Geoffrey Rush credited as playing...
Harold Fingleton
- Harold Fingleton: [to Tony while having Harold Jr. beat him up in a boxing lesson] What're you crying for?
- Young Harold Jr.: [whilst boxing] You are. You're crying!
- Young Tony: [sobbing] I'm not!
- Young Harold Jr.: [punches Tony again] You are now!
- Harold Fingleton: [in a drunken stupor, to Tony] When I was your age, I was tougher.
- Tony Fingleton: What are you talking about?
- Harold Fingleton: You're far too weak. You make me feel ashamed. I wish you didn't exist.
- Dora Fingleton: Oh, Tony, come to bed.
- [Tony leaves]
- Harold Fingleton: They were a bunch of animals. Bastards.
- Dora Fingleton: Harold, what happened? What happened today, hmm? What happened? How'd you get that mark on your face?
- Harold Fingleton: Coppers came out and, um... I think I fell over. Coppers...
- Dora Fingleton: Was it...
- Harold Fingleton: It was all so long ago that they were animals. And my mother... My mother, she was there. THEY WERE ANIMALS!
- Dora Fingleton: What?
- Harold Fingleton: You're a very good woman, Dora. Where's Tony?
- Dora Fingleton: [about Tony, proudly] Your son's just won the junior championship.
- Harold Fingleton: [to John] Wait'll these mugs see what you can do.
- Brother Campbell: Oh, Harold, uh, Father Dillon is hearing confession right after mass.
- Harold Fingleton: Is he? That's nice.
- Brother Campbell: Probably been awhile?
- Harold Fingleton: I'll pop along next week.
- Brother Campbell: Since you're here, and since your boys will be coming here...
- Harold Fingleton: [on his way to confession] Hot in here, isn't it?
- Dora Fingleton: Not for us Protestants.
- Tony Fingleton: [struggling to connect with his dad prior to leaving Australia for Harvard College in the United States] Do you remember the first time you took me to the pool, Dad? Put me in the water?
- [Harold shakes his head]
- Tony Fingleton: I do. At the old Spring Hill Baths. I remember being terrified of drowning. You had me there and then you just... you just... let me go.
- Harold Fingleton: Oh. I remember that.
- Tony Fingleton: Yeah. But I didn't go under. I floated. And then, uh... and then I swam away from you, and... I swam away across to the other side maybe, but...
- Tony Fingleton: [suddenly embarrassed at how directly this childhood story connects to his current actions] I should go. I've got things to do.