Bitter Victory (1957)

Curd Jürgens: Major Brand

Quotes 

• Major Brand : War is not murder.

  Capt. Leith : [chuckling condescendingly]  Brand, you're wonderful! You have the Christian decency that forbids killing a dying man but ignores the work of a sharpshooter.

  Major Brand : [defensively]  Well, war is killing.

  Capt. Leith : [laughing]  Better and better. So, the fine line between war and murder is distance... Anybody can kill at a distance with the same sort of courage that a man shoots rabbits, but when it cokes to the dirty work. you have to call on a civilian.

  Major Brand : What is it that you're trying to say?

  Capt. Leith : That I despise you for the professional coward that you are!

• Major Brand : What about the war?

  Capt. Leith : That's something you have to survive like... uh, like love.

• Major Brand : Are you trying to goad me into killing you?

  Capt. Leith : Perhaps...

  Major Brand : Why?

  Capt. Leith : Perhaps because... i haven't the courage to do it myself.

• Major Brand : [walking into a room where Leith is adjusting the fan]  Hello, Leith.

  Capt. Leith : [contemptuously after adjusting the fans downward]  I thought that fan should. uh, cool the colonel's head and not the flies on the ceiling.

• Major Brand : Are you insinuating that I was afraid? I wasn't.

  Capt. Leith : Stout fellow. I was.