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The Freshman (1990 film)

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There's a kind of freedom in being completely screwed... because you know things can't get any worse.
—Clark Kellogg
"You know, your resemblance to the Godfather..."
"Clark, Clark, have a seat."
—Clark and Victor
I'm gonna puke my guts out.
—Steve Bushak

The Freshman is a 1990 American crime comedy film, about a young New York film student's entanglement in an illicit business of offering exotic and endangered animals as specialty food items, including his being tasked with delivering a Komodo dragon for this purpose.

Written and directed by Andrew Bergman.
He was on his way to the Dean's List, but he wound up on the hit list.taglines

Carmine Sabatini

[edit]
  • So, this is college. [laughs] I didn't miss nothing.
  • I'm getting too old for this nonsense.

Clark Kellogg

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  • [narrating] There's a kind of freedom in being completely screwed... because you know things can't get any worse.
  • [after Victor drives off with Clark's things in the boot of his car] I had been in New York for 19 minutes and 11 seconds, and I was already ruined.
  • [narrating] My heart was pounding as I crossed the dance floor. In a few minutes I would be free or dead...or Rodolfo Lasparri of Palermo, Sicily!

Victor Ray

[edit]
  • Kid, here in New York we have three distinct social classes. A. People who make a billion dollars a day and get laid in some tower every night. B. People who live in Times Square and eat Yankee Doodles on the sidewalk. And C. Guys like me. Guys who I like to call the glue in society. We go - fugetaboutit, all hell's gonna break lose.

Arthur Fleeber, NYU Professor

[edit]
  • [after showing a clip from The Godfather II] "Senator, my offer is this: Nothing." In that one moment, Michael Corleone says that all corruption is equal - that there is no separation between politics and gangsterism. Now, in the Fleeber treatise, "Guns and Provolone," what point is made about the similarities between Karl Marx's "Das Kapital," Immanuel Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason," and the Lake Tahoe scene from "Godfather II?"

