Quotes

La peine du talion

Owen Devereaux: [voiceover as he writes in his diary] I killed a hundred men today. I didn't want to. I couldn't help myself. What's wrong with me? I'm afraid... afraid I'm going crazy.

Rebel Major: Colonel Devereaux?
Owen Devereaux: Yes. What do you want?
Rebel Major: I want to look at a hero.
[produces white flag from jacket]
Rebel Major: I want to ask you about this.
Owen Devereaux: I don't know what you're talking about.
Rebel Major: I'm talking about the white flag you saw my men put up at Jacob's Gorge. You could have taken us without firing a shot. But you killed them under a flag of surrender. You killed a hundred decent men. What for, colonel? For a morning's entertainment? For pure, crazy love of killing? You're no hero. You're an insane murderer. Well, now it's your turn to die.

Del Stewart: Tell me something, Doc. Could the war get a man, a decent man like Owen, so... well, sick, that he can't stop killing?

Doc Merriam: Time. That's what men need when they get back from a war. Time and people standing by that really care about them and believe in them.
Del Stewart: What if that's not enough to cure what's wrong with Owen?
Doc Merriam: I'm not saying there's anything wrong with him.
Del Stewart: I am.

Del Stewart: There's something wrong with you, Owen. I don't know what it is exactly. Maybe you don't know either. But I think you ought to go away for a while. Take a rest. Get hold of yourself.

Del Stewart: Want a drink?
Johnny Howard: I'm particular who I drink with.
Del Stewart: So am I.
Johnny Howard: And I don't drink with a man that just hung a friend of mine.
Del Stewart: I didn't hang anybody, Johnny.
Johnny Howard: Oh, Mutton McGuire just put a rope around his own neck?
Del Stewart: That's about what he did.
[pauses]
Del Stewart: I've never known any man who got anything but the worst of it running up against the law.

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