The Steel Bayonet (1957)

Leo Genn: Major Gerard

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Quotes 

• Major Gerard : Look Vernon - you've got very little idea yet what it's all about.

  Lt. Vernon : And how am I supposed to learn when you pull rank on me every time I open my mouth?

  Major Gerard : Alright, let's forget about rank for a few minutes. Now come on, let's have it: what's the bellyache?

  Lt. Vernon : To start with, you made me look a complete fool out there just now. The Sergeant-Major argues when I give him an order and you back him up.

  Major Gerard : And isn't it better that you should look a fool than that half a dozen men should get themselves killed? Anything else? You don't like the way the stretcher bearer talks to that wounded German boy.

  Lt. Vernon : Who told you that?

  Major Gerard : Nobody told me; I saw it in your face.

  Lt. Vernon : Have they forgotten the fellow would've shot the lot of us if he could? Yet they call him "chum" and show him snapshots of their wives and kids.

  Major Gerard : Yes. Rather fine, isn't it?

  Lt. Vernon : Fine?

  Major Gerard : Yes, fine! Look, the curious thing about war is that it brings out the worst and the best in us, both at once. The worst is what we're fighting against. And the best is what makes it sometimes almost worthwhile.

  Lt. Vernon : I don't get it. There's something here that all these chaps seem to share. Some sort of secret - and I'm on the outside.

  Major Gerard : [SIGHS]  Look, Vernon: in 24 hours most of those chaps out there will have had it. Perhaps that's the secret.

  Lt. Vernon : How do you mean?

  Major Gerard : If we don't get an order to withdraw - which is in the highest degree unlikely - the farm in square 2735 will cease to exist by dawn.

  Lt. Vernon : Oh. That's us.

  Major Gerard : That's us. So you see, what happens outside this particular farmyard isn't very important just now. If I were you, I'd leave it outside. We're all in the same boat. You expect a lot from those chaps out on the hill. They expect the same from you. Work it out for yourself. Don't look to me for a series of beautiful thoughts; any that I ever had went astray a long time ago. I'm moved by men, not ideals. So I'm not asking you to take me as any kind of an example, there are far better. The best of all is yourself. Your own conscience. What you conceive to be the right way to do your job, and stick to it. Nobody can ever ask more of you than that. Now, let's get on with the war, shall we?