This was posted in the “ominous quotes” thread…
“When I started out I was just a peddler moving across the blind face of a distant land. Moving, always moving. Always gone… and in the end I’d always offer weapons. And they’d always take them. Of course I was gone before they realized what they’d purchased.” - Leland Gaunt, Needful Things
What is Needful things about? This quote just begs an explanation. Please tell me all about it!
It’s been a while since I saw the movie (and I’ve never read the book), but basically, there’s a Smiling Saleman (who may or may not be the Devil) who offers anything you want, but at a price. Eventually, the whole town turns against each other due to the Saleman’s machinations. I think the good guys do sort of triumph in the end, but I don’t recall how exactly.
Yeah, it’s been a while since I’ve read it, too, so here’s the plot synopsis from Amazon:
Gaunt offers you your fondest material desire. For the little boy, it’s the last baseball card to complete his set. For Polly, it’s relief from her arthritis. For the sherrif, it’s to know what happened in the last moments of his wife and son’s lives.
Gaunt gives them those things, but at a cost other than money. They pay a tiny bit of cash, but the real payment is a “little” prank, done to someone they don’t know all that well and don’t really like. The pranks are done in such a way to throw blame on the victims’ enemies.
As Fark says, hilarity ensues. The whole town is soon embroiled in plots for revenge which escalates into a full-grown battle.
Oh, crud-- hit “reply” too soon.
But the crux of the matter is once the people realize what they’ve done, they look down at their purchase and see that it’s worthless: the boy’s baseball card is for another player, for example, and the tape he gives the sherrif of his family’s last moments is a fake.
Ouch. That’s just mean.