The Magnificent Seven (1960)
Yul Brynner: Chris Larabee Adams
Photos
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."
-
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!
-
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.
-
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.
-
[Referring to Britt]
Villager : If he's the best with the gun and the knife, with whom does he compete?
Chris : Himself.
-
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 : 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 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 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!