Four Friends (1981) - Quotes

Quotes about Four Friends: [[friends] A charming, heartfelt, sometimes insightful look at four ] who form strong bonds while in high school in the early 1960s, and then desperately cling to that love during the turbulent social upheavals that marked the end of the decade. Unfortunately, Four Friends attempts to cover so much ground that at times the film becomes frustratingly muddled. … Though Four Friends runs out of gas toward the end, it's filmed with obvious love for the characters and features outstanding performances from the underrated Wasson, Thelen and Simon. Well worth seeing.

Quotes about Four Friends: [[w:My Dinner With Andre|My Dinner With Andre; [w: Andre Gregory|Andre Gregory; [wonders; [alive; [television; [thoughts; [times; [past; [agony; [freedom; [love; [wonder; [remembers; [society; [critics; [truth; [bad; [dream; [good] Somewhere in the middle of ], ] ] aloud if it's not possible that the 1960s were the last decade when we were all truly ] — that since then we've sunk into a bemused state of self-hypnosis, placated by consumer goods and given the illusion of excitement by ]. Walking out of Four Friends, I had some of the same ]. This movie brings the almost unbelievable contradictions of that decade into sharp relief, not as nostalgia or as a re-creation of ] ], but as a reliving of all of the ] and ] of the weirdest ten years any of us is likely to witness. … The movie is ambitious. It wants to take us on a tour of some of the things that happened in the 1960s, and some of the ways four midwestern kids might have responded to them. It also wants to be a meditation on ], and on how love changes during the course of a decade. … The ] is not that Four Friends covers so much ground, but that it makes many of its scenes so memorable that we learn more even about the supporting characters than we expect to. … this is a movie that ] times past with such clarity that there are times it seems to be making it all up. Did we really say those things? Make those assumptions? Live on the edge of what seemed to be a ] gone both free and mad at once? Some ] have said the people and events in this movie are not plausible. I don't know if they're denying the movie's ], or arguing that from a 1980s point of view the 60s were just a ] ]. Or a ] one.

Quotes about Four Friends: [[w:Vincent Canby|Vincent Canby] * ], in NYT Critic's Choice review in The New York Times (11 December 1981)

Quotes about Four Friends: [[war; [prosperity; [promises; [love; [story; [reality; [America; [dream; [country; [people; [fiction; [w:Arthur Penn|Mr. Penn; [Bonnie and Clyde; [w:Alice's Restaurant (film)|Alice's Restaurant; [w:Little Big Man|Little Big Man; [w:Steve Tesich|Mr. Tesich] To get quickly to the point, Four Friends is the best film yet made about the sixties, that harrowed time of ], ], and broken ], of turning on and dropping out to colors described as psychedelic, when establishment came to be written with a capital "E." … It's a film that embraces the looks, sounds, speech, and public events of the sixties, but not in the way of a documentary. It has the quality of legend, a fable remembered. The title is somewhat misleading, for although Four Friends is about the coming of age of three young men and the young woman they each ] in turn, it's principally the ] of Danilo Prozor (Craig Wasson). Danilo is the Yugoslavian-born son of immigrant parents, who arrives in this country in 1948 at the age of twelve and spends the next decade and a half sorting out the ] of ] from his ] of it … Danilo never refers to this ] as the United States but always as America — it's not a political union but a concept from childhood. …Four Friends is about ordinary ], but not ordinary people who speak a predictable, commonplace vernacular. They take leaps into the unknown and occasionally come up spouting what sounds like rubbish, which is part of the film's extraordinary style and what separates it from a kind of ] that aspires to do nothing more than reproduce actuality. Mr. Wasson is very fine in a long difficult role that, I assume, is the beginning of a major film career, but then there's not a shabby performance in the picture. Four Friends … is one of ]'s most deeply felt achievements, ranking alongside ], ], and ]. For ], it is another original work by one of our best young screenwriters.

Georgia: [[know] Do you ] what we've never done?

Danilo: A lot of things.

Georgia: You got it, kiddo!

Mr. Prozor: What is it you are suggesting?

Danilo: [[know; [smile] I don't ] — I've never even seen you ].

Mr. Prozor: [long pause] When you were born I smiled.

Danilo: Well I guess I wasn't paying attention — that slipped by me.

