Vic Movie Diary

Evil triumph only when good men do nothing. - Randall

And a Man sat alone. Drenched deep in sadness. 

And all the animals drew near to him and said: We do not like to see you so sad. Ask us for whatever you wish and you shall have it.

The Man said: I want to have a good sight.

The vulture replied: You shall have mine.

The Man said: I want to be strong.

The jaguar said: You shall be strong like me.

Then the Man said: I long to know the secrets of the earth.

The serpent replied: I will show them to you.

And so it went with all the animals. And when the Man had all the gifts that they could give he left. 

Then the owl said to the other animals: Now the Man knows much and is able to do many things suddenly I am afraid.

The deer said: The Man has all that he needs. Now his sadness will stop.

But the owl replied: No. I saw a hole in the Man. Deep like a hunger he will never fill. It is what makes him sad and what makes him want. He will go on taking and taking until one day the World will say: ‘I am no more and I have nothing left to give.’ - The Old Story Teller

Billi: Are you going to tell Nai Nai?

Haiyan: I can’t, Billi. I won’t go against my family. Billi. These are things you must understand you guys moved to the West long ago. You think one’s life belongs to oneself. But that’s the difference between the East and the West. In the East, a person’s life is part of a whole. Family. Society. You want to tell Nai Nai the truth because you’re afraid to take responsibility for her. Because it’s too big of a burden. If you tell her then you don’t have to feel guilty. We’re not telling Nai Nai because it’s our duty to carry this emotional burden of her.

A story. A man fires a rifle for many years and he goes to war. And afterwards he comes home and he sees that whatever else he might with his life, build a house, love a woman, change his son’s diaper, he will always remain, a jarhead. 

And all the jarheads, killing and dying, they will always be me. We are still in the desert. - Anthony

Thomas: I see you obsess getting each and every move perfectly right, but I never see you lose yourself. Ever. All that discipline for what?

Nina: I just want to be perfect.

T: You what?

N: I want to be perfect.

T: Perfection is not just about control. It’s also about letting go. Surprise yourself, so you can surprise the audience. Transcendence. And very few have it in them. 

You’ll never guess who he wants to be. Spider-Man. (…) He knows a hero when he sees one. Too few characters out there, flying around like that saving old girls like me. And Lord knows, kids like Henry need a hero.

Courageous, self-sacrificing people setting examples for all of us. Everybody loves a hero. People line up for them. Cheer them. Scream their names. Ad years later, they’ll tell how they stood in the rain for hours just to get a glimpse of the one who taught them to hold on a second longer. I believe there’s a hero in all of us that keeps us honest, gives us strength, makes us noble, and finally allows us to die with pride. Even though sometimes we have to be steady and give up the thing we want the most. Even our dreams.

Spider-Man did that for Henry and he Wonders where he’s gone. He needs him. - Uncle May

A long, long time ago someone said that men were born free and equal. All the men. And all women. All equal. The rules of the game would be the same for everyone. We would be on equal terms. Life would be right.

But even if that was true, a microsecond after birth, chance interferes. There are your parents, your neighbourhood, your standard of living, your health, your size, your appearance. As soon as the tyranny of chance begins to impose its law, we are no longer on equal terms. Chance changes everything. Ultimately, we do with what he gives us. - Ajatashatru

Do you know who King Shaka was? King Shaka was a great and mighty Zulu warrior who made his troops stamp thorn bushes into the ground and march for days across hot jagged rocks. The soles of their feet were slashed and burnt. And though there was resentment and pain at the time, the calluses this created meant eventually nothing would harm them. They would feel no pain. And what had felt like cruelty at the time was actually a gift. It was actually love.

I don’t expect you to thank me now but I hope perhaps when you’re older you’ll be grateful for the skill of detachment that I’ve instilled. Go and close the door. - David Melrose

We don’t get to choose our time. Death is what gives life meaning. To know your days are numbered. Your time is short. You’d think after all this time, I’d be ready.

But look at me. Stretching one moment out into a thousand just so that I can watch the snow. - The Ancient One

It’s tempting to see things the way you wish instead of how they are. - Robert

We have plenty of matches in our house. We keep them on hand, always. Currently our favorite brand is Ohio Blue Tip, though we used to prefer Diamond brand That was before we discovered Ohio Blue Tip matches. They are excellently packaged, sturdy little boxes with dark and light blue and white labels with words lettered in the shape of a megaphone, as if to say even louder to the world, “Here is the most beautiful match in the world, its one-and-a-half-inch soft pine stem capped by a grainy dark purple head, so sober and furious and stubbornly ready to burst into flame, lighting, perhaps, the cigarette of the woman you love, for the first time, and it was never really the same after that. All this we will give you.” That is what you gave me, I become the cigarette and you the match, or I the match and you the cigarette, blazing with kisses that smoulder toward heaven.

Walking up towards that stage, I felt like I was floating. My heart was beating so fast. I didn’t really understand why I was getting a medal. It’s not like I blew up the Death Star. All I did was get through fifth grade, just like everyone else here. Then again, maybe that’s kind of the point.

Maybe the truth is, I’m really not so ordinary. Maybe if we knew what other people were thinking we’d know that no one’s ordinary. And we all deserve a standing ovation at least once in our lives. My friends do. My teachers do. My sister does for always being there for me. My dad does for always making us laugh. And my mom does the most. For never giving up. On anything. Especially, me. 

It’s like that last precept Mr. Browne gave us. Be kind, for everyone is fighting a hard battle. And if you really wanna see what people are, all you have to do… is look. - Auggie

Come on. Sign it. You should move to a small town, where the rule of law still exists. You will not survive here. You are not a wolf. And this is the land of wolves now. - Alejandro

Gigi: You are a monster.

L’uomo: Let’s just say I feed monsters.

Frank: Right. Do you wanna know my theory? Let’s assume the system isn’t random. It’s as sophisticated as they say it is. So using these, it slurps up all your reactions, yeah? It builds up a complex profile. Every crazy thought you’ve ever had, all your dreams and your weaknesses and your mad theories. Like, everything in your head. So if it’s everything in your head does it have thoughts?

Amy: All right, so now you’re gonna say: “What if that’s us and we’re stuck in a simulation?”

F: Well, how would we know?

Amy pinches.

Love distorts things. Or even worse, love is something you’ve never asked for. The erotic is something that I asked for, or even demanded to men. But this idiotic love. I feel humiliated by it, and all the dishonesty that follows. The erotic is about to saying yes. Love appeals to the lowest instincts wrapped up in lies. How do you say yes when you mean no, and vice versa. - Joe

That night I thanked God for seeing me through day of days. And prayed I would make it through D+1. And if somehow I managed to get home again I promised God and myself that I would find a quiet piece of land someplace and spend the rest of my life in peace. - Lt. Richard Winters