The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie
"Well, if this is it, old boy, I hope you don't mind if I go out speaking the kings"; "That's a bingo"; "The reason the Fuhrer has brought me off my Alps in Austria and placed me in French cow country today is because it does occur to me. Because I'm aware what tremendous feats human beings are capable of once they abandon dignity"; "I love rumors. Facts can be so misleading where rumors, true or false, are often revealing"; "Cousin business is a booming"; "You know something, Udovich? I think this just might be my masterpiece"
In the discussion (10)
Approx. transcript time · 01:24:07Read transcript
- Quotes are hard here for the same reason as scenes: the scenes are 20 minutes long and the quotes a paragraph long, people speaking pages of novelesque dialogue; one host grabbed few Landa lines because they are in German, while another has mostly Hans lines, having written the subtitles down in English rather than grabbing them off the internet, earning a 'Thanks, Dad'.
- Aldo's 'We got a German here who wants to die for his country. Oblige him!' and the prisoner-taking speech ending 'cousin business is a booming' are performed and called incredible; 'if this is it, old boy, I hope you don't mind if I go out speaking the kings' is an all-timer, and 'that's a bingo' is delivered in a way that is so funny.
- One host's favorite this time is Landa's speech to the farmer about the places it would never occur to a hawk to hide and why the Fuhrer brought him off his Alps to French cow country, because he is aware of what humans are capable of once they abandon dignity: essentially every war movie, a man who lives exactly where people are pushed past their boundaries, supremely unnerving in the delivery.
- Two more Hans lines from the same conversation: 'I love rumors. Facts can be so misleading where rumors, true or false, are often revealing', followed gleefully by what rumors the farmer has heard regarding the Dreyfuses, and 'interesting as the thought may be, it makes not one bit of difference to how you feel'; in a movie where propaganda is prominent, this is its expertly executed fake news moment.
- Many of the great lines are exchanges, like the whole encounter between Landa and Aldo, a series of heaters between the two smartest people in the movie, though Shoshana may be the smartest: 'what's that English saying about shoes and feet' answered with 'looks like the shoe's on the other foot', and the sauerkraut sandwich and 'sniper's delight' speech, delivered with Pitt's elocutionary choices for a one-quarter Apache Tennessee mountain man, descendant of Jim Berger (as transcribed).
- Hitler's hysterical 'who and what is a private butt' is offered, with a tease about being pro-Hitler denied; 'I'm French. We respect directors in our country' is a perfect meta line; Hickox's special rung in hell for people who waste good scotch is very true.
- Bridget's reply that she does not like mountains but likes smoking, drinking and ordering in restaurants is a host's own life; the Landa and Udovich (as transcribed) exchange about nicknames, the 'little man' and 'not circus midget little' is great humor laced into the ending.
- Landa's 'we simply aren't operating on the level of mutual respect I assumed' to Aldo, delivered as if sincerely hurt, and the final 'You know something, Udovich? I think this just might be my masterpiece' before the cut to black, one of Tarantino's famed bang endings.
- Some negative reviews keyed on the masterpiece line as Tarantino judging his own work, but a host thinks he was right; respect for Manohla Dargis notwithstanding, calling the movie boring is confounding, and nothing in 2009 was better, with Avatar and Up in the Air the comparisons.
- A line of criticism nominated for best quote: Christopher Hitchens compared the film to sitting in the dark having a great pot of warm piss emptied slowly over your head, per Wikipedia; the hosts joke about reviving that style for Captain Marvel, with one reserving melodramatic rants for Jets, Metz and Nicks content (as transcribed).