Swordfish
written by Skip Woods
Gabriel Shear: You know what the problem with Hollywood is. They make shit. Unbelievable, unremarkable shit. Now I'm not some grungy wannabe filmmaker, that's searching for existentialism through a haze of bong smoke or something (slight chuckle) No, it's easy to pick apart bad acting, short-sighted directing, and a purely moronic stringing together of words than many of studios term as prose. No, I'm talking about the lack of realism. Realism. Not a pervasive element in today's modern American cinematic vision. Take 'Dog Day Afternoon' for example. Arguably Pacino's best work, short of 'Scarface' and 'Godfather' part one of course. Masterpiece of directing, easily Lumet's best. (cuts cigar) The cinematography, the acting, the screenplay, all top notch. But. (lights cigar, puffs twice) they didn't push the envelope. Now what if in 'Dog Day,' Sonny really wanted to get away with it? What if - now here's the tricky part - what if he started killing hostages right away? No mercy, no quarter. "Meet our demands or the pretty blond in the bellbottoms gets it in the back of the head." Bam, splat! "What, still no bus?" Come on. How many innocent victims splattered across the window would it take to have the city to reverse it's policy on hostage situations? And this is 1976, there's no CNN, there's no CNBC, there's no Internet! Now, fast-forward to today. Present time, same situation. How quickly would the modern media make a frenzy over this? In a matter of hours, it would be the, the biggest story from Boston to Budapest. Ten hostages die. Twenty, thirty. Relentless, bam bim, one after another. All caught in hi-def, computer-enhanced, color-corrected. You can practically taste the brain-matter. All for what, a bus? A plane? A couple of million dollars that's federally insured? (takes deep breath) I don't think so. Just a thought. I mean, it's not within the realm of conventional cinema...but what if?
Kudos and much thanks go to Gerad Sarb for this monologue, it is very much appreciated. Thanks to Mark for sending in a couple of corrections.