Posted on 12/13/2005 3:21:31 AM PST by beyond the sea
Tookie would have been a man if he went out like Cagney in "Angels With Dirty Faces".
****
In the memorable final moments of the film, shortly before the hour of his death, Jerry (Pat O'Brien) visits Rocky (James Cagney) in his cell for a final ten minutes and asks for a courageous favor. Rocky downplays his impending death, and makes macho jokes about his electrocution, practicing his last words:
It's like sitting in a barber chair. They're going to ask me, 'You got anything to say?' and I say, 'Sure. Give me a haircut, a shave and a massage - one of those nice new electric massages.'
Jerry asks if he is afraid. Rocky responds fearlessly:
You know Jerry, I think in order to be afraid, you've got to have a heart. I don't think I got one. I got it cut out of me a long time ago.
Jerry asks one last favor - for Rocky to have a heart:
Jerry: Suppose I asked you to have the heart...to be scared...Suppose at the last minute the guards dragged you out here screaming for mercy. Suppose you went to the chair yellow.
Rocky: Yellow - Hey! What's the matter with you Jerry?
Jerry wants Rocky to behave in a way so that the neighborhood kids will not admire him and revere him as a role model or martyr, following in his misguided footsteps. Jerry asks that Rocky make a really heroic action and show a special kind of courage:
This is a different kind of courage, Rocky. The kind that's well, that's born in heaven. Well, not the courage of heroics or bravado. The kind that you and I and God know about...I want you to let them down. You see, you've been a hero to these kids, and hundreds of others, all through your life - and now you're gonna be a glorified hero in death, and I want to prevent that, Rocky. They've got to despise your memory. They've got to be ashamed of you.
Rocky is reluctant to humble himself and show fear in the death chamber. He refuses to be a cringing coward pretending to be 'yellow':
You asking me to pull an act, turn yellow, so those kids will think I'm no good...You ask me to throw away the only thing I've got left...You ask me to crawl on my belly - the last thing I do in life...Nothing doing. You're asking too much...You want to help those kids, you got to think about some other way.
In one of the most tautly directed, unforgettable, harrowing sequences of any film in the 1930s, Rocky is taken away for his last walk. The scene is bathed in dark suggestive, oppressive shadows, and the musical score (by Max Steiner) resembles a plodding, relentless death march as he walks to his death. Rocky asks that Jerry accompany him "going down the last mile." Still cocky and glaring with hatred, he snarls at and punches the sarcastic prison guard - it appears that Rocky will be stoic to the end. Other prisoners on death row stare at the doomed man, bidding him goodbye through their jail cells. He shakes Jerry's hand goodbye.
In the final moments before his execution as he enters the death chamber, he breaks down. [It is unclear whether or not his true nature or motives are revealed - is he pretending or not?]. Rocky is transformed into a screaming, snivelling, cowering coward begging not to be killed. Awful, heart-rending screams of pathetic cowardice are heard. Seen only in large shadows projected on the wall, Rocky's cowardice is never fully revealed:
Oh, I don't wanna die! Oh, please. I don't wanna die! Oh, please. Don't let me burn. Oh, please. Let go of me. Please...
Rocky's climactic cowardice brings tears to Father Connolly's eyes. His yellow-ness in the face of the electric chair will kill the kids' unhealthy adoration. Grateful love fills Jerry's face - his prayers are answered.
The newspaper headline announces that Rocky turned yellow during his cowardly execution:
ROCKY DIES YELLOW KILLER COWARD AT END.
****
Tookie should have done similarly.
****
From: http://www.filmsite.org/ange.html
My favorite movie of all. Just a classic.
As Rocky walks through his neighborhood, he is identified as a "sucker" and pickpocketed, his wallet stolen by the tough "Dead End" gang that Jerry works with. Rocky follows them to their dark basement hideout, walks in on them, and threatens them with a fake gun in his coat pocket: "You're all covered...Say your prayers, mugs." He collects his stolen money, and tells them they shouldn't rob anyone who knows their hideout. He walks over to the wall and shows them his initials "R S," carved there many years before. Because of his criminal exploits, the boys idolize him and regard him with almost fanatical hero worship when he shares his criminal exploits and experiences: "Never bother anybody in your own neighborhood. You kids got a lot to learn."
Relatively speaking, it's got to be a lot easier to face a lethal injection than Old Sparky.
Nobody reads the papers anymore... those that can anyway.
;-)
I was kinda hopin' he'd go the extra mile and soil himself.
After confirming to the neighborhood kids (the original "Bowery Boys") that Rocky died a yellow coward, O'Brien ends the movie by asking the kids to accompany him to church "To say a prayer for a boy who couldn't run as fast as me."
BTW, we assume Rocky was acting at the end but we never know for sure.
Imagine the outcry if any media outlet carried such a headline today. Led by Asian-American groups, the roof would fall in, the Mayor of San Francisco would fire the remainder of the police dept, Jesse Jackson would garner more speaker and appearance fees, and the entire world media would snarl and gnash their teeth.
Better to be thought a hero today and just forget about the four people who received Tookie's love and kindness. (Sarc)
Chocolate Tookie?
That is true.
***
In one of the most tautly directed, unforgettable, harrowing sequences of any film in the 1930s, Rocky is taken away for his last walk. The scene is bathed in dark suggestive, oppressive shadows, and the musical score (by Max Steiner) resembles a plodding, relentless death march as he walks to his death. Rocky asks that Jerry accompany him "going down the last mile." Still cocky and glaring with hatred, he snarls at and punches the sarcastic prison guard - it appears that Rocky will be stoic to the end. Other prisoners on death row stare at the doomed man, bidding him goodbye through their jail cells. He shakes Jerry's hand goodbye.
In the final moments before his execution as he enters the death chamber, he breaks down. [It is unclear whether or not his true nature or motives are revealed - is he pretending or not?]. Rocky is transformed into a screaming, snivelling, cowering coward begging not to be killed. Awful, heart-rending screams of pathetic cowardice are heard.
It is a lot easier to die...
Especially pumped up with benzos like valium. Enough of those and you dont care WHAT happens.
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