 |
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[Ernie sees Dottie and Kit vigorously milking cows]
Ernie Capadino: Ow. Doesn't that hurt them?
Dottie Hinson: Doesn't seem to.
Ernie Capadino: Well, it would bruise the hell out of me.
Dottie Hinson: Can I help you with something?
Ernie Capadino: I'm Ernie Capadino. I'm a baseball scout. I saw you playing today. Not bad, not bad. You ever heard of Walter Harvey, makes Harvey bars - you know, the candy?
Dottie Hinson: Yeah. We feed them to the cows when they're constipated.
Ernie Capadino: That's the guy. He's starting a girls' baseball league, so he can make a buck while the boys are overseas. Wanna play?
Dottie Hinson: Huh?
Ernie Capadino: Nice retort. Tryouts are in Chicago. It's a real league, professional.
Kit Keller: Professional - baseball?
Ernie Capadino: Mmm-hmm. They'll pay you 75 dollars a week.
Kit Keller: We only make 30 at the dairy.
Ernie Capadino: Well then, this would be more, wouldn't it? (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
Kid: What's your rush, dollbody? What do you say we slip in the back seat, and make a man out of me?
Dottie Hinson: What do you say I smack you around for a while?
Kid: Can't we do both? (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
Umpire: Perhaps you chastised her too vehemently. Good rule of thumb: treat each of these girls as you would treat your mother.
Jimmy Dugan: Did anyone ever tell you, you look like a penis with that little hat on? (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
Western Union man: Excuse Me! Excuse Me! I have a telegram here from the war department. Man, I hate these. The least they could do is send someone in person to tell you your husband is dead. I just had the name here. Now I have to go back...
Jimmy Dugan: Give it to me!
Western Union man: I can't. This is Official
Jimmy Dugan: Give me the telegram
Western Union man: [Jimmy pushes the Western Union man out of the dressing room door] You can't do this. I'm coming back...
[Jimmy reads the telegram and begins walking down the line of players]
Jimmy Dugan: [the camera drops on Betty] I'm sorry Betty.
Betty 'Betty Spaghetti' Horn: [Crying hysterically] No! George! (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
Older Stilwell: Hi Dottie. Remember me? You're gonna lose!
Older Dottie: Stilwell angel? Oh it's good to see you again. Where's your mom?
Older Stilwell: Mom died... a few years ago. When I heard about this, I... I felt I owed it to her to be here. She always said it was the best time of her life.
Older Dottie: Oh I'm so sorry to hear that. She was a great woman and a damn fine baseball player. (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
Walter Harvey: You kind of let me down on that San Antonio job.
Jimmy Dugan: I, uh, yeh, I, uh... I freely admit, sir, I had no right to... sell off the team's equipment like that; that won't happen again.
Walter Harvey: Let me be blunt. Are you still a fall-down drunk?
Jimmy Dugan: Well, that is blunt. Ahem. No sir, I've, uh, quit drinking.
Walter Harvey: You've seen the error of your ways.
Jimmy Dugan: No, I just can't afford it.
[giggles]
Walter Harvey: It's funny to you. Your drinking is funny. You're a young man, Jimmy: you still could be playing, if you just would've laid off the booze.
Jimmy Dugan: Well, it's not exactly like that... I hurt my knee.
Walter Harvey: You fell out of a hotel. That's how you hurt it.
Jimmy Dugan: Well, there was a fire.
Walter Harvey: Which you started, which I had to pay for.
Jimmy Dugan: Well, now, I was going to send you a thank-you card, Mr. Harvey, but I wasn't allowed anything sharp to write with. (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
| Kit Keller: You ever hear Dad introduce us to people? "This is our daughter Dottie, and this is our other daughter, Dottie's sister." Should've just had you and bought a dog! (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
Doris Murphy: Hey Mae, Mae, your date's here.
Mae Mordabito: How do I look?
Doris Murphy: Where'd you get that dress?
Mae Mordabito: Borrowed it.
Doris Murphy: It don't fit you, Mae, it's too tight.
Mae Mordabito: I don't plan on wearing it that long.
