When the Theresa Russell character asks why she can't go with him, I always thought Max said "Because I'm gonna get caught." On the DVD subtitles, the caption says the line is "Because I wanna get caught." It's hard to tell which it is from listening to it (he kind of mumbles the line). Anybody know for sure what it's supposed to be?
shareI heard "wanna."
sharehe says 'wanna get caught'
so he also wants to 'free' 'Theresa' from getting 'caught up' in his continuing saga....in and out of the 'system' his whole life...
their 'thing' is real
she is willing to go along with him, and damn the consequences...but Max won't have it
great film..superior performances by a great ensemble cast, and writing of the highest calibre..VERY under rated...I give it 8.5
Hard to tell, since Hoffman's a bit of a mumbler. But I'm playing that part over and over on Netflix, and I'm confident he says 'gonna'.
If he WANTED to get caught, he'd just call the police and wait for them at the diner.
I heard him say:"Because your breath can knock a buzzard off a sh-t wagon."
shareNo, that's not how a career criminal wants to go down - he wants to at least get the adrenaline high from being CHASED. But it is SO realistic, so many of these crooks - especially the ones who have been in "the system" since they were 14, jail becomes SO familiar, it does become like home. They are more comfortable there then outside in the "real world." A powerful, well done film.
shareI watched it last night. He says "Because I'm gonna get caught".
shareHe says gonna. Nobody WANTS to get caught. That would devalue his whole character.He knows he's going to get caught and why should he drag someone he genuinely cares about into that? He's a good person deep down and he knows better.
shareI just watched it and I thought he said GONNA
sharei watched it again this afternoon.
"i'm gonna get caught".
and to me, this is re-enforced by the closing credits, which are shown over mug shot after mug shot after mug shot after mug shot of max, starting at, like eight years old???
it's all he ever new---get caught, do time. and, since he could not get past the parole officer this time, well, then it's all that he expects for the rest of his life.
a 42
He says, "Wanna get caught" and for the two (or more) entries above that say this is not logical then read a bit more on criminals that have become institutionalized and actually feel safer and better inside the prison. Plus, like this character, he killed one of his friends on purpose...he does have some bad feelings about doing this and knows he will be safer from doing it in prison. And about just calling the police...that is not logical either...because he is enjoying his freedom enough that he is conflicted...so he will not go to the police but knows that inevitably they will (most likely) get him and he does, mostly but not 100%, want to get caught. Plus, even thought subtitles and close-captioning often make mistakes the one entry that quotes sub-titles says it is "wanna" so that supports that probability also.
shareYup, it's "wanna". This way it ties together their first date when he says some guys like it better in prison, and it segues nicely with the retro-mugshots. Denbo was always a law-breaker and always would be one. He messes up and he knows he has to pay for it. It just makes sense to him. Changing is not in his mentality.
My attempt to list the best movies of all-time: http://www.themoviecanon.blogspot.com
EXACTLY! Just watched this for the first time, and it was pretty obvious to me he says "wanna". Was anyone thinking he says "gonna" paying attention to the first date scene, or the ending? I was surprised you were the first person to bring this up.
I really do have love to give, I just don't know where to put it
I always thought the line was "Cause I'm gonna get caught."
But . . .
I met Dustin Hoffman in April 1978 at the University of California San Diego, maybe a week after seeing this film in a theater. It was billed as "An Unprepared Evening". I went up afterward and asked him why his character had so recklessly refused to leave the jewelry store after the alarm went off. To my 16-year old senses, this seemed senseless. He explained that he believed career criminals like the protagonist wanted to be caught -- consciously or not. So it's possible the wording is "wanna" -- although, either way the meaning is really the same.
If I run into him again, I'll ask . . .
