WHITE HUNTER, BLACK HEART
BEST EASTWOOD QUOTES FROM
WHITE HUNTER, BLACK HEART
WILSON: There's nothing tougher than trying to remember why you chased a dame once you've had her.
WILSON: Now you see why I want to go to Africa, kid. I've got nothing else to lose. Even if a lion or a buffalo gets me, my last minute will be a happy one. I'll just think of my creditors back in the States when they find out I've been eaten alive, and it'll all seem worthwhile.
WILSON: If there's half as much love in this old gal as there is talk, I may be dead in the morning.
VERRILL: You're beating the audience over the head, John. People don't go to see pictures to be lectured to.
WILSON: Tell me, Pete... do you own a percentage of this film?
VERRILL: No.
WILSON: Then why are you so concerned about the damn audience?
VERRILL: Because we're in show business, John.
WILSON: Not me. And not you, either, when we work together. You see, we're gods, Pete. Lousy little gods who control the lives of the people we create. We sit up in some heavenly place and decide whether they live or die on the merits of what happens to them in reel one, or two or three, etcetera. And then we decide if they have the right to live, and that's how we arrive at our ending.
VERRILL: Well, that's what you say, John. But I say I'm a swell god. I say they should live... because of everything they've gone through together. They should live because this world doesn't necessarily have to be a hopeless and rotten place, John. We're not all destined and doomed to die of radium poisoning. Now I might be completely wrong... but that's what makes me... a swell god.
WILSON: That makes you a flea on an elephant's ass.
VERRILL: Oh, balls to your pessimism!
WILSON: You know something, Pete? You're never gonna be a good screenwriter, and you know why?
VERRILL: No, John. Why don't you tell me why?
WILSON: ‘Cause you let 85 million popcorn eaters pull you this way and that way. To write a movie, you must forget that anyone's ever gonna see it.
(Later in that same scene:)
WILSON: I'll die broke in a downtown Los Angeles flophouse and I won't be bitter. I'll have contributed maybe five, ten, damn good pictures. They'll name a special Academy Award after me. And you know something? All the wrong guys will get it and I'll be in hell laughing my ass off.
MARGARET: I'm not keen on London. I had to live there during the war and I got awfully fed up with it.
WILSON: Well I rather enjoyed it during the war. The people behaved so magnificently.
MARGARET: Well they didn't all behave well. You probably never left the West End.
WILSON: Not true, not true. I did a film about the London Blitz. I was all over town.
MARGARET: You can't have spent much time in Soho, where I lived.
WILSON: Why do you say that, dear?
MARGARET: I thought the people there were just horrid. There were an awful lot of Jews in that neighborhood.
VERRILL: Mrs. MacGregor...
MARGARET: Margaret.
VERRILL: Margaret. I must warn you, I'm a Jew.
MARGARET: You're not!
VERRILL: I am.
MARGARET: No!
VERRILL: Yes.
MARGARET: You're pulling my leg!
VERRILL: No, I'm not pulling your leg, Margaret. I'm a Jew.
MARGARET: Oh, I don't believe you. (Back to Wilson) I know I shouldn't say this, but that was the one thing about which I felt Hitler was absolutely right.
WILSON: Now, Margaret... the man has just gotten through warning you.
MARGARET: Because the Jews in London were awful. They ran the black market and they didn't go into the army. And when they did, they got themselves cushy jobs. Of course, there were upper-class Jews, but I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about the kikes in Soho, the foreigners.
VERRILL: Margaret. Margaret... my grandparents were kikes. My father and my mother were kikes... and I'm a kike.
WILSON: That's right, dear.
MARGARET: Well, you don't mean to tell me that you're Jewish too?
WILSON: No, absolutely not, ‘cause that would be a lie, and I wouldn't want to lie to you ever. But, I would like to tell you a little story, though.
MARGARET: Oh I love stories!
WILSON: Well, you mustn't interrupt now, because you're way too beautiful to interrupt people. When I was in London in the early 40's, I was dining one evening at The Savoy with a rather select group of people. And sitting next to me was a very beautiful lady, much like yoruself.
MARGARET: Now you're pulling my leg.
WILSON: Now, just listen dear. While we were dining and the bombs were falling and we were all talking about Hitler and comparing him with Napoleon, and we were all being really brilliant; and then, suddenly, this beautiful lady, she spoke up and said that that was the thing that she didn't mind about Hitler, was the way he was treating the Jews. Well, we all started arguing with her, of course, though mind you, no one at the table was Jewish. But, she persisted. Are you listening, honey?
MARGARET: Mustn't interrupt daddy.
WILSON: That's right. You're way too beautiful for that. Anyway, she went on to say that that's how she felt about it. That if she had her way, she would kill them all... burn them in ovens like Hitler. We all sat there in silence. And then, finally, I leaned over to her and I said, "Madam, I have dined with some of the ugliest god damn bitches in my time. And I have dined with some of the god damnest ugly bitches in this world. But, you, my dear, are the ugliest bitch of them all." Well, anyway, she got up to leave and she tripped over her chair and fell on the floor, and we all just sat there. No one raised a hand to help her. And finally when she picked herself up, I said to her one more time... "You, my dear, are the ugliest god damn bitch I have ever dined with." And do you know what happened? The very next day she reported me to the American Embassy and they brought me in for reprimand, and then when they investigated it, they found out that she was a German agent and they locked her up. Isn't that amazing?
MARGARET: Why did you tell me that story?
WILSON: Oh, I don't know. It wasn't because I thought you were a German agent, honey. But, I was tempted tonight to say the very same thing to you, I didn't want you to think I'd never said it before. You ma'am are the..... well, you know the rest. (Pause) Care for some champagne, honey?
MARGARET: No, thank you.
WILSON: Pete?
MARGARET: Well, it's getting late. I think I'd better go back to my room.
WILSON: Well, Pete and I will accompany you.
MARGARET: There's no need. (She runs off)
WILSON: (Calling after her) No bother at all. Goodnight, Margaret.
VERRILL: Sorry, John. I know you wanted to get laid.
WILSON: Well, that's all right, kid. You can't help it if you're a kike.
WILSON: Pete, I'm gonna take myself a nap. Please don't wake me unless you're sure we're gonna crash cause ... I wouldn't want to miss something like that.
WILSON: You've got to fight when you think it's the right thing to do. Otherwise you feel like your gut's full of pus. Even if you get the hell beat out of you. If you fight, you feel okay about it.
VERRILL: You're either crazy, or the most egocentric, irresponsible son-of-a-bitch that I have ever met. You're about to blow this whole picture out of your nose, John. And for what? To commit a crime. To kill one of the rarest, most noble creatures that roams the face of this crummy earth. And in order to commit this crime, you're willing to forget about all of us and let this whole god damn thing go down the drain.
WILSON: You're wrong, kid. It's not a crime to kill an elephant. It's bigger than all that. It's a sin to kill an elephant. Do you understand? It's a sin. The only sin that you can buy a license and go out to commit. That's why I want to do it before I do anything else in this world. Do you understand me? Of course you don't. How could you? I don't understand it myself.
WILSON: Oh God, this makes it all so worthwhile.
WILSON: (In a harsh, broken whisper) Action.
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