Khartoum (1966)
Charlton Heston: General Charles 'Chinese' Gordon
Photos
Quotes
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Col. J.D.H. Stewart : Why did you let them talk you into this mission?
Gen. Charles 'Chinese' Gordon : As is well known, I, ah..regard myself as a religious man, yet I belong to no church. I'm an able soldier, yet I abhor armies. I can even add that I've been introduced to hundreds of women, but never married. in other words, no one's ever talked me into anything.
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Gen. Charles 'Chinese' Gordon : Colonel, what are the chances of my sacking you as my aide?
Col. J.D.H. Stewart : If any exist, General, please be assured that I'd be the first to point them out to you.
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Gen. Charles 'Chinese' Gordon : If my life has a single point, it's this: I've learned to be unafraid of death but never to be unafraid of failure.
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Gen. Charles 'Chinese' Gordon : If you, as a servant of your god, must use one hundred thousand warriors to destroy me, a solitary servant of my God, then you whisper to me Muhammed Ahmed: who will be remembered from Khartoum, your god or Mine?
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The Mahdi : [removes a head from a large pot] Is it the Englishman whose name was Frank Power?
[removes another head from a second pot]
The Mahdi : Is it the Frenchman whose name was Herbin?
[places a severed arm and hand in Gordon's hands]
The Mahdi : Is it not your own ring?
Gen. Charles 'Chinese' Gordon : [stares horrified]
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Gen. Charles 'Chinese' Gordon : [patting his camel in goodbye] So we ride beneath no more desert stars, then. Ah, all things must end.
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Gen. Charles 'Chinese' Gordon : Every man has a final weapon: his own life. If he's afraid to lose it he throws the weapon away.
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Zobeir Pasha : [disbelieving] The General will defend me. The great Christian hero will defend Zobeir the slaver.
[angry]
Zobeir Pasha : Before I receive my country from your bloody hands, I shall see it die. You killed my son!
Gen. Charles 'Chinese' Gordon : I executed him.
Zobeir Pasha : Do you have sons, Gordon Pasha? Do you have sons? No! You killed mine!
Gen. Charles 'Chinese' Gordon : God forgive me, Zobeir, but let the dead bury their dead.
Zobeir Pasha : You killed my flesh, my blood, my Suleiman! Get thee from my house and may ye die in the desert untended! May vultures consume thy flesh, sands thy blood!
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Gen. Charles 'Chinese' Gordon : And when the Mahdi floats me down the Nile, the government will assume a pained expression and will say to her majesty and the churchmen and the anti-slavery people 'well, we sent Gordon; we did the best we could'.
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Gen. Charles 'Chinese' Gordon : The Mahdi plans to lay siege to Khartoum. Take it by force. To slaughter all the Egyptians - and those Sudanese who haven't accepted him.
Col. J.D.H. Stewart : [incredulous] But... there are 35,000 people in Khartoum.
Gen. Charles 'Chinese' Gordon : Those are his purposes. And I believe him. The man is sincere. He believes utterly in the Divine necessity for what he's doing. How could I have been such a stumbling fool! I'm a man who will question anything, except my own religious convictions. The Mahdi's no different. There's vanity for you! I seem to have suffered from the illusion that I have a monopoly on God.
