MAJOR goof
-
EJF — 19 years ago(April 26, 2006 02:38 PM)
To get back to the original question that was asked, the complete transcript of Van Doren's testimony including his statement and all the questioning was published in the New York Times on Nov. 3, 1959.
The line "I had all the breaks; everything came too easy" does not appear. -
torreydeluca — 19 years ago(May 04, 2006 03:33 PM)
Thanks EJF. I could've done that months ago as the university I work at has all the New York Times editions on microfiche. And the library is only a one minute walk from my office!! Oh well
Over a decade ago I wrote a paper as an undergrad on the quiz show scandals, and had even read that very NYT edition on microfiche. I didn't recall at all seeing the complete transcript of van Doren's testimony. Shows you how well you can trust your memory on these things.
I think when I get a spare moment soon I'll check that statement out. I know that Charlie's original prepared statement was way longer than what's in the movie, but I thought that Attanasio had basically lifted certain parts of it word-for-word. I guess that section in the film about being down in the mud and building a foundation was all Attanasio's own writing, but it sure sounded like something van Doren would have said! -
jgravely — 19 years ago(July 13, 2006 08:20 AM)
"In a way he was like the country he lived in. Everything came too easy."
That's a line quoted a couple of times from a paper one of Robert Redford's characters Hubbell Gardner wrote in the Way We Were. Hubbell Gardner and Charles Van Doren both were golden boys who seemed to have everything. I think it's just a nod to that earlier film.
It's a dirty job, but I pay clean money for it. -
bitherwack — 16 years ago(March 06, 2010 10:08 AM)
The difficulty in criticizing others' errors is that one is prone to make them as well.
Might I point out your 'gaffe' as an example, and hope that it instructs as well as guides one to tolerance of those actively persuing the 'disintegration' of the English language.
Purists might take 'Major goof' and 'Say what?' as overly colloquial for written English. But who am I to complain? I'm certain that I've left glaring mistakes as targets for criticism, but then, I don't mind. -
Huge_Ego_sorry — 13 years ago(April 08, 2012 09:46 AM)
I still want to know why it is incorrect to say the party is "fun".
Anyone?
From the free dictionary online:
The use of fun as an attributive adjective, as in a fun time, a fun place, probably originated in a playful reanalysis of the use of the word in sentences such as It is fun to ski, where fun has the syntactic function of adjectives such as amusing or enjoyable. The usage became popular in the 1950s and 1960s, though there is some evidence to suggest that it has 19th-century antecedents, but it can still raise eyebrows among traditionalists. -
jbartelone — 13 years ago(October 07, 2012 10:31 PM)
This remains one of my favorite movies of all time! But there are several goofs at the beginning of the film. The 1959 car that Richard Goodwin is admiring is at least close to two years past the chronological time in the movie. Van Doren and Stemple played their scripted Twenty One games in early December 1956.
Sputnik is also referenced, which launched on October 4, 1957. The same day that Leave it to Beaver premiered on TV.
Mac The Knife was released in 1959, the same year as the futuristic car, but Mr. Goodwin's conversation with the auto dealer does not match up to the years mentioned in that scene!
Joe -
yurenchu — 12 years ago(July 17, 2013 08:26 AM)
In the end courtroom scene, Charles VanDoren reads the following from his prepared speech: "I had all the breaks. Everything came too easy."
Say what? That is blatantly incorrect use of the English language. The proper wording would be, "Everything came too easily."
"Everything came too easy" can be correct; in this case, the adjective "easy" is modifying the subject ("everything") instead of the verb "came" (verbs are modified by adverbs, not by adjectives).
To put it in a more specific way: "easy" doesn't refer to the manner in which the action of the verb was carried out, but to the state of the subject when the subject came/arrived/occurred/appeared. It's the same as "good clothes don't come cheap", "the cake came out too wet/dry", "my paper arrived wet in the mail", and similar to "to come running" and "to come equipped (with)".
Compare:- "Everything came too easy" = everything was too easy when it came (to me). In other words: whatever things came to me, these things were presented to me in such a condition that they were easy for/on me.
- "Everything came too easily" = everything came in a manner that was too easy. In other words: everything, including difficult/annoying/obnoxious tasks, had no trouble finding its way to me.
Now which of the two above phrases better reflects what Van Doren (space between "Van" and "Doren") had in mind when he delivered his speech?
Last heard: Sandi Thom - I Wish I Was A Punkrocker
http://y2u.be/vc2jDz6w-r4