Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Charles Bronson: Harmonica
Photos
Quotes
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Frank : Morton once told me I could never be like him. Now I understand why. Wouldn't have bothered him, knowing you were around somewhere alive.
Harmonica : So, you found out you're not a businessman after all.
Frank : Just a man.
Harmonica : An ancient race. Other Mortons'll be along, and they'll kill it off.
Frank : The future don't matter to us. Nothing matters now - not the land, not the money, not the woman. I came here to see you, 'cause I know that now you'll tell me what you're after.
Harmonica : Only at the point of dyin'.
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Harmonica : I saw three of these dusters a short time ago. They were waiting for a train. Inside the dusters, there were three men.
Cheyenne : So?
Harmonica : Inside the men, there were three bullets.
Cheyenne : That's a crazy story, Harmonica, for two reasons: One, nobody around these parts got the guts to wear those dusters except Cheyenne's men. Two, Cheyenne's men don't get killed. That surprise you?
Harmonica : Yeah. Well, you know music, and you can count - all the way up to two.
[Cheyenne spins the magazine of his revolver]
Cheyenne : All the way up to six if I have to...
Cheyenne : [gesturing to Harmonica's wound] ... and maybe faster than you.
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Harmonica : [to Frank, spotting a gunman above a painted clock] Time sure flies. It's already past twelve.
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Harmonica : When you hear a strange sound, drop to the ground.
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Cheyenne : Hey, what in the hell are you standing around for?
Cheyenne's Lieutenant : Well, gee, what are we supposed to do?
Cheyenne : What are you supposed to do? Build a station! Idiots!
[tosses them pickaxes and other tools]
Cheyenne : I figure it ain't gonna look like much, but it'll be the first thing she sees, when she gets back.
Harmonica : [looks up] If she gets back.
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Harmonica : You know, Wobbles... I'm kind of mad at you.
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Cheyenne : What the hell is this?
Harmonica : [off screen] Can't you see?
[emerges from behind a pile of wood]
Harmonica : It's a station. And all around it a town. Brett McBain's town.
Cheyenne : [starts to laugh] Was HE crazy, heh!
Harmonica : Yeah in a very special way. An Irishman.
[starts measuring out a square and hammers wood spikes into the ground]
Harmonica : He knew sooner or later that railroad coming through Flagstone would continue on west, so he looked over all this county out here until he found this hunk of desert. Nobody wanted it, but he bought it.
[continues with work]
Harmonica : Then he tightened his belt, and for years he waited.
Cheyenne : Waited for what?
Harmonica : For the railroad to reach this point.
Cheyenne : Ah, but how in the hell could he be sure the railroad would pass through his property?
Harmonica : Them steam engines can't roll without water, and the only water for fifty miles west of Flagstone is right here, under this land.
Cheyenne : Ah-ha! He was no fool, our dead friend, huh?
[chuckles]
Cheyenne : He was going to sell this piece of desert for his weight in gold, wasn't he?
Harmonica : [looks at Cheyenne] You don't sell the dream of a lifetime. Brett McBain wanted his station. He got the rights to build it.
Cheyenne : How do you know all this?
Harmonica : I saw a document. It was all in order - seals, signatures, everything. One thing though, in very small print, there is a short clause which says that McBain or his heirs lose all rights if, by the time the railroad reaches this point, the station ain't built yet.
