1883 (2021-22) Memorable Lines

Memorable lines:

James Dutton, arriving in Fort Worth: “What’s the rules on firearms in this town?
Supplier: “They’ll pick up apart if you ain’t got one.”

Shea Brennan of James Dutton, watching him take care of a pick-pocket: “He’s gonna pick a fight he can’t win before long.”

Josef: “We leave in the morning.”
Shea Brennan: “We leave when you’re ready. And you won’t be ready in the morning.”

Train passenger to Elsa, when she drops her eyes at his compliment: “Don’t do that. Don’t hide from it. Beauty’s meant to be admired.”

Elsa: “Someday, I’ll only ride in the front of the train.”
Nargaret Dutton: “That’s a child’s goal. A woman’s goal is to never ride the train again because she has a home she never wants to leave.”
Elsa: “I guess we’re both a ways from our goal.”

James Dutton, lifting his 5-year old son John when his family arrives by train in Fort Worth: “Well it looks like you survived the journey?”
John: “Barely. The man beside me shit himself, and I had to smell it the whole way here.”
Claire Dutton, Jame’s sister, scoldingly: “James, you’re children are feral. Absolutely feral.”

Claire Dutton, about the death of her husband: “Can’t believe in heaven, then be sad when people go there.”

James Dutton of his sister Claire: “Losing her husband didn’t soften her much.”
Margaret Dutton: “You could soak that woman in buttermilk for a month, and it wouldn’t soften her a bit.”

Elsa, as her dad slips a pistol into her saddlebag: “What’s that for?”
James Dutton: “Not sure. But I’d sure hate for you not to have it when we find out.”

Claire of James Dutton, of their journey West: “He’s a dreamer, Margaret. Always has been. And they never come true.”
Margaret Dutton: “It’s coming true, Claire.”
Claire: “No. This is not a dream. This is the nightmare. You’ll see.”

Marshal Jim Courtright, of the bandits who terrorized the wagon train, several of whom he and the wagon train leaders have gunned down in a saloon: “Is there any more?”
Josef, squatting and trembling by the bar, surveys the carnage.
Marshal: “Don’t just sit there shakin’. Are there any more?”

Elsa: “I painted a picture of my husband in my mind. He don’t look like you.”
Ennis: “Well, I’m a cowboy, ma’am. We don’t look like nobody’s husband. But we’re the ones you think about when your husbands ain’t around.”

Thomas, at a river crossing: “Ain’t no good options, captain. Just know winter’s the worst option. As slow as these folks move, we’re bitin’ off a decent chunk of it already.”

James Dutton to son John, after he’s shot his first deer: “When you kill a thing, son, it makes you a little less a man, more animal. Now we try to find a balance between them. That’s all life is. Understand?”
His 5-year-old son shakes his head “no.”
James, smiling: “I didn’t either the first time I heard it.”

Margaret Dutton of daughter Elsa: “She has her eyes on this cowboy. And he’s eyeing her right back.”
James Dutton, joking: “Well, I’ll shoot him first thing in the morning, honey.”

James Dutton, when Shea Brennan notes that his wife will have to handle the river crossing: “My wife can back a wagon through the doors of a saloon. She’ll be fine.”

James Dutton: “I ain’t no fuckin’ farmer.”
Shea Brennan: “You were?”
James Dutton: “I was a captain too. Don’t call myself that either.”

Wade, when Shea Brennan balks at starting to use the cattle herd for food: “This ain’t the part of the trip where we skinny up. This is the part where we get fat. Skinny part comin’.”

Shea Brennan: “This talkin’ back is getting contagious.”
Thomas: “You need to have a word with that farmer. A word that sticks.”

Shea Brennan: “The most terrifying thing on this planet is the unknown.”
Thomas: “That’s because you ain’t never been whipped, captain. Let someone put a whip to your back, then tell me the unknown is what scares you.”

Ennis, after James Dutton has caught him kissing Elsa: “He ain’t gonna shoot me?”
Elsa: “No. He said I could shoot you. If you act up.”
Ennis: “Well, actin’ up’s my only skill.”
Elsa: “No it ain’t. Do it (kiss me) again.”

James Dutton, as his wife prepares to drive their wagon across a river: “Nervous?”
Margaret Dutton: “I’m fine.”
James: “I love you.”
Margaret: “Why’d you say that?”
James: “I just want you to know it.”
Margaret: “Now I’m nervous.”

Elsa: “What a silly thing, kissing? What a pointless, purposeless thing? And I couldn’t wait for another.”

Margaret Dutton: “The only rules you need to follow are the ones in your heart.”
Elsa Dutton, eagerly: “Are we gonna talk about sex now?”
Margaret Dutton: “We just did.”

James Dutton to daughter Elsa: “The meanest thing you can do to yourself is hate somebody else. I know what it feels like to hate the world. You don’t want to feel it, honey. Be sad. Miss him. Cry yourself blind. But you leave the hatin’ to me.”

Elsa: “What do I call you?”
Comanche brave: “Sam.”
Elsa: “Sam. Why Sam?”
Sam: “It was the name of the man who killed my wife. I know because I made him tell me. And I killed him and took it.”

James Dutton, finding Elsa after a tornado rips through the wagon train: “Now you can tell anybody who’ll listen that you lived through hell.”
Elsa: “It wasn’t hell, daddy. It was beautiful.”
Dutton: “Well, baby girl, you must have been chased by a different tornado than I was because my tornado was hell.”

Shea Brennan: “Your girl’s starting to ride like a Comanche.”
James Dutton looks on, concerned, as his daughter rides, whooping alongside Sam.
Charles Goodnight: “That is a compliment, James.”

Margaret Dutton to Elsa: “There’s a map in your father’s mind. No one can stop him from following it. No sense in trying.”

James Dutton: “You think our daughter’s the only one out here falling in love. I bet there are emigrant kids fooling around behind every bush along this creek. Our’s just doesn’t hide it. If she loves something, she’ll hold its hand in front of the whole world.”
Margaret Dutton: “She gets that from you.”
James Dutton: “She gets racing up that hill from me. But the way she loves, she gets that from you.”

Wyoming cattleman’s association deputy to Shea Brennan: “You’re lucky to still be sitting a horse, old man. Don’t let your mouth start a fight your pistol can’t finish.”

Elsa Dutton: “Got shot with an arrow.”
James Dutton: “I’m aware.”
Elsa: “Tell mamma to save it. Don’t let her throw it away. I want to show Sam.”

Shea Brennan: “We get tough or die in this country. That’s for sure.”

Elsa: “Funny. When you think about it. All those people from Europe. Don’t speak our language. Don’t know anything about this place. Risking their lives over rumors and dreams.”
James Dutton: “Rumors and dreams built this whole world, honey. Every inch of it.”

Elsa: “See you in the valley, mama.”
Margaret Dutton: “See you there.”