:15:00
It's original, it's exciting and it's moving.
I just have one little problem with it.
:15:05
The ending.
:15:06
- You don't like the ending?
- No, I didn't say I don't like the ending.
:15:10
I'm just not sure that it's the right one.
:15:14
Let me put it in Hollywood terms.
I think it's too downbeat.
:15:18
After everything
these two have gone through:
:15:20
They fought the river,
tropical storms, the Germans...
:15:23
And just when you've set the audience up
for a wonderfully comic ending...
:15:28
...you blow the ship up and kill everybody.
:15:32
Well, Pete, there's an old saying:
:15:35
"God makes a man before he kills him."
:15:37
I've heard it, John. I've heard it.
But I don't think it applies in this case.
:15:41
You're beating the audience
over the head, John.
:15:44
People don't go to see pictures
to be lectured to.
:15:48
Tell me, Pete. Do you own
a percentage of this film?
:15:51
No.
:15:52
Then why are you so concerned
about the damn audience?
:15:56
Because we're in show business, John.
:15:58
Not me. And not you, either,
when we work together.
:16:03
You see, we're gods, Pete.
:16:05
Lousy little gods who control
the lives of the people we create.
:16:09
We sit up in some heavenly place
and decide whether they live or die...
:16:13
...on the merits of what happens to them
in reel one, two, three, et cetera.
:16:18
And then we decide
if they have the right to live.
:16:21
And that's how we arrive at our ending.
:16:24
Well, that's what you say, John.
But I say I'm a swell god.
:16:28
I say they should live because of everything
they've gone through together.
:16:32
This world doesn't necessarily have to be
a hopeless and rotten place, John.
:16:37
We're not all destined and doomed to die
of radium poisoning.
:16:41
Now, I might be completely wrong...
:16:46
...but that's what makes me a swell god.
:16:48
- That makes you a flea on an elephant's ass.
- Oh, balls to your pessimism.
:16:54
You know something? You're never gonna be
a good screenwriter, and you know why?
:16:58
No, John. Why don't you tell me why?