Doris Murphy: Ohh. I don't know why you get dressed at all. (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
Older Doris: [Doris sees Dottie watching the former team playing after 40s years] Mae! Come here! Is that her?
Older Mae: I don't know, is it?
Older Doris: Dottie?
Older Doris, Older Mae: [Doris throw a fast ball and Dottie catches it like their first day in tryouts] It's her!
Older Dottie: [smiling in recognition] Hey Doris (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
Jimmy Dugan: Evelyn, could you come here for a second? Which team do you play for?
Evelyn Gardner: Well, I'm a Peach.
Jimmy Dugan: Well I was just wonderin' why you would throw home when we got a two-run lead. You let the tying run get on second base and we lost the lead because of you. Start using your head. That's the lump that's three feet above your ass.
[Evelyn starts to cry]
Jimmy Dugan: Are you crying? Are you crying? ARE YOU CRYING? There's no crying! THERE'S NO CRYING IN BASEBALL!
Doris Murphy: Why don't you give her a break, Jimmy...
Jimmy Dugan: Oh, you zip it, Doris! Rogers Hornsby was my manager, and he called me a talking pile of pigshit. And that was when my parents drove all the way down from Michigan to see me play the game. And did I cry?
Evelyn Gardner: No, no, no.
Jimmy Dugan: Yeah! NO. And do you know why?
Evelyn Gardner: No...
Jimmy Dugan: Because there's no crying in baseball. THERE'S NO CRYING IN BASEBALL! No crying! (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
Jimmy Dugan: All right, everyone, let's listen up now, listen up. Hey! I don't know what that kid is doing, but get him away from the tape! Stilwell Something important has just happened. I was in the toilet reading my contract, and it turns out, I get a bonus when we get to the World Series. So, let's play hard, let's play smart, use your heads.
Doris Murphy: [quoting him] That's that lump three feet above our ass, right, Jimmy?
[laughter]
Jimmy Dugan: Some more prominent than others, there, Doris. (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
Jimmy Dugan: Taking a little day trip?
Dottie Hinson: No, Bob and I are driving home. To Oregon.
Jimmy Dugan: [long pause] You know, I really thought you were a ballplayer.
Dottie Hinson: Well, you were wrong.
Jimmy Dugan: Was I?
Dottie Hinson: Yeah. It is only a game, Jimmy. It's only a game, and, and, I don't need this. I have Bob; I don't need this. At all.
Jimmy Dugan: I, I gave away five years at the end my career to drink. Five years. And now there isn't anything I wouldn't give to get back any one day of it.
Dottie Hinson: Well, we're different.
Jimmy Dugan: Shit, Dottie, if you want to go back to Oregon and make a hundred babies, great, I'm in no position to tell anyone how to live. But sneaking out like this, quitting, you'll regret it for the rest of your life. Baseball is what gets inside you. It's what lights you up, you can't deny that.
Dottie Hinson: It just got too hard.
Jimmy Dugan: It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard... is what makes it great. (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
[During the league's publicity drive]
Mae Mordabito: What if at a key moment in the game my, my uniform bursts open and, uh, oops., my bosoms come flying out? That, that might draw a crowd, right?
Doris Murphy: You think there are men in this country who ain't seen your bosoms? (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
| Dave Hooch: I know my girl ain't so pretty as these girls, but that's my fault. I raised her like I would a boy. I didn't know any better. She loves to play. Don't make my little girl suffer because I messed up raising her. Please. (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
Ira Lowenstein: Until you did that, I couldn't tell if you were... drunk or dead.
Jimmy Dugan: It was made very clear to me what I'm supposed to do here. I smile, wave my little hat... I did that, so when do I get paid?
Ira Lowenstein: Now, Jimmy, you have some pretty good ballplayers here. You ought to give them a little bit of your...
Jimmy Dugan: [interrupting] Ballplayers. I don't have ballplayers, I've got girls. Girls are what you sleep with after the game, not, not what you coach during the game.
[spits]
Ira Lowenstein: If we paid you a little bit more, Jimmy, do you think you could be just a little more disgusting?
