Bukowski quote from the movie SIDEWAYS (1 Viewer)

[ribaij]

Can someone help me out. Where is this BUK-quote from?

"SIDEWAYS"
Screenplay by Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor
Based on the novel by
Rex Pickett
May 29, 2003


- -- --- ---- ----- ------ ------- -------- --------- ----------


EXT. BEACH - DAY

Two PELICANS soar low over the water. One of the DIVES,
crashing into the water and disappearing from view.

Jack and Miles sit on the hood of the Saab, gazing at the
ocean, sharing a bottle of wine.

JACK
Just write another one. You have
lots of ideas, right?

MILES
No, I'm finished. I'm not a writer.
I'm a middle-school English teacher.
I'm going to spend the rest of my
life grading essays and reading the
works of others. It's okay. I like
books. The world doesn't give a shit
what I have to say. I'm unnecessary.
(a dark laugh)
I'm so insignificant, I can't even
kill myself.

JACK
What's that supposed to mean?

MILES
You know -- Hemingway, Sexton, Woolf,
Plath, Delmore Schwartz. You can't
kill yourself before you've even
been published.

JACK
What about that guy who wrote
Confederacy of Dunces? He committed
suicide before he got published, and
look how famous he is.

MILES
Thanks.

JACK
Don't give up. You're going to make
it.

MILES
Half my life is over, and I have
nothing to show for it. I'm a
thumbprint on the window of a
skyscraper. I'm a smudge of excrement
on a tissue surging out to sea with
a million tons of raw sewage.

JACK
See? Right there. Just what you just
said. That's beautiful. A thumbprint
on a skyscraper. I couldn't write
that.

MILES
Neither could I. I think it's
Bukowski.

---------- --------- -------- ------- ------ ----- ---- --- -- -

 

[poptop]

He "thinks" it's Bukowski... but it may not be at all.

By the way, I greatly enjoyed "Sideways," especially the sexy females... the Pinot Noir... the humor... the neurotic behavior of the protagonists... the soundtrack.

Ahhh...nevermind, lol.

 

[ROC]

Yeah.... it's just a Bukowski-esque comment (or what the writers thinks is).
I would put money on the fact B never wrote that.

 

[hoochmonkey9]

I remember that scene very well and I have to agree with BOAB. I don't think Buk wrote it. pretty good movie, though.

 

[HenryChinaski]

still havent seen the movie. always been wanting to though.

 

[justine]

i didn't think it was that good, but probably i had way too high expectations... the preview looked so good, then it won all those awards and everyone was raving about it. hype tends to kill a good movie for me. same thing happened with Walk The Line.

 

[Bukfan]

hype tends to kill a good movie for me. same thing happened with Walk The Line.

It also happend to me with Walk the Line. First they hype it so you think you have to see it and then you go home disappointed...but you never know, 'cause sometimes the movie live up to the hype. I think that was the case with "The Lord of the Rings".

 

[Ambreen]

A quotation from Bukowski in "Sideways"?

In this film, one of the two main characters calls himself a "smudge of excrement on a tissue surging out to sea with a millions tons of raw sewage" after his book has been refused for the umpteenth time. To his friend, who compliments him for this line, he says it is not even from him and thinks it is actually from Bukowski.

If so, from which book?

 

[hank solo]

Pretty sure that it's bogus.

Merged thread....

 

[Ambreen]

Thanks Hank Solo. :)

 

[Ivar Grille]

Doesn't sound like Buk. But given how prolific he was, it's a line that might have popped up in one of his thousands of poems. Miles clearly believes he's quoting someone. If not Buk, who? Probably not Rod McKuen.

 

[Rekrab]

That's one of my favorite films. Like you say, it's probably not Rod McKuen.