Movies start with somebody writing words on a
blank piece of paper. Here are some of my favorite one-liners.
In many cases, they actually define the movie itself. See if
any of your favorites are there.
A
FISTFUL OF DOLLARS
“Our orders are
to be sure he does not die. Also, make sure he regrets being
born.”
ANGEL AND THE
BADMAN
“He’s quite a
man with the ladies. They say he’s closed the eyes of many a
man and opened the eyes of many a woman.”
APACHE
“Even a hawk is
an eagle among crows.”
BEND IN THE
RIVER (1952)
"Shosone. Real mean when they want to be. Lately,
they want to be."
BIG COUNTRY (1958)
"If there's
anything I admire more than a friend, it's a dedicated enemy."
BIG
JAKE
“Not hardly.”
. “Your fault,
my fault, nobody’s fault. Anything goes wrong. Anything at all
an’ I’m gonna blow your head off. Understand?” Say it.”
"You can call me
Father, you can call me Jacob, you can call me Jake, you can
call me a dirty son-of-a-bitch, but if you ever call me Daddy
again I'll finish this fight." - Wayne, "Big Jake"
BROKEN ARROW
“You know what
I’m thinking? Maybe one day you will kill me or I will kill
you, but we will not spit on each other.”
BROKEN LANCE
“Just brand ‘em,
don’t barbecue ‘em.”
BUTCH CASSIDY
AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969)
“Who are those
guys?”
"Kid - the next
time I say, 'Let's go someplace like Bolivia,' let's go
someplace like Bolivia."
"You keep
thinkin', Butch. That's what you're good at."
"I got vision
and the rest of the world has bifocals."
CAHILL, US MARSHAL (1973)
"Kid, I've had
buffalo brains that's got more going for them than you."
HISUM (1970)
"No matter where
people go, sooner or later, there's the law. And sooner or
later they find God's already been there.”
CONAGHER
(1991)
"I take a man's
money, Mr Tay, I ride for the brand.”
CROSSFIRE
TRAIL (2001)
"Guess today
wasn't my day to die."
DANCES WITH
WOLVES
“Dances With Wolves. I am Wind In His Hair. Do you see that I am
your friend? Can you see that you will always be my friend?”
DESTRY RIDES
AGAIN
“He reminds me
of a little kid I used to know. He done in both his pa and ma
with a crowbar. The judge said to him, he said, 'Do you got
anything to say for yourself?' and the kid said, 'Well I just
hope your honor has some regard for the feelings of a poor
orphan.'"
DUEL IN THE SUN
"Pearl, you're
curved in the flesh of temptation. Resistance is going to be a
darn sight harder for you than for females protected by the
shape of sows."
EL DORADO
“I’m looking for
a tin star with a drunk pinned to it.”
FLAMING STAR
“I’ve been
killed already. I’m just stubborn about dying.”
FORT
APACHE
“If you can see
them, they’re not Apaches.”
FORT MASSACRE
"Three feet will be plenty. He was only half a
man."
HANG ‘EM HIGH
"Some people
calls this hell, but you're still in Oklahoma territory.”
HIDALGO (2004)
"Mister, you can say anything
you want about me. I'm going to have to ask you not to talk
about my horse that way."
HIGH NOON (1952)
"It's no good.
I've got to go back, Amy...They're making me run. I've never run
from anybody before."
"I thought you
grew up by now."
HOMBRE (1962)
"Hey, I got a
question. How you planning to get back down that hill?"
“Oh, yeah. My
momma taught me to remove my hat and my cigar in the presence of
a lady. Whatever else I take off depends on how lucky I get.”
HONDO (1953)
“A man ought to
do what a man thinks best.”
"Everybody gets dead"
"You're a good
cook, Mrs. Lowe. Woman should be a good cook. I'm a good cook
myself."
HOUR OF THE
GUN (1967)
"Except for a
slight dying spell."
JOHNNY GUITAR
“Boys with guns
have to be ready to die like men.”
"Pretty strong
talk from a man who doesn't wear a gun."
LONELY ARE THE
BRAVE
“Take it easy.
Temper like that and one of these days you'll find yourself
riding through town with your belly to the sun, your best suit
on and no place to go but hell.”
LONESOME DOVE
"It says itself"
"
Let's go on and go if we're goin!"
"
I won't tolerate rude behavior"
"
Laurie darlin, you're as fresh as the mornin"
MCLINTOCK
“Aho MacLin.
Good party. No whiskey. We go home”
MONTE WALSH
“Cowboys don’t
get married unless they stop being cowboys.”
“’Petulant,’
Becky? I don’t think you know the meaning of the word.”
MY DARLING
CLEMENTINE
“When you draw
a gun, kill a man.”
ONCE UPON A TIME
IN THE WEST (1968) *
"Why should I trust you? You wear suspenders and
a belt. You can't even trust your own pants."
ONE-EYED JACKS
“You ain’t
getting no older than tomorrow.”
ONE MORE
TRAIN TO ROB (1971)
"Tim, how many
times have I tried to tell you that banks are not to do business
with? They're to rob."
QUIGLEY DOWN UNDER (1992)
"I said I never had much use for one. Never said I didn't
know how to use it."
RED RIVER (1949)
“There are only
two things more beautiful than a good gun. A Swiss watch and a
woman from anywhere. Ever had . . . a good Swiss watch.”
“Take ‘em to
Missouri, Matt.”
“Turn around,
Mr. Dunson. I won’t say it again.”
" Every time you turn around, expect
to see me. 'Cause one time you'll turn around and I'll be there.
I'll kill ya, Matt."
RIDE THE HIGH
COUNTRY (1962)
"All I want is
to enter my house justified."
