North Dallas Forty (1979)

Nick Nolte: Phillip Elliott

Photos 

11 more photos

Quotes 

• Joe Bob : Where's your gun, Elliott?

  Phil Elliott : Freud says that guns are an extension of your dick, Jo Bob.

• Maxwell : Drake, now, takes out a bunch of them fake dicks.

  Phil Elliott : Ah, Max, that's gross!

  Maxwell : It's not gross. Shit, gross is when you go and kiss your grandpa good night, and he sticks his tongue down your throat. That's gross. Anyway, he's got one, man, that is about 8 inches long, and it's pink, and it's got little crinkleties in it, and it's got a grinder that you turn like this, and it goes in and out...

  Phil Elliott : Look, I don't wanna hear any of this. I don't wanna hear no more of this.

  Maxwell : Wait, man. I'm just getting to the weird part.

  Phil Elliott : The weird part? The *weird* part?

  Maxwell : Yeah, it gets weird!

• Coach Johnson : "The rewards to his warriors are many. The rewards to the losers, disgrace. Some say winning's not everything, that competition has a limited place."But if that cowardly slogan is true, why did God name this the human - race?"

  Phil Elliott : Good question.

  O. W. Shaddock : Hey, Coach? Is it alright if me and Jo Bob have a couple copies of that poem?

  Jo Bob : Yeah, we'd appreciate that Coach Johnson.

  O. W. Shaddock : That has to be one of the most inspiring poems i've ever heard.

  Art Hartman : Yeah, I'd like one, too, Coach.

• Conrad Hunter : There's one thing I learned early on in life. The most important thing a man can have.

  Phil Elliott : What's that, money?

  Conrad Hunter : Luck. Luck tells me something about a man. If my people are lucky, they tap into a big field. If not, they can have every geology degree in the world and drill one dry duster after another. Look at me. I'm the luckiet man in the world. Sure as hell ain't brains, is it?

• Phillip Elliott : Hell, I love needles.

• Phil Elliott : Joe Bob's Fine Foods - Eat Here, or I'll Kill Ya!

• Phil Elliott : [as he receives a numbing injection in his knee]  Better football through chemistry.

• Phil Elliott : [Entering the huddle near the end of the game]  Having fun boys?

  North Dallas Lineman : Blow it up your ass.

• Charlotte : It's nice to see there's a little romance left in the world.

  Phil Elliott : It's an old story, boy meets boy.

  Charlotte : Well, I love happy endings.

  Phil Elliott : Oh, really? Well, good. Now we can sit back and wait for the real obscenities.

  Charlotte : You mean it gets worse?

  Phil Elliott : It definitely gets different.

• Phil Elliott : Jo Bob's here to remind everybody that the meanest and the biggest get to make all the rules.

  Charlotte : Well, I don't agree with that.

  Phil Elliott : Agreement doesn't enter into it.

• O. W. Shaddock : You and B.A. and all the rest of you coaches are chickenshit cocksuckers. No feeling for the game at all, man. You'll win, but it'll just be numbers on a scoreboard. Numbers, that's all you care about. Fuck, man, that's not enough for me.

  Coach Johnson : I don't have to listen to this.

  O. W. Shaddock : Oh, yes, you fucking do! You got to listen to me for once! All you coaches are chickenshit cocksuckers! You're all chickenshit cocksuckers! God damn you!

  Phil Elliott : Far out.

• B. A. Strothers : You hurt the team.

  Phil Elliott : Team? Oh, Christ's sake, B.A., we're not the team! They're the team!

  [points to the ownership] 

  Phil Elliott : These guys right here, B.A., they're the team. We're the equipment! We're the jock straps, the helmets. And they just depreciate us and take us off the goddamn tax returns!

• Phil Elliott : For Christ's sake, man, if you start pretending to be somebody else, that's what you're going to end up: being somebody else.

• Mrs. Hartman : Why don't you come over Wednesday night for dinner?

  Art Hartman : Yeah. Look, guy, why don't you come on over? Fitch and his wife are coming. Afterward, Susie's going to read some scripture, you know.

  Phil Elliott : Uh...

  Art Hartman : Oh, man, maybe we'll all take turns or something.

• Phil Elliott : B.A., I've always given you 100%.

  B. A. Strothers : 100%! You're talking about individual effort. Yes, you do give that. I don't deny it. But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about a team. I'm talking about a winning team. A winning team is 45 finely meshed gears working together in perfect synchronization.

• Joanne Rodney : What do you want for breakfast?

  Phil Elliott : Well, I'm going to have whatever you're having.

  Joanne Rodney : Well, I'm having chocolate pudding.

• Phil Elliott : Where's the pictures of yourself you cut out?

  Joanne Rodney : Well, that girl just doesn't exist anymore, Phil.

  Phil Elliott : Oh, so Joanne Rodney doesn't exist anymore. Well, in that case, it kind of looks like you.

• Joanne Rodney : Phil, do you love me?

  Phil Elliott : Sort of.

• Maxwell : I'm a star. A gen-u-ine sports personality and legendary folk hero.

  Phil Elliott : Folk hero, have some dexedrine.

  Maxwell : Don't mind if I do.

  Phil Elliott : A little compazine.

  Maxwell : All right.

  Phil Elliott : Would you like codeine?

  Maxwell : Does a shark shit in the sea? Come on, give me some of this.

  Phil Elliott : One for me. Breakfast of champions there. Ah...