That's interesting, I read this after I wrote my message further down this thread...
there's a highway that is curling up like smoke above his shoulder
"Gonna". It wouldn't have made sense for him to want to get caught, while it was perfectly expectable that he would, hey we were waiting for it to happen as well, it's part of the fatalism of this type of movie. Which is why I loved so bloody much the fact that the flick ended with that line, not with him shot dead or behind the bars or other versions thereof. And the matter-of-factly way in which he stated it - it was his fate, no doubt about it, particularly not with the greedy way in which he behaved during robberies, with his bad luck at finding reliable partners, with the way he had been prevented from getting a decent life, and with the fact that those "last jobs to provide for a lifetime" were a bit of a myth, his escape plan with his gal was a fairy tale. Nah he was doomed and he knew it.
there's a highway that is curling up like smoke above his shoulder
He absolutely said "wanna".
And it makes PERFECT sense. He said in the movie about how lots of cons would prefer to be back inside, once they get released.
That's ALSO why he always took so long on the jobs; because subconsciously he wanted to get caught.
He only finally realized / faced up to this honestly at the very end of the movie.
Looks like Hoffman's character can be seen in many ways - the basic features are all there, but the explanations and motivations can be more than one...
Fact is though, as I have recently bumped into this ending again, that you're right, he does say "wanna". That changes the light on the story and the character a little bit. "Gonna" would have hinted toward an ill-fated continuation of the struggle against the obvious fate, while "wanna" shows the character at the end of his rope, tired of fighting, tired of claiming the right to live a reasonable life that the whole world kept denying. It also closes the story in a neater tie. I'd have liked the other idea better, first because it made the story more open-ended, then because "gonna" sounded like a fatalistic and unemotional statement, while "wanna" is more soft-hearted, and I'd have liked a cooler Hoffman. But in effect I should rewatch the film with this other reading in mind, after all it was precisely the mixture of toughness with responsiveness that impressed me so much about Max Dembo.
there's a highway that is curling up like smoke above his shoulder
It is 100% certain that he says "wanna". Just look at his lips as he says it. Anyone can see that he pronounces the "w" in "wanna" and NOT the "g" in "gonna"....VERY OBVIOUS...
It is VERY OBVIOUS and ANYONE can see it if that someone happens to be looking carefully precisely at Hoffman's lips during that scene, and if their English is good enough to read lip movements of English words. Also, it is VERY OBVIOUS that the issue was solved long before your message was posted.
there's a highway that is curling up like smoke above her shoulder
Actually, what he says is: ”You don't wanna get caught” (pronounced: ”ydunwannagecaut”). Which makes perfect sense: he knows what he is talking about.
shareBINGO!
Just saw the film and I've been reading through all the messages in this thread to see if anyone else picked up on this.
He definitely says "You don't wanna get caught".
Kinda funny how much psychologizing people do when reading something and not quite getting it. And even funnier how, after your second post stating this, people still keep on arguing the pros and cons of "wanna" vs "gonna".
He's not talking about himself, folks, he's talking about Jenny, to Jenny. His life is already predestined.
It took three years, but finally: recognition … Much appreciated. And I still think this is and must be right.
As for the discussion continuing: Some perhaps find the line ”You don’t wanna get caught” a bit flat and prosaic, and so they want him to say something more interesting, this being the closing line and all.
But now that I think of it again, there is a kind of double entendre even in this line, as an allusion to something that many a man might have said to a woman (or vice versa, mutatis mutandis): ”You dont want to get caught (with me, in this marriage etc.)”. Obviously, falling for such a freewheeling man, Jenny is not the type who wants to get caught or cooped up, in any sense – so that might be why he is smiling (as I remember it), a bit wryly.
michael-wide wrote:
Some perhaps find the line ”You don’t wanna get caught” a bit flat and prosaic,
As enjoyable, important and friendly as this discussion is, I don’t wanna and I’m not gonna get caught up in it. I’ll check in again in a few years and see how it’s going. Best regards!
sharemichael-wide wrote:
I’ll check in again in a few years and see how it’s going. Best regards!
Man, you really do have some anger towards the world to work out.
share[deleted]
Man, you really do have some anger towards the world to work out.
