Herbert versus Tarantino?!


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Drunken Idaho
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Herbert versus Tarantino?!

Post by Drunken Idaho »

Yes, there is indeed a connection... I've been meaning to write this topic for a while, and orald was kind enough to hook me up with a PDF of The White Plague so I can copy and paste this:
Frank Herbert wrote:"It's a very ancient way with us," Father Michael said, "part of the original Gaelic madness. We divide
ourselves so others can conquer us. The Vikings found us easy because we were too busy fighting each
other. If we'd once united against the Norsemen -- be they white or black -- we would've driven them into
the sea." He looked at Herity. "And there'd've been no blond Irishmen at all!"
Herity glared at him, understanding the dig at his own ancestry.
"The Norsemen mixed their blood with ours," Father Michael said, looking at the tufts of blond hair poking
from beneath Herity's green cap. "One of the great calamities of history, the mix of the berserkers and the
Irish! We became great self-slaughterers -- ready to throw ourselves to death for any cause."
John glanced at Herity and was startled by the wild rage in the man's face. Herity's hands were clenching
and unclenching as though he longed to choke the priest.
Father Michael appeared not to notice.
"It was a bad mix all around," he said. "Rotting out the communal roots of the Irish, degrading as well what
was best in the Norsemen -- their sense of camaraderie."
"Be still, you mad priest!" Herity grated.
Father Michael only smiled. "You will note, Mister O'Donnell, that the mixed breed was left only with a
greedy loyalty to self and the swagger to take advantage of anything for personal glory."
"Are you quite through, Priest?" Herity demanded, his voice barely controlled.
"No, I'm not. I was about to observe that there were ancient ties between us and the Northumbrians, and
them right in the heart of the bloody Brits over the water there. The Vikings cut those ties, as well. And
when you come back to it, Mister Herity, we did it to ourselves by refusing to be united, by letting the Vikings
take us!"
Herity no longer could contain himself. He jumped ahead, whirled and smashed a fist into the side of Father
Michael's head. The priest fell against the boy and both tumbled onto the roadway.
Now, if you've ever seen True Romance (fantastic film, see it NOW if you haven't yet), you might find the above somewhat familiar. True Romance was written by Tarantino apparently when he was 16. He sold the script to fund Reservoir Dogs, and Tony Scott ended up directing it. It's a perfect film, in my opinion, and I wouldn't change a thing about it, but here's a bit from a GREAT scene between Dennis Hopper (Worley) and Christopher Walken (Coccotti):
Quentin Tarantino wrote:Clifford Worley: You're Sicilian, huh?
Coccotti: Yeah, Sicilian.
Clifford Worley: Ya know, I read a lot. Especially about things... about history. I find that shit fascinating. Here's a fact I don't know whether you know or not. Sicilians were spawned by niggers.
Coccotti: Come again?
Clifford Worley: It's a fact. Yeah. You see, uh, Sicilians have, uh, black blood pumpin' through their hearts. Hey, no, if eh, if eh, if you don't believe me, uh, you can look it up. Hundreds and hundreds of years ago, uh, you see, uh, the Moors conquered Sicily. And the Moors are niggers.
Coccotti: Yes...
Clifford Worley: So you see, way back then, uh, Sicilians were like, uh, wops from Northern Italy. Ah, they all had blonde hair and blue eyes, but, uh, well, then the Moors moved in there, and uh, well, they changed the whole country. They did so much fuckin' with Sicilian women, huh? That they changed the whole bloodline forever. That's why blonde hair and blue eyes became black hair and dark skin. You know, it's absolutely amazing to me to think that to this day, hundreds of years later, that, uh, that Sicilians still carry that nigger gene. Now this...
[Coccotti busts out laughing]
Clifford Worley: No, I'm, no, I'm quoting... history. It's written. It's a fact, it's written.
Coccotti: [Laughing] I love this guy.
Clifford Worley: Your ancestors are niggers. Uh-huh.
[Starts laughing, too]
Clifford Worley: Hey. Yeah. And, and your great-great-great-great grandmother fucked a nigger, ho, ho, yeah, and she had a half-nigger kid... now, if that's a fact, tell me, am I lying? 'Cause you, you're part eggplant.
[All laugh, Coccotti whispers something in Italian to one of his henchmen, and turns around to shoot Worley dead.]
So what do you think? Both scenes involve one person noting a physical characteristic of another character (blonde hair on Herity, black hair on Coccotti), and then pointing out that this characteristic stems from some ancient invasion of another race, and both scenes end in violence. So was Quentin a Herbert fan?
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Freakzilla
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Post by Freakzilla »

You're a cantelope. :P

I love that movie.
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Post by Drunken Idaho »

Freakzilla wrote:You're a cantelope. :P

I love that movie.
Hmm, I took the dialogue from the IMDB memorable quotes article, but I just realized they left out the cantelope remark. :x

But yeah, it's a brilliant film... Gotta love Brad Pitt's bit part in it as the stoner roommate who is never seen off of the couch. Plus, the score for the film is fantastic. The main theme is quite beautiful.
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Post by SwordMaster »

so cool. one of my favorite films, and dude, this is a huge find. Im also a bit of a QT fanatic and love all of his films, to the same degree I love dune, so yeah Im really excited about this find you have made here, QT of course takes things from other places and this is a perfect example.

And you have indeed found it! I bet you QT would admit it if asked directly! So cool. So imagine QT did dune! lol no that might be too much, but still clearly QT read FH and this is one of the best scenes in all of film really. I mean really, first you have Tony Saprano in the back, and you KNOW true romance inspired the casting of Gandolfini to the role for Tony S. So there is all sorts of cool stuff about that scene. I have also heard Hopper say that when he goes to places outside of the USA, ppl always remember him from that scene. Its a really famous scene and basicly inspired by FH this is so cool man!

Great find!
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Drunken Idaho
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Post by Drunken Idaho »

The interesting thing is, he usually seems to reference/copy from film and TV. In fact, until I noticed this similarity, I definitely wouldn't have guessed he was the reading type. Sci-fi doesn't seem to influence him much either, so this all comes as a surprise. I'd like to get him to respond somehow.
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Post by Freakzilla »

Drunken Idaho wrote:Gotta love Brad Pitt's bit part in it as the stoner roommate who is never seen off of the couch.
Get some beer... and some cleaning products...

:lol:
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Post by SwordMaster »

Freakzilla wrote:
Drunken Idaho wrote:Gotta love Brad Pitt's bit part in it as the stoner roommate who is never seen off of the couch.
Get some beer... and some cleaning products...

:lol:
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