Esther Quotes in Hit! (1973)

Esther: You know the government pays me $18,000 to be a computer programmer. I'd trade every single cent... just for one night with you.

Nick Allen: I can't stay with you. I can't.

[Nick then kisses Esther]

Esther: It was Judah Ben-Hur I loved. What has become of him? You seem to be now the very thing you set out to destroy. Giving evil for evil. Hatred is turning you to stone. It's as though you had become Messala.

[last lines]

Judah Ben-Hur: Almost at the moment He died, I heard Him say, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Esther: Even then.

Judah Ben-Hur: Even then. And I felt His voice take the sword out of my hand.

[Miriam and Tirzah appear at the top of the stairs; Judah goes up to them, sees that they have been miraculously healed; they embrace each other]

Judah Ben-Hur: If you were not a bride, I would kiss you goodbye.

Esther: If I were not a bride, there would be no goodbyes to be said.

Miriam: [speaking of Christ] As though he were carrying that cross the pain of the world.

[she whispers]

Miriam: So fearful.

Tirzah: And yet why is it... I'm not afraid anymore?

[thunder rumbles]

Esther: The shadow of a storm.

[they go inside a nearby cave; the sky goes dark outside]

Esther: A strange darkness, but still day.

[a violent storm begins]

Miriam: His life is over.

[lightning cracks]

Tirzah: He's here. It's tearing... I feel the pain!

Miriam: I feel it too.

[They seem to faint]

Esther: [concerned] Miriam?

[Miriam presses Esther's hand]

Esther: I thought that... Miriam! Do you see your hand?

[They look; Tirzah sits up, healed]

Esther: Tirzah! Miriam!

[They touch each other's faces, feel their hands, embrace as they realize they've been healed]

Esther: Oh, Judah, rest. Sleep. For a few hours of the night, let your mind be at peace.

Judah Ben-Hur: [bitterly] Peace! Love and peace. Do you think I don't long for them as you do? Where do you see them?

Esther: If you had heard this man from Nazareth...

Judah Ben-Hur: Balthasar's word.

Esther: He is more than Balthasar's word. His voice traveled with such a still purpose... It was more than a voice... a man more than a man! He said, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God."

Judah Ben-Hur: Children of God? In that dead valley where we left them? I tell you every man in Judea is unclean, and will *stay* unclean, until we've scoured off our bodies the crust and filth of being at the mercy of tyranny. No other life is possible except to wash this land clean!

Esther: In blood?

Judah Ben-Hur: Yes, in blood!

Esther: I know there is a law in life, that blood gets more blood as dog begets dog. Death generates death, as the vulture breeds the vulture! But the voice I heard today on the hill said, "Love your enemy. Do good to those who despitefully use you."

Judah Ben-Hur: So all who are born in this land hereafter can suffer as we have done!

Esther: As you make us do now! Are we to bear nothing together? Even love?

Judah Ben-Hur: I can hardly draw breath without feeling you in my heart. Yet I know that everything I do from this moment will be as great a pain to you as you have ever suffered. It is better not to love me!

Esther: It was Judah Ben-Hur I loved. What has become of him? You seem to be now the very thing you set out to destroy, giving evil for evil! Hatred is turning you to stone. It is as though you had become Messala!

[Judah looks at Esther, shocked]

Esther: [sadly] I've lost you, Judah.

[Judah confronts Esther and Malluch in the Valley of the Lepers]

Judah Ben-Hur: [angrily, to Esther] Why did you tell me they were dead?

Esther: It was what they wanted. Judah, I must not betray this faith. Will you do this for them?

Judah Ben-Hur: Not to see them?

Esther: [seeing Miriam and Tirzah approach] They are coming... Judah! Judah, love them in the way they most need to be loved: not to look at them! Judah, let it be as though you had never come here. Please, Judah!

[Judah hides behind a boulder as Esther goes to meet Miriam]

Miriam: Is Judah well? Is he happy?

[Judah's face twists in anguish]

Esther: Yes. He is well. Your mind can be at rest for him. He is well, Miriam.

Miriam: [taking the basket of food] God be with you.

[Miriam and Tirzah go back into their cave]

Esther: [going back to Judah] They are gone. We can go back.

Judah Ben-Hur: [bitterly] Go back... to what?

Esther: Judah, they have one blessing left: to think you remember them as they were. Live your own life. Forget what is here.

Judah Ben-Hur: Forget? It's as if they were alive in a grave!

Esther: But what can you do?

Judah Ben-Hur: Undo what you've done! How could you have suffered them to come here? I must see them!

Esther: No Judah, please! Judah!

