The Beautiful Country (2004)

Nick Nolte: Steve

Quotes 

• Binh : How long you blind?

  Steve : A long time. I worked in a storage facility in Saigon. I thought it was a crate of beer. Turned out to be explosives.

  Binh : You're still alive...

  Steve : Yeah, that's what they said. One minute I'm in Saigon, the next I'm in a hospital in Maryland, and six months had passed. Woke up, couldn't see, didn't know where I was. Some assholes tell me I'm lucky.

• Steve : [about his long lost wife]  I never saw someone so beautiful before - in all that ugliness.

• Steve : We had a boy. He was just a baby. He had the eyes of an old man, even at 2 months. Maybe they all do, we didn't know.

  Binh : Why you no go back?

  Steve : Go back? See the old sights? No, I left her to take care of the child alone. I didn't think she needed a blind man to look after.

• Binh : My mother is very beautiful. Like cranes flying at sunset.

  Steve : Binh, why are you here?

  Binh : This place?

  Steve : No, America.

  Binh : America beautiful.

  Steve : How's that?

  Binh : [no response] 

  Steve : Did you come by boat?

  Binh : Yes.

  Steve : Hard?

  Binh : Not so hard.

  Steve : Like cranes flying at sunset.

• Steve : [last lines - as Binh is cutting his hair]  Now just a trim, Binh.

  Binh : Yes.

  Steve : What do they call those sticky sweet cakes?

  Binh : There a lot of sticky sweet cakes...

  Steve : Well I think they're made out of rice.

  Binh : [chuckling]  They all made of rice.

  Steve : Oh. Can you make 'em?

  Binh : Yes.

  Steve : I'll cut your hair next time.

  Binh : [belly chuckle now]  Yes...