The Unforgiven (1960)

Burt Lancaster: Ben Zachary

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Quotes 

• Andy Zachary : What did he want, Ben?

  Ben Zachary : He wanted to buy a woman.

  [looks at Rachel] 

  Ben Zachary : You.

  Rachel Zachary : Well, did you sell me?

  Ben Zachary : I held out for more horses.

  Rachel Zachary : Why would they want to buy me?

  Mattilda Zachary : Because you're a girl, my pretty. Horses and women are all the same to a Kiowa - to be bought or traded.

• Lost Bird : I come in peace.

  Ben Zachary : My land. My sky. You are welcome.

  Lost Bird : Young horses. Good for - fighting. Good for - hunting. You take.

  Ben Zachary : I am ashamed. I have nothing as good to give you in return.

  Lost Bird : You have. In your house. Woman. One of *our* woman.

  Ben Zachary : Who told you this?

  Lost Bird : Man - of your tribe. Old man. Carry long knife.

  Ben Zachary : Him crazy.

  Lost Bird : Crazy man. Sun - speak through him. Dead people - speak through mouth. He speak - woman, my sister. I - her brother.

  Ben Zachary : He lies!

  Lost Bird : How - much - woman - worth?

  Ben Zachary : There are not enough horses to pay for her. Not all you can own or all you can steal!

• Rachel Zachary : I got a big choice in this country, Ben. I could marry that handsome, winsome Charlie - or that baby, Jude. I could even marry you!

  Ben Zachary : Watch your language, girl!

  Rachel Zachary : Well, why not? We're not cousins. We're not even relatives.

  Ben Zachary : We're not even friends.

• Ben Zachary : Why don't you say it, Cash? Damn you! Why don't you say it? It's not the Kiowas or the cattle! It's the red Injun in the house!

  Cash Zachary : Get her out of here! I don't care how you do it, get her out of here, I'm telling you!

  Ben Zachary : I'm stayin', Cash. She's stayin'. We're all stayin'.

  Cash Zachary : I'm not stayin'. Not with a red-hide nigger!

• Cash Zachary : When the wind's in the right direction, I can smell Injun a mile off.

  Ben Zachary : Well, I hate to disappoint you, but that smell is comin' off of me. I haven't changed my dirt since Wichita, Kansas.

• [the Zacharys are discussing the rumors about Rachel] 

  Cash Zachary : It's out there, Ben. It's layin' on their stomachs and they don't know what to do.

  Ben Zachary : Well, it's still a lie and we've got nothin' to be ashamed of.

  Cash Zachary : What are we goin' to do when one of them says it? What are we goin' to do when one of them says it to Rachel?

  Ben Zachary : Kill 'em, I guess.

  Cash Zachary : That's all I wanted to hear.

• [Charlie Rawlins has asked Ben for permission to marry Rachel] 

  Rachel Zachary : Well, Ben, you ain't goin' to shoot Charlie now are you?

  Ben Zachary : I'm thinkin' about it. If I wasn't so short-handed I might.

  [walks away] 

  Rachel Zachary : Aren't you going to kiss me?

  Charlie Rawlins : Ain't he kind of close?

  Rachel Zachary : You're going to kiss me, not him.

• [Cash advocates killing the Kiowa outside of the house] 

  Ben Zachary : All right, Cash. Let's first make sure they're after our scalps. I'm gonna waste one.

  [shoots the top of one Indian's lance, Kiowas don't move] 

  Rachel Zachary : They don't scare for nothing, do they?

  Andy Zachary : Medicine! They think they've got bulletproof medicine, Ben.

  Ben Zachary : I'm going to parley. Don't shoot unless you have to.

  Cash Zachary : When is that?

  Ben Zachary : When they break the peace and kill me.

• Ben Zachary : Abe Kelsey rode vengeance on us till the people in each town turned against us. Till my Papa was killed by a Kiowa lance!

  Abe Kelsey : And that old man made you run. That poor old man chased you from town to town. That poor old man with his lies. No. You run from the truth.

• Rachel Zachary : Ben.

  Ben Zachary : Rachel.

  Rachel Zachary : Ben! Ben! Oh, Ben! Oh, I'm so happy to see you! Oh, Ben! Oh, Ben!

• Cash Zachary : Fine looking bunch of riders.

  Ben Zachary : Why not? I handpicked them.

  Cash Zachary : Off the barroom floor.

  Ben Zachary : They're sober now.

• Andy Zachary : How you doing, Ben?

  Ben Zachary : Pretty good, brother.

  Cash Zachary : I don't know about the pretty part, but you didn't go to Wichita to be good.

• Ben Zachary : We licked them good last time, didn't we, partner? Us and our picayune neighbors.

• Ben Zachary : What makes you so happy, Mama?

  Mattilda Zachary : Because you ain't sick or dead or scalped or something worse!

  Ben Zachary : Nothing could kill me, except lightning out of the sky. And then it'd have to hit twice.

• Zeb Rawlins : Only an Injun would be crazy enough to steal that horse.

  Andy Zachary : Just like Zeb's sayin', Ben. I think it's Injun work. It's Injun work, all right. They done it.

  Ben Zachary : Maybe.

• Rachel Zachary : Are you mad at me for sashaying around?

  Ben Zachary : When I get you home, I'm gonna whup you.

• Ben Zachary : And may the Lord deliver us from evil, red or white.

• Ben Zachary : Wake up, Cash. We got company.

  Andy Zachary : What is it? What is it, Ben?

  Cash Zachary : Kiowas! Dirty, stinkin' Kiowas.

  Andy Zachary : What do they want, Ben?

  Ben Zachary : I don't know. But we'd better fort up.

• Rachel Zachary : Ben, I saw blue butterflies down by the creek this morning. About a million of them. They were flying in twos, like sweethearts with four wings apiece. That ain't a ladylike thing to say, is it?

  Ben Zachary : Hang on to these days, Rachel. Don't grow up too fast.

• Ben Zachary : There's going to be the biggest, noisiest, most devilish, glorious, drinking and dancing wedding ever celebrated in this godforsaken part of the world!

• Rachel Zachary : I've never killed anybody before.

  Ben Zachary : The gun does the killing.

• Ben Zachary : When they get close enough so you want o scream, don't scream. Just shoot.

  Rachel Zachary : What if I can't do it?

  Ben Zachary : You can.

• Rachel Zachary : Guipago's gone!

  Ben Zachary : Guipago, gone?

• Cash Zachary : The wind's in the right direction, I can smell Injun a mile off!

  Ben Zachary : I hate to disappoint you, Cash. That smell's coming off of me. I ain't changed my dirt since Wichita, Kansas.