Daily Dialogue — September 16, 2011

Michael Clayton: I’m covering for you. I’m telling them everything’s fine. You’re fine. Everybody’s cool. I’m out running this “price of genius” story to anybody who’ll listen. And then I wake up this morning and I hear you’re calling this girl from Wisconsin… messing with documents and whatever else.

Arthur Edens: How can you know that?

Michael: They’re gonna take everything. Your partnership, your equity. They’re gonna pull your license.

Arthur: How do you know I called Anna?

Michael: Marty told me.

Arthur: Well, how does he know?

Michael: I don’t know. I don’t give a shit!

Arthur: You’re tapping my phone.

Michael: Jesus, Arthur.

Arthur: Then explain it. Tell me how Marty knows!

Michael: Because you’re chasing a girl through a parking lot with your dick hanging out. You think she didn’t get off the phone and dial her attorney?

Arthur: No. She wouldn’t do that. I know that.

Michael: Really? You think your judgment is state-of-the-art right now? They’re putting everything on the table. You need to stop and think this through. I’ll help you think this through. I’ll find somebody to help you think it through. Don’t do this. You’re making it easy for them.

Arthur: Michael, I have great affection for you. You lead a very rich and interesting life, but you’re a bagman, not an attorney. If you wanted to have me committed… you should have kept me in Wisconsin, where the arrest report, the videotape… and eyewitness accounts of my inappropriate behavior… would have had jurisdictional relevance. I have no criminal record in the state of New York. And the single determining criterion for involuntary incarceration is danger. Is the defendant a danger to himself or others? You think you got the horses for that? Well, good luck and God bless. But I tell you this. The last place you want to see me is in court.

Michael: I’m not the enemy.

Arthur: Then who are you?

— Michael Clayton (George Clooney), Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), Michael Clayton (2007), written by Tony Gilroy

For the actual scene, go here.

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is screamfests. Michael Clayton suggested by Elisa Sawyer,.

Trivia: Committed to a fully developed back story, director Tony Gilroy spent a good deal of time establishing the details of “Realm and Conquest” with production designer Kevin Thompson. The director explains that right from the beginning, when he first read the script, he could tell that “Realm and Conquest” was going to be a key prop. In the movie it’s a metaphor for truth and justice. In creating the details of the fictional novel, Thompson generated original visuals inspired by German Expressionistic images cut from wood blocks, and Gilroy wrote the first two pages for three chapters of the book. They even went as far as designing a “Realm and Conquest” card game for a scene between Henry and Michael. Thompson offers, “This detail was important to Tony because, in his own life, novels and games similar to ‘Realm and Conquest’ allow him to connect with his son in a meaningful way.”

Dialogue On Dialogue: Okay, who’s your favorite writer of dialogue: Tony Gilroy or Aaron Sorkin?

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