No fear, I didn’t see your reply until now, since I disabled the notification function on Imdb: it is really a nuisance how all of us tend to annoy and get annoyed on forums such as these, unless there are smileys all over the place. In any case, I think your original discussion was worth very much more than my simple factual observation of what was actually written in the novel. And the way Hoffman mumbles the line, you might actually think they wanted to keep the door open for any number of interpretations … Best// MW
lamoza-786-44667 wrote:
He definitely says "You don't wanna get caught".
Kinda funny how much psychologizing people do when reading something and not quite getting it. And even funnier how, after your second post stating this, people still keep on arguing the pros and cons of "wanna" vs "gonna".
Sorry, cc, I just listened to it 11 times in a row, and I beg to differ. I can see how on first hearing, it is certainly confusing.
If you have it on dvd to watch, please do so. Lip reading doesn't do it, because his mouth hardly moves, but the sentence doesn't start with "cause" - it's a very slurred phrase.
So's Jenny's, btw - to the listener's ears, she says, "can't I go with you?" (emphasis on "with"), and her "Why..." at the beginning just has to be taken for granted.
Then Max says something that sounds like: "dnwannaget caught".
I acknowledge that the "you" is virtually silent, but no way it starts with "cause".
What is also confusing for me is that the subtitles on a Hollywood-produced film should be incorrect. You'd think that the studio might provide a script. So I did a search, and found only diy scripts, obviously transcribed by viewers.
Ohhh... that Ed Bunker could chime in on this one. Or Dustin Hoffman.
It occurred to me to check up on Edward Bunker’s book ”No Beast So Fierce”, which the film is based upon (since Lamoza wished that Bunker would chime in). And there it is – I was completely wrong and the ”I’m gonna”-faction was right all along:
“Why can’t I come with you?”
“Because I’m going to get caught.
(A couple of pages into Chapter 5, I have the book as an epub.)
Apologies to ccr! (And everybody else.) Maybe now the debate can finally be laid to rest. Unless, of course, somebody wants to argue that the line was changed in the film …
Apologies to ccr! (And everybody else.) Maybe now the debate can finally be laid to rest. Unless, of course, somebody wants to argue that the line was changed in the film …
DEFINITELY "Gonna"
shareHe says "I wanna get caught"...They then show his mug shots from recent to past. He wants to get caught because he's become institutionalized and he doesn't want Theresa Russells' character to go down the path he has. He wants to get caught to end the lie of going straight, because quite honestly he knows he's incapable of doing it.
That Is One Nutty Hospital!
His saying "gonna" reflects the fatalism of the film. I just watched the movie and feel that is most likely what he said. Plus, it does make sense given the tone of the film. And, I don't think he'd be driving away if it was "wanna."
If "wanna" had been the intention, he could just wait there until the cops showed up. It could have been interesting, in that case. He could have sent her away on the bus. Then, he could just be there sipping coffee waiting for the cops to arrive and take him away. Regardless, the law was coming for him.
I enjoyed the haunting quality of the ending as presented.
When Closed Caption folks have to interpret what's being said, it can yield interesting moments like this!
"I. Drink. Your. Milkshake! [slurp!] I DRINK IT UP!" - Daniel Plainview - "There Will Be Blood"
SPOILERS
I heard it as "I'm gonna get caught." And I think its because he knows he IS gonna get caught.
He jumped his parole. He assaulted his parole officer. He deliberately murdered a known associate (Busey.) He wounded a cop. He is responsible (under the "felony murder rule") for the killing of Stanton. The wives of the two dead crooks can ID him as having been talking with their husbands recently...and he has a record and booking photos.
Where can he escape to? He has a chance, perhaps, for Mexico or Canada or hiding in the American hinterlands, but even in 1978, there are ways to block his exit and track him down.
And while he came out of prison only convicted of burglary, now he is a murderer. He's going back in for the long haul, and he knows it.
Execution was still a thing in California back then.
He was definitely going to suck on gas after some time on death row…especially if that cop he shot ended up dying.
Oh, and I heard GONNA.