Jeff Bridges: Tom Friend

Masked and Anonymous

Tom Friend

Editor: I will tell you this, there is a story there.
Tom Friend: That's no story. That's no story. That's every story. *That* is the story.
Editor: Make something out of it. And if you can't do that, sir, then - make it up!

Pagan Lace: We always have a good time.
Tom Friend: Good times don't last long.
Pagan Lace: You are making everything so tragic.
Tom Friend: Tragic? I'm not making it tragic. Every period in history has been, more or less, tragic.
Pagan Lace: I don't know what you're saying.
Tom Friend: Don't you read the paper? The pervert's gonna be the top man now.

Tom Friend: Look, it's an overcrowded world. It's hard to get at the top. There's a long line at the elevator.
Pagan Lace: It doesn't matter. We'll take the stairs.

Tom Friend: I don't have a lot of time.
Editor: Jesus Christ, man, you don't have a lot of time? Abraham Lincoln, listen to me, Abraham Lincoln gave the famed Gettysburg Address in five minutes. Five! So, don't ever talk to me about time.

Tom Friend: What's up?
Editor: What's up? Isn't that an interesting question to ask me. I got reporters wounded. I've got reporters that are held captive. Held hostage. I got two reporters dead. I got reporters on the front lines. I got reporters that are undercover - with the insurgents, with the counter-insurgents. I got people inside the capitol - even in the Office of the President, himself.

Tom Friend: The newspaper is just a false map of the world! You ever hear of the AIDS epidemic? Huh? What if I told you it was cooked up by some Mau-Mau men in Africa and they gave it to British sailors. What about the Vietnam War, huh, you ever hear of that? What if I told you it was lost in the whorehouses of Saigon instead of on the battlefield.
Pagan Lace: How do you know that?
Tom Friend: You never reveal your sources.

Bobby Cupid: Hey, have you ever read "From Whom The Bell Tolls"? Hemingway? Now, there's a guy who could write. You know.
Tom Friend: Yeah. I read it.

Pagan Lace: What is it Tommy? What's bugging you?
Tom Friend: What's bugging me? The absurdity of a lifetime of futile labor. That's what's bugging me. Condemned to some pointless task. I'm trying to track down some guy and ask him the meaning of life.

Tom Friend: What about - Mothers of Invention, Jack. Zappa. Now, there's a guy who wouldn't take no for an answer. He did a whole movie, "Uncle Meat," sixteen hours long, totally unedited. And he let it all hang out, didn't he? What about you? Huh? You ever let it all hang out?
Jack Fate: It always has been hanging out.

Tom Friend: Would you reach out to a drowning man. Would you think while you were doing it that he might pull you in?

Tom Friend: You know that singer in the group the Bee Gees? He sounds a lot like - Gene Pitney, doesn't he?
Jack Fate: Opposed to who?
Tom Friend: Opposed to who? "Town Without Pity" - you remember that, Jack? That place where they'd lock you up for doin' something you haven't even thought about doin' yet. It's a pretty lonesome world, ain't it Jack?

Tom Friend: What about - Hendrix? Remember? Remember? Remember Hendrix at Woodstock? I'm just curious, you weren't there were you? You weren't at Woodstock. You weren't up there with Hendrix. Why? Where were you? You should've seen Hendrix, man. He was all business. Didn't mix business with pleasure. Playing "Star Spangled Banner" through two lousy speakers to half a million people in the mud. What a cry that was! A cry forlorn. Yeah, one desperate cry for freedom, up there with that screamin' guitar. Now, what was he - what was he sayin', Jack? That "Star Spangled Banner" trip. Now, what was that all about? Revolution? I don't think so. You could hear tears in every note he played. Sayin' love me, love me! I'm not a traitor, I'm a native son! He took the glorious anthem and he dropped drug bombs on it. You could hear that cry around the world. Sayin', hey, I'm an American citizen! He was callin' out to his forefathers. The pilgrims. The pilgrims, they didn't need any stinkin' passports. did they? Hendrix, Jack, well, he was the last man standing. Pride and honor. Right? That's what it's all about. But, they didn't - nah, they didn't hear him. One sad cry of pity - in a town without pity. Now, what about you? What do you think about that? That's what I want to know.