The Magnificent Seven (1960)
Steve McQueen: Vin Tanner
Photos
Quotes
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[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."
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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.
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Vin : We deal in lead, friend.
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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!
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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.
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Vin : Rojas is makin' room for you in his home.
Old Man : Rojas? His conversation would bore me to death!
Vin : Yeah, well, maybe somebody else, huh?
Old Man : Hey are all farmers. Farmers talk of nothing but fertiliser and women. I've never shared their enthusiasm for fertiliser. As for women, I became indifferent when I was 83. I am staying here.
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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.
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[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.
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Vin : [Chris is driving the hearse up to Boot Hill; Vin is riding shotgun] Never rode shotgun on a hearse before.
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Vin : You know - I've been in some towns where the girls weren't all that pretty. In fact I've been in some towns where they're downright ugly. But it's the first time I've been in a town where there are no girls at all, 'cept little ones. You know if we're not careful we could have quite a social life here.
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Vin : It took me a long, long time to learn my elbow from a hot rock. Right now, I belong back in that border town sleeping on white sheets.
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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]
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Vin : All I'm saying is that sometimes you bend with the breeze, or you break.
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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.
