So I was watching Two Towers:EE last weekend and with the new scenes they added one of my least favorite movie script phenomena. I don’t know if it has a name, but it’s where one character says a line early in the film, and then later another repeats the same line as if to say, “<wink>, this is important.” Or, “hey, you were right all along.” Or, “my, how the tables have turned.” Or sometimes, “look, it’s me, despite the disguise.”
In TTT, it’s (minor spoiler, I guess):
Denethor: “A chance for Faramir, Captain of Gondor to show his quality?”
Faramir: “A chance for Faramir, Captain of Gondor to show his quality”
Sam: “You have shown your quality, sir. The very highest.”
blargh…
Other examples:
Lion King: “Run away Simba, and never return.”
Signs: “Swing away”
Aladdin: “Do you trust me?”
I’m having trouble coming up with more recent examples, but it seems nearly every movie nowadays has a moment like this. What are your faves/least faves. Anyone care to name the phenomena?
Related to the repeated lines, but on a slightly different tact.
Can’t name a specific example, but it really annoys me when they say the same line twice in the same sentence, trying to sound dramatic. This is normally ecountered at the end of the film with an extreme close up shot.
Note to scriptwriters, this is cheesy, cliched and boarding on self-parody. Stop it now.
Example: Heroic character mourning the loss of his friend: “We saved them - we saved them all”.
I’m actually a bit curious that you find this particular script matter so offensive. It is in fact lifted directly from the book (the repetition of said line) if not used in exactly the same fashion.
In the chapter “The Window on the West” Sam slips up whilst speaking with Faramir and reveals that it is in fact the Ring that Frodo is carrying. Angry at his mistake he immediately confronts Faramir and makes it clear that he should not take advantage of his (Sam’s) error, “But handsome is as handsome does we say. Now’s a chance to show your quality.”
Faramir tunes into the totality of what is going on infront of him and delivers the lines inserted directly into the movie. “A chance for Faramir, Captain of Gondor, to show his quality!”
Faramir then goes on to prove how much he is not his brother and unlike the Far-fromthebook-amir of the film, reveals the nobility of his Numenorian heritage. Only two pages later Sam compliments him on his character,
" ‘You took the chance, sir.’
‘Did I so?’ said Faramir.
‘Yes sir, and showed your quality: the very highest.’ "
After Sam bids him goodnight Faramir has one of my favourite lines relating to him in the whole tale (and one of the reasons I really almost hated what was done with the character in the name of ‘character development’).
" ‘Maybe,’ said Faramir. ‘Maybe you discern from far away the air of Numenor. Good Night!’ "
Three repetitions of the same line in the book. Three uses in the movie (granted mangled in execution and intent) to match three times in the book. Not really a ‘script’ matter at all as far as I can tell.
When have you EVER in real life repeated the end of a Meaningful Line the way that they inevitably do in (bad) movies and TV shows? Sometimes I do this just to crack my kids up:
“More Frosted Flakes in the pantry? I don’t know…(pause, start to leave, turn with hand on doorknob, fix inquirer with intense stare) … I just don’t know…”
Well… “Round up the usual suspects” comes to mind.
I think the question of repetition is a literary device, sometimes used well, sometimes not. Shakespeare, for instance, used it fairly powerfully in (say) MACBETH with the witches’ prophecy, or with Mrs MacBeth’s sleepwalking scene.
Edgar Poe used it fairly often, with the raven repeating “Nevermore!”
Other examples abound. Why do you begrudge the use in film?
“The pellet with the poison’s in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace holds the brew that is true.” (Of course, the line varies in the movie, but all the variations are repeated)
"Niagara Falls! Slowly I turn, step by step, inch by inch . . . "
“I’ll be back.”
“And two hard boiled eggs. <honk> Make that three hard boiled eggs.”
“Who’s on first, What’s on second, I Don’t Know’s on third.”
As for people repeating phrases in movies (e.g., “I don’t know. I just don’t know.”) it’s what’s know as “dramatic license.” A piece of fiction does not have to be accurate; it has to be dramatic.
