The Magnificent Seven (1960)

Yul Brynner: Chris Larabee Adams

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Quotes 

• [Calvera has just captured the Seven] 

  Calvera : What I don't understand is why a man like you took the job in the first place, hmm? Why, huh?

  Chris : I wonder myself.

  Calvera : No, come on, come on, tell me why.

  Vin : It's like a fellow I once knew in El Paso. One day, he just took all his clothes off and jumped in a mess of cactus. I asked him that same question, "Why?"

  Calvera : And?

  Vin : He said, "It seemed to be a good idea at the time."

• Chris : Morning. I'm a friend of Harry Luck's. He tells me you're broke.

  O'Reilly : [chopping wood]  Nah. I'm doing this because I'm an eccentric millionaire.

• Chris : You forget one thing. We took a contract.

  Vin : It's sure not the kind any court would enforce.

  Chris : That's just the kind you've got to keep.

• Hilario : We must buy guns. We know nothing about them. Will you buy guns for us?

  Chris Adams : Guns are very expensive and hard to get.

  [pause] 

  Chris Adams : Why don't you hire men?

  Hilario : Men?

  Chris Adams : Gunmen. Nowadays men are cheaper than guns.

  Hilario : Would you go?

  Tomas : It would be a blessing if you came to help us!

  Chris Adams : [shaking his head]  Sorry, I'm not in the blessing business.

  Hilario : No no, we offer more than that! We could feed you every day!

  Tomas : [taking out a sack]  And we have this!

  Chris Adams : What is that?

  Tomas : We can sell this for gold! Everything we own, everything of value in the village.

  Chris Adams : Well, I've been offered a lot for my work... but never everything.

• [last lines] 

  Chris : The old man was right. Only the farmers won. We lost. We always lose.

• Chico : Villages like this they make up a song about every big thing that happens. Sing them for years.

  Chris Adams : You think it's worth it?

  Chico : Don't you?

  Chris Adams : It's only a matter of knowing how to shoot a gun. Nothing big about that.

  Chico : Hey. How can you talk like this? Your gun has got you everything you have. Isn't that true? Hmm? Well, isn't that true?

  Vin : Yeah, sure. Everything. After awhile you can call bartenders and faro dealers by their first name - maybe two hundred of 'em! Rented rooms you live in - five hundred! Meals you eat in hash houses - a thousand! Home - none! Wife - none! Kids... none! Prospects - zero. Suppose I left anything out?

  Chris Adams : Yeah. Places you're tied down to - none. People with a hold on you - none. Men you step aside for - none.

  Lee : Insults swallowed - none. Enemies - none.

  Chris Adams : No enemies?

  Lee : Alive.

  Chico : Well. This is the kind of arithmetic I like.

  Chris Adams : Yeah. So did I at your age.

• Old Man : You worry about yourself. Are you ready for him?

  [refers to Calvera] 

  Old Man : What if he comes now, huh?

  Vin : Reminds me of that fellow back home that fell off a ten story building.

  Chris : What about him?

  Vin : Well, as he was falling people on each floor kept hearing him say, "So far, so good." Tch... So far, so good!

• Hilario : Very young and very proud.

  Chris : Well, the graveyards are full of boys who were very young and very proud.

• Vin : You know the first time I took a job as a hired gun, fellow told me, "Vin, you can't afford to care." There's your problem.

  Chris : One thing I don't need is somebody telling me my problem.

  Vin : Like I said before, that's your problem. You got involved in this village and the people in it.

  Chris : Do you ever get tired of hearing yourself talk?

  Vin : The reason I understand your problem so well is that I walked in the same trap myself. Yeah. First day we got here, I started thinking: Maybe I could put my gun away, settle down, get a little land, raise some cattle. Things that these people know about me be to my credit - wouldn't work against me. I just didn't want you to think you were the only sucker in town.

• [the village Calvera's raiding has changed] 

  Calvera : New wall.

  Chris : There are lots of new walls, all around.

  Calvera : They won't keep me out!

  Chris : They were built to keep you in.

• [Chris and the villagers are in the bar] 

  Sotero : There's one - look at the scars on his face!

  Hilario : The man for us is the one who GAVE him that face.

  Chris : Hey, you learn fast.

• Vin : We heard you got that Salinas thing cleaned up in five weeks.

  O'Reilly : They paid me $800 for that one.

  Vin : And Johnson County in four weeks.

  O'Reilly : They paid me $500 for that one.

  Vin : You cost a lot.

  O'Reilly : [proudly]  Yeah, I cost a lot.

  Chris : The pay is $20.

  [Chris and Vin turn and walk away] 

  O'Reilly : [Calling after them]  $20? Right now, that's a lot.

• [as Chris, Vin and Chico are about to leave the village] 

  Old Man : You could a-stay, you know. They wouldn't be sorry to have you a-stay.

  Vin : They won't be sorry to see us go, either.

  Old Man : Yes. The fighting is over. Your work is done. For them, each season has its tasks. If there were a season for gratitude, they'd show it more.

