Taps (I) (1981)

George C. Scott: General Harlan Bache

Photos 

Quotes 

• Brian Moreland : Sir, how could they do this?

  General Harlan Bache : With the stroke of a pen, sir. Their field of honor was a desktop.

• General Harlan Bache : Was I scared! I must have lost twenty pounds, all of it brown.

• General Harlan Bache : I know men younger than myself who have taken a pension, put on stupid little white shirts... cut off sleeves, alligator on the tit... and spent the rest of their days beating the hell out of a little white ball with an iron club. My God... the thought of it makes me want to puke.

• General Harlan Bache : I'm afraid it's not quite that simple, son. There's a feeling on the outside that schools like this are anachronistic, and leaders of men like you and me are dinosaurs.

  Brian Moreland : Sir?

  General Harlan Bache : Well, you go to the movies, you read books. A military leader is always portrayed as slightly insane. Very often more than slightly. That's because it is insane to cling to honor in a world where honor is held in contempt.

• General Harlan Bache : [to Brian Moreland]  Never be ashamed of being human. Without humanity a leader becomes a tyrant.

• General Harlan Bache : [Bache is talking with Moreland and the outgoing Cadet Major, on the occassion of Moreland's ascendancy to the same rank for the next class]  Honor. Burglar-proof, fool-proof, weather-proof, one hundred-proof.