Sunday, January 12, 2014

John Winger's Motivational Speech to His Fellow Soldiers

(From the movie Stripes:)


John Winger: Cut it out! Cut it out! Cut it out! The hell's the matter with you? Stupid! We're all very different people. We're not Watusi. We're not Spartans. We're Americans, with a capital 'A', huh? You know what that means? Do ya? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world. We are the wretched refuse. We're the underdog. We're mutts! Here's proof: his nose is cold! But there's no animal that's more faithful, that's more loyal, more loveable than the mutt. Who saw "Old Yeller?" Who cried when Old Yeller got shot at the end?
[raises his hand]


John Winger: *sarcastically* Nobody cried when Old Yeller got shot? I'm sure.
[hands are reluctantly raised]


John Winger: I cried my eyes out. So we're all dogfaces, we're all very, very different, but there is one thing that we all have in common: we were all stupid enough to enlist in the Army. We're mutants. There's something wrong with us, something very, very wrong with us. Something seriously wrong with us - we're soldiers. But we're American soldiers! We've been kicking ass for 200 years! We're 10 and 1! Now we don't have to worry about whether or not we practiced. We don't have to worry about whether Captain Stillman wants to have us hung. All we have to do is to be the great American fighting soldier that is inside each one of us. Now do what I do, and say what I say. And make me proud.


Strangely enough, that makes me proud to be an American.  And an Alabamian.


John Winger was played by Bill Murray in what must have been his most successful and loveable role.

3 comments:

  1. "We're 10 and 1!"

    I still say we didn't lose in VietNam. We just left. Then the South Vietnamese lost.

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