Easy rider

El sábado pasado murió Dennis Hopper, a quien todos vimos en tantas películas, algunas de las cuales son clásicos del cine. Dennis fue el fotógrafo desquiciado en “Apocalipsis Now” (1979) y uno de los dos entrañables motoqueros Harley-Davidson de “Easy Rider” (1969) aquí conocida como “Busco mi Destino”. Acerca del significado de “Easy rider”, Peter Fonda dijo en una entrevista con la revista Rolling Stone: “Es un término sureño para llamar al hombre que vive con una prostituta, no un fiolo, sino el tipo que vive con ella. Porque él tiene una montada fácil. Eso es lo que ha pasado en los Estados Unidos. La libertad se ha vuelto una puta y nosotros estamos teniendo una montada fácil”.

Pero si tengo que elegir uno de sus papeles, me quedo con el de “True Romance” (1993) dirigida por Tony Scott y con guión de Tarantino. Miremos de vuelta ese memorable diálogo con Christoper Walken.

Coccotti: You know who I am, Mr. Worley?

Clifford: I give up. Who are you?

Coccotti: I'm the Anti-Christ. You got me in a vendetta kind of mood. You tell the angels in heaven you never seen evil so singularly personified as you did in the face of the man who killed you. My name is Vincent Coccotti. I work as counsel for Mr. Blue Lou Boyle, the man your son stole from. I hear you were once a cop so I can assume you've heard of us before. Am I correct?

Clifford: I heard of Blue Lou Boyle.

Coccotti: I'm glad. Hopefully it means we can cut out the part of the conversation where you're wondering how full of shit I am.

Clifford: I haven't seen Clarence.

Coccotti: You see that? [Holding a clenched fist, then striking Clifford] That smarts, doesn't it? Getting slammed in the nose. Fucks you all up. You get that pain shootin' through your brain, your eyes fill up with water. That ain't any kind of fun, but what I have to offer you, that's as good as it's gonna get. And it won't ever get that good again. We talked to your neighbors. They saw a Cadillac. Purple Cadillac. Clarence's purple Cadillac, parked in front of your trailer yesterday. Mr. Worley, you seen your son?

Clifford: Now, wait a minute and listen. I haven't seen Clarence in three years. Yesterday he shows up here with a girl, sayin' he got married. He told me he needed some quick cash for a honeymoon, so he asked if he could borrow five hundred dollars. I wanted to help him out so I wrote out a check. We went to breakfast and that's the last I saw of him. So help me God. They never thought to tell me where they were goin'. And I never thought to ask.

Coccotti: Sicilians are great liars. The best in the world. I'm a Sicilian. And my old man was the world heavyweight champion of Sicilian liars. And from growin' up with him I learned the pantomime. Now there are seventeen different things a guy can do when he lies to give him away. A guy has seventeen pantomimes. A woman's got twenty, but a guy's got seventeen. And if you know 'em like ya know your own face, they beat lie detectors to hell. What we got here is a little game of show and tell. You don't wanna show me nothin'. But you're tellin' me everything. Now I know you know where they are. So tell me, before I do some damage you won't walk away from.

Clifford: Could I have one of those Chesterfields now?

Coccotti: Sure.

Clifford: Got a match? Oh, don't bother. I got one.

Coccotti: ...your son, the cowboy, it's claimed, came in the room blazin', and didn't stop 'till they were pretty sure everybody was dead.

Clifford: What are you talkin' about?

Coccotti: Talkin' about a massacre. They snatched my narcotics, hightailed it outta there. Woulda got away with it, but your son, fuckhead that he is, left his driver's license in a dead guy's hand.

Clifford: You know, I don't believe you.

Coccotti: That's of minor importance. What is of major fucking importance is that I believe you.

Clifford: You're Sicilian, huh?

Coccotti: Yeah, Sicilian.

Clifford: You know, I read a lot. Especially about things that have to do with history. I find that shit fascinating. Here's a fact, I don't know if you know or not, Sicilians were spawned by niggers.

Coccotti: Come again?

Clifford: It's a fact. You see, Sicilians have black blood pumpin' through their hearts. If you don't believe me, you can look it up. Hundreds and hundreds of years ago, you see, the Moors conquered Sicily. And Moors are niggers.

Coccotti: Yes...

Clifford: So you see, way back then, uh, Sicilians were like, uh, WASPS from Northern Italy. Ah, they all had blonde hair and blue eyes, but, uh, well, then the Moors moved in there, and uh, well, they changed the whole country. They did so much fuckin' with Sicilian women, huh? That they changed the whole bloodline forever. That's why blonde hair and blue eyes became black hair and dark skin. You know, it's absolutely amazing to me to think that to this day, hundreds of years later, that, uh, that Sicilians still carry that nigger gene. Now this...

[Coccotti laughs]

Clifford: No, I'm, no, I'm quoting... history. It's written. It's a fact, it's written.

Coccotti: [laughing] I love this guy.

Clifford: Your ancestors are niggers. Uh-huh. Hey. Yeah. And, and your great-great-great-great grandmother fucked a nigger, ho, ho, yeah, and she had a half-nigger kid... now, if that's a fact, tell me, am I lying? 'Cause you, you're part eggplant.

Coccotti: Ohhh!

Clifford: Huh? Hey! Hey! Hey!

Coccotti: You're a cantaloupe. [shoots Cliff in the face]