General Broulard: It would be a pity to lose your promotion before you get it. A promotion you have so very carefully planned for. Colonel Dax: Sir, would you like me to suggest what you can do with that promotion? General Broulard: [angry] Colonel D...
Colonel Dax: Gentlemen of the court, there are times that I'm ashamed to be a member of the human race and this is one such occasion.
General Broulard: There are few things more fundamentally encouraging and stimulating than seeing someone else die.
General Broulard: Colonel Dax, you're a disappointment to me. You've spoiled the keenness of your mind by wallowing in sentimentality. You really did want to save those men, and you were not angling for Mireau's command. You are an idealist... and I ...
[the condemned men are awaiting execution] Corporal Paris: See that cockroach? Tomorrow morning, we'll be dead and it'll be alive. It'll have more contact with my wife and child than I will. I'll be nothing, and it'll be alive. [Ferol smashes the roa...
General Mireau: If those little sweethearts won't face German bullets, they'll face French ones!
General Broulard: Colonel Dax, are you trying to blackmail me? Colonel Dax: It's an ugly word, but you are in a difficult situation.
[first lines] Narrator of opening sequence: War began between Germany and France on August 3rd 1914. Five weeks later the German army had smashed its way to within eighteen miles of Paris. There the battered French miraculously rallied their forces a...
General Mireau: I can't understand these armchair officers, fellas trying to fight a war from behind a desk, waving papers at the enemy, worrying about whether a mouse is gonna run up their pants leg. Colonel Dax: I don't know, General. If I had the ...
Colonel Dax: Too much has happened. Someone's got to be hurt. The only question is who. General Mireau's assault on the Ant Hill failed. His order to fire on his own troops was refused. But his attempt to murder three innocent men to protect his own ...
[last lines] [Col. Dax listens to his regiment humming in the tavern] Sgt. Boulanger: Sir? Colonel Dax: Yes, sir. Sgt. Boulanger: We have orders to move back to the front immediately. Colonel Dax: Well give the men a few minutes more, Sergeant. Sgt. ...
Saint-Auban: How far did you advance? Private Ferol: To about the middle of no man's land, sir. Saint-Auban: Then what did you do? Private Ferol: Well... I saw that me and Meyer... Saint-Auban: [rudely cutting him off] I didn't ask you what you saw. ...
General Mireau: Hello there, soldier. Ready to kill more Germans? Private Ferol: Yes, sir. General Mireau: What's your name, soldier? Private Ferol: Sir, Private Ferol, Company A. General Mireau: Aha. You married, soldier? Private Ferol: No, sir. Gen...
