“If it bends, it’s funny. If it breaks, it’s not funny.”
Almost certainly the most famous quote from the film, this is one of Lester’s most pompous pronouncements, the profundity of its exclamation becoming a motif of narcissistic self-satisfaction. What is usually left out of its legacy of fame is that Lester’s whole premise of bending and breaking signifying the borderline between comedy and tragedy stems from his bizarre perspective that Oedipus has a comic premise in which only its tragic serves to make it not funny.
“God is a luxury I can’t afford.”
Judah here gives voice to the underlying rationale everyone always has for committing a sinful act. The word “God” can be easily be replaced with “morality” or “ethics” or even something like less abstract like “loyalty” or “friendship.” The point is that when one commits to eschewing the obstacles standing in the way of doing the right thing, every other obstacle falls with it.
“I will not be destroyed by this neurotic woman.”
And this is the exact moment that Judah loses his conscience. This point is reflected by everyone who ever turned the commission of an immoral act into an attack against them. Once Judah repositions the situation as being one in which he is the victim of a neurotic (read: crazy) woman, his fate is set.
“If necessary, I will always choose God over the truth.”
Judah’s guilt phase takes him back in time to a family dinner during Passover at which uncles and aunts and his father have a discussion about morality and the choice to act. The conversation comes to a close when Judah’s father responds to the query about what good would faith do him if his belief were proven false. His response is that at least he was happy because chose to live a moral life which prompts the additional query as to whether that means he would still choose his faith even if proven wrong. His reply carries the taint of retaining a belief in a flat world when the truth of a round world has been made manifest. That is not what he means, however. Based on the context of the previous extended discussion, it is clear that Saul’s father means that even if it were proven true that there is no ethical dimension at all in the choices one make, he would still choose to believe in the God that has told him there is an ethical dimension in the choices one makes. Under certain circumstances, faith in what is false may make you happier and even better than the person who subscribes to what has been proven true.
“I’ve gone out the window.”
Dr. Levy is the philosopher whom Cliff is making a serious and heartfelt documentary about; a documentary destined not to make him any money and likely not to be seen by very many people. It is a labor of love because Levy’s philosophical expressions hold such profound meaning for Cliff. Therefore, the shock of Levy’s utter meaningless suicide note connects to the mystery of why the man defecated on his sister to present a much deeper cosmological question of why anybody ever does anything. The examination of whether actions have inherent moral dimensions explodes here into something even more primal: does any action have any inherent meaning at all or is absolutely everything that people do just another part of the randomness that defines the universe?
“If you want a happy ending, go see a Hollywood movie.”
After disguising his own real life escape from moral consequences as an idea for a movie plot, Cliff’s response is that Judah’s killer needs to take his own life in order to lend the story tragic meaning; he needs to takes the responsibility of moral judge, jury and executioner that he has managed to escape. Judah rejects this editing suggestion by offering Cliff the above advice.
“A strange man... defecated on my sister.”
It’s a funny quote. It’s a funny scene when he learns this information. But the scene where Cliff’s sister makes this horrific admission is out of place. It sticks out like a sore thumb; a deleted scene accidentally left in the final cut. It serves no narrative purpose as there is never a follow-up to it. In fact, it is never even mentioned again. And yet it does belong and it is essential. It is an essential quote because of Cliff’s wife’s response: “Why?” As Cliff notes, there is no possible reply to that question that would be satisfactory. Bad things happen to good people. Bad things happen to bad people. Bad things happen to people and that badness has nothing whatever to do with the victim’s own moral standing. That is the point of stimulus for this quote. That is why the scene that is so out of place is, in reality, utterly coherent.
