Favorite Quotes from Red Ryder.....

Rise to the occasion, boy!
Rise!
Rise to it!

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Bullsh!t (May not seem like an original or interesting line, but the delivery really made it; Marjoe Gortner was great in this film.)

"Your sentence isn't to die, Red Ryder. It's to live, looking back on that inept charge across this room as the high spot of your life's prime."

and "So, when did the chunk start creeping up on ya?"

and " Too bad, you might have got yourself shot to *beep* and mailed home in a plastic garbage bag and buried down the road here. Ever'body woulda come to the funeral. You'd a been somebody then,Red!"

The words just don't it justice; it's Marjoe Gortner all the way. He rules.
He makes the tidal wave of words his character utters pure poetry. I can only marvel at how difficult it must have been to sustain all of that energy during the exhausting task of making a film, which has been accurately described by, I think, Martin Amis as , " A series of repetitions punctuated by delays." I can see how Red Ryder would be a challenge on the stage, but the difficulties of making the film cause me to be even more admiring at the results. Everyone is good in Red Ryder; Hal Linden, Peter Firth, Lee Grant, et al. But it was Gortner's project, wasn't it? I've read the postings here about the soreness of the subject with the man himself; this is disheartening and makes me want to DO something to somehow rectfy that situation. I think its a classic. I've read the play and I think the film is an improvement. With the resurgence of interest in all things 70's, why hasn't Marjoe Gortner made a huge comeback?

"... cause your Red Ryder and you don't know a G*d D*mn thing unless somebody tells ya!"

"You play nice and when today's shootin' schedule is finished, no pun intended Jim, You'll get your instrument back."

"...because at this juncture, some unknown but officious individual steps to your ear and whispers, NEVER... you ain't never comin' back Red Ryder!"

"...and you madame, hiding behind your oppositty of word and deed, are a deceitful woman..."

Teddy: "I'm Sorry..."
Clarisse: "Are you?"
Teddy: "...No but I wish I was."

"You know something old man? Your t*t sucking eyes and a$$ kissing demeanor, you make me as sick as the rest of us do."

"Jesus Christ boy, I say something of consequence and you give me back, 'I don't wanna!' for the fourth time."

"There can be only one writer on these filims <sic> you understand? Otherwise the thematic core of the thing gets screwed up. Now either play the scene the way I wrote it, or I'm gonna make you kiss me!"

"Now Red, I want you take this knife and I want you to cut that tatoo out of your arm and I want you to give it to me to take with me when I go."

"Wheaties...the breakfast of champions....gonna have this bronzed- send it back to you & Red"

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this film. One of the best films from the 70's, period. 1st time I saw it was on SelectTv in the early 80's. Have a good VHS copy of it I brak out regularly.

Everyone on this message board knows exactly how great it was- right on!

-DD

"The Ramones were special. They were better than they knew. Don't forget them." -Lemmy Kilmister

Peter Firth got to reel off some winners, too:

"What you got home fries in your ears?"

"That's a hell of a price for 6 years of haaard labor."

"Didn't like the others!"

"Calls himself the Fireman, drives in from Hatch to throw for money."

"You got a hole in your head, Mae!"

"Hey, I'm on the wagon."

"Chingado the chicano, he's hitchhiking to Guatemala." [strangely, no filmmaker has been brave enough to include the words "#@&*er the chicano" in a film since then]


- The one that's doin' the counting namely yours truly

I agree that this movie is criminally underappreciated, and is literally a gold mine of one-liners. Some of my personal favorites:

"You just taggin' along answering the tough questions, are ya? Just livin' off the little woman's residuals, as it were?"

"Why'd somebody call somebody 'Red' when that somebody else has got brown hair? That short for 'redneck' or what?"

"When no one's around? Or just when no one like me's around?"

"You're a real chickensh*t, ain't ya, boy?"

"This one's dedicated to the Ethridges, ya'll."

2 gallons of rum, and a considerable amount of cocaine!

"All right, Red Ryder, start tapin' hands behind backs and feet -- make 'em tight or I'll cut your pecker off if you got one."

Lyle Striker's often repeated catchphrase "Service is the name of the game" takes on a great ironic extra meaning at the end of the movie.

I'm a totally bitchin' bio writer from Mars!