The Americanization of Emily

I was alerted to the existence of this film by a short interview Robert Osborne did with Clint Eastwood on the subject of James Garner... who stars in the film alongside Julie Andrews. Clint mentioned that in the film Garner delivers one of the great monologues about America and its relationship with Europe.

The movie totally delivers... but as you watch it, try to imagine modern Hollywood producing a movie where a character says something like this...

"You American haters bore me to tears, Ms. Barham. I've dealt with Europeans all my life. I know all about us parvenus from the States who come over here and race around your old Cathedral towns with our cameras and Coca-cola bottles... Brawl in your pubs, paw at your women, and act like we own the world. We over-tip, we talk too loud, we think we can buy anything with a Hershey bar. I've had Germans and Italians tell me how politically ingenuous we are, and perhaps so. But we haven't managed a Hitler or a Mussolini yet. I've had Frenchmen call me a savage because I only took half an hour for lunch. Hell, Ms. Barham, the only reason the French take two hours for lunch is because the service in their restaurants is lousy. The most tedious lot are you British. We crass Americans didn't introduce war into your little island. This war, Ms. Barham to which we Americans are so insensitive, is the result of 2,000 years of European greed, barbarism, superstition, and stupidity. Don't blame it on our Coca-cola bottles. Europe was a going brothel long before we came to town."

Amazing... and even better when Garner delivers it.

Interesting to note that the movie was written by Paddy Chayefsky and you can see a lot of the fantastic satirical writing that would be the hallmark, 12 years later, of his most brilliant screenplay, NETWORK.

UPDATE: Also, the film features one of the best end credits I've ever seen. Three actresses are credited with playing "THREE NAMELESS BROADS."