Daily Dialogue — November 17, 2010

“Have you ever seen this horse race?….. I’ve seen him run…. I saw him stumble and fall back and pick himself up….I saw him stretch himself out when he had NOTHING left to give but he found it…. somewhere…. and he won! Lady, that horse is a champion and he has a heart size of a locomotive…. why, he’s got more heart…. and more drive and more soul than most people you’ll ever know and they’re hangin’ lights off of him….. they got him trottin’ around on stage with dancin’ girls TADAH! TADAH! TAH!….. they’d have him dressed in short pants and smokin’ a damn cigar if it would sell their damn junk… they got him so tanked up on tranquilizers and bute …. they’re stickin’ him full of needles…. look at the tendon…. it’s all filled up …. he’s shot all full of steroids….makes the horse sterile!!!! and even if they wanted to breed him…..ha ha!!this is so damn funny….. even IF they WANTED to breed him… even if they WANTED to pass on some of those fine qualities….they couldn’t!!!…. to say nothing of what the horse itself is missing…..so….. so I took him!!!”

 — Norman ‘Sonny’ Steele (Robert Redford), The Electric Horseman (1979), screenplay by Robert Garland, screen story by Shelly Burton, story by Shelly Burton and Paul Gaer

The Daily Dialogue theme this week is monologues, suggested by Annika W. The Electric Horseman suggested by Steve Axelrod.

Trivia: This movie was inspired by a case where “The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour” (1971) invited Penny Chenery in 1973 to bring her horse, the legendary Triple Crown winner Secretariat to appear on the show. Chenery, knowing her horse wouldn’t care for a TV studio, declined.