Forest Whitaker Quote of the Month: November 2006

With all due respect to Maki, I have to say that i didn't believe Sin City to be all that and a packet of crisps. That said, I will say that I enjoyed the first segment the most, which focuses on the character of Marv as played by up Mickey Rourke. Rourke did a pretty damn good job with it, and he was able to do it under a heavy make-up job. Oddly enough, it's not the first time that Rourke has played a touching criminal under layers of facial prosthetics.

Which is my awkward segue to the film Johnny Handsome. Rourke plays the title character, who has some physical features similar to the Elephant Man, but is also a smart crook. When he is left for dead by a couple of double-crossers, he's put in a prison hospital and given the opportunity to undergo experimental surgery to fix his face and also start a new life. The doctor, natch, is played by our good friend Forest Whitaker (with a heavy bai-yoo accent). The following exchange is right after he details to Johnny the surgery he wants to perform.

Dr. Steven Fisher: "Anyway, this is not an abstraction for you. You can come out of this with a normal life."

Johnny Handsome: "This experiment is all bulls*&t. I'm still going to be Johnny Handsome."

Dr. Steven Fisher: "I will give you a new name. I will give you a new face. I will give you new identification and a chance at a new life. They do that for witnesses. I can do that for you."