  Maxwell : Nectar of the gods.

• Charlotte : I saw you the other night. You were in so much pain you couldn't sleep. Your body's twisted and scarred. You're drugging yourself.

  Phil Elliott : Hey, listen, that's just part of the game, Charlotte.

  Charlotte : Game? You call men smashing each other a game?

• Phil Elliott : Man, I had that ball right in my hands. I just couldn't hang on to the damn thing.

• Phil Elliott : Who are you and what are you doing here?

  Charlotte : Charlotte Calder and I'm asking myself the same question.

• Charlotte : Can I get you a drink?

  Phil Elliott : Yeah, you got any whiskey?

  Charlotte : I only have milk.

• Charlotte : Well, how can you tolerate that?

  Phil Elliott : I make allowances and then I get ready and I run like hell.

  Charlotte : That's what I like. A man of courage.

• Charlotte : You can't sleep here.

  Phil Elliott : Oh, thanks for letting me sleep here.

• Joanne Rodney : You know, you don't look too good. Maybe you ought to take some vitamins.

  Phillip Elliott : I don't need a healthy body. I can do it all in my mind.

  Joanne Rodney : Yeah?

  Phillip Elliott : I've been ignoring the fact that I'm falling apart.

• Phil Elliott : Are you married?

  Charlotte : Was.

  Phil Elliott : Yeah, so was I. Do you work?

  Charlotte : No.

  Phil Elliott : What's this? Alimony?

  Charlotte : No.

  Phil Elliott : You talk a lot, don't you?

  Charlotte : No.

• Phil Elliott : Do you believe they cut Stallings?

  Maxwell : Who's Stallings?

• Maxwell : How's an old fart like me supposed to keep up with a dedicated young Christian stud like Hartman? It's discouraging.

  Phil Elliott : Well, it's like you told me, Seth, you got to cheat.

• Phil Elliott : Hey, Douglas, isn't this the kind of day you'd rather be by a fire with a good book?

  Tony Douglas : Fuck you, faggot.

  Phil Elliott : Promises, promises.

• Phil Elliott : Holy shit, I hope I don't look as bad as you look, man.

  Maxwell : You make me look like Cinderella, asshole. If I had a dog like you, I'd shave his butt and make him walk backwards.

• Phil Elliott : It's the tooth fairy.

  Maxwell : Fuck you, tooth fairy!

• Jo Bob : Eddie, I'd appreciate it if you could finish up here with butterfingers and give me my B-12 shot 'cause I got an important business meeting. You might like to know, Elliott, that I found myself two old boys from Oklahoma who wanna invest in my restaurant business.

  Phil Elliott : Oklahoma?

  Jo Bob : That's right.

  Phil Elliott : That figures.

• Phil Elliott : He held me down, massaged my throat, and made me swallow 'em.

• Maxwell : Why do we do it, partner?

  Phil Elliott : Well, the only way to find that out, man, is to quit.

• Maxwell : You know Jerry Drake?

  Phil Elliott : Drake?

  Maxwell : Big Tex Automotive Supply.

  Phil Elliott : Oh, I know that asshole, yeah.

  Maxwell : Well, it was his YMCA team that me and Hartman had to talk to last night. I gave them my usual bullshit, you know, football, character development, all that crap. Hartman comes up with this story about Jesus being captain of a football team. And the apostles each played different positions, right?

  Phil Elliott : Whoo! And Judas was the coach.

  Maxwell : Nope, Judas was the one that sold the playbook - to the devil's team.

  Phil Elliott : Oh, my God.

  Phil Elliott : Now, wait till you hear this part. Now, afterwards, Drake invites me and Hartman up to his house for a drink. Now, I got the wheels, so Hartman's stuck with me, right? Anyway, here's the point. It turns out Drake wants to watch while me and Hartman do nasty things to his bouncy-bottomed little wife.

  Phil Elliott : Aw, Maxwell. Really.

  Maxwell : Hey, I know, I know. It's not your type of thing. But I happen to be more of a philosopher. I like to mingle with the little people.

• B. A. Strothers : Can I count on you, Phil, and your knee, for the entire game?

  Phil Elliott : B.A., you can always count on me to do whatever it takes to play.

• Charlotte : Listen, what are we gonna do about napkins?

  Phil Elliott : Here. Use toilet paper. It's cheap.

  Charlotte : Oh, chic. Chic.

• Phil Elliott : When I'm with you, my mind's a million miles away from football. I feel free.

  Charlotte : Sounds like you're tired of football.

  Phil Elliott : Well, if I was, I wouldn't admit it. That would scare the hell out of me.

• Phil Elliott : What's important is my performing. The moment of the catch, that feeling, that high. Hell, I can take the crap. I can take the manipulation. I can take the pain. As long as I get that chance every Sunday.

  Charlotte : I think that this game is twisting your mind.

• Charlotte : Hi. Are you all right?

  Phil Elliott : Yeah. Just slightly damaged.

• B. A. Strothers : It's dedication. It's discipline. It's sacrifice. You can't *take* all the time. You have to give something back to the game.

  Phil Elliott : Oh, for Christ sake, B.A. My nose is busted. I can't even breathe through it. I can hardly stand up. You know, I haven't slept more than three hours at a stretch in two years. Now, isn't that giving something back? Oh, for Christ sake, B.A., there's pieces of me scattered from here to Pittsburgh on these football fields. Now, isn't that giving something back to the game? Isn't it?