Dialogue

[edit]
Clark Kellogg: So, I'm just a victim.
Steve Bushak: Clark, everybody in this city is a victim. Welcome to New York.
Clark Kellogg: What is it?
Victor Ray: I shouldn't even offer you this job, Clark. But you put me in such an awkward position, between my terrible feelings of guilt towards you and my family obligations.
Clark Kellogg: I don't know what you're talking about.
Victor Ray: I'm talking about offering you a job that I promised to my sister's kid Frankie. Be perfect for a college student like yourself, flexible hours, big money. She's gonna kill me my sister. She's gonna get a gun and blow my brain's out!
Clark Kellogg: [short pause] What kinda work is it? Stealing cars?
Victor Ray: Hey, if you're gonna be a cynic here.
Clark Kellogg: Well you expect me to trust you? After you drive away with everything I own?
Victor Ray: You don't have to do anything you don't wanna do. I'm just giving you a choice, that's all. [goes over to a desk, takes out a notebook and a pen] But if you wanna make some serious money, be at this address tomorrow afternoon at two o'clock. [gives Clark the note]
Clark Kellogg: [reading from the note] 120 Hester Street, Old World Social Club.
Victor Ray: [smiles] Yeah. You'll be working for my Uncle Carmine, a great man. [points to his forehead] He's the smart one in the family.
Clark Kellogg: [noticing Carmine Sabatini's resemblance] God almighty.
Victor Ray: I bet I know what your thinkin', the resemblance, right?
Clark Kellogg: I can't believe it.
Victor Ray: He's the real thing, the original merchandise. When they saw him, [Clark almost trips whilst coming up the stairs] they based the movie.
Clark Kellogg: Is he like a Mafia guy?
Victor Ray: No, no. Local businessman and importer, that's it. What a kisser, huh?
Clark Kellogg: Unbelievable.
Victor Ray: Clark, this is my uncle, Carmine Sabatini. Uncle Carmine, this is Clark. [to Clark] Hey, you know you never told me your last name?
Clark Kellogg: Kellogg.
Victor Ray: [to Carmine] Kellogg.
Carmine Sabatini: Just like the cereal.
Victor Ray: [laughs] Yeah.
Carmine Sabatini: Like the breakfast cereal.
Clark Kellogg: You know, your resemblance to the Godfather...
Victor Ray: Clark, Clark, have a seat.
Carmine Sabatini: Pull up a chair.
Clark Kellogg: Thank you.
Carmine Sabatini: How'd you like a nut? [cracks a walnut in one hand]
Carmine Sabatini: My nephew tells me you're from Kansas.
Clark Kellogg: Vermont.
Carmine Sabatini: Vermont. Kansas. Vermont.
Victor Ray: Six of one, half a dozen of the other.
Carmine Sabatini: The most important thing is we're all Americans.
Carmine Sabatini: I want you to take this opportunity. Totally legitimate work for $1,000 dollars a week. And I know that you're not gonna disappoint me.
Clark Kellogg: Well, I don't see how I could say no.
Carmine Sabatini: [leans back in his chair] This is not a yes.
[takes a walnut and cracks it open in his hand]
Carmine Sabatini: [still crushing the shell] I want to hear yes.
Clark Kellogg: [he strongly nods] Yes.
Tina Sabatini: [Dancing to Nat King Cole's "Mona Lisa"] So, my Dad tells me you're from Nebraska.
Clark Kellogg: Vermont.
Tina Sabatini: So, what do you think of New York?
Clark Kellogg: Oh, I stopped thinking. Twenty-four hours ago. I'm going on pure instinct.
Tina Sabatini: Well, that's what you're supposed to do in New York.
Clark Kellogg: So he just ripped it off? The Mona Lisa?
Tina Sabatini: The day it arrived here, I was like, nine. My Dad unwrapped it out of this huge crate. There was styrofoam, newspaper, everywhere. And suddenly, there it was. And he turned to me, I'll never forget this, and he said - "Now I'm happy, suga. Now I got the Mona Lisa."
Clark Kellogg: Is it safe here in Queens?
Tina Sabatini: [laughs] Oh, Clark. Oh, people don't steal things from my father.
Tina Sabatini: Listen, you made a commitment to my father. Nobody forced you.
Clark Kellogg: This is beyond commitment. This is like slavery. People telling me when and to whom I'm getting married.
Tina Sabatini: You don't want to marry me?
Clark Kellogg: What is the deal please? What is it? Am I some kind of a dupe? They looked through the Putnam Yearbook and they said, "Oh, here's a chump."
Tina Sabatini: Are you serious? A dupe? Do you think I'd be marrying a dupe? Everybody is talking about the job you are doing. It's all over town! Larry London called my father. Said how bright you were. How gentle. How perceptive. If you weren't all those things, do you think Vic would be out this afternoon getting you a gun permit?
Clark Kellogg: A gun permit? I don't need a gun permit!
Tina Sabatini: You have to have one if you're going to be carrying a gun. Clark, people are chasing you.
Arthur Fleeber, NYU Professor: It has a real film noir quality, don't you think? Smuggling lizards into New Jersey. I mean if it was done right, black and white, grainy, sort of a "Kiss Me Deadly" film.
Clark Kellogg: It's not an idea for a film. It's my actual life.
Clark Kellogg: It's about these animals. These reptiles
Carmine Sabatini: Yeah, what about 'em?
Clark Kellogg: They're endangered.
Carmine Sabatini: Not anymore. They're in Jersey, they're fine.
Clark Kellogg: It's a crime.
Carmine Sabatini: Now you're speaking in generalities.
Clark Kellogg: I'm illegally transporting endangered species! Please, sir, I'd like to be let out.
Carmine Sabatini: Wait a minute. This is an impossibility.
Clark Kellogg: What do you mean? Why can't...
Carmine Sabatini: Look, Clark. I have a certain standing in the business community. How's it gonna look? A young college kid gonna make me look like a fool? I mean this is humiliation. It's infamia.
Clark Kellogg: Sir, I don't know where this talk of marriage began, but I'm really not ready. I'd really like to sample life a little bit first.
Carmine Sabatini: Wait. No, wait. Clark, after you get married you sample life. I mean, this is what men do. Marriage is an institution. It's the bedrock of society. What you're talking about is a little va-va-voom. This is self understood. But what I'm talking about is social order.
Clark Kellogg: You promise?
Carmine Sabatini: Every word I say, by definition, is a promise.
Clark Kellogg: There's federal officers after me.
Carmine Sabatini: Did you get their names?
Clark Kellogg: Greenwald and Simpson. They told me that they would put me in jail for two years, unless I led them to the Gourmet Club.
Carmine Sabatini: No, they're not gonna, they're not gonna send you to jail.
Clark Kellogg: Oh, they're not?
Carmine Sabatini: No, they're gonna blow your brains out.
Victor Ray: Did my Uncle bring you up to date?
Clark Kellogg: Yeah, we're all going to be killed - by Greenwald and Simpson. They're part of the Vannelli family who are working out of South Amboy.
Victor Ray: Well, that's stretching it a little, Clark. There's a chance we'll all be killed - its not like a lock.
Victor Ray: [hands Clark a fake passport] Is that a piece of work or what?
Clark Kellogg: What is this? "Rodolfo Lasparri"?
Victor Ray: Clark, I gotta tell you. The odds are pretty good we're all gonna be on a plane to Palermo, Sicily tonight, at midnight, if we're still walking.
Clark Kellogg: I don't want to go to Palermo, Sicily!
Victor Ray: Have you ever been there?
Clark Kellogg: No, of course not!
Victor Ray: Then you really can't make an informed judgement, can you, Rodolfo?
Clark Kellogg: This whole thing's been a scam? This gourmet thing?
Carmine Sabatini: This is an ugly word, this, scam. This is business - and if you want to be in business, this is what you do.
Carmine Sabatini: When you finish film school, I'd like to call you, because I know a lot of people in Hollywood.
Clark Kellogg: Oh, really?
Carmine Sabatini: Yeah. I could kick a couple of doors open for you.
Clark Kellogg: Oh. Oh.
Carmine Sabatini: Give you a couple of opportunities.
Clark Kellogg: Oh. Oh, no. No, no. You know, I... I don't know. I don't think that's necessary.
Carmine Sabatini: No, no, no, really. It's easy for me. I'll just make a phone call. Make it easy for you.

Taglines

[edit]
  • He was on his way to the Dean's List, but he wound up on the hit list.
  • An innocent kid. An experienced mobster. This could be the start of a beautiful friendship.
  • Taking care of the family pet is a big responsibility... especially when it belongs to The Family!

Cast

[edit]
[edit]
Wikipedia
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