Jimmy Dugan: [brightly] Well, I could certainly use the money. (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
| Announcer: After the first month of league play, the shine still isn't off these "diamond" gals. Alice "Skeeter" Gaspers says legging out a triple is no reason to let your nose get shiny - Betty Grable has nothing on these gals. Helen Haley has not only been a member of several championship amateur teams, she is also an accomplished coffee maker. (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
| Announcer: Then there's pretty Dottie Henson, who plays like Gehrig, and looks like Garbo. Uh-uh, fellas, keep your mitts to yourself; she's married. And there's her kid sister Kit, who's as single as they come. Enough concentrated oomph for a whole carload of Hollywood starlets. (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
Ira Lowenstein: This is what it's going to be like in the factories, too, I suppose, isn't it? "The men are back, Rosie, turn in your rivets." We told them it was their patriotic duty to get out of the kitchen and go to work; and now, when the men come back, we'll send them back to the kitchen.
Walter Harvey: What should we do - send the boys returning from WAR back to the kitchen? (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
[Mae helps Shirley learn to read]
Mae Mordabito: Sound it out...
Shirley Baker: Kimm...
Mae Mordabito: Kimono.
Shirley Baker: Kimono, kimono. Off. And. Gr - Gra - Grabb"d.
Mae Mordabito: Grabbed.
Shirley Baker: Her. M - mi - mil - mil - milky, milky. White, white. Milky white.
Evelyn Gardner: Mae. What are you giving her to read?
Mae Mordabito: Oh, what the difference does it make? She's reading, okay? That's the important thing. Now go away, go, shoo, shoo. Go ahead, Shirley, you're doing good.
Shirley Baker: Thanks, Mae. Milky white bre - breasts.
[Gives Mae a surprised look]
Mae Mordabito: It gets really good after that. Look. The delivery boy walks in... (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
| Jimmy Dugan: Uh, Lord, hallowed be Thy name. May our feet be swift; may our bats be mighty; may our balls... be plentiful. Lord, I'd just like to thank You for that waitress in South Bend. You know who she is - she kept calling Your name. And God, these are good girls, and they work hard. Just help them see it all the way through. Okay, that's it. (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
| Maida Gillespie: Careers and higher education are leading to the masculinization of women, with enormously dangerous consequences to the home, the children, and our country. When our boys come home from war, what kind of girls will they be coming home to? And now the most disgusting example of this sexual confusion: Mr. Walter Harvey of Harvey bars is presenting us with women's baseball. Right here in Chicago, young girls plucked from their families are gathered at Harvey Field, to see which one of them can be the most masculine. Mr. Harvey, like your candy bars, you're completely... nuts. (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
Batter at reunion game: That was clear inside. That was clear inside...
[continues to argue]
Umpire: Listen, yesterday that was a ball, tomorrow it might be a ball, but today it's a strike. (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
| Radio Sportscaster: This week, on "The World of sports": When the boys are overseas, and off to war, baseball pitches in for the war effort. Trading bats for bullets, Yankees star Joe DiMaggio promises to give those Nazis a jolt. Ace fire baller, Bob Feller, has traded Cleveland gray for navy blue. Baseball biggest stars say: Look out Mr. Hitler, the Yanks are coming, not to mention the Indians, Red Sox, and Tigers. (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
[Mae is in confession; a thud is heard]
Doris Murphy: It's the second time he dropped that Bible since she's been in.
[Mae comes out, reverend looks shocked]
Doris Murphy: Mae. What did you say?
Mae Mordabito: Everything. (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
| Mae Mordabito: ...And what am I supposed to do, huh? Go back to taxi dancin'? Ten cents so some slob can sweat gin all over me? I'm never doin' that again! So you go back there! And you tell "Mr. Rich Old Chocolate Man" that he ain't closing ME down! (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
Dottie Hinson: You ever been married?
Jimmy Dugan: Well, let me think... yeah, twice.
Dottie Hinson: Any children?
Jimmy Dugan: One of them was, yeah. (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
[Jimmy has just signed a baseball for a little boy]
Little Boy: [reading] Avoid the clap, Jimmy Dugan.
