"I'm just a fly in the ointment, a monkey in the wrench"
It's a monkey wrench in the *blank* not a monkey IN the wrench.
How did this gaffe get in the final cut of the movie?
It's pretty simple. It's not a gaffe, it's a joke. A cheesy joke made by the same character who redefined "yippee ki yay".
Reading my signature constitutes admission that I am correct. (Too late)
Explain how changing "monkey wrench in the works" to "monkey in the wrench" is a joke.
shareWell I'm to guess it's impossible in this case since if you're still on this you clearly don't get it, but for anyone else who happens to read this thread:
It's simple juxtaposition of words. Taking a known phrase or term and using it in a silly way. It's practically a dad joke actually.
Or if you have to, evaluate your premise. You're suggesting that the writers, producers, actors, director, editor and everyone else involved in the project simply missed it? Seems unlikely if not impossible. Much more likely that they intended it as a joke (which of course not everyone will find funny).
Reading my signature constitutes admission that I am correct. (Too late)
You're suggesting that the writers, producers, actors, director, editor and everyone else involved in the project simply missed it? Seems unlikely if not impossible.
My very question is "HOW could something so obvious make it into the movie?" so it's not like I don't think its a glaring, obvious error. However stuff like this happens all the time. Insane mistakes much worse than this that went through every possible department somehow make it into the finished film. So no, as obvious a mistake as it would be it's no where near close to impossible for it to happen.
Also you're not REALLY explaining how this could be even conceivable as a joke Dad or otherwise. Nor do you really know what juxtaposition means.
"You know how dads or funny guys say phrases in dumb ways yeah thats what he's doing." Thats a weak, reaching excuse and you know it.
If this rearranging of words to make a nonsense phrase is really a deliberate character moment it's one far too subtle and nuanced for a movie like this. Also for it to actually WORK from a screenplay perspective it would need to be brought back and repeated throughout the movie so we the audience understand that this is a THING McClane does. Why wouldn't he also say "an ointment in the fly"? Doing it once just makes it look like he mucked up the saying. Which makes him look dumb and THAT can't possibly have been intentional. Hence it was a mistake. share
Wow. You're putting a lot of thought into this so I'll try to be respectful in my reply.
My simple point is that someone saying "a monkey in the wrench" when they're trying to be a bit of a pain in the ass rings true to me. And since in the nearly 30 years since this came out I haven't exactly seen parades about this "mistake" I feel confident saying most people took it as just a quirky way to mock Gruber over the radio.
I would even guess it was ad-libbed by Willis himself and may not have been in the script word-for-word. People play with words in common phrases all the time. Perhaps not in your circle of friends but I certainly see this all the time.
Heck, I bet if I went back and watched old Moonlighting episodes I could even find examples of Willis making similar remarks.
Of course I don't know if it was a mistake or not. But I'd put it at about 2% that it was actually Willis mis-reading the scripted lines and nobody at all noticing. And beyond that it's probably 49/49 that it was either written that way to be folksy or Willis ad libbed it to be folksy.
You're entitled to your opinion of course and I'm not going to say it's impossible it was a mistake. But in the unlikely event it was, it's hardly egregious since some people talk that way. McClane makes several jokes throughout the film (and the sequels) so him saying "a monkey in the wrench" fits his character for me.
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This kind of goofing around with phrases can ring true in real life but for it work in a movie it would need to be much better communicated than it is here. I'm not really putting that much thought into it, I'm just using some simple logic and responding to the explanations you've been giving. If it was a character trait then screenplay writing logic dictates it would need to be repeated. That's basic movie language, if its joke it was poorly conveyed one at the least.
While I don't think Willis did much THAT much ad-libbing on Moonlighting since the scripts were usually written with a lot of detail in the dialogue the most likely thing you've come back with is that Willis ad libbed it and they were like "f u kc it" I mean in spite of everything it might have still been the best take.
I think it was mostly a throw-away line of sort. To me it didn't really stand out from other times he's mouthing off in some way.
I can see your point about repeating that sort of quip if it's something that's supposed to really be important to the story or character or stand out, but to me it just fell in with "Does it sound like I'm ordering a f'n pizza?" and "Now I know what a TV dinner feels like". Just some relatively lame jokes during moments of tension.
Reading my signature constitutes admission that I am correct. (Too late)
>>>This kind of goofing around with phrases can ring true in real life but for it work in a movie it would need to be much better communicated than it is here.<<<
Since I've never heard anyone else pointing it out, and since it works for me, I think it worked fine. You can over-analyze things to the point of ridiculousness.