Power of the special quote

As a writer, I'm constantly striving for the right word, the perfect line for my characters to speak. We all know the power of great dialogue, immortal lines that are simple and yet, unforgettable. The American Film Institute recently compiled a list of 100 great movie quotes in the past 100 years. The number one spot went to Rhett Butler's rebuttal to Scarlet in Gone With the Wind:

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn".

No surprises there, I guess, since it is perhaps the most often quoted line in cinematic history.
The second all-time favourite was also a hugely popular line- Marlon Brando in The Godfather:

"I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse."

The other popular ones were:

Harry Callan in Sudden Impact: "Go ahead, make my day."

Rick to Isla in Casabalanca: "Here's looking at you, kid."

Love Story's: "Love means never having to say you're sorry."

The Sixth Sense's: "I see dead people."

Arnie in Terminator 2: Judgement Day: "Hasta la vista, baby."

One of my favourite quotes is from Gladiator, the Ridley Scott bloodfest of 2000. It's the scene in which Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) confronts Maximus (the very dishy Russell Crowe). Maximus is wearing a helmet and says in reply to Commodus's query that his name is Gladiator. Then he turns his back to the King. Commodus erupts in anger and orders him to remove his helmet and tell him his name. Maximus turns around slowly, faces the man who'd murdered his family, and says:

"My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the armies of the North, General of the Felix legions, loyal servant to the true emperor Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next."

Great stuff, or what?
What's your favourite quote?

Incredible Rumi, 13th century Persian Poet

Jalaluddin Mohammed Balkhi, fondly known as Rumi, is a 13th century poet (September 1207-December 1273) born in Wakhsh (modern-day Tajikistan). A Sufi mystic who wrote in Persian, his most famous work is the Mathnawi, a poem in six volumes. I discovered him only recently when I came upon excerpts of some of his works translated by Coleman Barks. I was struck by the beauty, simplicity of expression and depth in his verses.

Sample this:

'I didn't come here of my own accord, and 
I can't leave that way.
Whoever brought me here will have to take 
me home'.

'Come, come, whoever you are...
Come even though you have broken your vows a
thousand times,
Come and yet come again. Ours is not a caravan of despair'.

(from Soul of Rumi by Coleman Barks)

An interesting tidbit:

After his death his son Sultan Walad and his followers founded the Mevlevi Order, also called the Order of the Whirling Dervishes. They're famous for the Sufi dance in the Sama ceremony.

The epitaph on Rumi's tomb in Koyna (modern-day Turkey) says;

'When we are dead, seek not our tomb in the earth,

but find it in the hearts of men.'

Macbeth's Witches: How foul are they really?

The Witches in Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth have fascinated people for generations. Those of you who know the play, will recall that the action begins with the three Witches in 'a desert place'. They're talking about Macbeth, who is a Captain in the Scottish King Duncan's army. Directly after, Duncan appears on the battlefield, hears of Macbeth's bravery in suppressing a rebellion, and appoints him Thane of Cawdor. The Witches then meet Macbeth and his fellow Captain Banquo when they're returning from battle and announce that Macbeth's Thane of Cawdor and that he will be King. Banquo's children will be king but he won't. The evil sisters' announcement set the ball rolling for Duncan and Banquo's death and Macbeth's elevation as King. But just how responsible are the Witches for the tragedy that plays out? That's a question every Shakespeare scholar mulls over. So brilliant is the Bard's genius that we're never really sure...

Obviously Macbeth already has evil in his heart. For no sooner does he learn of his appointment as Thane of Cawdor than he begins to mumble: 'why do I yield to that suggestion/Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair/
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs/Against the use of nature?' He goes on and on about such evil thoughts, ignoring Banquo's warning:' 'tis strange:And oftentimes, to win us to our harm/The instruments of darkness tell us truths,/Win us with honest trifles, to betray's/In deepest consequence.' 

I'm focussing on this as a study of an efficient narrative tool: ambiguity. Wouldn't it be great if one could come up with such characters that take the action forward and leave us thinking about cause and effect for a long, long time after the story's over?

Errrgo for the Golden Globes

Anybody seen Argo, for which Ben Affleck won the Best Director award at the Golden Globes yesterday? I watched it a few months back, wasn't too impressed because I thought there weren't enough thrills in it, but I do think that for writers it's a good study on how to adapt a real-life event into a dramatic piece of storytelling. `Always felt good movies improve my writing since they help me to learn how to construct a scene. I think a great example is Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds (sorry folks, it's spelt that way). Those of you who've seen it will recall the sinister build up of violence in the opening scene when SS Col. Hans Landa (played by the awesome Christoph Waltz who, also won Best Supporting Actor at the Globes for Tarantino's Django Unchained) visits the French farmer that's hiding a Jewish family under the floorboards of his house. Tarantino takes a simple calm scene in which the farmer's daughter is hanging up the wash and then slowly brings into view the black Gestapo car approaching in the distance. That single image is enough to send shivers down your spine. To top it all, he has Beethoven's Fur Elise playing in the background! Is that awesome or what?

Argo has been spoken about a lot. It's about the attack on the American Embassy in Iran many moons ago and how a small group of officials managed to sneak out and take refuge in the Canadian Ambassador's residence. The US government decides to try and rescue them by sending in a fake director and getting him to smuggle them out as part of his film unit. Ben Affleck plays the CIA operative that goes in undercover as a movie director. Argo is the name of the Science Fiction movie they're supposedly making. The movie's direction is crisp and research, meticulous but, perhaps because this is based on a real story, there aren't too many edge of the seat moments. Still, Ben Affleck succeeds in keeping up the suspense and it's worth a watch.

What do you guys think?