- published: 01 Jan 2015
- views: 35236
Times Square is a 1980 film, set in New York City, starring Trini Alvarado and Robin Johnson as teenage runaways from opposite sides of the tracks, and Tim Curry as a radio DJ. The plot of the film embodies a punk rock ethic of misunderstood youth articulating their frustrations toward adult authority through music.
Nicky Marotta (Robin Johnson) and Pamela Pearl (Trini Alvarado) are two teenage girls who meet in the New York Neurological Hospital, where they are both being examined for mental illness. Pamela feels lonely and misunderstood, and is neglected and exploited by her father, a prominent and wealthy environmental commissioner running a campaign to "clean up" Times Square. Nicky is a tough-talking street kid with musical aspirations, sent to the hospital for an evaluation after an altercation with the police. Sharing a room, the frank Nicky and the shy Pamela become friends; Nicky tells Pamela that she stages seizures to keep out of juvenile detention. Nicky admires Pamela's poetic spirit; Pamela admires Nicky's forthright attitude, and resents the condescending way in which the doctors treat her. Nicky tells Pamela not to take her meds as they "take your fight away." She also reads a poem that Pamela wrote about her: "Your ribs are my ladder, Nicky/I'm so amazed, I'm so amazed." Nicky is released from the hospital, and later returns, ostensibly for an appointment for her social worker, but really to break Pamela out. Both girls escape from the hospital, steal an ambulance, and hide out in an abandoned Chelsea Piers No.56 on the Hudson River. Pamela and Nicky seal their devotion to each other with a blood oath and make a pact to scream out each other's names in times of trouble.
What can I, what can I do for you, honey?
Buy you a coffee? Lend you some money?
Walk you to Times Square, walk to the moon? What can I, what can I, what
Can I do what can I do?
Oh, it's been a long time, but it's been about right. You're looking like
You need a kiss or a fight.
Without my love you don't know how to live.
Is there somebody, somebody else who could make it worth it?
Somebody else? Somebody else? Somebody else?
And I know you're alone, most of the day.
I know you spend night the very same way.
I know you're not with somebody new, I won't break his heart to fix you.
And I think, and I prey, about last September.
As time goes by, I barely remember.
And I know you say you would change that night.
But I was never yours, and you're no longer mine.
Oh, I'd like to kiss you, but my lips are purple.
And I'd like to love you, but our love is spent.
And we wasted our wishes, hurt our best friends, made a home in heart ache,
And now can't pay the rent.
So, what can I, what can I do for you, honey?
I'm not a movie star, pretty play bunny.
I'm just a lucky hack fooling myself.
If you want perfection look to somebody else.
Somebody else, somebody else, somebody else.
And I know you're alone, most of the day.
I know you spend night the very same way.
I know you're not with somebody new.
I won't break his heart to fix you.
And I think, and I prey, about last September.
As time goes by, I barely remember.
And I know you say you would change that night.
But I was never yours and you're no longer mine.
So, what can I, what can I do for you, honey?
Buy you a coffee? Lend you some money?
Walk you to Times Square, walk to the moon?
What can I, what can I, what can I, what can I, what can I, what can I,
What can I, what can I, what can I, what can I do?