Masked and Anonymous (2003)
Bob Dylan: Jack Fate
Photos
Quotes
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Jack Fate : I was always a singer and maybe no more then that. Sometimes it's not enough to know the meaning of things, sometimes we have to know what things don't mean as well. Like what does it mean to not know what the person you love is capable of? Things fall apart, especially all the neat order of rules and laws. The way we look at the world is the way we really are. See it from a fair garden and everything looks cheerful. Climb to a higher plateau and you'll see plunder and murder. Truth and beauty are in the eye of the beholder. I stopped trying to figure everything out a long time ago.
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Jack Fate : All of us in some way are trying to kill time. When it's all said and done, time ends up killing us.
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Uncle Sweetheart : I'm only human.
Jack Fate : I know, it ain't easy being human.
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Jack Fate : By the way, which side of the political fence are you on?
Desk Clerk : I do not belong to any political party, sir. I guess you could call me... a feminist
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Jack Fate : Some of us pursue perfection and virtue and if we're lucky, we catch up to it. But happiness can't be pursued. It either comes to your or it don't. You can always say, "if only this and if only that", but "if only" is a state of mind that we get into when we feel deprived.
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Animal Wrangler : If I see a crack in the sidewalk, it's more beautiful to me than any human being. A crack in the mud at the bottom of a sun dried lake, I count them more beautiful than any human being. You know what I mean?
Jack Fate : I know what you mean. Kinda like a curse, isn't it? Bein' born.
Animal Wrangler : You got that right. Yeah, cause we live in fear. Cause we know we're gonna die. Animals don't know they're gonna die. They got no fear. They live. Content. In the moment. It holds us back. Knowledge of death. I say, amazing grace, in deed.
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Jack Fate : Well, I got to get back to the stage.
Oscar Vogel : The stage - ah, yes - the stage. The whole world is a stage.
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Uncle Sweetheart : They want you to sing that song "Revolution". You know, that Beatles song. The slow version - the in-and-out one.
Jack Fate : "Revolution." What else do they want me to play?
Uncle Sweetheart : I got the playlist right here. Let's see, where's my glasses? Okay, here we go: "Revolution", "Street Fightin' Man", "Won' t Get Fooled Again", "Cellblock #9", "Ohio", "Eve of Destruction", "Kick out the Jams." You can do all those.
Jack Fate : I don't know, Sweetheart. Sounds like a lot of songs.
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Uncle Sweetheart : This is gonna be a patriotic rhapsody, Jack. Here's the deal. You'll be working for the people. The peasants. The children. Imagine yourself being reincarnated in the civil war in Babylon.
Jack Fate : Civil war in Babylon?
Uncle Sweetheart : Come on son, snap out of it! You gotta stand up on your tiptoes to see the future.
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Jack Fate : In my father's world, you do not take what is his. Not his gold. Not his silver. Not his woman. I thought I was doin' it for my mother. I thought I was doin' it for my country. Ultimately, I knew, I was doin' it for me. In the end, it's the strongest arm that stretches the bow.
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Uncle Sweetheart : Hey, you're all skin and bones.
Jack Fate : Aren't we all. Anyway, I don't have to throw my weight around. Look at you. You must have put on a few pounds.
Uncle Sweetheart : Eatin' from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
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Jack Fate : He sacrificed everything he ever wanted to reach his destiny, to rule this empire with an iron fist. From the cathouses and gambling joints he rose to the top rung of civilization, President of this god-forsaken nation.
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Uncle Sweetheart : Let me show you this place. I own a piece of it.
Jack Fate : Which piece?
Uncle Sweetheart : It changes every day.
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Desk Clerk : Will you be in need of a woman sir?
Jack Fate : What kind of woman?
Desk Clerk : I got all kinds. Slave women. Immigrant women. Black women. White women. Young women. Old women. Rich, poor, middle class. Free women. Western women. Northern women. Southern women. Intellectuals. Radical women. Modern. They run the gamut. Which kind would you like.
Jack Fate : No, I'm just tired. Can you give me a room?
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Uncle Sweetheart : Nobody could be like you, and a great many have tried. I just know this is gonna come off.
Jack Fate : I need some boys who can play.
Uncle Sweetheart : I got some musicians right here. Feast your eyes on: Simple Twist Of Fate. The best and only Jack Fate cover band in the world.
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Uncle Sweetheart : Ladies and gentlemen, We have a special treat for you this evening. Not only do we possess the Twist Of Fate, we possess the Cha-Cha, the Bugaboo, and the Watusi Of Fate: Jack Fate!
Jack Fate : [singing] Crash on the levee, Water's gonna overflow, Swamp's gonna rise, No boat is gonna row, Head on down, To Williams Point, You can bust your feet, You can rock this joint, But, hey, ain't you gonna miss your best friend now? You'll have to find yourself, Another best friend, somehow...
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Jack Fate : Beautiful animals.
