The West Wing

[Gaberiel-2]

Mijn favoriete scenes (verreweg) zijn de scenes tussen Toby en Andy in de aflevering Night Five. Ik kon er helaas geen youtube moment van vinden, maar hieronder wel de quotes uit het script:

Deel 1:
ANDY
I don't get how you could do this without consulting people.

TOBY
Come on in.

ANDY
I don't get how you think you can...

TOBY
[closing the door] We consulted plenty of people. What do you think, Sam and I create
foreign policy around here?

ANDY
I don't know. You, Sam, Abbott, Costello.

TOBY
We brought in... For three weeks...

ANDY
Did you bring in anybody from State?

TOBY
Yes.

ANDY
Who?

TOBY
The Secretary of State. Since when did you get to come in here?

ANDY
I am the third ranking member on the damn committee.

TOBY
This is a Presidential address, Andrea, not a camel.

ANDY
A what?

TOBY
A camel. A horse built by committee.

Andy flips through the speech.

ANDY
[reading] "Freedom must run deeper than the free flow of capital. Freedom must mean more
than the free trade of goods and services. The world will be free..."

TOBY
I read it.

ANDY
"The world will be free when we have freedom of speech for every nation..."

Toby sits down on the sofa.

TOBY
In fact I wrote it.

ANDY
"The world will be free when there is freedom to worship for everyone. The world will be
free..."

TOBY
Andi...

ANDY
"...When we finally shake off the rusted chains of tyranny..."

TOBY
Yes.

ANDY
"...Whether in the guise of facist dictatorships..."

TOBY
You getting nervous?

ANDY
"...Or economic slavery, or ethnic hostility..."

TOBY
A little nervous?

ANDY
"...Or..." Wait for it... "the crushing yoke of Islamic fanaticism." Gentlemen, start your
engines.

Deel 2

ANDY
America doesn't have a monopoly on what's right. And even if we did, I think you're gonna
have a tough time convincing the Arab world.

TOBY
Well, we'd like to talk to them about it.

ANDY
That ought to do the trick.

TOBY
It's worth a shot.

ANDY
The U.S. Constitution defends religious pluralism. It doesn't reduce all of Islam to
fanaticism.

TOBY
Neither foes the speech. It calls fanaticism fanaticism.

ANDY
Toby...

TOBY
It's fanaticism whether we call it that or not, so were going to call it that. We respect
all religions, all cultures.

ANDY
To a point.

TOBY
Yes, to a point. Grotesque oppression isn't okay just because it's been institutionlised.
If you ask me, I think we should have gotten into the game three, four decades ago, but
they're coming after us now, so it's time to saddle up.

ANDY
Toby...

TOBY
We do know what's right.

ANDY
This is why they hate us.

TOBY
There's a lot of reasons why they hate us. You know when they're gonna like us? When we win.

He leans back against the wall.

Deel 3

TOBY [VO]
It took...

ANDY [VO]
Wait.

TOBY
It took... Andrea, it took three days to get the language through NSC and the NSA.

ANDY [VO]
Yes.

TOBY
It isn't coming out of the speech.

ANDY
I didn't think it was.

TOBY
Then why were we here for an hour?

ANDY
Several members have drafted an insert. Will you look at?

TOBY
[after a beat] Sure.

She goes over to her bag and pulls out a sheet of paper.

ANDY
This will follow your paragraph.

He comes over to read it from her.

TOBY
[reading] "Our goal is neither to preach nor proclaim American values. We have deep
respect for our Islamic brothers and sisters and we have a great deal to learn from
the values of... tolerence and faith that are deeply held throughout the Islamic world."
So this is your way of saying any resemblance the previous paragraph may have had to
foreign policy is purely coincidental?

ANDY
That's right.

TOBY
Guess what?

ANDY
What?

TOBY
Our goal is to proclaim American values.

ANDY
This speech isn't supposed to be about ideology. It's supposed to be about reality.

TOBY
I think the President will decide what the speech is suppose to be about, but the
reality is, the United States of America no longer sucks up to reactionaries, and
our staunch allies will know what we mean.

ANDY
We don't have any staunch allies in the Arab world; just reluctant ones. We've a
coalition held together with duct tape! A coalition without which we cannot fight!

TOBY
Nobody's blowing off the coalition, and that coalition will be plenty strong.

ANDY
Oh, when we win?

TOBY
That's right.

ANDY
What's Egypt going to think? Or Pakistan?

TOBY
That freedom and democracy are coming soon to a theatre near them, so get dressed.

He sits on the edge of his desk.

ANDY
Toby... you guys are on a thing right now. And I'm behind you. You know I'm behind you;
a lot of House Democrats are...

TOBY
Not enough.

ANDY
And plenty of Republicans. But this one moment in time, you have to get off your horse
and just... simply put - be nice to the Arab world.

