The Magnificent Seven (1960)
Eli Wallach: Calvera
Photos
Quotes
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[Calvera has just captured the Seven]
Calvera : What I don't understand is why a man like you took the job in the first place, hmm? Why, huh?
Chris : I wonder myself.
Calvera : No, come on, come on, tell me why.
Vin : It's like a fellow I once knew in El Paso. One day, he just took all his clothes off and jumped in a mess of cactus. I asked him that same question, "Why?"
Calvera : And?
Vin : He said, "It seemed to be a good idea at the time."
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Calvera : If God didn't want them sheared, he would not have made them sheep.
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Calvera : [dying - to Chris] You came back - for a place like this. Why? A man like you. Why?
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Calvera : Generosity... that was my first mistake. I leave these people a little bit extra, and then they hire these men to make trouble. It shows you, sooner or later, you must answer for every good deed.
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Calvera : Last month we were in San Juan. Rich town. Sit down. Rich town, much blessed by God. Big church. Not like here - little church, priest comes twice a year. BIG one. You'd think we'd find gold candlesticks. Poor box filled to overflowing. Do you know what we found? Brass candlesticks. Almost nothing in the poor box.
Sidekick : But we took it anyway.
Calvera : I KNOW we took it anyway. I'm trying to show him how little religion some people now have.
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[as the seven are about to leave the village]
Calvera : You'll do much better on the other side of the border. There you can steal cattle, hold up trains... all you have to face is sheriff, marshall. Once I rob a bank in Texas; your government get after me with a whole army... whole army! One little bank. Is clear the meaning: in Texas, only Texans can rob banks. Ha ha.
[they look at him in silence]
Calvera : Adios!
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Calvera : We have a saying here: a thief who steals from a thief is pardoned for one hundred years.
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Calvera : What if you had to carry my load? The need to provide food, like a father, to fill the mouths of his hungry men?