  Vin : We didn't get any more than we expected, old man.

  Old Man : Only the farmers have won. They remain forever. They are like the land itself. You helped rid them of Calvera, the way a strong wind helps rid them of locusts. You're like the wind - blowing over the land and... passing on. Vaya con dios.

  Chris : Adios.

• Harry Luck : [Dying words]  Well, I'll be damned.

  Chris Adams : Maybe you won't be.

• Chris Adams : Bernardo O'Reilly; you've been adopted.

  O'Reilly : Yeah, that's my real name. Irish on one side, Mexican on the other... and me in the middle.

• Calvera : I should have guessed. When my men didn't come back I should have guessed. How many of you did they hire?

  Chris : Enough!

• [Referring to Britt] 

  Villager : If he's the best with the gun and the knife, with whom does he compete?

  Chris : Himself.

• Chris : Nah, leave him alone. It's a free country.

  O'Reilly : And it's his.

• Calvera : Somehow I don't think you've solved my problem.

  Chris : Solving your problems isn't our line.

• Harry Luck : No tricks now, Chris.

  Chris Adams : Harry! It's good to see you again.

  Harry Luck : Chris.

  Chris Adams : What are you doing in this dump?

  Harry Luck : I heard you've got a contract open.

  Chris Adams : Not for a high-stepper like you.

  Harry Luck : A dollar bill always looks as big to me as a bedspread.

• [Chris and Vin were just shot at, hitting the tip of Chris' cigar] 

  Vin : You elected?

  Chris : Na. I got nominated real good.

• [as they ride to the village, Chico is following them] 

  Vin : Riding out there in all that dust and heat... what a chucklehead.

  Chris : Yep. Not smart like us.

  Vin : Yep.

• Chris : Go ahead, Lee. You don't owe anything to anybody.

  Lee : Except to myself.

• Chico : They're afraid. She's afraid of me, you, him. All of us. Farmers! Their families told them we would rape them.

  Chris : Well, we might. But in my opinion you might have given us the benefit of the doubt. But just as you please...

• [Chris is driving the hearse up to Boot Hill; Vin is riding shotgun] 

  Chris : We'll get there.

  Vin : It's not getting up there that bothers me. It's staying up there that I mind.

• Chris : Oh, hell. If that's all that's holding things up, I'll drive the rig.

• Harry Luck : The odds are too high.

  Chris : Much too high.

  Harry Luck : Then we go?

  Chris : No; we lower the odds.

• Chris : You heard of anything?

  Vin : Just shooing some flies away from a Mexican village, but I can't find out what it pays.

  Chris : Twenty dollars.

  Vin : A week?

  Chris : Six weeks, the whole job.

  Vin : Oh, that's ridiculous. Have you heard of anything?

  Chris : Yeah. Shooing away some flies from a Mexican village. Theirs.

  Vin : That wouldn't even pay for my bullets.

  Villager : We understand. You could make much more in a grocery store. And it would be good, steady work.

  Chris : [Sarcastically]  Yeah.

  Vin : How many you got?

  [Chris puts up one finger; Vin reluctantly puts up two] 

• Chris : There's no need to apologize. We weren't expecting flowers and speeches.

• Chris : [referring to Calvera]  If he rides in with no idea of the reception we can prepare for him, I promise you we'll all teach him something about the price of corn!

• Chris : He's a good gun, and we aren't heading for a church social.

• Chris : There's a job for six men, watching over a village, south of the border.

  O'Reilly : How big's the opposition?

  Chris : Thirty guns.

  O'Reilly : I admire your notion of fair odds, mister.

• [Chris and Vin enter their room, to see Lee sitting there, waiting] 

  Lee : Remember me?

  Chris Adams : Yup.

  Lee : You need men for a job in Mexico? How long?

  Chris Adams : Four, maybe six weeks.

  Lee : That ought to do it. How much does the job pay?

  Chris Adams : I thought you were looking for the Johnson brothers, Lee.

  Lee : [smirking]  I found them. Now, how much does the job pay?

  Chris Adams : Twenty dollars.

  Lee : I'll have the money before I leave. It should just take care of my last two days' rent.

• Chris : Now we are seven.

• Chris : Bring them in.

  [refering to the women] 

  Chico : What for? Let Calvera find them, he'll take good care of them.

• Chris Larabee Adams : I'll tell you what I can do; I can kill the first man who even talks about quitting. The first man I swear I'll blow his head off!

• Vin : [With Chris, surveying the results of the village's preparatory work]  First of all, he'll see that ditch.

  Chris : More water for the corn.

  Vin : Awful lotta new walls.

  Chris : Civic improvement.

  Vin : Hey, Chris. What about that net, eh?

  Chris : Well, if he's not looking for it. If he rides in unsuspecting...

  Vin : If, brother. If.

  Chris : Yeah.

  Vin : [With feeling]  Yeah.

• Chris : Is that what you want? Answer me! Who's for going on and who's for giving up? I want to know now!