RIO BRAVO (1959)
"It'd be pretty
close. I'd hate to have to live on the difference."
"I guess they'll
let you in the front door from now on."
“I found there
were others better than me with the short gun.”
"Those
things have great possibilities, but not for you."
RIO GRANDE
(1950)
“Get it done,
Johnny Reb!”
“I consider
myself a good judge of the men I pick, sir.”
“To my only
rival, the United States Cavalry.”
"Beans. Nobody
ever tell the army that they grow beef around this part of the
country?"
SHANE
“Come back,
Shane.”
SHE WORE A
YELLOW RIBBON
"Never apologize
- it's a sign of weakness."
“Laddie, I've
never gone any place peaceably in me life.”
SONS OF KATIE
ELDER
“Don’t ever come
up on a man like that.”
STAGECOACH
(1939)
"You may need me
and this Winchester, Curly. Saw a ranch house burnin' last
night."
THE ALAMO (1960)
“Not thinkin’,
just rememberin’.”
“There’s right
and there’s wrong. You gotta do one or the other. You do the
one and you’re living. You do the other, and you may be walking
around, but you’re dead as a beaver hat.”
THE ALAMO
(2004)
"We're gonna
need a lot more men."
THE BIG TRAIL
“You know you
can get sorta used to having somebody not like you,”
THE COWBOYS
“I’m thirty
years older than you are. I’ve had my back busted once; my
hips, twice; and on my worst day, I could beat the hell out of
you.”
"Well, it's not
how you're buried, it's how you're remembered."
"You look like
the vermin-ridden son of a bitch you are."
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY *
"When you have
to shoot, shoot. Don't talk."
“There are two kinds of people in the world -- those with
pistols and those who dig. You dig.”
THE GUNFIGHTER
(1950)
“If he ain’t so
tough, there’s been an awful lot of sudden natural deaths in his
vicinity.”
"Here I am,
thirty-five years-old. I ain't even got a good watch."
THE HANGING TREE
“If you ain’t
the devil, well, he’s sure sitting on your shoulder
THE MAGNIFICENT
SEVEN
“Nobody throws
me my gun and tells me to run. Nobody.”
“I've been
offered a lot for my work, but never everything.”
"The old man was
right, only the farmers won. We lost. We'll always lose."
"Solving your
problems isn't our line."
"We deal in lead
friend."
THE MAN WHO SHOT
LIBERTY VALANCE (1962) *
"No, sir, this
is the west. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."
THE OUTLAW JOSEY
WALES
"Dyin' ain't so
hard for men like you and me. It's livin' that's hard.”
“There
is iron in your words of death, for all Comanche to see. And so,
there is iron in your words of life.”
"Dyin' ain't
much of a livin', boy."
"Are you gonna pull those pistols or whistle Dixie?"
THE
SEARCHERS(1956) *
"That'll be the
day"
“What
do you want me to do? Draw you a picture? Spell it out? Don't
ever ask me! Long as you live, don't ever ask me more.”
THE SHOOTIST
(1976)
"Mister, you
better find yourself another line of work. This one sure don't
fit your pistol!"
THE TALL T
(1957) *
"Some things a
man can't ride around".
THE TRAIN
ROBBERS
“When I start
plying a woman with whiskey, it’s time to throw the key in the
water bucket and ride on.”
"I've got a
saddle that's older than you are, Mrs. Lowe."
THE
UNDEFEATED (1969)
“Windage and
elevation, ma’am. Windage and elevation.”
THE VIRGINIAN
(1929) *
"If you want to
call me that, smile."
(NOT
"Smile when you say that.")
"Say, that boy's
so smart, he'd dry snow and sell it as sugar."
THE WILD BUNCH
(1969) *
"If they move,
kill‘em".
"Two
things go straight to a man's heart, bullets and gold.”
“This
isn't the Wild West. The Wild West wasn't even the Wild West.”
THEY DIED
WITH THEIR BOOTS ON (1940)
"Walking through
life with you, ma'am, has been a very gracious thing."
TOMBSTONE (1993)
Val Kilmer/Doc
Holliday: "I'm your huckleberry".
“Look, honey, an
educated man. I think I hate him.”
"Law and order
every time, that's us."
"Kate, you're
not wearing a bustle. How lewd."
"Maybe poker's
just not your game, Ike. I know, let's have a spelling contest!"
"There's no
normal life, Wyatt. There's just life."
"Go ahead, skin
it! Skin that smokewagon and see what happens."
TREASURE OF THE
SIERRA MADRE (1948)
"Badges? We
ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to
show you any stinkin' badges."
TRUE GRIT (1969)
“That’s mighty
bold talk for a one-eyed, fat man.”
"Fill your hand you sonofabitch!"
"Baby sister, I
was born game and I intend to go out that way."
"I ain't never
seen nobody from Texas I couldn't shade."
"Well, come see
a fat old man some time!"
TWO RODE
TOGETHER
“These people, they smile at me and show their teeth, but it's
the eyes that bite.”
ULZANA'S RAID
(1972) *
"He don't mean to fight you no place. He only
wants to kill ya."
"Remember the
rules, Lieutenant. The first one to make a mistake gets to
buryin' some people."
WINCHESTER ’73
(1950)
“He's not
‘people’. He's Waco Johnnie Dean.”
"High-Spade
Frankie Wilson. With a hyphen. That's what I sit on when I get
tired."
"He said if a
man had one friend, he was rich. I'm rich."
WYATT EARP
(1994)
"My mama always told me never put off til
tomorrow people you can kill today."
YELLOW SKY
(1948)
"Didn't anybody
ever tell you before that you smell bad?”