Harry Is Thrown Out of the Arena, Explained

What happens

Inside a wrestling arena, Harry is caught touting for clients and gets thrown out. The man throwing him says only "Out," then "So is the morgue. Move." when Harry objects. In the stands, the famous wrestler Gregorius is disgusted by the spectacle and asks what they have done to wrestling, while his son insists that times have changed.

What's really going on

The arena scene marks Harry's first hard lesson in the world he is trying to enter. He is a tout, the lowest job in the room, and his punishment for working the crowd is immediate. The film gives the bouncer the best line: "So is the morgue. Move." It is funny and it tells you exactly where Harry stands, which is nowhere. The second half belongs to Gregorius, the old wrestler watching his sport turned into a spectacle. "What have you done to wrestling?" he asks, and the answer from his son is the modern one: times have changed. The scene sets up the film's real conflict, between an old idea of the sport and the money-driven world Harry wants in on.

Key lines & what they mean

“What have you done to wrestling?”

Gregorius's protest: the sport he loved has been turned into a cheap show, and he blames the people running it.

“So is the morgue. Move.”

The bouncer's reply to 'this is a public place': the dead are also allowed somewhere, so leave, and the joke is the threat inside it.

“You must understand that times have changed.”

The son's defence of everything the old man objects to: the world has moved on, so the old rules no longer apply.

“Is it for this you brought me from Athens? This circus?”

Gregorius asking whether his son only brought him from Greece to watch a spectacle, which makes the answer obvious.

Theme

• Power — Harry is thrown out of the arena by men who enforce Kristo's rules without argument, which shows where he ranks.
• Family conflict — Gregorius and his son argue over what wrestling has become, a disagreement about money and tradition between father and son.