Chapter 14 of 19 · 4'53"
A road trip to record wild sound turns into an argument about whether anyone swore, and then into Mark coaching Bill through the first line of Coven. Bill keeps flubbing it, and Mark insists, "It's the first line of the film, man. It's gotta be on the money."
❝ Monologue · 13 lines Mark on His Parents' Fighting
Mark drives out to a Wisconsin marsh to record ambient sound for Coven, but all he gets are trucks and no birds, so he gives up on the spot. Later, with Bill in the car, he tries to capture the movie's opening line and has to feed Bill the food and coaching he needs to say it right.
On the surface this is a funny sequence about bad location sound and a friend who keeps flubbing his one line. Underneath, it is Mark working out what he believes. Talking about his parents, who "never got along" and were "out of control," he turns his own childhood into a rule for the future: "If you give them a destiny, they've got something to look forward to." The movie's opening line, "It's all right. There's something to live for. Jesus told me so," matters so much because Mark needs it to be more than a line. He needs it to be true, which is why he will not settle for a flat reading and keeps pushing Bill until the words land, on the money.
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
“It's the first line of the film, man. It's gotta be on the money.”
It stakes the whole film on one line, and on the money makes precision sound like survival.
Informal
“"It's all right. There's something to live for. Jesus told me so."”
It offers hope in the flat voice of someone repeating a line, not preaching, and that is what makes it land.
literary
“If you give them a destiny, they've got something to look forward to.”
It turns parenting into handing someone a direction, so the future arrives as something to expect, not fear.
Neutral
“I wouldn't allow my kids to go through that shit, man.”
One hard line names the old wound and turns never-again into a rule for his own kids.
Informal
Oh, man. They're always fighting all the time. What's the relationship between your parents? Always. They never got along. I mean, since I was around. Man. I wouldn't allow my kids to go through that shit, man. If you give them a destiny, they've got something to look forward to. It was totally uncool. I mean, it was totally... without thinking-- the way they acted-- and what effect it would have on us... all three of us growing up. Now they're totally cool. You couldn't ask for better parents. But they were out of control.
Up next · 15for the birdsThe scene: Mark Pushes Bill Through 31 TakesHe calls it the first line of the film, so it has to be on the money: if the opening sounds flat, the whole movie starts wrong.
One of them thinks he heard a curse word and does not want to be hearing things, while the other insists he never swears, so they keep going back and forth.
It is the movie's opening piece of dialogue, a statement that life is worth living, and Mark wants Bill to say it with real passion.
He says they never got along and were out of control when he was growing up, though he now calls them great parents.
After describing his parents' fighting, he says he would not put his own kids through it, and that giving them a destiny gives them something to look forward to.
