The Parkland Theater experience

[Randy Stankey]

There's a scene in the original "The Taking of Pelham One-Two-Three" where one of the bad guys tells a smart-alecky black character to "Shut your mouth, n------ ...and keep it shut."

"Pelham" is famous for being the first major movie with explicit swearing. Not just "damn" or "hell."

I remember watching the an early version of "Blade Runner" where, during Decker's (Harrison Ford) opening monologue, he says something to the effect that his boss "was the kind of man who would have called a Black man 'N-word.'"

I saw it as a sneak/pre-release when I was at college in Boston. Later versions, when I saw them, had that dialogue taken out.

When I first heard the N-word comment I thought it fit, perfectly well, with the tone of the movie and it was clear that Decker was describing his boss, not saying it, himself.