Good Will Hunting, Bush, America, And A Memorable Quote
There’s not a person I know who hasn’t watched the movie Good Will Hunting, and if you’re a political junkie such as myself, then there’s a part in the movie that certainly captured your interest. The movie overall is wonderful.
A janitor at MIT, Will Hunting has a gift for maths that can take him light-years beyond his blue-collar roots, but to achieve his dream he must turn his back on the neighborhood and his best friend. To complicate matters, two strangers enter the equation: a washed-up shrink who starts to coach Will through his transformation, and a med student who shows him that there can be a pretty face along with his life of the mind.
The quote follows shortly, and you will do well to realize the current situation in America, with probably the worst President to ever lead that nation, and hopefully you will also realize why it was so easy for the current Administration to take the whole country into the current war in Iraq. Let me set this scene up for you, Will, our leading man, is being interviewed by the National Security Agency for The United States (NSA), and they pitch him all the good things about the NSA and then ask him a rhetorical question, Why shouldn’t you work for the N.S.A.? The response, is one of the most memorable dialogue in the movie… (tip: read the dialogue fast, so you get a feel as to how the dialogue should be said)
Why shouldn’t I work for the N.S.A.? That’s a tough one, but I’ll take a shot.
Say I’m working at N.S.A. Somebody puts a code on my desk, something nobody else can break. Maybe I take a shot at it and maybe I break it. And I’m real happy with myself, ’cause I did my job well. But maybe that code was the location of some rebel army in North Africa or the Middle East. Once they have that location, they bomb the village where the rebels were hiding and fifteen hundred people I never met, never had a no problem with get killed. Now the politicians are sayin’, “Oh, Send in the marines to secure the area” ’cause they don’t give a shit. It won’t be their kid over there, gettin’ shot. Just like it wasn’t them when their number got called, ’cause they were pullin’ a tour in the National Guard. It’ll be some kid from Southie takin’ shrapnel in the ass. And he comes back to find that the plant he used to work at got exported to the country he just got back from. And the guy who put the shrapnel in his ass got his old job, ’cause he’ll work for fifteen cents a day and no bathroom breaks. Meanwhile he realizes the only reason he was over there in the first place was so we could install a government that would sell us oil at a good price. And of course the oil companies used the skirmish over there to scare up domestic oil prices. A cute little ancillary benefit for them, but it ain’t helping my buddy at two-fifty a gallon. And they’re takin’ their sweet time bringin’ the oil back of course, and maybe even took the liberty of hiring an alcoholic skipper who likes to drink martinis and fuckin’ play slalom with the icebergs, and it ain’t too long ’til he hits one, spills the oil and kills all the sea life in the North Atlantic. So now my buddy’s out of work and he can’t afford to drive, so he’s got to walk to the fuckin’ job interviews, which sucks ’cause the shrapnel in his ass is givin’ him chronic hemorrhoids. And meanwhile he’s starvin’ ’cause every time he tries to get a bite to eat the only blue plate special they’re servin’ is North Atlantic scrod with Quaker State. So what did I think? I’m holdin’ out for somethin’ better. I figure f#$* it, while I’m at it why not just shoot my buddy, take his job, give it to his sworn enemy, hike up gas prices, bomb a village, club a baby seal, hit the hash pipe and join the National Guard? I could be elected president.
Here’s the video (thanks to Michael for the heads up)
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Great movie! I saw this one in ‘97, and I couldn’t stop talking about it then.
By the way Nick, I saw this video from digg three months ago. You might want to add it.
Thanks Michael! It’s one of the best lines of the movie.. We have the same taste in movies…
@Michael, by the way, I think we may be turning around “Hindiakopinoy”, earlier he made a comment regarding the Lanao Cheating..
Haha Nick I’m not conceding anything, not like that sissy Mike D. Arroyo is still cool in my book. She can’t oversee everything, it’s as if you want her to micromanage the country. All I’m saying is that this is way too much and that local comelec officials including some politicians in Mindanao may be to blame.
just re-watched this movie for the 1st time since i saw it in 98. it’s so eerie how this NSA answer b/c so truthful with what’s happening in 07. just further proves how much history repeats itself, and how if you study it, it’s easy to predict.