When Unforgiven came out in 1992, I was 23 years old and mostly viewed Clint Eastwood as an action star whose movies were pretty much straight glorification of violence with no redeeming qualities. So when I saw the very thoughtful movie on its release, I was not a fan, and I certainly didn't remember any of the dialogue. I watched it again a few years later and was much better able to understand what they were trying to get across with the movie. On that viewing, one line stood out to me more than any other: "We've all got it coming, kid." It was kind of chilling and I saw it as the words of an old man who couldn't run away from his demons. As I've gotten older, the movie has only become more relevant to me, and so has that line of dialogue. I'm 53, so I've lost a lot of people, as one does as you just go through the stages of life. Eventually, you start to think of mortality as something concrete and inevitable, not just something that happens to other people. So on a recent viewing of that movie, when that line came, it had a lot of meaning for me, in many ways. Can you think of a line of dialogue from a movie that may not have meant much to you the first time, but has gained importance for you as the years tick by?
“You know, when you get old, in life, things get taken from you. I mean, that's... that's... that's a part of life.”—Al Pacino as “Tony D’Amato” in ANY GIVEN SUNDAY, 1999. I used to treat that as simply a magnificent line in a great halftime speech. Now, it feels like an ever present shadow—especially when you see people your age dying, or reading the names of people your age in the obituaries. - siyt
Yeah, that stuff is not easy. Up to your 30s you can watch stuff like that and it's still emotionally at arm's length – it really sounds like "old people problems." Then, one day, you become "old people." It's one of those "meathook realities" Hunter S. Thompson used to talk about.
David Bowie at his parents graves, "Just remember Duckies, everybody get's got." From the song I'd Rather Be High,
When Tom Hagen goes to visit Frank Pentangeli at the military barracks and convinces him to commit suicide by telling him the story of ancient Roman plots against the emperor. That dialog gets better and more powerful with each viewing. Especially since Frank is the one who comes right out and says what he's gonna do.
One by one they were all becoming shades. Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age Thank God Huston saw to it that Joyce's crushing beautiful words closed the film.
I can't think of one just now, but the experience of things becoming clearer - in books, songs and movies - as I've become old, happens a lot to. The scene "tears in the rain" above is almost bringing tears to me at this moment.
I've really enjoyed that feature of the aging process. There were movies I saw when I was young that did nothing for me, but then I would see them again some years later and it's like a completely different movie.
“It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard... is what makes it great.” Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks) A League of Their Own