Jimmy Dugan: Hey, that's good advice! (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
[Upon seeing Marla drunk and singing with the band]
Dottie Hinson: What did you give her?
Doris Murphy: Just a new dress.
Mae Mordabito: And a whole lotta liquor. (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
Walter Harvey: You go out, wave your cap, give the people a thrill.
Jimmy Dugan: Why don't you get an organ grinder, I could do a little dance.
Walter Harvey: If your knees are up for it, go ahead. (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
[at Tryouts]
Mae Mordabito: Ya know they got over a hundred girls here. So some of yous are going home.
Kit Keller: What do you mean some of us?
[Doris throws a fast ball at Kit, which Dottie catches with her bare hands]
Mae Mordabito: OK, some of them are going home. (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
Dottie Hinson: It was an important game; it got us into the playoffs.
Kit Keller: I could have finished.
Dottie Hinson: The way you were pitching, Stilwell could have hit off you. (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
Jimmy Dugan: We're gonna win.
[shouts]
Jimmy Dugan: We're gonna win!
Stilwell 'Stilwell Angel' Gardner: You're gonna lose. You're gonna lose. You stink.
Jimmy Dugan: [after hitting Stilwell in the face with a thrown glove]
[shouts]
Jimmy Dugan: Ha! Got him! (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
Jimmy Dugan: Hey, where did you come from?
Dottie Hinson: Well, we got as far as Yellowstone Park... then we turned back.
Jimmy Dugan: Have a little trouble with the bears, did ya? (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
Kit Keller: Hey, Dottie? thanks for gettin' me into the league.
Dottie Hinson: You got yourself into the league. I just got you on the train. (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
Helen Haley: [the girls are checking the team lists] Hi. Can you read, honey?
Shirley Baker: [crying] No.
Helen Haley: All right... what's your name?
Shirley Baker: Shirley Baker.
Helen Haley: Shirley Baker... Shirley Baker... okay, let's take a look.
[scans the lists]
Helen Haley: This is you! You're with us! You're a Rockford Peach! (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
Charm School assistant: [the charm school teachers are inspecting each of the girls and they come to dowdy Marla Hooch] What do you suggest?
Charm School instructor: [repulsed] A lot of night games. (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
Kit Keller: My train leaves at eight o'clock, I've got ten minutes to pack.
Dottie Hinson: Well, if you have any trouble, you know who to blame. (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
Dottie Hinson: I'm so sick of being blamed for every thing that's bothering you. I got you into this league, God damnit!
Dottie Hinson: I didn't even want to be here.
Kit Keller: Then why are you still here? (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
Kit Keller: [while the team is stranded out on the road] Dottie, you going to come with us?
Dottie Hinson: Where are you going?
Mae Mordabito: A road house called the Sud's Bucket.
Dottie Hinson: Ah, no. You know, I'm married...
Doris Murphy: C'mon Dottie, you ain't on the farm any more, live a little bit!
Miss Cuthbert: Girls, girls, please! Mr. Goosatelli shan't be returning.
[Goes back on the bus]
Dottie Hinson: Hey, what are you going to do about Ms. Cuthbert? How are you going to get past her?
Kit Keller: Mae's going to poison her dinner.
Dottie Hinson: WHAT?
[Girls laugh] (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
Mae Mordabito: [after Dottie catches a fast ball with her bare hand] So some of them are going home.
[looks confused]
Doris Murphy: How'd you do that? Excuse me? You caught that. Hello?
[to Mae]
Doris Murphy: Did you see that? (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
Ira Lowenstein: Great game, Jimmy. I especially liked that move in the seventh inning when you scratched your balls for an hour.
Jimmy Dugan: Well, anything worth doing is worth doing right.
[spits] (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
| Racine Peaches: Batter all, hear that call. The time has come for one & all... To play ball. We are the members of the All American League. We come from cities near & far. We have got Canadians, Irish ones & Swedes. We are all for one, we are one for all, we are all American. Each girl stands, her head so proudly high. Her motto "Do or Die". She is not the one to use or need an alibi. Our chaperones are not too soft, they are not too tough. Our managers are on the ball. We have got a president who really knows his stuff. We are all for one, we are one for all, we are all American. (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
Dottie Hinson: [Dottie has returned for the World Series] Hey, Jimmy, you look like shit. Don't you ever shave?
