Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Best Watch Monologue: The Gold Watch

This has got to be one of the best monologue on a watch. It is from the movie Pulp Fiction, the speech given by Captain Koons to Butch Coolidge. I guess they (the producers) got the right person to play Captain Koons as I can't imagine anyone else doing this except Christopher Walken.

The monologue:

"Hello, little man. Boy, I sure heard a bunch about you. See, I was a good friend of your dad's. We were in that Hanoi pit of hell together for over five years. Hopefully, you'll never have to experience this yourself, but when two men are in a situation like me and your dad were, for as long as we were, you take on certain responsibilities of the other. If it had been me who had not made it, Major Coolidge would be talking right now to my son Jim. But the way it turned out is I'm talking to you, Butch. I got something for ya. This watch I got here was first purchased by your great-grandfather during the first world war. It was bought in a little general store in Knoxville, Tennessee, made by the first company to ever make wrist watches. Up until then, people just carried pocket watches. It was bought by Private Doughboy Ryan Coolidge the day he set sail for Paris. This was your great-grandfather's war watch, and he wore it every day he was in the war. Then when he had done his duty, he went home to your great-grandmother, took the watch and put it in an old coffee can. And in that can it stayed 'til your granddad Dane Coolidge was called upon by his country to go overseas and fight the Germans once again. This time they called it World War Two. Your great-granddad gave this watch to your granddad for good luck. Unfortunately, Dane's luck wasn't as good as his old man's. Dane was a Marine and he was killed along with all the other Marines at the battle of Wake Island. Your granddad was facing death, and he knew it. None of those boys had any illusions about ever leaving that island alive. So three days before the Japanese took the island, your granddad asked a gunner on an Air Force transport named Winocki, a man he had never met before in his life, to deliver to his infant son, who he had never seen in the flesh, his gold watch. Three days later, your grandfather was dead. But Winocki kept his word. After the war was over, he paid a visit to your grandmother, delivering to your infant father, his Dad's gold watch. This watch. This watch was on your Daddy's wrist when he was shot down over Hanoi. He was captured and put in a Vietnamese prison camp. He knew if the gooks ever saw the watch that it'd be confiscated; taken away. The way your Dad looked at it, this watch was your birthright. He'd be damned if any slopes were gonna put their greasy yellow hands on his boy's birthright. So he hid it in the one place he knew he could hide something. His ass. Five long years, he wore this watch up his ass. Then when he died of dysentery, he gave me the watch. I hid this uncomfortable hunk of metal up my ass for two years. Then, after seven years, I was sent home to my family. And now, little man, I give the watch to you."

I am not too sure what was the watch in the movie was. I do know that the watches during those time were called 'fixed lug' or 'wired lug' watches as some of the watches were actually pocket watches with some wire welded on to it to allows strips of leather to pass through it and act as straps. There were also known as 'officers' or 'trench' watches as the watches were purchased by officers to be used in trenches.

Possible brands for the watch includes Waltham, Elgin, Gruen, Illinois and Helvetia.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Ivan,

    It's actually a Lancet WWI Trench Watch.

    http://watchesinmovies.info/displayimage.php?album=177&pos=0

    Love the monologue, and love the movie!

    -Justin

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  2. Hi Justin,

    Welcome to the blog. Thanks for the info, great to know what the watch is.

    Best regards,

    Ivan

    ReplyDelete