I like Liam Nesson.  I like how he portrays quiet, reflective, even self-effacing characters in movies — then just straight up murders everyone when finally provoked.  There’s a dichotomy in that that I find beautiful.    Even when his body count reaches a third of the population of San Diego, he still comes across as just being so goddam NICE.  (I was taken with “Taken.”)

I didn’t laud “The Grey” quite as much as other filmgoers.  I really, really liked it, but its message seemed lost on me … is the film telling us it is better to give up?  Not to try?  Why the various defeatist plot resolutions throughout the film?

Anyway — about the poem.  The Internet Movie Data Base message boards tell us that it has countless fans, many of whom ask about its origin.  Answer — it was written specifically for the film, my director and screenwriter Joe Carnahan.

Here it is:

Once more into the fray

Into the last good fight I’ll ever know,

Live and diie on this day.

Live and die on this day.