Written and directed by John Sayles.

Dialogue

Dickie Pilager: [Conducting an "improptu" press conference on his front porch.] I repeat I'm not raising taxes. We can't just keep throwing the taxpayers' hard-earned money at these perceived ... and some of them I admit are real ... so-called social problems. We have to get our priorities straight. Education is a priority. Affordable housing for our working people is a priority. Health care is a priority. Our economy is a priority. The environmental ... the whole environmental ... arena ... that's a big priority. Building new roads and maintaining the present ... keeping the infrastructure in place, where it belongs, that's a priority.

Nora Allardyce: What isn't a priority?

Dickie Pilager: What's not a priority ... is those matters which are of less of a ... not that they're not important but ... if you're going to have a front burner, which is where you want your priorities, it's like ... cooking ... there needs to be something sitting on the back one. And that's where your other organizations, your church people and your ... organizations formed to help these things, will be happy to pitch in if only government would get out of their way.

Dickie Pilager: [Conducting a press conference.] In the case of capital offenses I am absolutely in favor of the death penalty. You hear stories about frontier justice ... you can bet that the wrongdoers, the folks who couldn't play by the rules, had some respect for that. And there was no ... it didn't cost the taxpayer ... if they had had taxpayers back then ... those were the good old days, I suppose ... and all you needed was a good strong rope and a tree to hang it from!

Reporter 1: So you'll be proposing tougher criminal legis ...

Dickie Pilager: My message to criminals is this: straighten up or get out. There's no place for you in our state. You do the crime, and by God, you're gonna have to face your lumps.

Nora Allardyce: But the majority of those serving time for drug possession are ...

Dickie Pilager: You want to change the behavior? Stiffen the consequences!

Nora Allardyce: There have been reports, Mr. Pilager, that before you became involved in politics you had considerable experience with ...

Dickie Pilager: Look, if you're up in a helicopter, airplane, something that flies, you don't want your pilot intoxicated with drugs, do you? And it's that way with our schoolchildren ... Junior can't read if he's high on crack. Yeah, air is thin enough up here!

Dickie Pilager: [points to another reporter] Yes?

Other

Maddy Pilager: You know, the Amazon women amputated one of their breasts. [Draws back imaginary bow and arrow] Got in the way of the bowstring.

Cast

• Chris Cooper — Dickey Pilager
• Danny Huston — Danny O'Brien
• Richard Dreyfuss — Chuck Raven
• Maria Bello — Nora Allardyce
• Daryl Hannah — Maddy Pilager