TOBY
Be nice?

ANDY
Yes.

TOBY
Well... How about when we, instead of blowing Iraq back to the seventh century for
harbouring terrorists and trying to develop nuclear weapons, we just imposed economic
sanctions and were reviled by the Arab world for not giving them a global charge card
and a free trade treaty? How about when we pushed Israel to give up land for peace?

Andy sits down, and puts a hand to her forehead.

TOBY
How about when we sent American soldiers to protect Saudi Arabia, and the Arab world
told us we were desecrating their holy land? We'll ignore the fact that we were invited.
How about two weeks ago, in the State of the Union when the President praised the Islamic
people as faithful and hardworking only to be denounced in the Arab press as knowing
nothing about Islam? But none of that is the point.

ANDY
What's the point?

TOBY
I don't remember having to explain to Italians that our problem wasn't with them, but
with Mussolini! Why does the U.S. have to take every Arab country out for an ice cream
cone? They'll like us when we win!

He stands up and starts pacing.

TOBY
Thousands of madrassahs teaching children nothing, nothing, nothing but the Koran and to
hate America. Who do we see about that? [beat] Do I want to preach America?
Judeo-Christianity? No. If their religion forbids them from playing the trumpet, so be it.
But I want those kids to... look at a globe. Be exposed to social sciences, history.
Some literature. [beat] I'll like us when we win.

ANDY
[after a moment] Okay.

She stands up and collects her things together.

TOBY
Let me take another look at the softer language.

Andy takes it out of her bag and hands it to him, then leaves.

P.s. sorry voor de lange post..

[Patrick van den Hul]

Heel mooi voorbeeld
Aaron Sorkin zou eigenlijk zelf de politiek in moeten!

[E@gle]

Ik ben momenteel halverwege het derde seizoen van The West Wing en ik moet zeggen dat deze serie mij nog niet heeft weten te overtuigen. Vooral het eerste seizoen kampte met nogal wat opstartproblemen, er zitten nogal wat overbodige/matige rollen in die voor een deel ook geschrapt worden in het tweede seizoen. Niet alle personages komen nog goed uit de verf. Ditalles verbetert wel met het tweede seizoen, toch kan het witty heen en weer gepraat over vanalles en nog wat mij nog niet erg bekoren, het komt allemaal niet erg realistisch over iets wat toch vrij belangrijk is voor een serie over het dagelijkse leven in het witte huis. De enige rol die echt staat als een huis is die van Marin Sheen als president Bartlet, de gevatte en pientere president met weetjes over vanalles, bij vlagen schitterend. Ik ben benieuwd naar de rest, voorlopig een zesje, hopelijk kan er nog wat bij naarmate de serie vordert.

[BrianB]

Grappig, ik ben halverwege het vierde seizoen, en de serie greep me aan vanaf de eerste aflevering. De karakters en de acteurs die ze spelen zijn geweldig, de dialogen zijn (uiteraard) fantastisch, de muziek klopt, de set design is erg goed gedaan en het camerawerk is subliem. Ik zou als (tot nu toe) het enige minpuntje Moira Kelly aan willen kaarten, maar die ging gelukkig weg na het eerste seizoen. Voor de rest zou ik geen slechte dingen kunnen vertellen, maar ik heb de rest van de serie nog niet gekeken.

[kristofke]

Sorry voor de bump, maar zoals algemeen geweten is de grote box in de UK seizoen 1,2 en 5 niet NL ondertiteld.

De grote box in Frankrijk zou echter wel NL ondertitels hebben.

Ook al komt dik tweemaal duurder uit als in UK, als ik de UK titels koop en de Benelux titels dan kom ik duurder uit dan de Franse box.

échter, in Frankrijk zijn ook enkele seizoenen zonder Nederlandse ondertitels verschenen.

Heeft iemand enig idee of de informatie correct is en dus de Franse box alle seizoenen Nederlandse subs hebben?

[freaky]

Interessante vraag die ik eigelijk ook zou willen weten.

[Patrick van den Hul]

DVD-profiler al geprobeerd?

[Johan1967]

De complete serie komt op 1 oktober in de VS op Blu-ray uit: https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=34988

[Werner]

Ooit aan begonnen met zeer veel goede intenties maar ik ben afgehaakt.

[Steve G.]

Geweldige serie vind ik. Destijds vaak tot midden in de nacht met mijn zoon gekeken. Viel s-morgens niet mee als de wekker afging! Verwacht wel dat ik deze op blu-ray ga kopen.

[rogue]

Ik heb de serie 1x gezien en vond 'm toen geweldig, zeker de seizoenen met Martin Sheen. Een paar maanden terug heb ik toevallig de DVD box gekocht. Ik heb nog niet gekeken wat de kwaliteit is, maar mocht het tegenvallen dan heb ik dus een alternatief, dat is mooi om te weten!