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View Full Version : Thelonius Monk and Kaiser Soze


chickenhead
07-03-2009, 11:07 PM
Other than being two of the cooler names you're likely to come across, what do they have in common?

Sometimes I notice small things that are totally inconsequential, not something most people at all would care about or notice, but discovering these tiny little cultural linkages tickle me to no end.

I've always liked the movie "The Usual Suspects", a lot of little tidbits from it have worked their way into pop culture. Benicio Del Toro's character Finster has a phrase and gesture I've always liked, where, under interrogation -- where he's describing someone to the cops, he says "He'll flip you. He'll flip you for real." while making a gesture of flipping someone with his hands. He has a cool character in that movie, and that line has always stuck in my head.

In "Straight, No Chaser", a documentary featuring uber character Jazz pianist Thelonius Monk, pieced together from archival B&W footage from the 60's...Monk says at one point that if you understood what he was saying.."You'd flip. You'd flip for real." while making much the same gesture.

For no reason in particular, other than perhaps a few too many glasses of Chianti at dinner tonight, I thought I'd share that little bit of pop culture heritage with the internets tonight...

FLcWMGCLHa0

Rookies
07-07-2009, 08:20 AM
One of my top 10-25 favourites of all time, Chickenhead. I was pretty sure that the title was used in another great black, but political film- "In the name of the Father ". It wasn't, but was first used in film in one of the greatest of all time- Casablanca. Postlethwaite was in both however, which probably hooked me.

The beauty of the phrase is that everybody gets it. It refers to a combo of corruption, indifference, laziness, coverup in cop work. Kaiser Soze is on par with the all time fiends !

Beautiful movie.

DJofSD
07-07-2009, 09:45 AM
I watched this movie for the first time recently when TCM aired it. Obviously, the sound track was an alternate. I enjoyed the movie and it was sufficently off the beaten track that given a chance to buy the DVD, I'll do so.