She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
1949
Captain Nathan Brittles: (Cohill and Pennell are about to fight over Olivia) Button your shirt, Mister Pennell! Thought better of you. Four years out here and still actin' like a wet-eared "kaydet" on the Hudson. What is this all about, Mr Cohill? Lt Flint Cohill: Sir, I... I decline to answer... respectfully. Captain Nathan Brittles: Mr Cohill, it is a bitter thing, indeed, to learn that an officer who has had nine years experience in the cavalry - the officer to whom I am surrendering command of this troop in two more days - should have so little grasp of leadership as to allow himself to be shivvied into a go at "fisticuffs" while 'Taps' still sounds over a brave man's grave! God help this troop when I'm gone.
(Repeated line) Sgt. Tyree: That ain't my department, sir.
(watching from a distance as Apaches torture gunrunners who cheated them) Captain Nathan Brittles: (to Sgt. Tyree) Join me in a chaw of tobacco? Sgt. Tyree: No, sir. I don't chaw tobacco and I don't play cards. Captain Nathan Brittles: Chawing tobacco is a nasty habit. Been known to turn a man's stomach. 2nd Lt Ross Penell: I'll take a chaw if you please, sir.
Abby Allshard: How did "Marching Through Georgia" take the idea of "Old Iron Pants" riding with him? Major Mac Allshard, Commanding Officer Fort Starke: Under protest, my dear. Captain Nathan Brittles: Under WRITTEN protest, Abby, of course. It's always my pleasure to escort "Old Iron Pants". Well, as long as you're going along with us, I guess we'll have... (notices how she's dressed) Abby, that is the dad-blastedest outfit I ever did see. Quincannon's old britches.
(Brittles knows Quincannon has been drinking on duty) Captain Nathan Brittles: You got a breath on you like a hot mince pie. Top Sergeant Quincannon: Ah, Captain darlin'. As you well know I took "the pledge" after Chapultepec. Captain Nathan Brittles: And Bull Run, and Gettysburg, and Shiloh, and St. Patrick's Day, and Fourth of July!
(Brittles and Tyree ride into the Indian camp to negotiate) Captain Nathan Brittles: Were you ever scared, "Captain" Tyree? Sgt. Tyree: Yes, sir. Up to and includin' now.
(Quincannon is celebrating his upcoming retirement) Sgt. Hochbauer: You're out of uniform, Quincannon. Top Sergeant Quincannon: Oh, I am, am I? Well, I'm in the proper uniform... the uniform of a retired gentleman. (enters the bar)
Top Sergeant Quincannon: So Nathan Brittles, ex-captain of cavalry U.S.A., started westward for the new settlements in California: westward toward the setting sun, which is the end of the trail for all old men. But the army hadn't finished with Nathan Brittles and it sent a galloper after him. THAT was Sgt. Tyree's department. Sgt. Tyree: Yo-oh! Capt Brittles! (catches up to him) Captain, sir. Captain Nathan Brittles: Huh? Sgt. Tyree: For you, sir. From the Yankee War Department. (hands him the dispatch) Captain Nathan Brittles: I knew it. Dad blast it... I knew it! (reading the dispatch) What? Sergeant... my appointment: chief of scouts! With a rank of Lt Colonel. And will you look at those endorsements: Phil Sheridan, William Tecumseh Sherman and Ulysses Simpson Grant, President of The United States of America! There's three aces for you, boy! Sgt. Tyree: Yeah, but I kinda wish you'da been a-holdin' a full hand. Captain Nathan Brittles: Huh? Full hand? Whaddaya mean: full hand? Sgt. Tyree: Robert E. Lee, sir. Captain Nathan Brittles: Oh. Heh... wouldn't a been bad. Let's go.
Olivia Dandridge: I'm sorry I made such a fool of myself at the gate this morning. Captain Nathan Brittles: You made a fool out of a couple of young lieutenants. That's never against Army regulations.
Top Sergeant Quincannon: (on their upcoming retirement) The army will never be the same when we retire, sir. Captain Nathan Brittles: The army is always the same. The sun and the moon change, but the army knows no seasons.
Sgt. Tyree: (after the fight at Sudrow's Well) Sir, would you take a look at Trooper Smith? Pvt. John Smith aka Rome Clay: (mortally wounded) Don't bother about me, Captain. Trust you'll forgive my presumption... I'd like to commend the boy here... for the way he handled this action. In the best tradition of the cavalry, sir. Sgt. Tyree: (to Pvt. Smith) I take that very kindly, sir. Pvt. John Smith aka Rome Clay: Captain Tyree! Captain Tyree! Captain Nathan Brittles: Speak to him. Sgt. Tyree: Thank you. (comes to attention) Yes, Sir. Sir! Sir! Captain Nathan Brittles: (realizes that Smith has died) I'm afraid he can't hear you, Captain.
Captain Nathan Brittles: (while burying the dead) I also commend to your keeping the soul of Rome Clay, late Brigadier General, Confederate States Army. Known to his comrades here, Sir, as Trooper John Smith, United States cavalry... a gallant soldier and a Christian gentleman.
Top Sergeant Quincannon: (speaking to Capt Brittles about Lt Cohill and Olivia Dandridge who have been bickering on the trail) They'll make a fine, boisterous couple when they're married, Captain!
Olivia Dandridge: (after the massacre at Sudrow's Wells) You don't have to say it, Captain. I know all this is because of me; because I wanted to see the West; because I wasn't - I wasn't "Army" enough to stay the winter. Captain Nathan Brittles: You're not quite "Army" yet, miss... or you'd know never to apologize... it's a sign of weakness. Olivia Dandridge: Yes, but this was your last patrol and I'm to blame for it. Captain Nathan Brittles: Only the man who commands can be blamed. It rests on me... mission failure!
Abby Allshard: (Capt Brittles is retiring after tonight) Where will you go, Nathan? Captain Nathan Brittles: Oh, West, I guess, Abby... California... new settlements. (to Olivia) "Old soldiers... ", Miss Dandridge... hah! Someday you'll learn how they hate to give up. Captain of the troop one day: every man's face turned towards you; lieutenants jump when I growl! Now, tomorrow, I'll be glad if a blacksmith asks me to shoe a horse. (he leaves)
Captain Nathan Brittles: (the troop presents him with a solid silver watch for his retirement. He puts on his glasses and reads the engraved sentiment on the back) "To Capt Brittles from C Troop. Lest we forget."
Sgt. Hochbauer: (enters the bar with a crew to arrest Quincannon) You're under arrest, Quincannon. Top Sergeant Quincannon: By whose orders? Sgt. Hochbauer: By order of Capt Brittles. Are you coming peaceably? Top Sergeant Quincannon: Laddy, I've never gone anyplace peaceably in me life. (puts down his drink and slugs Sgt. Hochbauer)
(last lines) Narrator: (as the troop passes by) So here they are: the dog-faced soldiers, the regulars, the fifty-cents-a-day professionals... riding the outposts of a nation. From Fort Reno to Fort Apache - from Sheridan to Startle - they were all the same: men in dirty-shirt blue and only a cold page in the history books to mark their passing. But wherever they rode - and whatever they fought for - that place became the United States.