Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Jason Robards: Manuel 'Cheyenne' Gutiérrez
Photos
Quotes
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Cheyenne : By the way, you know anything about a man going around playing the harmonica? He's somebody you'd remember. Instead of talking, he plays. And when he better play, he talks.
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Cheyenne : You know, Jill, you remind me of my mother. She was the biggest whore in Alameda and the finest woman that ever lived. Whoever my father was - for an hour or for a month - he must have been a happy man.
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Cheyenne : Ma'am, it seems to me you ain't caught the idea.
Jill : Of course I have. I'm here alone in the hands of a bandit who smelled money. If you want to, you can lay me over the table and amuse yourself, and even call in your men. Well, no woman ever died from that. When you're finished, all I'll need will be a tub of boiling water and I'll be exactly what I was before - with just another filthy memory!
Cheyenne : [sighs] You make good coffee, at least?
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Harmonica : I saw three of these dusters a short time ago. They were waiting for a train. Inside the dusters, there were three men.
Cheyenne : So?
Harmonica : Inside the men, there were three bullets.
Cheyenne : That's a crazy story, Harmonica, for two reasons: One, nobody around these parts got the guts to wear those dusters except Cheyenne's men. Two, Cheyenne's men don't get killed. That surprise you?
Harmonica : Yeah. Well, you know music, and you can count - all the way up to two.
[Cheyenne spins the magazine of his revolver]
Cheyenne : All the way up to six if I have to...
Cheyenne : [gesturing to Harmonica's wound] ... and maybe faster than you.
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Cheyenne : [to Jill] You know what? If I was you, I'd go down there and give those boys a drink. Can't imagine how happy it makes a man to see a woman like you, just to look at her. And if one of them should, uh, pat your behind, just make believe it's nothing. They earned it.
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Cheyenne : You don't understand, Jill. People like that have something inside... something to do with death.
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[last lines]
Cheyenne : Hey, Harmonica, when they do you in, pray it's somebody who knows *where* to shoot. Go away. Go away. Go away, I don't want you to see me die.
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Cheyenne : They wanna hang me, the big black crows. Idiots. What the hell? I'll kill anything, but never a kid. Be like killin' a priest. Catholic priest, that is.
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Cheyenne : Yeah, go on. Play, Harmonica. Play, so you can't bullshit. Only watch those false notes.
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Cheyenne's Lieutenant : Cheyenne. We thought we'd never make it.
Cheyenne : It's all right. You're right on time... to bury my escort.
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Cheyenne : Hey, what in the hell are you standing around for?
Cheyenne's Lieutenant : Well, gee, what are we supposed to do?
Cheyenne : What are you supposed to do? Build a station! Idiots!
[tosses them pickaxes and other tools]
Cheyenne : I figure it ain't gonna look like much, but it'll be the first thing she sees, when she gets back.
Harmonica : [looks up] If she gets back.
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Cheyenne : Make believe it's nothing.
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Cheyenne : [drinking coffee] Good. My mother used to make coffee this way - hot, strong, and good.
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Cheyenne : [pointing his gun at Morton] Hey, you. Wait a minute. Let's have a good look at you. Hey. Mr. Choo-Choo. It's easy to find you. Bastard! I don't have to kill you now. You leave a slime behind you like a snail. Two beautiful shiny rails.
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Cheyenne : What the hell is this?
Harmonica : [off screen] Can't you see?
[emerges from behind a pile of wood]
Harmonica : It's a station. And all around it a town. Brett McBain's town.
Cheyenne : [starts to laugh] Was HE crazy, heh!
Harmonica : Yeah in a very special way. An Irishman.
[starts measuring out a square and hammers wood spikes into the ground]
Harmonica : He knew sooner or later that railroad coming through Flagstone would continue on west, so he looked over all this county out here until he found this hunk of desert. Nobody wanted it, but he bought it.
[continues with work]
Harmonica : Then he tightened his belt, and for years he waited.
Cheyenne : Waited for what?
Harmonica : For the railroad to reach this point.
Cheyenne : Ah, but how in the hell could he be sure the railroad would pass through his property?
Harmonica : Them steam engines can't roll without water, and the only water for fifty miles west of Flagstone is right here, under this land.
Cheyenne : Ah-ha! He was no fool, our dead friend, huh?
[chuckles]
Cheyenne : He was going to sell this piece of desert for his weight in gold, wasn't he?
Harmonica : [looks at Cheyenne] You don't sell the dream of a lifetime. Brett McBain wanted his station. He got the rights to build it.
Cheyenne : How do you know all this?
Harmonica : I saw a document. It was all in order - seals, signatures, everything. One thing though, in very small print, there is a short clause which says that McBain or his heirs lose all rights if, by the time the railroad reaches this point, the station ain't built yet.
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Cheyenne : You know, ma'am, when you've killed four, it's easy to make it five.
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Cheyenne : If somebody had a mind to kill me, it fires me up. And a fired-up Cheyenne ain't a nice thing to see. Especially for a lady.