Jimmy Dugan: [grinning] We're gonna win... We're gonna *win!* (Movie: A League of Their Own [1992]) | |
| Joe Clark: This is an institution of learning, ladies and gentlemen. If you can't control it, how can you teach? Discipline is not the enemy of enthusiasm! (Movie: Lean on Me [1989]) | |
Joe Clark: You've tried it your way for years, and your students can't even pass the State's Minimum Basic Skills Test. THAT MEANS THEY CAN BARELY READ! Now, they've given me one year to turn this place around - to get those test scores up - so that the State will not take us over to perform the task which YOU have failed to accomplish: the task of EDUCATING OUR CHILDREN! So forget about the way it used to be. This is not a damn democracy! We are in a state of emergency and my word is law! There's only one boss around here, and that's me. The HNIC.
[exits]
Mr. O'Malley: HNIC?
Ms. Levias: Head Nigger In Charge. (Movie: Lean on Me [1989]) | |
Joe Clark: I don't have time for Mrs. Elliott's problem!
Dr. Frank Napier: You better make time!
Joe Clark: We are being crucified by a process that is turning blacks into a permanent underclass here, Frank. A permanent underclass!
[Dr. Napier turns away from him and puts some papers in his briefcase]
Joe Clark: See! See, nobody wants to talk about that! NOBODY! Mrs. Elliott's missionary zeal about Mozart has nothing to do with our problem. Nothing! What good is Mozart going to do a bunch of children who can't go out and get a job?
Dr. Frank Napier: Joe, your personal battles are gonna cost us the war. Worry about the test scores.
Joe Clark: WHAT THE HELL YOU THINK I'M WORRIED ABOUT?
Dr. Frank Napier: END OF DISCUSSION! You will write a formal apology!
Joe Clark: I will what?
Dr. Frank Napier: A formal apology for your treatment of Mrs. Elliott and Darnell and for your vicious and thoughtless insults to the women of this community! You will kow tow. You will step and fetch!
Joe Clark: If you think that I'm gonna...
Dr. Frank Napier: [slams briefcase shut] Get used to it! It's the WAY OF THE WORLD! If you're so hot on discipline, then goddammit
[pounds on briefcase]
Dr. Frank Napier: start by accepting mine because contrary to popular opinion, I'M THE HEAD NIGGER IN CHARGE!
[He grabs his briefcase and heads for the door]
Dr. Frank Napier: Come on, let's get something to eat.
Joe Clark: [following him to the door and walking out with him] You really think you bad, don't you? (Movie: Lean on Me [1989]) | |
Dr. Frank Napier: Did you see this yet?
[holding up newspaper story about Clark's fight with a former student]
Dr. Frank Napier: You know, a lot of your shits comes down on my head.
Joe Clark: Oh, Frank! Look, this is...
Dr. Frank Napier: No, You let me talk! It's like you're a big bird with radar and I'm tired of getting hit!
Joe Clark: Th... this is my fault?
Dr. Frank Napier: This is nothing! I've got union lawyers threatening me and there's talk of a walk-out!
Joe Clark: Well, let 'em! They're not doing anything down there anyway!
Dr. Frank Napier: It is your job to...
Joe Clark: None of them have a personal stake at that school! Not one!
Dr. Frank Napier: The fire chief was just in here. He said it was illegal to bar those doors. Mrs. Barrett is organizing a parents' group to try and get you removed since you insulted them at that meeting the other night when you suggested they should get off welfare...
Joe Clark: Oh, I didn't mean all of...
Dr. Frank Napier: ...because the fact is quite a few of them need it.
Joe Clark: I wasn't talking to all of them, Frank! Look, you came and recruited me, man, but you disappoint me, brother. You disappoint me!
Dr. Frank Napier: The disappointment here is you!
Joe Clark: Me?
Dr. Frank Napier: Yes!
