Directed by: David Koepp
Starring: Johnny Depp, John Turturro, Maria Bello, Timothy Hutton
Revealing mistake: When Shooter pins Mort against the tree with the shovel, you can see that it's a rubber shovel because it's bending around Mort's neck. [Mentioned on commentary]. (00:40:45)
Trivia: When Mort smashes the shower door, the hole left in the glass looks like a small, four-legged animal with a screwdriver in its neck - which is how Shooter kills his dog.
Continuity mistake: When Mort is in Ken's office telling him about John harassing him. Ken punches the right side of the chess clock down to start it. Then Mort punches the left side, his right to stop it. Then when the camera switches back to Mort's point of view the the left side is up and the right side is down, then Ken punches down the left side to start it, when the right side should have been the one he had to press down to start it.
John Shooter: You strike me as the kind of guy who's on the lookout for a head he can knock off with a shovel.
Trivia: In a shot of Mort's coffee table, we see a book by Hunter Thompson. Johnny Depp (Mort) played Thompson in "Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas" (1998).
Question: What is the meaning behind the Morton salt and other groceries that Mort buys at the end of the movie?
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Answer: Mort Rainey buys the salt, butter, and napkins for eating the corn he grew in the garden above Ted and Amy's graves. The "Morton" brand of salt uses the advertising slogan, "when it rains, it pours." Mort Rainey's name can be translated to "raining death." The "Vanity Fair" napkins could be a refernce to Mort's personality.
raywest ★
The term Vanity Fair was coined (I believe first) by John Bunyan in 1678, as a place in a story called ‘The Pilgrim's Progress'. Mort is referred to as ‘Pilgrim' by a few different characters in the film, including himself, without much explanation until the serviettes. Brilliant. Vanity Fair in John Bunyan's story is a never-ending fair of frivolity, which is similar to Mort's charade of denial. Found this info when I searched the meaning of Vanity Fair on vocabulary.com.
Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress was also the inspiration for William Thackeray's 1847 novel, "Vanity Fair."
raywest ★