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The one thing that's always bothered me about The Hurt Locker. One scene, I mean. Actually a single line of dialogue. A jocular U.S. Colonel (David Morse) asks Jeremy Renner's Sgt. James, a bomb-defusal Jedi, "What's the best way to defuse one of these things?" And Renner answers, "Duhwayuhdohndyesuh." I've seen this over and over, and each time I've asked myself "what?...what is Renner saying, for God's sake? Has he ever tried speaking with marbles in his mouth, or taken elocution lessons? Twenty dwarves took turns doing handstands on the carpet."

It finally hit me the last time I saw it. Renner is saying "the way you don't die, sir."

Gilliam Hovering<< previous | next >>Wolfie

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on November 19, 2009 at 7:15 AM

comment #1

DeafBrownTrashPunk says ...

Haven't you tried watching it with closed captioning, Wells?

Posted by DeafBrownTrashPunk at November 19, 2009 7:33 AM

comment #2

Nick X says ...

The line's in the trailer. It's clearly audible. The problem is some sort of cognitive twitch on your end, not a problem with Renner's speech.

Posted by Nick X at November 19, 2009 7:35 AM

comment #3

Chase Kahn says ...

No, I noticed this, too. When I saw it in Chicago in early July I didn't quite catch the line, but then when I saw it a second time back in Dallas, I understood it. It's definitely not "clearly audible".

Posted by Chase Kahn at November 19, 2009 7:40 AM

comment #4

Matthew Starr says ...

I heard it clearly the first time.

Posted by Matthew Starr at November 19, 2009 7:44 AM

comment #5

Jeffrey Wells says ...

That's how I finally heard it clearly -- by watching the trailer online. But it's not my fault -- it's Renner's. I know tons of guys who, when they're trying to say "would you like me to shine your shoes?," say "wahnmetoshaynyershews?" When I go into a store and say "May I have two Hershey bars with almonds?," I actually say those words, and I mean in a way that Iranians in an English language class in lower Manhattan could actually understand. So it is Renner's fault. Renner's and the speakers in most of the regular-ass theatres out there, which tend to be not so hot sounding.

Posted by Jeffrey Wells at November 19, 2009 7:46 AM

comment #6

Irving Thalberg says ...

I also heard it clearly the first time, which must mean I speak Eloi or something. For shame!

Posted by Irving Thalberg at November 19, 2009 8:01 AM

comment #7

kamichojin says ...

The attached video really undermines the argument. Just played it and it sounds perfectly clear, just like it did when I saw it theatrically back in April at the PFS. There have been a lot of lines in oft-repeated films that have baffled me for years ("I see you, Chocolate Man" in Romero's Dawn of the Dead comes 1st to mind), but this definitely wasn't one of those times.

Posted by kamichojin at November 19, 2009 8:02 AM

comment #8

slithis says ...

I've seen the film 3 times and got the line on the first viewing (and both subsequent) -- great line and sums up his deceptively simple approach to something very un-simple.

Posted by slithis at November 19, 2009 8:03 AM

comment #9

Eloi Manning says ...

I think it's perfectly clear. It's not Renner's "fault" that you didn't hear it. And besides, it suits his character to deliver it in that way. He's a rough and ready army man, not Laurence Olivier.

Posted by Eloi Manning at November 19, 2009 8:12 AM

comment #10

Mark says ...

Let this thread morph into the alltime what-did-he-say in movie history. No. 1 gotta to be "Urrrnn-est", Hanks last words to Private Ryan.

Posted by Mark at November 19, 2009 8:52 AM

comment #11

Mr. F. says ...

Eloi M. is absolutely right -- it's in keeping with his character. You can't fault Renner for that.

Posted by Mr. F. at November 19, 2009 9:41 AM

comment #12

dinther says ...

I loved this movie -- the directing, the great editing - but this scene was the one where credibility went out the window so much that it distracted me.

No way, no how, would any officer in that situation tolerate that cowboy mentality, much less condone it.

Posted by dinther at November 19, 2009 10:26 AM

comment #13

Colin says ...

Wells couldn't understand Renner; let the Hurt Locker takedown begin...

Posted by Colin at November 19, 2009 10:51 AM

comment #14

Pynchon8 says ...

Yeah, I don't see the problem.

I'm more interested in whether or not Bigelow can follow this up.

Posted by Pynchon8 at November 19, 2009 11:17 AM

comment #15

Dzayson says ...

Mark took the words from my mouth. I know Hanks was dying and everything, but I walked out of the theatre thinking his final statement was "earnest."

Posted by Dzayson at November 19, 2009 12:17 PM

comment #16

TheCahuengaKid says ...

Hanks says "Earn this..."

Posted by TheCahuengaKid at November 19, 2009 12:39 PM

comment #17

reverent and free says ...

I heard Renner.

If you want to talk about bad enunciation, turn to Jake Gyllenhaal in Donnie Darko. I couldn't hear the line in the theater, and had to turn on the closed captions on the video to see that he tells Patrick Swayze "I think you're the antichrist."

Later Drew Barrymore screams "fuuuuu!" without the k at the end.

Also, the entire film of Miami Vice. I couldn't understand one damn line.

Posted by reverent and free at November 19, 2009 1:50 PM

comment #18

BurmaShave says ...

yeah I heard Renner, in a shitty theater with subpar sound, so did everyone in the audience, because we all chuckled. No offense Wells, but I think it might be you. We all have these moments though, I couldn't hear a lot of PUBLIC ENEMIES the first time.

Posted by BurmaShave at November 19, 2009 4:50 PM

comment #19

Fortunesfool says ...

The sound on Public Enemies was appaling, I couldn't make out the dialogue for most of the film.

Also 'the way you don't die, sir' is a grammatically clunky line which doesn't help.

Posted by Fortunesfool at November 20, 2009 12:16 AM

comment #20

DeeZee says ...

The worst mumbling I've heard so far was in Brokeback Mountain.

Posted by DeeZee at November 20, 2009 3:16 AM

comment #21

Ronald McFirbank says ...

Sometimes you just get a line like that. I was watching an old movie (Vidor's Texas Rangers) and there's a line where a guy tells a girl another guy's in love with her and I swore she said "Whaddaya want me to do, sit in urine?" I had to play it three times before I finally got "sit and yearn?"

Posted by Ronald McFirbank at November 21, 2009 2:06 PM