The Big Red One (1980)
Lee Marvin: The Sergeant
Photos
Quotes
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[the troop stops before a memorial]
Johnson : Would you look at how fast they put the names of all our guys who got killed?
The Sergeant : That's a World War One memorial.
Johnson : But the name's are the same.
The Sergeant : They always are.
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[the Sergeant affixes a cloth red '1' to his uniform. The Captain is drinking from a bottle of booze]
The Sergeant : What do you think?
The Captain : What the hell is it?
The Sergeant : It's a "one". First Infantry Division. The Red One; think General Pershing will like it?
The Captain : Oh, sure.
The Sergeant : I got the idea from the cap of a Hun I killed.
The Captain : When?
The Sergeant : About an hour ago
The Captain : Did he yell out anything?
The Sergeant : Oh, the same old Kaiser stuff, you know, "the war's over," all that junk.
[the Captain hands him the bottle]
The Captain : Finish it.
The Sergeant : Sir?
The Captain : Finish it. The Armistice was signed, at eleven o'clock this morning. The war's been over for four hours. You didn't know it was over.
The Sergeant : ...*He* did.
Zab : [narrating] A quarter of a century later that piece of cloth from a dead Hun's hat had become famous all over the world. It was the insignia of the First Infantry Division. The Fightin' First. The Big Red One.
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Kaiser : Did I kill the guy that killed me?
The Sergeant : Yes.
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Johnson : [concerning a woman in labor] How do you say "push" in French?
The Sergeant : Poussez.
Johnson : [to woman] Pussy! Pussy! Pussy!
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Griff : I can't murder anybody.
The Sergeant : We don't murder; we kill.
Griff : It's the same thing.
The Sergeant : The hell it is, Griff. You don't murder animals; you kill 'em.
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The Sergeant : [choking the German male nurse who kissed him on the mouth] I can understand you being horny and all, Fritz... but you have bad breath.
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The Sergeant : [helping to deliver the baby] You get the head. I'll do the "poussez"-ing.
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The Sergeant : You're going to live, even if I have to blow your brains out.
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The Sergeant : Killing insane people is not good for public relations.
Griff : Killing sane people is okay?
The Sergeant : That's right.
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The Sergeant : [examining Smitty after he triggered a land mine] Ah, you'll live, Smitty. You done trip-wired a mine. They're not designed, to kill you, just castrate you.
Pvt. Smitty - Soldier in Sicily Fetching Water : [eyes bugging out] Castrate me? Oh, my god!
The Sergeant : [picking something up] Hey, here it is, I found it!
Pvt. Smitty - Soldier in Sicily Fetching Water : Hey, that's my cock! Give it back to me, give me back my cock!
The Sergeant : [tossing it away] Just one of your balls, Smitty. You can live without it; that's why they gave you two.