP is mentioned), walk quietly around the room as Jones talks, really help add to the tension of the scene. Additionally, giving Morton hope that he could get out of the mess also gave the scene something extra.”

If you have a suggestion for this week’s theme, please post in comments.