The Magnificent Seven
written byWilliam Roberts & Walter Bernstein, from the screenplay by Akira Kurosawa ("The Seventh Samurai")

Village Boy: We're ashamed to live here. Our fathers are cowards.
Bernardo O'Reilly: Don't you ever say that again about your fathers, because they are not cowards. You think I am brave because I carry a gun; well, your fathers are much braver because they carry responsibility, for you, your brothers, your sisters, and your mothers. And this responsibility is like a big rock that weighs a ton. It bends and it twists them until finally it buries them under the ground. And there's nobody says they have to do this. They do it because they love you, and because they want to. I have never had this kind of courage. Running a farm, working like a mule every day with no guarantee anything will ever come of it. This is bravery.

[ please return to the main movie monologue page ]