The Emigrants (1971)

Eddie Axberg: Robert

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Quotes 

• Arvid : What do you think it will cost to ship us there?

  Robert : Around 200 riksdaler.

  Arvid : Ya, well, might as well forget it. 200 riksdaler. I'll never have that much.

  Robert : You don't have it?

  Arvid : I will go anyway. We can travel to America on foot.

  Robert : Nah, there's an ocean. You can't go on foot to America.

  Arvid : Do you mean there is no way?

  Robert : I'm afraid there is not. America is an island.

  Arvid : Damned ocean.

• Robert : In America, there are no commoners and gentry. People are the same there. And anybody can talk to the President as they please.

• Robert : There are two kinds of folk in America. There are those who become rich because they've been here so long and there are some who have come so recently they haven't had time to get rich.

• Robert : You'll need to learn the right way to hold the tongue also. Stick out your tongue for me.

• Arvid : Last year the parson asked who our lords and masters are. But, I couldn't answer him.

  Robert : All of our lords and our masters, besides our parents, are those God has ordained to have a fatherly power over us...

  Arvid : Is that the truth?

  Robert : Do you know how many lords and masters we have over us - in the whole world?

  Arvid : Nah.

  Robert : The first is the King, Oskar the First; the second is the Governor; the third is the Chief Constable; the fourth is the Sheriff, Lönnegren; and the fifth is his Deputy; and the sixth will be the Parson; and the seventh, Aron, our master.

  Arvid : Why, that's a lot of lords.

• Arvid : I think I sell myself as a slave when I'm in America.

  Robert : Its forbidden for whites to get sold as slaves.

  Arvid : Forbidden? But, you were just saying that America's a free country?

  Robert : Ya. But, still that is forbidden, I'm afraid, for whites, that is.

• Karl Oskar : Doesn't the iron ever get stolen?

  Robert : Nah. In America, there is such an abundance of iron, that no one would care to steal as much as a farthing. Its the same with gold and silver. In America, they hang a thief at once. Often before he's had time to confess. Americans are the most honest and sensible people in the whole world.

  Karl Oskar : I guess even over there they have a couple of crooks.

• Kristina : Is your ear hurting?

  Robert : It will be better once we get to America.

• Robert : I read yesterday in the paper about a man who came home and found his whole family eaten up by a crocodile. Ya. There were three children and it had just swallowed the wife. But, the woman's head it got stuck in the beast's throat and so it choked to death. That was her revenge. Apparently the ground was soaked with human blood.

  Kristina : Are we going to such a place?

  Karl Oskar : You should know Robert and his tall stories by now.

  Robert : I didn't invent it. I really read it.

• Robert : You can't speak the language, can you?

  Elin, Ulrikas dotter : Nah, not now. But, the minute I land in America, then I shall.

  Robert : You mean you'll speak it the minute you land?

  Elin, Ulrikas dotter : Ya.

  Robert : Well, but who told you that?

  Elin, Ulrikas dotter : It was my Uncle Danjel. But, you must study it because you don't live in the spirit. For us, it's not the same. Studying won't be necessary.

  Robert : Can that - really be true?

  Elin, Ulrikas dotter : Do you think Danjel lies?

  Robert : Nah.

  Elin, Ulrikas dotter : All the faithful, as they go ashore, shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, like in the Bible, the Apostles, the first Pentecost. And they will be reborn with faith in Jesus Christ and also they'll know how to speak the American language the minute they land. Haven't you read the Acts of the Apostles?