Shenandoah (1965)

James Stewart: Charlie Anderson

Photos 

Quotes 

• Charlie Anderson : Do you like her?

  Lt. Sam : Well, I just said I...

  Charlie Anderson : No, no. You just said you loved her. There's some difference between lovin' and likin'. When I married Jennie's mother, I-I didn't love her - I liked her... I liked her a lot. I liked Martha for at least three years after we were married and then one day it just dawned on me I loved her. I still do... still do. You see, Sam, when you love a woman without likin' her, the night can be long and cold, and contempt comes up with the sun.

• Charlie Anderson : It's no easy job, Sam, to take care of a woman.

  Lt. Sam : No, sir.

  Charlie Anderson : They expect things they never ask for. And when they don't get them, they ask you why. Sometimes they don't ask... and just go ahead and punish you for not doing something you didn't know you were supposed to do in the first place.

• [the family is saying grace] 

  Charlie Anderson : Lord, we cleared this land. We plowed it, sowed it, and harvest it. We cook the harvest. It wouldn't be here and we wouldn't be eating it if we hadn't done it all ourselves. We worked dog-bone hard for every crumb and morsel, but we thank you Lord just the same for the food we're about to eat, amen.

• Lt. Johnson : When are you going to take this war seriously, Anderson?

  Charlie Anderson : Now let me tell you something, Johnson, before you get on my wrong side. My corn I take seriously, because it's mine. And my potatoes and tomatoes and my fence I take note of because they're mine. But this war is not mine and I don't take note of it.

• [at the site of his wife's grave] 

  Charlie Anderson : I don't even know what to say to you any more, Martha. There's not much I can tell you about this war. It's like all wars, I guess. The undertakers are winning. And the politicians who talk about the glory of it. And the old men who talk about the need of it. And the soldiers, well, they just wanna go home. I guess you're not so lonely any more, with Ann and James and Jacob. And maybe the boy. You didn't know Ann, did you? Well, you'd like her. You'd like her, Martha. Why, she and James are so much alike, they're just like... no... no... we were never that much alike, were we Martha? We just sorta grew alike through the years. But I wish, I wish I could just know what you're thinking about it all, Martha. And maybe it wouldn't seem so bad to me if I knew what you thought about it.

  [He notices the church bells are ringing] 

  Charlie Anderson : You never give up, do you?

• Charlie Anderson : What do you do with dead soldiers?

• [in order to rescue Boy, the Andersons have captured the Union POW train] 

  Capt. Richards : You're the man who's looking for his son.

  Charlie Anderson : And you're the man with schedules to keep.

• Charlie Anderson : Can you give me one good reason why I should send my family, that took me a lifetime to raise, down that road like a bunch of damn fools to do somebody else's fightin'?

  Lt. Johnson : Virginia needs all of her sons, Mr. Anderson.

  Charlie Anderson : That might be so, Johnson - but these are *my* sons! They don't belong to the state. When they were babies, I never saw the state comin' around with a spare tit. We never asked anything of the state, and never expected anything. We do our own livin', and thanks to no man for the right.

• Charlie Anderson : [a young Confederate picket has just shot one of Anderson's sons]  Dead. Dead! How old are you? How old?

  Young Picket on Road : Sixteen.

  Charlie Anderson : [In a rage, but restraining himself]  Six - Sixteen. I'm not gonna' kill you. I want you to live! I want you to live to be an old man. And I want you to have many... many, many children. And I want you to feel about your children then... the way I feel about mine now! And someday, when a man comes along and kills one of 'em, I want you to remember! I want you to remember.

• Charlie Anderson : Jacob, you look like you got somthin' on your mind. Go ahead, say what you think.

  Jacob Anderson : We've been through it all before.

  Charlie Anderson : Now now, don't pat around with me. You were raised to say what you think. You were all raised to say what you think. If there's anything I can't stand, it's a lot of noisy silence. Now, come on, let's have some talkin' here.

  [Jacob stands up] 

  Charlie Anderson : Well, if you're going to make a speech, I'm sorry I said it.

• Charlie Anderson : I was talking to Henry.

  Henry Anderson : Sir?

  Charlie Anderson : Well, what do you think?

  Henry Anderson : Well, no sir, I wouldn't.

  Charlie Anderson : Why not?

  Henry Anderson : I don't see any reason to fight for something I don't believe is right and I don't think a real friend would ask me to.

• [pouring whiskey to celebrate the birth of his granddaughter] 

  Charlie Anderson : How old are you now, Boy?

  Boy Anderson : Eighteen, sir.

  Charlie Anderson : That means you'll be twenty in four years. Eighteen to you, sixteen to me.

  Boy Anderson : Just a little bit, sir. I've never tasted it.

  Charlie Anderson : Well, that's no good reason at all. I've known men who've been drinkin' hard and steady all their lives that have never tasted it, either.

• [Sam has ordered his men to go home] 

  Lt. Sam : I had no right to tell him that, but these men can't go through another fight. We knew before we went into the last one we couldn't win.

  Charlie Anderson : Then why'd you do it, Sam?

  Lt. Sam : Easier than runnin', I gues.

• Charlie Anderson : That fella, Tinkham - he's the only man I know that started at the bottom and went down in the world. He'd steal horses for nothing and now he gets paid for it.

