Great Movie Dialogue

Universal Remote

Great movie speeches are awesome. This is from Stephen Gaghan's Syriana. I'm not sure this rises up to Michael Douglas' "Greed is good" speech from Wall Street but it's pretty good.

"Danny" is played by Tim Blake Nelson and "Bennett" is played by Jeffrey Wright.

DANNY

Some trust fund prosecutor, got off-message at Brown, thinks he’s gonna run this up the flag pole, make a name for himself, maybe get elected some two-bit, no-name congressman from nowhere, with the result that Russia or China can suddenly start having, at our expense, all the advantages we enjoy here. No, I tell you. No, sir.

(mimics prosecutor)

“But, Danny, these are sovereign nations.” Sovereign nations! What is a sovereign nation, but a collective of greed run by one individual? “But, Danny, they’re codified by the U.N. charter!” Legitimized gangsterism on a global basis that has no more validity than an agreement between the Crips and the Bloods!

(beat)

...Corruption charges. Corruption? Corruption ain’t nothing more than government intrusion into market efficiencies in the form of regulation. That’s Milton Friedman. He got a goddamn Nobel prize. We have laws against it precisely so we can get away with it. Corruption is our protection. Corruption is what keeps us safe and warm. Corruption is why you and I are prancing around here instead of
fighting each other for scraps of meat out in the streets.

(beat)

Corruption... is how we win.

BENNETT

You broke the law, Mr. Dalton.

DANNY

Oh, who gives a shit!

I pulled this from Roger Ebert's four-star review. Check it out and see once again why he is our best film critic and I am not.