Directed by Robert Benton. Written by Robert Benton, based on the novel by Richard Russo.

Others

• Toby: [to Sully] Go ahead, steal our snowblower. You're the slowest goddamn thief that I ever saw.

• Judge Flatt: Ollie, you know my feelings about arming morons: you arm one, you've got to arm them all, otherwise it wouldn't be good sport.

• Miss Beryl: Mr. Sullivan, you're wearing a necktie. Are you in trouble with the law again?

Dialogue

[Wirf and Sully bet on the People's Court]

Sully: Okay, Shyster, who do you like?

Wirf: The plaintiff. It's a lock.

Sully: I'll take the defendant.

Birdy: You weren't even here for the stories.

Sully: Yeah, but I know my lawyer.

Wirf: Sooner or later we'll wear the bastards down. The court is already starting to get pissed. You heard the judge.

Sully: He's pissed at you, Wirf!

Wirf: Only because he knows I won't go away.

Sully: I know how he feels.

Sully: [about Toby] Don't tell me she's pregnant.

Carl: Knocked up like a cheerleader. Eh, I suppose now you're gonna to want to be godfather.

Sully: Hey... I can't be the father and the godfather. You got to goddamn do something.

Toby: Did you come to steal our new snowblower?

Sully: I've already done it, just about.

Toby: I could legally shoot you, you know.

Sully: Not unless I'm breaking and entering.

Toby: ARE you gonna break and enter?

Sully: What's happening with Dummy?

Toby: I don't know. He took my threat to shoot him a lot more seriously than you just did.

Sully: Poor guy just had a bypass. Maybe he's trying to cram everything he can do into six months. When he realizes he's going to live until he's seventy, he'll slow down.

Toby: If I had my way, he wouldn't live to Thanksgiving.

Toby: Oh, you're a man among men, Sully.

Sully: Well, thanks.

Toby: That wasn't a compliment!

Carl: Sixty years old and still getting crushes on other men's wives. I would hope by the time I'm your age, I'm a little smarter than that.

Sully: Can't hurt to hope. You sure are off to a slow start.

Peter: Mom's greatest fear is that your life was fun.

Sully: Tell her not to worry.

Peter: It's not gonna be easy being you, is it?

Sully: Don't expect much from yourself at the beginning. I couldn't do everything at first, either.

Miss Beryl: Do you still bet on that horse race of yours?

Sully: What, the trifecta?

Miss Beryl: Yes. Has it ever come in?

Sully: Not yet.

Miss Beryl: But you still bet on it.

Sully: Well, sure. I mean, the odds have gotta kick in sooner or later.

Miss Beryl: Fine. That's exactly the way I feel about you.

Peter: [as Sully buys raw hamburger] You want some buns?

Sully: Dogs don't eat buns.

Peter: You're buying ground beef for your dog?

Sully: I don't own a dog.

Peter: Oh, God. I don't believe this. I'm a member of Greenpeace and I just helped poison a dog.

Sully: Well for one thing, it ain't poison. For another, you didn't help much.

Sully: You ain't naked or anything, are ya?

Toby: No, but I can be in about 2 seconds.

Sully: Well, take your time. I need a cup of coffee. [on phone] Ace Towing? Sullivan. I'm just around the corner. 313 Harvin. Pick me up. Charge it. Tip Top Construction Company. Thanks. [hangs up phone] Horace?...

Horace Yaney: Hi, Sully. I ain't naked either.

Sully: Thank God for that!

Sully: Go home, you jerk. You're married to the best-looking woman in Bath.

Carl: Who was it that said, "A man's reach should exceed his grasp?"

Charlotte: How can you live in a town this size and not see your ex-wife all the time?

Sully: That's easy, dolly. Peter's mom and I don't exactly travel in the same circles. As a matter of fact, Vera pretty much travels in a straight line.

Peter: SOMEBODY in this family had to.

Sully: I should have known better than to hire a one-legged lawyer.

Wirf: You can't afford a two-legged lawyer.

Sully: A condemned man has a right to a last request doesn't he? I got my truck out back whaddya say we get in the back get naked and see where it goes from there?

Birdy: Ok

Sully: Haven't you got any pride?

Birdy: Go to jail, Sully, it's where you belong.

Sully: I can't believe it's gonna take you that long to get me out of jail.

Wirf: Don't blame me, I'm a Jew. They're not my holidays.

Sully: A Jew? Really? I didn't know that. How come you ain't smart?

Wirf: How can I start getting you out of jail when you won't go in?

Peter: So if you're not a father to me, how come you're a grandfather to Will?

Sully: 'Cause you gotta start someplace.

Sully: What's the matter with you?

Wirf: I'm trying to communicate with you telepathically.

Carl: Forget about it. The only way to communicate with Sully's to whack him in the head with a shovel.

Wirf: You'd keep my leg, wouldn't you?

Sully: You don't need a leg, you need a parrot.

Miss Beryl: Doesn't it bother you that you haven't done more with the life God gave you?

Sully: Not often. Now and then.

Cast

• Paul Newman - 'Sully' Sullivan
• Jessica Tandy - Beryl Peoples
• Bruce Willis - Carl Roebuck
• Melanie Griffith - Toby Roebuck
• Dylan Walsh - Peter Sullivan
• Pruitt Taylor Vince - Rub Squeers
• Gene Saks - Wirf Wirfley
• Josef Sommer - Clive Peoples Jr.
• Philip Seymour Hoffman - Officer Raymer
• Philip Bosco - Judge Flatt

Taglines

• In a town where nothing ever happens... everything is about to happen to Sully.

• Worn to perfection