The Perfect Witness (2007)

Mark Borkowski: James Lemac

Quotes 

• James Lemac : So what do you want from me?

  Mickey Gravatski : I'm a film maker. I wanna do this documentary about you. About what you do.

  James Lemac : How'd you find me?

  Mickey Gravatski : [no response] 

  James Lemac : You wanna do what with me?

  Mickey Gravatski : Documentary?

  James Lemac : And if I don't agree?

  Mickey Gravatski : I send the tape to the police. But, if you do, I won't release it, ya know, until, or if, you're caught.

  James Lemac : Look. Children, digging holes. Mothers watching their children. But who watches the mothers?

  Mickey Gravatski : Do you um, do you, do you like children?

  James Lemac : I like mothers better.

  James Lemac : So why should I believe you?

  Mickey Gravatski : I wanna do this documentary. Serial killers, ya know, when they're caught, the media, they portray them as m...

  [women walk by] 

  Mickey Gravatski : monsters. Animals. I wanna show that you're... human, and ya know, show your thoughts, and feelings, and um, I wanna preserve you.

  James Lemac : And what if I decide my next victim is you?

  Mickey Gravatski : I don't fit your profile.

  James Lemac : Humph

• James Lemac : Conscience is a sick bed. Under its filthy sheets lay all our fears. It's not conscience that prevents men from killing and raping, it's consequence. Fear of death, jails, God. But really where is he? Do they hear his name when they scream it? Do they return to him piece by piece when I'm finished with them? The moment that God strikes me down I'll smile, 'cause I'll believe in him for the first time.

• Mickey Gravatski : Remember when I asked you if you could stop killing? And you said that if the seeds that were buried in darkness were never plant...

  James Lemac : ...were never planted, that I might be able to capture the innocence that I never had.

  Mickey Gravatski : Yeah. I wondered, who planted those seeds?

  James Lemac : Hmm

  Mickey Gravatski : She took you down there and left you there, huh?

  James Lemac : Who? What are you talking about?

  Mickey Gravatski : Did you take me down to that cellar to justify what you do?

  James Lemac : Not everything is for your fuckin' benefit, Mick.

  Mickey Gravatski : Right. ya know it just seems like...

  James Lemac : It seems like what? What? What you think I'm killin' my mother?

  Mickey Gravatski : Yeah. It's obvious. I mean in your mind you think you are. But in reality you're killing innocent women.

  James Lemac : Look do me a favor, all right? Remove those eight women from the equation, what do ya got?

  Mickey Gravatski : Wait, how do you remove eight women laying in pools of their own blood, with their eyes taken out?

  James Lemac : Am I beneath compassion?

  Mickey Gravatski : What? What compassion did you have?

  James Lemac : Look I'm just asking you. Just try to remove them from the equation. If you remove them from the equation...

  Mickey Gravatski : It's not an equation! It's not an equation, it's life! It's body identifications. It's funerals. It's families torn apart. It's moms taking sleeping pills, praying to God that when they wake up their daughters are still alive.

  James Lemac : Ya know what's confusing you? You see parts of me in yourself, and that makes me human.

  Mickey Gravatski : You're fuckin' nuts.

  James Lemac : No, I'm not nuts. But you also see yourself in me. The potential we all have.

  Mickey Gravatski : "Potential." Potential is not action, action is what defines us.

  James Lemac : You gotta ask yourself one question. You gotta ask yourself if you still wanna find the human behind the monster. Because if you don't, this whole documentary is a waste. Come on, ya hungry?

  Mickey Gravatski : Sh-yeah, I haven't had an appetite since I met you.

• James Lemac : How does it feel Mick, to be a subject?

• [last lines] 

  Mickey Gravatski : Can you stop?

  James Lemac : What are you asking me, if I can be cured? A cure is inconceivable to them, because the crimes are too unforgivable. They simply want people like us dead. But death doesn't end evil. It merely sets it free.

  Mickey Gravatski : Are you evil?

  James Lemac : If I choose to take responsibility for what I've done.

  Mickey Gravatski : Do you?

  James Lemac : Do you?