Twelve years I've known you, Stroud. Twelve years, sun up and sun down, I've had to look...
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Robert Stroud:
What the hell is eatin' you? Bull Ransom:
Twelve years I've known you, Stroud. Twelve years, sun up and sun down, I've had to look at that frozen mug of yours. And in all that time, never so much as a how-de-do out of you. I try to treat you decent 'cause you got no bed of roses in there. So I put my head on the block and I dummy up about the birds. Did you say, "Thanks, my boy?" Just once you say, "Thanks? Or maybe I just didn't hear you. You're a soft speaker. You... you want a pop bottle? You want a pop bottle? Do I hear maybe, maybe the word "please" someplace? Or could I be goin' deef? "Hand over the... hand over the box," says you. "Hand over the box," like you was the Czar of Russia or somebody. Well, you get this, Bucko. I may be just a uniform to you, but you got no patent on feelings. I'm a man, the same as you, and I wanna be treated like one. So you'd better come up with a few manners with me, or don't even expect the time of day from yours truly!
What the hell is eatin' you? Bull Ransom:
Twelve years I've known you, Stroud. Twelve years, sun up and sun down, I've had to look at that frozen mug of yours. And in all that time, never so much as a how-de-do out of you. I try to treat you decent 'cause you got no bed of roses in there. So I put my head on the block and I dummy up about the birds. Did you say, "Thanks, my boy?" Just once you say, "Thanks? Or maybe I just didn't hear you. You're a soft speaker. You... you want a pop bottle? You want a pop bottle? Do I hear maybe, maybe the word "please" someplace? Or could I be goin' deef? "Hand over the... hand over the box," says you. "Hand over the box," like you was the Czar of Russia or somebody. Well, you get this, Bucko. I may be just a uniform to you, but you got no patent on feelings. I'm a man, the same as you, and I wanna be treated like one. So you'd better come up with a few manners with me, or don't even expect the time of day from yours truly!
Full Transcript
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You know better than to
try to frighten me, Harvey,
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at this late date.
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Damn your heart!
00:00:10.001 --> 00:00:12.789
Do you think that
I want to go on punishing you?
00:00:12.873 --> 00:00:14.958
We've grown old together in penitentiaries!
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And in all that time, I've only asked
one thing from you. Cooperation.
00:00:18.671 --> 00:00:20.088
The only thing I've ever gotten back
was defiance!
00:00:20.965 --> 00:00:24.467
Not once have you ever shown
a sign of rehabilitation!
00:00:38.107 --> 00:00:41.151
- Rehabilitation?
- Yes, rehabilitation.
00:00:41.193 --> 00:00:43.987
I wonder if you know what the word means.
00:00:45.531 --> 00:00:46.074
Do you?
00:00:47.825 --> 00:00:49.576
Don't be insulting.
00:00:54.206 --> 00:00:57.005
The unabridged
Webster's International Dictionary
00:00:58.024 --> 00:01:00.962
says it comes from the Latin root habilis.
00:01:01.999 --> 00:01:03.173
The definition is,
00:01:03.299 --> 00:01:06.176
"To invest again with dignity."
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You consider that part of your job, Harvey?
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To give a man back the dignity he once had?
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Your only interest is in how he behaves.
00:01:15.001 --> 00:01:19.999
You told me that once a long time ago,
and I'll never forget it.
00:01:19.857 --> 00:01:23.485
"You'll conform to our ideas
of how you should behave."
00:01:24.236 --> 00:01:27.947
And you haven't retreated
from that stand one inch in 35 years.
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You want your prisoners to
dance out the gates like puppets on a string.
00:01:32.828 --> 00:01:35.083
With rubber-stamp values
impressed by you.
00:01:36.373 --> 00:01:40.627
With your sense of conformity,
your sense of behavior,
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even your sense of morality.
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That's why you're a failure, Harvey.
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You and the whole science of penology.
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Because you rob prisoners
of the most important thing in their lives,
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their individuality.
00:01:58.027 --> 00:02:00.073
On the outside, they're lost automatons,
00:02:00.773 --> 00:02:03.274
just going through the motions of living.
00:02:03.999 --> 00:02:07.999
But underneath is a deep,
deep hatred for what you did to them.
00:02:08.572 --> 00:02:11.001
First chance they get to attack society,
they do it.
00:02:12.999 --> 00:02:15.703
The result?
More than half come back to prison.
00:02:19.208 --> 00:02:21.417
Now, it's all here in my book.
00:02:21.001 --> 00:02:24.999
And I suggest you read it,
and you read it thoroughly!
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All right, you've spoken your piece.
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I have no course left but to speak mine.
00:02:45.001 --> 00:02:50.113
This San Francisco climate sure doesn't
help an old man's aches and pains.
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Movie Summary
A surly convicted murderer held in permanent isolation redeems himself when he becomes a renowned bird expert.
Actors
Robert Stroud
Bull Ransom
