Quotes & Dialogues #2.

quinta-feira, 4 de março de 2010

The Americanization of Emily (dialogue #2)

Charlie: Have you noticed that war is the only chance a man gets to do something redeeming? That’s why war’s so attractive.
Mrs. Barham: War’s very handsome, I agree.
Charlie: At any rate, I turned down Adm. Jesseup’s offer and I enlisted in the Marines as a private. I even applied for combat service. My wife, to all appearances a perfectly sensible woman, encouraged me in this idiotic decision. Seven months later I found myself invading the Solomon island. There I was, splashing away in the shoals of Guadalcanal. It suddenly occurred to me a man could get killed doing this kind of thing. Fact is most of the men splashing along with me were screaming in agony and dying like flies. Those were brave men dying out there. Peacetime, they’d all be normal, decent coward, frightened of their wives, trembling before their bosses, terrified of the passing of the years. But war had made them gallant. They had been greedy men, now they were self-sacrificing. They had been selfish, now they were generous. War isn’t hell at all. Man at his best. The highest morality he’s capable of.
Emily: Never mind all that. What’s this about a wife?
Charlie: That night I sat in the jungles of Guadalcanal, waiting to be killed, sopping wet. It was then I had my blinding revelation. I discovered I was a coward. That’s my new religion. I’m a big believer in it. Cowardice will save the world. It’s not the war that’s insane, you see. It’s the morality of it. It’s not greed and ambition that makes wars, it’s goodness. Wars are always fought for the best of reason - the liberation or manifest destiny, always against tyranny and always in the interest of humanity. So far, this war we’ve managed to butcher some ten million humans in the interest of humanity. Next war, it seems we’ll have to destroy all of man in order to preserve his damn dignity. It’s not war that’s unnatural to us, it’s virtue. As long as valor remains a virtue we shall have soldiers, so I preach cowardice. Through cowardice we shall all be saved.

2 comentários:

  1. As Tertulías disse...:

    Escrevi errado na última postagem: Paddy Chayefsky... nao é?

  1. Em qual postagem, Ricardo? Não me recordo.

    Meredith, I too find that dialogue superb! Thank you for the comment.

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