Daily Dialogue — June 22, 2020

INT. SUBWAY TO FIGHTS TRAIN — NIGHT

The car half full. Kevin and Milton standing near the door. Right behind them, three guys in the midst of an intense conversation in Spanish.

Kevin: So what’s this Weaver Commission?
Milton: I don’t micro-manage. You find the talent and then you delegate. Who knows what the hell Eddie’s up to. He’s got a lotta fingers in a lotta pies.

Suddenly, one of the guys behind them, the biggest of the three, we’ll call him BIG GUY, turns back —

Big Guy: (to Milton) What the fuck you looking at? You fucking deaf or something?
Milton: No. I can hear you just fine.
Big Guy: Good, ’coz I want you should get your skinny little ass somewhere down the fucking car away from me.
Milton: (stare-down) I’m not going anywhere.

Big Guy pulls open his jacket — a knife in his belt.

Kevin: Oh, shit. (stepping back) John…

But Milton doesn’t move. He smiles.

Milton: (perfect Spanish) Maricela, the moment you left the apartment, she was upstairs with Carlos. They’re on the pipe right now, my friend. They’re in the kitchen splitting a jumbo and then he’s going to fuck her in the ass, right on your bed, and she’s going to like it.

Big Guy backing away — into his friends —

Big Guy: Como…? How do you…?

The SUBWAY RATTLING into the Fourteenth Street station.

Milton: (still Spanish) Do yourself a favor and put that knife where it belongs.

The doors open. Big Guy stumbling back — his friends catching him — helping him off the train — looking back, as the doors close and…

It’s like it never happened. Milton straightening his cuffs as the train pulls away.

Kevin: What did you say to him?
Milton: I told him if he didn’t leave us alone, you were going to kick all three of their asses.

— The Devil’s Advocate (1997), screenplay by Jonathan Lemkin and Tony Gilroy, novel by Andrew Niederman

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Subway. Today’s suggestion by

Trivia: The character of John Milton is named for John Milton, the author of “Paradise Lost,” the classic epic poem about man’s fall from God’s grace. When Lomax is in Milton’s office at the end of the film, he says “Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven,” from Book I Line 263 of the same work.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by Lois: “This is a brief scene. For those of you who have not seen this film, Keanu Reeve’s character, young and handsome with gorgeous sexy wife Charlize Theron, is practicing criminal law in Gainesville, Fl. He is defending a child molester and at the crucial moment when he realizes the guy is getting off on the victim’s testimony, he has to decide his fate. Or so we think. He ends up being recruited by International Law firm headed by the Al Pacino character, who is, we discover, the Devil himself. In this scene, which I’m not sure is really needed, Kevin sees Milton’s use of mind reading to prevent being physically assaulted in the Subway. It serves to up the danger quotient as Kevin has just found out that the firm is busy shredding documents in anticipation of a Federal investigation. Kevin is later offered a chance to turn against Milton and testify for the Feds. He is woefully ignorant of who he really is working for at this point in the film.”