In the movie Carnage
(Roman Polanski 2011) — adapted from Le Dieu du carnage, by French
playwright Yasmina Reza
— two young teenagers get into a fight in the park; one hits the other in the
mouth with a stick. Alan and Nancy Cowan (Waltz and Winslet), visit the home of
Michael and Penelope Longstreet (Reilly and Foster), the parents of the boy who
was hit: “As the Cowans and the Longstreets go through the motions of mature,
reasonable conflict resolution, that old primal force asserts itself in various
forms. These nice, complacent people turn angry, competitive, contemptuous and
stupid” (A.O.Scott, Carnage Review, NYT, December 15, 2011). You can see here the trailer & clips and you can find her the whole screenplay.
Below two key moments of the “dialogue”.
- NANCY: Hotshot firebrands like my husband, you got to
understand, it's hard for them to get excited about what happens down the
block.
- ALAN: Exactly.
- PENELOPE: I don't see why. I don't see why. We're all citizens of the world. I don't see why we shouldn't have some sense of community.
- MICHAEL: Oh Penny! Give us a break with the highfalutin clap trap!
- PENELOPE: I'm going to kill him.
- ALAN: Exactly.
- PENELOPE: I don't see why. I don't see why. We're all citizens of the world. I don't see why we shouldn't have some sense of community.
- MICHAEL: Oh Penny! Give us a break with the highfalutin clap trap!
- PENELOPE: I'm going to kill him.
----
- MICHAEL: They
don't give a shit! It's so obvious, right from the beginning, they don't give a shit! She doesn't give a shit either, you're right!
- ALAN: Like you do?
- NANCY: I...
- ALAN: Explain
to me, Michael, exactly how you care. What does that mean anyway? You're more
credible when you're being openly
despicable. Truth is, nobody here cares. Except maybe Penelope, one must
acknowledge her integrity.
- PENELOPE: I don't need your acknowledgment! I don’t
need your acknowledgment!
- NANCY: But I do care. I really do care.
- ALAN: We care in a hysterical way, Nancy. Not like
heroic figures of a social movement.
- (to PENELOPE:) I saw your friend Jane Fonda on TV the
other day. Made me want to run
- out and buy a Ku Klux Klan poster.
- PENELOPE: My friend Jane Fonda? What the hell does she have to do with this?!
- ALAN: You're the same breed. You're the same kind of
involved, problem-solver woman. Those are not the women we like, the women we like are sensual, crazy,
shot full of hormones. The ones who want to show off how perceptive they are,
the gatekeepers of the world, they're a huge turnoff. Even poor Michael, your own husband is turned
off...
- MICHAEL: Don't you speak for me!
- PENELOPE: We don't
give a shit about what you like in a woman! Where do you get off spouting these
opinions? You're one man whose opinions we don't give a shit about!
- ALAN: She's screaming. A quartermaster on a slave
ship!
- PENELOPE: What about her? She doesn't scream? She didn't just scream that your little
asshole was right to beat up ours?
- NANCY: He was right! At least our kid isn't a little
wimpy-ass faggot!
- PENELOPE; Yours is a snitch, that's supposed to be
better?
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