Joe Clark: You know who I am. You've known me thirty years! You knew what I would do! You know how I operate!
Dr. Frank Napier: Nigger, will you keep quiet! the fact is you're screwing up! You're alienating everybody! Look at you, you have no life! Your wife left you! Hell, I oughta walk out on you myself!
Joe Clark: Well, go ahead! Bail the hell out!
Dr. Frank Napier: But I said I'd back you up!
Joe Clark: That's what you said, man! That's what you said!
Dr. Frank Napier: I would go through the... fire with you, but you are not taking care of business! This shit you're pulling now, you've just gone plain loco! Now you suspend Darnell! What the hell was that?
Joe Clark: Darnell is symptomatic of the disciplinary problems...
Dr. Frank Napier: He is a good, strong, young Black teacher! So he... dumped that desk right on top of your head. Well, right on! Good for him! You will reinstate that man, you hear? And you fire Mrs. Elliott! Why? Because she didn't want to kiss your ass! I wouldn't neither! How about that?
Joe Clark: Mrs. Elliott has an ego problem!
Dr. Frank Napier: Well, you lost the best teacher we ever had! We couldn't get her back now if we wanted to! (Movie: Lean on Me [1989]) | |
Joe Clark: [Clark's roof-top pep-talk to Thomas Sams] The problem with teenagers today is you don't know nothing. The problem with being a teenager is you THINK you know better than those who have been down that road you're traveling. Have you told your father what happened to you? You haven't? No guts, huh? You're afraid of what he might say to you.
Thomas Sams: My father doesn't live with us anymore, sir.
Joe Clark: Oh, is that it? You just go around feeling sorry for yourself? Get out of here, boy; you're wasting my time!
Thomas Sams: Please, sir. I have to get back in school, somewhere. I can't just go home and tell my mother I got thrown out of school.
Joe Clark: Boy, what have you been thinking about all this time, and why should I believe you now?
Thomas Sams: Because I'll do better, sir. I'll go to class and do all my work and...
Joe Clark: And what else? Why don't you just jump off the roof, right here and now? That's what you really want, isn't it? Yes, you do. You smoke crack, don't you, boy? Don't you smoke crack? Yeah, I thought so. And you know what that does to you? You don't? It kills your brain cells, son. It kills your brain cells! Now when you're destroying your brain cells, you're doing the same thing as killing yourself. You're just doing it slower! Now, I say if your wanna kill yourself, do it expeditiously! Go on and jump! JUMP!
Thomas Sams: No! I don't wanna jump!
Joe Clark: ...You're quite sure about this, are you?
Thomas Sams: ...That's why I haven't jumped already, sir.
Joe Clark: Maybe. All right, Sams, I'll tell you what I'm gonna do: I'm gonna go back on my own word and let you into my school again. But you're not gonna get a moment's rest. I'm gonna be on your case every minute - just waiting for you to slip up THIS MUCH, so I can toss you right back out. Do you understand me? DO YOU?
Thomas Sams: ...You think I don't appreciate this at all, sir.
Joe Clark: ...We'll see. Alright, let's get back downstairs. Come on.
[they do so] (Movie: Lean on Me [1989]) | |
Joe Clark: [looks at the boys restroom, suspects Sams is hiding something] What do you got in here, Sams?
Thomas Sams: You don't want to go in there Mr. Clark it stinks!
[Clark grabs Sams and they go into the boys restroom] (Movie: Lean on Me [1989]) | |
Leonna Barrett: [at the demonstration outside City Hall] ... Children, you have my word that we will get you what Eastside High deserves: a GOOD principal!
Thomas Sams: We don't NEED a "good principal!" That's why we're here! We need Mr. Clark!
Leonna Barrett: You may THINK you know what you need, but...
[the students applaud wildly, seeing that Clark has just walked up behind Barrett, unnoticed by her] (Movie: Lean on Me [1989]) | |
Mrs. Elliott: I would love to stay and chat, Mr. Clark, but I've a concert in New York in two weeks and I would like to be prepared.
Joe Clark: What?
