The Last of the High Kings (1996)

Jared Leto: Frankie Griffin

Photos 

Quotes 

• Cathleen : There are plenty of good Protestants.

  Frankie : Yeah?

  Cathleen : Yeah. It's a shame they're all dead

• Cathleen : Have you forgotten about the Famine?

  Dawn Griffin : [trying to get his attention, as his mail has arrived]  Frankie?

  Cathleen : How the Brits starved millions of our innocent people just so they could make cakes for that fat bitch Queen across the water? What about 1916? They shot down thousands of innocent Irish revolutionaries! Think of Parnell and Wolfe Tone and poor old Robert Emmet! And now you, you've become a Proddy lover!

  Dawn Griffin : [still trying to get his attention]  Frankie.

  Frankie : [Frankie finally gets angry with his Ma's lecture and shouts]  Most of the Irish revolutionaries were Protestant! Emmet, Parnell, Wolfe Tone - all Protestant! Half of the so-called heroes who you think of as havin' noble blood were Protestant!

  [She looks astounded. She looks over to Father Michael for help, but he nods apologetically. Frankie is right] 

  Cathleen : [trying to rally her own spirits]  I suppose Pearse was a Prod. And DeValera!

  Frankie : No. DeValera was American. That's how he missed gettin' shot in 1916!

• Cathleen : Romy Thomas. Her and the other one she runs around with. All hair and legs.

  Frankie : At least they aren't hairy legs.

  Cathleen : Ha. Watch it, mister. You know what those two girls are? Protestants! You stay away from them. There's an international conspiracy between Communists and Protestants, and I'm not havin' you in the middle of it!

• [first lines] 

  Frankie : I had it all planned. College. A place of my own. Hang out all day in cafes with beautiful girls, with legs and blonde hair, that you could talk to about The Stranglers and Hemingway, and who you could spend loads of time in bed with. Instead, I've blown my exams. How absolute was Louis the Fourteenth? Absolutely no idea. Ah, God, I've ruined my life before it's even started. They might as well take me out and shoot me. If I fail, I'm gonna have to get a job. I'm not cut out for that! I'm too young to work!

• Frankie : [Frankie wakes up hungover after partying to celebrate the end of classes]  Seventeen years I've been waitin' for this day. Freedom. The oyster of my life about to open. Instead, it feels like a badger died in my stomach. And I've an awful feeling that nothing will ever change.

  [His mother enters the boys' bedroom] 

  Cathleen : You, Frankie Griffin, are a useless article. You don't do a hand's turn from one end of the day to the other. Look at the state of ya! Eyes fallin' out of your head with the drink. And, and, and the smell of ya! You'd never think of helpin' out around the place, not in a million years. What do you think? You think your shirts and trousers get washed by magic, and march down the path, and throw themselves up on the line? Do you? And what about these socks I keep findin' under your bed? Stained with what, I'd like to know?

  [She indicates his younger brother in the bed opposite] 

  Cathleen : Ray's the only one of you with any decency! I was too soft to use the wooden spoon on your arse when you were growin' up. Shoulda had you put to sleep.

• Jack Griffin : [Frankie knocks on his father's door]  Come in. I know this is an important summer for ya, Frankie, and, uh, I'm sorry that I'm gonna miss it. I don't even know if I'm gonna be back for your birthday. So, so just in case, I, uh...

  [He presents Frankie with a goldfish swimming in a bowl] 

  Jack Griffin : Happy birthday, my boy.

  Frankie : [Frankie takes the bowl]  Thanks.

  Jack Griffin : You're welcome. Now, you're goin' to University, and you're gonna need spendin' money. So here's what I suggest. You get yourself a summer job.

  Frankie : Da. About University. I don't think my exams went all that well.

  Jack Griffin : Ah, Frankie, you'll be fine, you'll be terrific. I know it!

  Frankie : I been thinkin', maybe I should go away, see the world or something.

  Jack Griffin : Oh, no, Frankie. Let the world wait for you!

  Frankie : Why do *you* always get to go away?

  Jack Griffin : Well, this is something that's very important to me, Frankie. There's even, there's even talk about a film.

  Frankie : What I'm tryin' to tell ya is that I probably won't even get into college!

  Jack Griffin : Ah, you know, Frankie, I remember, when I was your age, I felt, I felt exactly the same as you.

  Frankie : So, how did you do?

  Jack Griffin : Oh, I did, I did, I did great. Great. Well, in English.

  Frankie : Da, please. I'm serious!

  Jack Griffin : I know ya are, son. Look, um, do you have anything special lined up for the summer? Do you have, um, a girlfriend, maybe?

  [He laughs a little. Frankie doesn't answer and looks away in annoyance] 

  Jack Griffin : Look, Frankie, "these few precepts in thy memory keep. This above all: to thine own self be true, for it follows as the day the night, thou canst not be -"

  Frankie : [Frankie finishes the quote from Hamlet:]  "not be false to any man."

  Jack Griffin : Yes.

  [He looks defeated, but looks up as Frankie turns to leave, and he says urgently:] 

  Jack Griffin : Frankie! There's special instructions for feedin' that fish! You can't over-feed him, or, or he'll burst!

• [Jim Davern has unexpectedly come to the house party to celebrate his political victory. He begins flirting with Cathleen, to Frankie's disgust] 

  Cathleen : Victory is ours! Frankie, Ray, drinks for everyone! Drinks! Jim, come and meet everyone.

  [Frankie and Ray retreat to the kitchen to search the cabinets for alcohol] 

  Frankie : Here we are. For you.

  [Ray takes the bottles and reads their labels as Frankie hands them down from the top shelf: "Irish Mist" and so on] 

  Ray Griffin : Just a tiny bit of bottle.

  Frankie : Uh-oh. We've struck gold. There's a couple of full ones here.

  [He opens an unlabeled bottle and takes a swig] 

  Frankie : Aaughh! Poitín.

  Ray Griffin : [appreciatively]  Firewater. Moonshine. Hooch. That stuff can drive a man crazy as a cactus.

  Frankie : Exactly.

  [He grins, thinking of getting all the adults drunk] 

  Ray Griffin : I don't think it's quite what Ma had in mind. Da said it's for rubbing on the greyhound.

  Frankie : Ray, my brother, we don't have a greyhound. It's time for victory punch.

• Frankie : Ah, look at them. Jane Wayne and Romy Thomas: the fruit of the gods. I'm never gonna slow-dance on a moonlit beach and whisper, "I love you, Romy." Or "Jane," whichever one I happen to be dancin' with. No, I'm lookin' at a life sentence. Solitary confinement. What am I gonna do?

• Frankie : It wasn't like Da was a whole lot of use for anything when he was at home, but it always seemed empty when he was gone. Sorta shook the place. With a wave of his hat, he'd signal that I was once again man of the house. What that really meant was absolutely nothing.

• Frankie : When I was a kid, I used to wish for an ordinary family. Sometimes I still do. The only normal one is Noely, who has permanent brain damage from an illness when he was a baby. His body will grow up, but not his mind. He's the only one who doesn't drive me nuts. My Da's an actor. Always goin' abroad for some play somewhere, always lookin' for his big break into films. The rest of them share varying degrees of incurable insanity. It's amazing I turned out okay.

• [Frankie carves lines on his bedroom wall like a prisoner in a cell, counting the days] 

  Frankie : Today's the thirtieth of June. My exam results should come on the 18th of August. God, it's not long. Forty-nine days, then I'm dead. If I was a *real* rebel, I wouldn't give a damn.