Daily Dialogue — March 18, 2013

Buddusky: He don’t stand a chance in Portsmouth, you know. You know that, don’t you? Goddamn grunts, kickin’ the shit outta him for eight years… he don’t stand a chance.
Mulhall: I don’t want to hear about it.
Buddusky: ‘Maggot’ this, ‘maggot’ that… Marines are really assholes, you know that? It takes a certain kind of a sadistic temperament to be a Marine.

— The Last Detail (1973), written by Robert Towne, based on the novel by Darryl Ponicsan

For the actual scene, go here.

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is arrest, suggested by Teddy Pasternak. Today’s suggestion by Michael McGruther.

Trivia: The script was completed in 1970, but contained too much profanity to be shot as written. Columbia Pictures waited for two years trying to get writer Robert Towne to tone down the language. Instead, by 1972, the standards for foul language relaxed so much that all the profanity was left in.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary from Michael: “Buddusky and Mulhall have to transport a young Navy officer named Meadows to prison. All he did was steal some change from a donation jar but he’s going to do eight long years. They feel sorry for him and realize he’s a good kid so they decide to have some fun on the trip.

In this clip you have the perfect scene. When Meadows breaks the stick it is foreshadowing for when he breaks free from his keepers moments later.

Arrest means to stop in this sense. And the tension for Meadows to want to go is ever present in this masterpiece of character.” 

Comment Archive