Mrs. Elliott: Prepare. You do know what prepare means, don't you? It means ready, capable and up to your job.
Joe Clark: What concert, Mrs. Elliott?
Mrs. Elliott: The one at Lincoln Center. We do one every year.
Joe Clark: Until now. As of this moment, your little concert is cancelled.
Mrs. Elliott: What?
Joe Clark: CANCELLED! You do know what cancelled means, don't you? Called off! Terminated!
Mrs. Elliott: WHY? Those children have worked too hard!
Joe Clark: And for not telling me!
Mrs. Elliott: I filed a form in your office! Why don't you talk to...
Joe Clark: And for RANK insubordination! You have insulted my intellegence, my authority...
Mrs. Elliott: You're the one that always comes to pick on me! I'll tell you what! You're a bully, you're a despicable man and I've got nothing more to say to you!
Joe Clark: Let's just accommodate that, Mrs. Elliott! YOU'RE FIRED!
Mrs. Elliott: You need a psychiatrist!
Joe Clark: GET OUT!
Mrs. Elliott: All right, fine! Fired? YOU WILL HEAR FROM MY LAWYER! (Movie: Lean on Me [1989]) | |
| Joe Clark: Alright people, here we are. In one hour, you are going to take an exam administered by the State to test your basic skills and the quality of education at East Side High. I want to tell you what the people are saying about you and what they think about your chances. They say you're inferior! You are just a bunch of niggers and spics and poor white trash! Education is wasted on you! You cannot learn! You're lost! I mean ALL of you! I want all the white students to stand up. All my white students, stand up. Stand up. C'mon, stand up. These are my white children and they're the same as all of you! They've got no place to go, if they had, they'd have abandoned us a long time ago like everybody else did. So, here they are in East Side High, just like the rest of us. You can sit down. Are you getting my point, people? Is it beginning to sink in? We sink, we swim, we rise, we fall, we meet our fate together! Now, it took the help of a good, good friend to make me know and understand that and I do understand that and I'm grateful. I'm eternally grateful. And now, I've got a message for those people out there who've abandoned you and written you off! Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Good! You are NOT inferior! Your grades may be, your school may have been. But you can turn that around and make liars out of those bastards in exactly one hour when you take that test and pass it and win! So here's what I want you to do. When you find your thoughts wandering, I want you to knuckle back down and concentrate. Concentrate! Remember what's at stake and show them what East Side High's all about: a spirit that will not die! (Movie: Lean on Me [1989]) | |
[with a baseball bat in his hand]
Joe Clark: They used to call me Crazy Joe. Well now they can call me Batman! (Movie: Lean on Me [1989]) | |
[after refusing admittance to the Fire Chief]
Joe Clark: You know what he's saying right now? "Black bastard can't throw me out!" You know where he's saying it? Out in the parking lot. (Movie: Lean on Me [1989]) | |
Joe Clark: [at an assembly] I want all of you to take a good look at these people on the risers behind me. These people have been here roughly five years, and done absolutely nothing. These people are drug dealers and drug users. They have taken up space. They have disrupted this school. They have harassed your teachers. And they have intimidated you. Well, times are about to change. You will not be bothered in Joe Clark's school. These people are incorrigible. And since none of them could graduate anyway...
[to those onstage]
Joe Clark: ... you are all expurgated. You are dismissed! You are out of here, forever. I wish you well! Mr. Wright...
[after Security Dean William Wright and Eastside's new guards eject all the "problem" kids from school, Clark's audience in the decaying auditorium grows silent]
Joe Clark: Next time, it may be you. If you do no better than they did, next time it WILL be you. They said this school was dead, like the cemetery it's built on. But we call our Eastside teams "Ghosts", don't we? And what are ghosts? Ghosts are spirits that rise from the dead. I want you to be my ghosts. You are going to lead our resurrection, by defying the expectation that all of us are doomed to failure. My motto is simple: If you do not succeed in life, I don't want you to blame your parents. I don't want you to blame the White Man. I want you to blame yourselves. The responsibility is yours! In two weeks we have a practice exam, and on April 13th we have the Minimum Basic Skills Test itself. That's 110 school days from now. But it's not just about those test scores. If you do not have these basic skills, you will find yourselves locked out. Locked out of that American Dream that you see advertised on TV, and that they tell you is so easy to get. You are here for one reason. One reason only: To learn. To work for what you believe in. The alternative is to waste your time, to fall into the trap of crime and drugs and death. Does everybody understand that? Do all of you understand me? Then welcome to the new Eastside High. (Movie: Lean on Me [1989]) | |
Dr. Frank Napier: Don, the man has a legitimate problem. How's he supposed to keep drug dealers out of his school if their buddies can just push open the exit doors and let 'em walk on in?