Animal Wrangler : I'll thank you. But it's God that deserves the credit. They won't have time to bother with success or gettin' rich. They don't have fantasies of glory. They don't borrow money to buy things that decrease in value while they own it. You see, they're beautiful 'cause they just are. They do what they do. A lion don't try to be a tiger. A rabbit don't try to do an impression of a monkey. They don't try to be what they're not. Unlike us. Us human beings. The cheetah, the tiger, the snake, the monkey, the baboon, the muskrat, the bobcat, the pig that's fat, the hippo, the rhino, the dodo, the honey badger... Each one, each perfect - in their original forms. Then, man came in. Who created him and for what purpose? It's still a mystery. Why is he here? It's a mystery. We know he's trespassin'. Doesn't know his own place. Of course he doesn't know his place, he don't have one. Man, the bear hunter, the fur trapper, the deer chaser. Then, the beer hunter, the deer trapper, the man - the bear hunter, the the fur trapper, the man - the deer chaser, the baby seal clubber, the dolphin snagger, the lowest form in existence. Lowest form of existence. He's a rabble-rouser, he's a stirrer-upper, agitator, goes around stickin' his nose where it don't belong. The zoo, the aquarium, they are - they are the prisons for the animals. These animals cannot learn anything from mankind. Man doesn't have - man don't have a thing to teach them.
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Uncle Sweetheart : Some famous star from the jazz age was disfigured right here on this stage during a live show. What the hell was that sucker's name? I can't remember that guy's name.
Jack Fate : I don't know, Stagger Lee?
Uncle Sweetheart : No.
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Bobby Cupid : I got a surprise for you. Wait till you see this.
Jack Fate : What's that?
Bobby Cupid : That, my friend, is Blind Lemon's guitar.
Jack Fate : Where'd you get this from?
Bobby Cupid : I've been savin' it for ya.
Uncle Sweetheart : How do you know it belonged to Blind Lemon.
Bobby Cupid : Cause I got it from this ole boy's house in Dallas, down on the fifth ward, near where Lightnin' used to live. Blind Lemon gave it to him when he was leadin' him around.
Uncle Sweetheart : Looks like the only thing you'd play on that guitar is solitaire.
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Jack Fate : [singing] Gonna buy me a jug of rum, Gonna give my baby some, Diamond Joe, You better come and get me, Diamond Joe...
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Uncle Sweetheart : Look Jack, I'm doin' my best. I'm tryin' my hardest. I'm only human.
Jack Fate : I know. It ain't easy bein' human.
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Jack Fate : [singing] I'll remember you, When I've forgotten all the rest, You to me were true, You to me were the best, When there is no more, You cut thru the core, Quicker than anyone I knew, When I'm all alone, In the great unknown, I'll remember you...
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Tom Friend : What about - Mothers of Invention, Jack. Zappa. Now, there's a guy who wouldn't take no for an answer. He did a whole movie, "Uncle Meat," sixteen hours long, totally unedited. And he let it all hang out, didn't he? What about you? Huh? You ever let it all hang out?
Jack Fate : It always has been hanging out.
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Tom Friend : You know that singer in the group the Bee Gees? He sounds a lot like - Gene Pitney, doesn't he?
Jack Fate : Opposed to who?
Tom Friend : Opposed to who? "Town Without Pity" - you remember that, Jack? That place where they'd lock you up for doin' something you haven't even thought about doin' yet. It's a pretty lonesome world, ain't it Jack?
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Jack Fate : If I know nothing else, I know at least one thing is true: that the sacred is in the ordinary, the common things in life. They tell you that everything is nonsense, that the laws of nature are nonsense, gravity is nonsense, relationships don't exist, jobs don't exist. Everything is up for grabs and there's no cause of anything. That's what they'd like you to believe. I guess you could say that I was pushed downhill, but my fall from grace didn't end at the bottom of those stairs. It went on, and it seemed to' go on forever. Expect the worst and you'll get it. That's about all he ever taught me. All of us in some way are trying to kill time. When it's all said and done, time ends up killing us.
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Mrs. Brown : It's my pleasure to meet you, Mr. Fate.
Jack Fate : Who's this?
Uncle Sweetheart : This is Mrs. Brown and she's got a lovely daughter.
Mrs. Brown : My daughter has memorized all of your songs.
Jack Fate : Why did she do that?
Mrs. Brown : 'Cause I made her do it, that's why.
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Jack Fate : I gotta see him. I'm tired of not seeing him. I want him to see me.
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Jack Fate : My father controlled a lot of things, a lot of people, but he couldn't control my mother. I can tell you one thing, she never loved him either. It wasn't a marriage. It was a masquerade. She could love no one, not even herself. And he loved somebody else. My mother tried to love me; but, I think she was tryin' to kill me. I don't think she recognized me as her son. It was like I'd become a symbol of everything that had gone wrong in her life, in her world.
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Uncle Sweetheart : Look, you know I'm not some vicious person in a position of wealth and power.
Jack Fate : You're like a chemist who invents a new drug and doesn't care about the side effects.
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Jack Fate : [singing] "Oh, help me in my weakness", I heard the drifter say, As they carried him from the courtroom, And were taking him away, "My trip hasn't been a pleasant one, And my time it isn't long, And I still do not know, What it was that I've done wrong"...
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Tom Friend : Hey, I don't want to be here any more than you do.
Jack Fate : I doubt it.
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Edmund : The President is dead.
Jack Fate : [singing] I'm beginning to hear voices and there's no one around, I'm all used up and I feel so turned-around, I went to church on Sunday and she passed by, And my love for her is taking such a long time to die, And I'm waist deep in the mist, It's almost like, I don't even exist...
