The Journey (1959)

Yul Brynner: Major Surov

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Quotes 

• Diana Ashmore : [Dancing with the Major]  You're drunk!

  Major Surov : Yes, I am. And it's marvelous! Half my life I've been a soldier. Five campaigns, four scars, a shattered hip. And all that time, the Army's been my wife. A mean, old, possessive, insatiable, glorious bitch! And tonight I am cheating on her. And it's wonderful. Like picking flowers on a battlefield!

• Major Surov : Anything goes when people meet for the last time.

  Diana Ashmore : What do you mean?

  Major Surov : Go to any railway station - that's what I mean. You'll see people doing things they'd never do, ordinarily. They kiss, they cry, they wave. That's the sickness of our time: people waving... Nobody waves back.

• Major Surov : I know my men. They love these people. Yes, they do. But they may be shooting them down this minute. Why? Because suddenly they started shooting at us. Crazy, isn't it? Look at us here, for instance. I mean, isn't it strange? You're supposed to be our enemies and the Hungarians are our friends. Yet you're eating stuffed cabbage with us, while we and the Hungarians are killing each other. It doesn't make sense, does it?

• Major Surov : Everybody's so anxious to get out of this country. I wonder why.

• Major Surov : Sometimes we have to eat things we don't like. Sometimes we have to do things we don't like.

• Major Surov : He's a good-looking man, Mr. Fleming.

  Diana Ashmore : Mm-hmm. He's also very charming and very gay.

  Major Surov : Well, besides being very charming and gay, what does he do in life?

  Diana Ashmore : Uh, he's in business, as far as I know.

  Major Surov : That's odd. I thought all businessmen were fat and worried.

  Diana Ashmore : You shouldn't believe your own propaganda, you know.

  Major Surov : Should I believe yours?

• Diana Ashmore : They don't want you here.

  Major Surov : Why? We're here to help them, to defend them.

  Diana Ashmore : From whom? From themselves?

• Major Surov : There's something special about folk music. It's the same everywhere. It's always the same if you know how to listen. You hear a man crying in the dark, and if you listen carefully, you know what he cries for. You look surprised, Mrs. Ashmore. In spite of what you might have heard, tractors and Marxism are not the only things a Russian cares for. There's always time for music. And when there is music, we sit down and listen. And we feel sad, which is the best way of feeling good.

• Major Surov : What's the matter? Don't you like music? I can send them away if they bother you. We have some funny laws, but none of them say you have to like gypsies.

• Major Surov : You like cucumbers?

  Françoise Hafouli : Concombres. I like them very much.

• Diana Ashmore : He's a good man.

  Major Surov : This has nothing to do with good or bad.

  Diana Ashmore : Oh, it has! Everything has!

• Major Surov : Oh, I understand, all right. But, that's entirely irrelevant.

  Diana Ashmore : But, I'm losing my mind! Is that irrelevant too?

• Major Surov : What do you think this is? A winter resort for runaway lovers?

• Major Surov : Don't feel so sorry for yourself. It is not your fault. It is nobody's fault and it is everybody's fault. You didn't trust me and I didn't trust you. And we can never trust each other, never!

• Major Surov : I cannot help you. I told you already. I cannot even help myself. I was a good soldier. I liked to fight. That's the best kind of soldier. And everything used to make sense, and then you arrived. And now nothing makes sense anymore. You satisfied? I struggled to find out what is right and what is wrong. I wanted to find the truth. That's a lie. It's not the truth I wanted, it's you. You I wanted. All the time, that's all I ever wanted. I loathe you. Look at your hair. It takes hundreds of years of leisure to grow hair like that, and your hand. I don't have to be a palm reader to tell your past, and your skin. I know what it takes to grow skin like that, and your scent. The first time you walked into my office, it was like a battle cry. I should've kicked you out there and then, but I hung on. I wouldn't let you go. I wanted to hold you all winter long. Don't look so frightened. I know you belong to him. Today, tomorrow, the rest of your life. But in spite of it, lying in my bunk at night, I waited like a schoolboy to hear you knock on my door, to have you come in, to hold you till you are out of breath. Get out.

• Major Surov : Oh, it's wonderful. We're all one happy herd of swine. All except you, of course. You're above it all.