Mr. Rosenberg: He's got a point, sir.
Mayor Don Bottman: Rosenberg, this doesn't concern you. (Movie: Lean on Me [1989]) | |
| Joe Clark: [addressing teachers] You think you can run this school? If you could, then I wouldn't be here, would I? No one talks at my meetings. NO ONE! You take out your pencils and write. I want the names... of every hoodlum, drug dealer, and miscreant who's done nothing but take this place apart on my desk by noon today. (Movie: Lean on Me [1989]) | |
| Joe Clark: [at the first teachers' meeting] Mr. Zarella, you are my new head football coach. Mr. Darnell will be your assistant. Mr, Darnell, stand up. You know why you're being demoted, Mr. Darnell? Because I'm sick and tired of our football team getting pushed all over the field; thank you, sit down! I want PRECISION. I want a WEIGHT PROGRAM. And if you don't like it, Mr. Darnell, you can QUIT! Same goes for the rest of you. (Movie: Lean on Me [1989]) | |
| Joe Clark: [after asking teachers to put up their hands] Because you are failing to educate them, this is the posture that many of our students will wind up in. Only they'll be staring down the barrel of a gun! (Movie: Lean on Me [1989]) | |
| Joe Clark: [at school assembly before the skills test] And I've got a message out there for those people who have abandoned you and written you off. You are NOT inferior. Your grades may be. Your school may have been. But you can turn all that around and make liars out of those bastards in exactly one hour, when you take that test, pass it, and win! (Movie: Lean on Me [1989]) | |
Mayor Don Bottman: What do you want?
Leonna Barrett: Clark!
Mayor Don Bottman: Just like that, huh? Head on a platter.
Leonna Barrett: You think I got an attitude. Well, let me tell you what I think. I know why you like Clark. He's a guard dog. Does your dirty work. Keeps the black folk in line - that's fine. But you've got to get re-elected. I've got enough folks lined up with me to give you a DAMN hard time, and I will get more. I will organize. I will beat the streets.
Mayor Don Bottman: Unless I do what?
Leonna Barrett: Appoint me to the school board so we can vote Clark out. Otherwise, we'll just have to vote you out.
Mayor Don Bottman: Vote me out? You know, it's always good to see citizens avail themselves of the democratic process.
Leonna Barrett: My job's gonna be easy. You're not too popular these days, are ya? (Movie: Lean on Me [1989]) | |
| Joe Clark: Mr. Major, on behalf of myself and on behalf the students of Eastside High, you can tell the State to go to hell! (Movie: Lean on Me [1989]) | |
Joe Clark: Don't talk to me about saving those kids. The mayor wants to save his budget. And you wanna save your ass!
Dr. Frank Napier: Well, so what? You want the truth?
Joe Clark: Yeah, Frank. Let's have some truth.
Dr. Frank Napier: The truth is that for all your talking, all your 'Crazy Joe' routine, what have you ever done? Nothing. You're nothing but an insignificant man. It's like you were never born. Your life hasn't made one bit of difference, and neither has mine. Wanna take that to the grave? (Movie: Lean on Me [1989]) | |
| Dr. Frank Napier: [to Joe] It's like you're a Big Bird with radar. And I'm tired of getting hit! (Movie: Lean on Me [1989]) | |
| Joe Clark: [to the Eastside students who have gathered outside City Hall to demonstrate on his behalf] Wow... Somebody tell me why I can't get this kind of turnout for study hall! (Movie: Lean on Me [1989]) | |
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