Mr. Prozor: [[born; pauses, smiles in remembrance, and he and his wife and Danilo all laugh] When you were ] … I … took off my hat and I … beat on the table with it! And I'm almost sure … I was smiling …

Danilo: [[good] That looks ] on you Papa!

Georgia: [[love] I don't ] Tom. I saw David — don't love him either. I wanted to love all three of you! But, I can't. It's just you. SHIT! Just you — Oh, Christ — it's you. You.

Danilo: Me? Ha!

Georgia: [[funny] It's not ]!

Danilo: [[know] You ] what? I wish I had two lives — I wouldn't mind living one without you.

Georgia: Man, you're not the only one.

Danilo: [[peace] Well, we're not making ], are we?

Georgia: [they both stubbornly hold back, and then embrace in tears; [All|everything] Peace?! Never. Why does ] take so long?

Georgia: [[work] Shouldn't you be at ]?

Danilo: I called in sick.

Georgia: Then you should call a doctor.

Danilo: I'm fine.

Georgia: Then you should be at work.

Danilo, Tom and David: [singing "[[w:Georgia on My Mind|Georgia on My Mind; [mind] ]" along with the radio, as they pick up Georgia in David's new car]: Just an old sweet song, keeps Georgia on my ]!

David: Where to?

Georgia: [[beautiful] Let's find someplace so ] that we have to stop. And if we can't find it, let's just keep going.

Georgia: [[evil; [soul; [free; [spirit; [Isadora Duncan] Whenever you feel the ] influence of the middle class muddling your ], you'll say these two words and you'll be a ] ] again: "].

David: Isadora Duncan. Isadora Duncan! Who's Isadora Duncan?

Georgia: [[greatest; [dancer] She was the ] ] who ever lived. And she was killed in just such a car.

Danilo: Actually it was a Bugatti.

Georgia: [[facts; [understand; [poems] You and your ]. I can't ] how you can write ] to me and still cling to facts.

Georgia: [[Isadora Duncan; [died; [soul; [believe] I was born on the very hour on the very day and the very hour that a ] ]. Her ] is inside of me. If you don't ] me, I never want to see you again. Any of you, again, NEVER!

Danilo: But she died in 1927!

Georgia: So what? It took her soul fifteen years to find someone like me.

Louie: [[w: Georgia on My Mind|Georgia on My Mind] * After Danilo tells him to stop singing "]", after meeting Georgia.

Louie: Too bad! — now I'm hooked.

Louie: [[Universe; [stars; [God; [hope; [alive; [moon; [promise; [Neil Armstrong|that first man; [moon] Sometimes I can actually see the whole ], the galaxies, the ], the planets — and yes, when stars collide it's out of loneliness. They're out there orbiting in the void, and they collide, as if to embrace. ], I ] I'm ] when we land on the ]. … Let's make a ] to each other. The minute ] lands that first foot on the ], that very instant — you'll think of me — and I, if such things are possible, I will think of you..

David: [[friends] I was losing my old ], and I wasn't making any new ones. I walked around looking sad and miserable, hoping that everyone would recognize what a tragic figure I was.

Danilo: * Love poem to Georgia, recited early in the story by her, and later by him on a television quiz show.

Danilo: [[love; [Holy; [Land; [America; [blind; [memory; [sight; [days] I ] you like the Pilgrim loves the ] ], Like the wayfarer loves his wayward ways, Like the immigrant that I am loves ], And the ] man the ] of his ]ed ].

Georgia: [[poet; [wonderful; [School; [ending; [world] Our Danilo will maybe be a famous ] one day — and I definitely will be a famous dancer! And we're all going to do ] things! And if anyone disagrees they can leave. ]'s ], kiddos, and it's out into this ] with us all. We are poised and ready to fly.

Georgia: [[style; [dead] Without ] you're ] ducks, kiddos.

Georgia: [[minds; [passion; [ecstasy; [know] These middle class ]! They don't know what ] is — what ] is! What it's like to be possessed! I'm going to be a famous dancer, I am, I just ] it.

Georgia: [[God; [blood; [dance; [die] I swear to ], Mr. Lucas, when I hear music something happens to me and I either have to move, or scream my head off or something. Something's in my ], sir, and I don't know what it is, but I know that if I can't ] I'd ].