Daily Dialogue — July 2, 2015

CALVERA: We have a saying here. “A thief who steals from a thief is pardoned for one hundred years.” Alright, what does that leave? Only one thing. I pardon you. Ride on.
ADAMS: Just like that?
CALVERA: Si, just like — I’ll make it easy for you. You want food? Give them food. Water? All right, water. Horses? Saddled and waiting. Guns…the guns — your gun belts — you take off and put here now.
ADAMS: What about these people?
CALVERA: What happens to these people will happen to them whether I kill you first or not. Just a little gesture, huh? Show these people who the real boss is. You go, then I’ll give you the guns back. I know you won’t use those guns against me. Only a crazy man would make the same mistake twice.

Adams thinks, nods, and removes his gun belt. Others do the same.

CAVERA: What I don’t understand is why a man like you took the job in the first place. Why, huh?
ADAMS: I wonder myself.
CALVERA: No, c’mon, c’mon, tell me why.
TANNER: Like a fella I once knew in El Paso. One day he just took his clothes off and jumped in a mess of cactus. I asked him the same question: why?
CALVERA: And?
TANNER: He said it seemed to be a good idea at the time.

— The Magnificent Seven (1960), screenplay by William Roberts

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Quitting. Today’s suggestion by Will King.

Trivia: It was Yul Brynner who approached producer Walter Mirisch with the idea of doing a Western adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s classic, Seven Samurai (1954).

Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by Will: “Another situation where quitting is imposed rather than chosen. Having been captured, the seven retreat for the moment. But, Calvera reveals his weakness when he claims “Only a crazy man would make the same mistake twice.” That assumption will prove his undoing. The seven quit, but only so they can regroup and return with another plan and better knowledge about their opponent.”