Uncommon Valor (1983)

Gene Hackman: Col. Jason Rhodes

Photos 

Quotes 

• Charts : [Wondering if Scott is a Viet Nam vet]  So, uh, how long were you there?

  Kevin Scott : I wasn't. Too young.

  Johnson : [Looking a little skeptical]  Is he goin' with us?

  Col. Cal Rhodes : He served with 4th Recon Marines.

  Johnson : "Served"?

  Kevin Scott : I was discharged for striking a radio operator who fell asleep at his post.

  Kevin Scott : [the other men look a little askance at him, but he continues]  You're worried that I have no combat experience. You're right. There's no way of proving that I won't fail in combat. But then again, you can't prove that I will, either.

  Sailor : [Grinning mischievously at Scott]  This is gonna' be a whole lotta' fun with this one.

• Col. Cal Rhodes : You know, for years, I couldn't sleep after Korea. My nightmares all had to do with the Chosin Reservoir. The ground there was so frozen, we couldn't bury our dead. We had to pile 'em on trucks and lash them up against the tanks. For years I'd wake up with those dead, frozen faces staring at me.

  Wilkes : Did it ever go away?

  Col. Cal Rhodes : No... I finally made friends with them, though.

• Col. Cal Rhodes : [Introducing the Vietnamese cook to the men at the Texas training camp]  Oh, this is Mr. Ky. We'll be eating nothing but Vietnamese food from now on.

  Col. Cal Rhodes : [All the men groan disapprovingly]  We don't want to be tramping through the jungles, smelling like Americans.

• MacGregor : Do you ever regret letting Frank go, Jason?

  Col. Cal Rhodes : He was already in the service. There was never any question of him going.

  MacGregor : With all your contacts in Washington, couldn't you get him stationed anywhere else?

  Col. Cal Rhodes : When there's a war, the Rhodes fight. We lost almost the whole family at Gettysburg in one day. That's all we're good at. Never been good at anything else. Haven't always been real good at the fighting, either. A lot of us been killed... but we're always there.

• Col. Cal Rhodes : Ground team, you're up that trail, you've got the grid coordinates. Air team you follow me down this creek. We'll that's it...it's game time. I had a speech prepared, but I guess I forgot it. There are some lines from Julius Caesar.. 'If a man were to know the end of this day's business ere it come; But it suffice that the day will end, and then the end is known. If we meet again, well then we'll smile, and if not then this parting was well made.'

• Col. Cal Rhodes : [talking to Sailor in the prison exercise yard]  You know, I had a heck of a time tracking you down. You, uh, wandered around all over the United States. I know a lot about you: Frank used to mention you in his letters. He said you were the best man in the unit.

  Sailor : Yeah?

  Col. Cal Rhodes : What the hell happened to you?

  Sailor : Man, I'm so far beyond that shit now... I get energy from the air! I talk to polar bears. I converse with paramecium. Man, I fuck nuclear waste! Shit...

  Sailor : You guys are gonna' be using real grenades and stuff, man. You know, they took mine when I got in here.

  Col. Cal Rhodes : Hey, look, asshole. This isn't some kind of a bullshit biker's acid trip. This is a precise military operation.

  Sailor : Hey, listen. Frank was the best man in anybody's unit. I got enough brain cells to remember that... You gotta' give me a shot, man. You gotta'.

• Col. Cal Rhodes : [Addressing the men, gathered at the Texas training camp]  Gentlemen, thank you for coming. I knew you would come, 'cause you men have got what it takes. Molded over a little, but, uh, you've still got it.

  Col. Cal Rhodes : -

  [the men are silent as he continues] 

  Col. Cal Rhodes : There's a bond between you men... as strong as the bond between my son and me. Of course, there's no bond as strong as that shared by men who have faced death in battle. You men seem to have a strong sense of loyalty, because you're thought of as criminals, because of Vietnam. You know why? Hmm? Because you lost. And in this country, that's like going bankrupt. You're out of business. They want to forget about you. You cost too much, and you didn't turn a profit.

  Col. Cal Rhodes : -

  [continuing] 

  Col. Cal Rhodes : That's why they won't go over there and pick up our buddies and bring 'em back home: because there's no gain in it. You and I know, that the books are still in the red. And the politicians know, too. The same politicians that never lost a single son in Viet Nam - not one.

  Col. Cal Rhodes : [continuing]  Now, they say they've been negotiating for ten years. Well... the other side's not buying. And while the politicians sit on their asses, I'm going to ask you to lay yours on the line. Again. Because, gentlemen... we're the only hope those P.O.W.s have. So, we're going back there. And this time... this time, nobody can dispute the rightness of what we're doing!

• Col. Cal Rhodes : We'll need transportation... preferably four-wheel drive.

  Wilkes : Buy it or "borrow" it?

  Col. Cal Rhodes : Steal the fucker!

• Col. Cal Rhodes : [arriving at Wilkes' sculpture workshop]  I'm Jason Rhodes. I phoned this morning.

  Mrs. Wilkes : Yeah, I know who you are. Uh, listen, my husband doesn't want to talk to you.

  Col. Cal Rhodes : I phoned him this morning and he said he did.

  Mrs. Wilkes : Yeah, well, not any more. Look, why don't you do me a favor and, uh, go away?

  Col. Cal Rhodes : Not until I see your husband.

  Mrs. Wilkes : Look, you have got no right to be here. It has taken me ten years to get that goddamned war out of his head.

  Col. Cal Rhodes : ...

  [looking skeptically at Wilkes' numerous twisty metal sculptures] 

  Col. Cal Rhodes : Looks to me like it's still in his head pretty strong.

  Mrs. Wilkes : [sarcastically]  Ohh, that's very deep. Gee, where were you all the days he just sat for hours, staring at the walls?