Capt. Leith
[surveying the ruins of a Berber city in the desert]
Tenth century, I'd say. Too modern for me.
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Capt. Leith
[on mercy-shooting one badly wounded soldier, and trying to save another who dies]
I killed the living, and I saved the dead.
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Major Brand
Are you trying to goad me into killing you?
Capt. Leith
Perhaps...
Major Brand
Why?
Capt. Leith
Perhaps because... i haven't the courage to do it myself.
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Sergeant Barney
[sarcastically, after Wilkins has utilised his peacetime skills as a criminal to break open the safe in German headquarters]
Wilkie's won the war!
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General Paterson
[about Leith]
I don't like that man. He's an intellectual. And besides - he's Welsh!
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Capt. Leith
You're afraid to go in and kill with your bare hands. That's what makes a soldier and destroys you as a man.
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Major Brand
War is not murder.
Capt. Leith
[chuckling condescendingly]
Brand, you're wonderful! You have the Christian decency that forbids killing a dying man but ignores the work of a sharpshooter.
Major Brand
[defensively]
Well, war is killing.
Capt. Leith
[laughing]
Better and better. So, the fine line between war and murder is distance... Anybody can kill at a distance with the same sort of courage that a man shoots rabbits, but when it cokes to the dirty work. you have to call on a civilian.
Major Brand
What is it that you're trying to say?
Capt. Leith
That I despise you for the professional coward that you are!
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Major Brand
What about the war?
Capt. Leith
That's something you have to survive like... uh, like love.
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Major Brand
Are you insinuating that I was afraid? I wasn't.
Capt. Leith
Stout fellow. I was.
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Major Brand
[walking into a room where Leith is adjusting the fan]
Hello, Leith.
Capt. Leith
[contemptuously after adjusting the fans downward]
I thought that fan should. uh, cool the colonel's head and not the flies on the ceiling.
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Jane Brand
What if he doesn't come back?
Capt. Leith
Then he and I and you become part of history, of its futility.
Jane Brand
Don't talk to me in riddles, Jimmy.
Capt. Leith
It's a long time since I was in Libya. The Romans built wonderful cities in Libya: dead bones sticking out of the sand. War rolled over them. It'll be good to see them again.
Jane Brand
You always seemed to prefer stones to people.
Capt. Leith
I've learned things from stones.
Jane Brand
What?
Capt. Leith
All that people have forgotten in the centuries.
Jane Brand
I seem to remember I was less than a stone to you. I loved you, Jimmy.
Capt. Leith
We'd better go in. There isn't much time.
Jane Brand
What can I say to him?
Capt. Leith
Tell him all the things that women have said to the men before they go to the wars. Tell him he's a hero. Tell him he's a good man. Tell him you'll be waiting for him when he comes back. Tell him he'll be making history.
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