Go ahead, make my day.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008) |
| Go ahead, make my day. | |
|---|---|
 Harry Callahan in the "Make my day" scene |
|
| Character | Harry Callahan |
| Actor | Clint Eastwood |
| Created By | Joseph C. Stinson |
| First Used In | Sudden Impact |
| AFI's 100 Movie Quotes Position | #6 |
"Go ahead, make my day." is a phrase written by Joseph C. Stinson and said by the character Harry Callahan from the 1983 film Sudden Impact. In 2005, it was chosen as #6 on the American Film Institute list, AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes. The "Make My Day Law" passed in several U.S. states, derives its name from this phrase.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Origins
In one scene of the movie, Harry Callahan (played by Clint Eastwood) goes into a diner for a morning cup of coffee. When Callahan discovers a robbery in the diner, he kills the robbers in a shootout. However, a surviving robber holds the fleeing waitress Loretta (Mara Corday) at gunpoint, and holds his gun to her head and threatens to shoot. Instead of backing off, Harry points his .44 Magnum revolver point blank at the man's face and dares him to shoot, saying with clenched teeth and in his characteristic rough grumble, "Go ahead, make my day". Harry says "Come on, make my day." at the end of the film just before shooting Mick the Rapist who aims with his stolen shotgun at Jennifer Spencer.
[edit] Usage
Harry's statement in the movie implies a number of meanings, any one or more of which can be implied in common usage of this phrase: That the robber's "threat" does not scare Harry, that the robber's action would be exactly the excuse Harry needs to retaliate, that whatever harm the man causes to the waitress would not compare to the harm Harry causes to him, that Harry would enjoy the revenge, that Harry simply wants to shoot the robber to make himself feel better, or that the robber's life is worth no more than a daily thrill.
The term is used to describe Make My Day States in which a person has no obligation to retreat from an attacker before using deadly force. The name is somewhat of a misnomer since in the scenes in question Dirty Harry's use of deadly force would be justified on the grounds of self-defense or defense of the life of another person.
[edit] Influences, spoofs and parodies
 |
Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- Country singer T.G. Sheppard recorded a novelty song called "Make My Day" in which Eastwood, in character, utters the iconic line at the end of each verse (and, during the song's closing fade, adds other well-known Callahan lines such as "Do you feel lucky, punk?" from the first Dirty Harry film and "A man's got to know his limitations" from Magnum Force). The song appeared on the Sudden Impact soundtrack and was released as a single in 1984, reaching #62 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #12 on the Hot Country Songs chart.
- U.S. President Ronald Reagan, in threatening to veto tax-increase legislation, said "I have only one thing to say to the tax increasers: Go ahead, make my day."[2]
- In the comic G.I. Joe a kid holds up a restaurant and tells the cashier to give him his money or he could make his day.
- In Back to the Future III, Marty uses this line, in conjunction with the famous scene from Taxi Driver, in front of a mirror in his underwear.
- In Weird Science, Lisa says "Go ahead..." and Gary's dad responds questioningly with "...make my day?"
- In Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, Borat goes into a gun shop and examines a handgun, which he then points at the camera and says "Go ahead, make my day Jew."
- In the movie Beetlejuice, Michael Keaton says "Go ahead, make my millennium."
- In the Miami Vice episode "Glades", when the two locals Crockett and Tubbs meet take them deep into the Everglades and dumped them there at gunpoint, one of them says, "What did that dude Clyde Eastman say in that movie, Floyd?" With Floyd responding "Go ahead, ruin my day."
- In a Xena: Warrior Princess second season episode titled "A Solstice Carol", Senticles uses the phrase "Go ahead, make my day" to a royal guard before shooting him with a toy weapon, while a brief sample of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly theme is also heard in the background.
- In a segment of Divorce Court with William Keene as the judge, the wife has accused the husband of deliberately using their kids as accident victims in order to collect insurance money. Judge Keene gives the divorce to the wife, along with complete custody of the children. When the husband reacts violently to this in the courtroom, Keene warns him, "Go ahead--make my day!"
- In the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett, the Ankh-Morpork City Watch's current motto is "Fabricati diem, pvnc". This is nonsense in Latin, and doesn't actually mean "Make my day, punk", although it looks as though it ought to; this is the nature of most "Latatian" in the books, and is not unusual. However, Fred Colon insists it means "To protect and serve".
- In the game Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko, Gex parodies Eastwood in one level by saying, "Go ahead, make my lunch."
- In the film Mrs. Doubtfire, the titular character says that if she saw Clint Eastwood, it would "make my day."
- Carman, the Christian music artist, uses the phrase in his narrative song The Champion. In the song, at the beginning of the "boxing match" between Jesus Christ and Satan, Satan says "You're dead meat Jesus. I'm gonna bust you up tonight", and Jesus replies "go ahead; make my day."
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ How the 'Make My Day' law cut epidemic of violent burglary, Sunday London Telegraph, October 31, 2004
- ^ Phrases that define a career
[edit] External links
|
||||||||||||||
