The Manitou (1978)

Michael Ansara: John Singing Rock

Photos 

Quotes 

• John Singing Rock : Gitche Manitou? Harry, you don't call Gitche Manitou. He...

  Harry Erskine : Oh yeah, well, he's going to get a person-to-person call from me... collect!

• John Singing Rock : Normally, I wait three risings of the sun before I take on a job.

• John Singing Rock : [praying over his medicine circle]  Gitche Manitou, hear me. Hear me and protect me.

  Harry Erskine : [as Karen Tandy opens her eyes]  John, look!

  John Singing Rock : Who are you? Where do you come from?

  Misquamacus : [speaking through Karen Tandy]  I am mightier than you. Your medicine is of no consequence.

  John Singing Rock : What is your name?

  Misquamacus : My name... Misquamacus. Leave the whites, little brother from the plains. Do not help them... or die.

  Harry Erskine : John, what's the matter? What... what is it?

  John Singing Rock : It's Misquamacus. The greatest medicine man of all. He turned rivers, made storms. Mountains rose at his command. No spirit ignored him. No demon denied him.

  Dr. Jack Hughes : My God!

  John Singing Rock : Your God won't help you. Nothing in your Christian world will help. Not prayers, not holy water. Not the weight of a thousand of your churches.

  Harry Erskine : What about that circle of sand?

  John Singing Rock : He's sure to break it. I only hope it holds him long enough for me to fight him.

  Harry Erskine : Oh, great. You're gonna play King of the Mountain with that Mixmaster! What about Karen?

  John Singing Rock : Harry... if I win, she lives. If I lose, believe me... she'll feel less pain than any of us.

• John Singing Rock : Are you the fellow looking to find himself a medicine man?

  Harry Erskine : That's right. I'm Harry Erskine. Word sure gets around, doesn't it?

  John Singing Rock : Hard not to. You've been to five different medicine men already.

  Harry Erskine : That's right.

  John Singing Rock : What does a white man want with Indian magic?

  Harry Erskine : There's a 400-year-old medicine man that's being reincarnated on the back of a woman that I know.

  John Singing Rock : How well do you know this woman?

  Harry Erskine : Quite well.

  John Singing Rock : Well, that should help. Love is one of the strongest medicines there is.

  Harry Erskine : [nervously]  Can you help me?

  John Singing Rock : Mr. Erskine, have you ever heard of Gitche Manitou?

  [Harry shakes his head "No"] 

  John Singing Rock : Well, Gitche Manitou is the Great Spirit among Indians. A bit like your Jesus or Jehovah. And what you're dealing with is the manitou, or spirit, of a great medicine man. Possibly in his fourth or fifth reincarnation.

  Harry Erskine : [frightened]  Is that bad?

  John Singing Rock : For you, yes. Each time a manitou lives, he gains in strength. By the eighth reincarnation, he can join Gitche Manitou as a permanent spirit. Until then, the more lives lived, the more powerful.

  Harry Erskine : Well, how... how do you stop it?

  John Singing Rock : You don't. You don't halt it. You don't slow it down. Each manitou has its own momentum. All you can do is divert the spell and send it back from whence it came. But, that would take lots of power to force a manitou to make a 180-degree turn. And, so powerful a medicine man, you might have to wait until he leaves the woman's body.

  Harry Erskine : [horrified]  That would kill her!

  John Singing Rock : It would kill her body. But her spirit would live in the medicine man.

  Harry Erskine : [disgustedly]  "Spirit would live"! Great!

  John Singing Rock : There's only one thing I know that might stop him.

  Harry Erskine : What's that?

  John Singing Rock : Evoke the powers of other spirits.

  Harry Erskine : Well, how... how would I do that?

  John Singing Rock : [sarcastically]  Well, Mountain is good. Try Wind. That's one of my favorites. Tell them John Singing Rock sent you.

  Harry Erskine : [angrily]  Why won't you help me?

  John Singing Rock : [becoming serious]  Mr. Erskine, you see this valley? From where we stand, there's over a half million acres of land. Some of the richest farmland in the world. Two hundred years ago, my ancestors owned all of this land. Now it's under title to the Missouri Holding Company. I don't want your pleas for help, Mr. White Man! I don't need your money!

• Dr. McEvoy : [after seeing the manitou]  It's not possible.

  John Singing Rock : Possible? Is that your SCIENCE talking, DOCTOR?

• Dr. McEvoy : That was one Hell of an earthquake!

  John Singing Rock : That was no earthquake... it's the Great Old One.

  Harry Erskine : Who the Hell is he?

  John Singing Rock : Devil, Lucifer, Satan, Prince of Darkness, does it really matter?