"Blow this..." in film scripts

Peter A. McGraw pmcgraw at LINFIELD.EDU
Fri Jul 11 15:56:58 UTC 2003


This doesn't look to me like an instance of the same expression as "blow
this hot dog stand (etc.)."  With the prepositional phrase that follows
(and the context that Shangri-La was in the mountains), it seems clear that
this "blow" means "cause to explode"--like "blow this place to
smithereens."  I don't think people who say "Let's blow this hot dog stand"
mean they want to blow it up--just to leave it.

--On Thursday, July 10, 2003 4:57 PM -0400 Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:

> 1. Riskin, Robert. "Lost Horizon (1937)"
> [Page 83 | Paragraph | Scene | Section | Table of Contents]
> (snapping at him) You've been lying to us ever since we got here!
> Apparently it's worked with some people. Perhaps it's because they lack
> the courage to do anything about it. But not me, Chang. You're up against
> the wrong man. I'll get out of here, if I have to blow this fantastic
> place into the valley! I'll get out--porters or no porters! And with this
> threat, he storms out of the room. CHANG You must prevail upon him not to
> attempt the journey. He could never get through that country



*****************************************************************
Peter A. McGraw       Linfield College        McMinnville, Oregon
******************* pmcgraw at linfield.edu ************************



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