• [first lines] 

  Jacob Anderson : They come closer every day, Pa.

  Charlie Anderson : They on our land?

  Jacob Anderson : No, sir.

  Charlie Anderson : Then it doesn't concern us... does it?

• Charlie Anderson : What about you, James? You ever think you might like to own a slave?

  James Anderson : Well, I guess I never thought about it, Pa.

  Charlie Anderson : Well, think about it! Think about it! If you had money would you go out and buy a slave?

  James Anderson : No sir, I wouldn't.

  Charlie Anderson : Why not?

  James Anderson : Well, if I can't do my own work with my own hands it'd never get done.

• [at the site of Charlie's wife's grave] 

  Jennie Anderson : You still miss her, don't you?

  Charlie Anderson : Jennie, you don't know how I feel. Even after all these years, 16 years gone, 16 years. And even so, I somehow feel that she's not really dead but just resting. And it's as though I'm expecting her to get up and walk home with me.

• Boy Anderson : What'd I do?

  Charlie Anderson : It's what you haven't done, boy. A man who eats with his hat on is going nowhere in a hurry. Now, your mother wanted you all raised as good Christians, and I may not be able to do that thorny job as well as she could, but I can do something about your manners.

• Charlie Anderson : I'm glad you're here, Johnson. I've been meaning to have a word with your people about those cannons of yours. The chickens have stopped laying, the cows have dried up. Who do I send the bill to?

• Charlie Anderson : I wanna say somethin'. I've known since the train that we weren't liable to find him. It was just a hair of a chance that we got Sam back. I knew that. Maybe I knew even before we left home, but somehow I just had to try! And if we don't try, we don't do. And if we don't do, why are we here on this earth?

• Train Engineer : You can't do that! You can't burn my train!

  Charlie Anderson : Maybe not, but you gotta give me credit for tryin'!

  Train Engineer : But why? Why?

  Charlie Anderson : It's not the kind of train I favor.

• Charlie Anderson : John...

  John Anderson : Sir?

  Charlie Anderson : What are you going to do? You gonna keep your slaves or let them go free?

  John Anderson : You know I don't have any slaves, Pa.

  Charlie Anderson : That's right, John, you don't have a slave to your name, do you.

• [Boy Anderson is wearing a confederate cap] 

  Charlie Anderson : Where'd you get the hat, boy?

  Boy Anderson : Down by the creek, sir.

  Charlie Anderson : Some fella down there handing out hats?

• Pastor Bjoerling : There are no doubt some present, Charlie Anderson, who wonder why you and yours are never on time for the Lord's services.

  Charlie Anderson : Have I kept the Lord waiting, Pastor Bjoerling?

  Pastor Bjoerling : You have not.

  [all laugh] 

• Pastor Bjoerling : Charlie Anderson, I wonder if you'd be good enough to tell me why you even bother coming to services. Meaning no disrespect, of course.

  Charlie Anderson : It was my wife's last request, Pastor Bjoerling. Meaning no disrespect, of course.

• Charlie Anderson : [to the engineer, explaining the decision to burn the prison bound train]  You run a sad kind of a train, mister. You take people away when they don't want to go and won't bring them back when they're ready.

• Charlie Anderson : My youngest son - your people came on my farm and they took him.

  Col. Fairchild : Why?

  Charlie Anderson : That's what I'd like to know, Colonel. But, he's a prisoner and your army's got him.

  Col. Fairchild : He isn't a Confederate?

  Charlie Anderson : No, sir. He's an Anderson and that's all he is.

• Charlie Anderson : Suppose you had a friend that owned slaves and suppose somebody was going to come and take them away from him. Would you help him - fight to help him keep them?

  Nathan Anderson : No sir!

  Charlie Anderson : Your name's Nathan, isn't it?

  Nathan Anderson : You know my name, Pa.

  Charlie Anderson : I seem to remember something about...

• Charlie Anderson : Why we have this same conversation every Saturday before Sunday meeting, I'll never know, but I'm going to pray to the Almighty that this will be the end of it.

• Charlie Anderson : Your sister is ripe and the pickers are here. Of course, I don't suppose you know what I mean, do you Boy?

  Boy Anderson : I'm not as dumb as you think I am, Pa.

• Charlie Anderson : Tom, what's happening? Virginia's losing, isn't she?

  Dr. Tom Witherspoon : Looks that way Charlie.

  Charlie Anderson : Well, how do you feel about it all?

  Dr. Tom Witherspoon : I was born in Virginia. Lived here all my life. Raised three sons and two daughters under her flag. My oldest son, Paul, is buried somewhere in Pennsylvania.

  Charlie Anderson : I'm sorry. I didn't know that.

  Dr. Tom Witherspoon : They say Gettysburg is where he fell. At a place called Little Round Top. My youngest boy came home last week with tuberculosis. He won't see another Christmas. My third son rides with General Forrest. I don't know where they are. You were asking how I feel about it all. That's the only way I know how to answer you.

• Charlie Anderson : Now, it concerns us.

• Charlie Anderson : You the leader of this band of fools?

  Col. Fairchild : Col. Fairchild is my name. Whether or not I'm the leader of - fools, is a question which has often entered my mind.