[Judah starts toward the cave but is stopped by Malluch]

Esther: Oh, think, Judah, *think*! It will tear them apart if they see you!

Miriam: [hesitating as they leave the Valley of the Lepers] I'm afraid.

Esther: [embracing her] No cause. The world is more than we know.

[Christ passes, bearing the cross]

Esther: How can this be?

Judah Ben-Hur: [shocked] I *know* this man!

[Jesus stumbles and is whipped by the centurions]

Miriam: [pleading] Won't someone help him?

[Jesus is whipped again]

Tirzah: Pity on him!

Miriam: [wonderingly] In his pain... there's a look of peace.

Judah Ben-Hur: Watch over them, Esther.

[he goes after Jesus]

Miriam: We must go back.

Esther: [sadly] I brought you here to this... when I hoped...

Miriam: [looking after Christ] You haven't failed, Esther.

[Judah, Esther, Miriam and Tirzah enter the city to find it deserted except for a blind beggar]

Judah Ben-Hur: [to Blind Man] Why are the streets deserted?

Blind Man: They have gone to the trial. Alms for the blind?

Judah Ben-Hur: Trial? Whose trial?

Blind Man: The young rabbi from Nazareth. They are wanting his death.

Esther: It cannot be true!

Blind Man: [holding out his cup] Alms?

Judah Ben-Hur: What has he done?

Blind Man: Nothing I know of. For the blind? For the blind? Help for the blind?

[Judah drops a coin in his cup]

Esther: Why are your so certain, my father, that he is not Ben-Hur?

Simonides: Nay, child, I had never a doubt. He is Ben-Hur! Esther, all these years I have lived a lie. I am a slave to the House of Hur! For myself I care not, but if I acknowledge him, you too are his slave! Yours the decision, Esther. I cannot make it. Heiress to Simonides the Merchant or slave-girl to Ben Hur!

David: Hi. What's your name?

Esther: Esther.

David: Hi, Esther.

Esther: I know who you are.

David: You do?

Esther: You're the man who Sophie called about Dennis, but you don't want him 'cause your wife's dead.

David: Who told you that?

Esther: Dennis.

David: Are you a friend of his, or what?

Esther: No, he's a weirdo. He doesn't have any friends.

David: He doesn't? Where is he hanging out?

Esther: He's in the box. He doesn't come out until night.

David: Why does he do that?

Esther: The sun. He hates the sun.

David: Why does he hate the sun?

Esther: I don't know. Because he thinks it's too sunny?

David: Right.

Mordechai Jefferson Carver: Now, the key of undercover work... is to blend in, OK? You act as a gentile would.

Esther: Right.

Samples Woman: Could I interest you in a free-sample bacon cheeseburger?

Esther: [Esther gasps]

Mordechai Jefferson Carver: [affects a middle-America accent] Um, well, I thank you, gentile friend, for your generous offer of that... *deliciously* unkosher snack. I... sadly have to decline... for I already stuffed myself full of milk and meat products at a previous lunch engagement.

Mordechai Jefferson Carver: [smiles a toothy grin]

Esther: You're good.

[trying to thread a projector]

Coolidge: Damn it! I can't get my finger in there. It won't fit.

Esther: Try your dick.

Max Rothman: I've heard these theories all my life: blood science, eugenics; it's rubbish. It's complete nonsense. It's kitsch. Put it out of your mind. It's not modern. It's not scientific. It will hold you back as an artist. Speaking of which, how's your work coming along? I mean, why are you making those appalling speeches for the army?

Adolf Hitler: I'm just keeping my hand in it.

Max Rothman: Keeping your hand in what?

Adolf Hitler: The army is paying my expenses.

Max Rothman: Ah, so you don't actually believe that rubbish.

Adolf Hitler: Don't tell me you're happy with the peace.

Esther: Hello, Max.

Max Rothman: Hello, Esther. How are you, sweetheart?

[Max stands up, kisses Esther on both cheeks, and sits back down]

Max Rothman: I think the peace is a travesty, but I don't think I can be bothered to pick up the German banner from the mud with my left arm. I gave at the office, you know.

Esther: Oh, that's such poetic bullshit.

Kevin Dollof: [walking on beach at night] Imagine him losing his daughter for taking long walks on the beach.

Esther: It isn't just that.

Kevin Dollof: [stops] Then what is it? Is there something else you're not telling me?

Esther: No.

Kevin Dollof: Then I don't see his crime.

Esther: Please... don't let me die, Mommy!

[holds knife behind her back, preparing to kill Kate]

Kate Coleman: [pause] I'm *NOT* your *FUCKING MOMMY!*

[she violently kicks Esther's head]

Kate Coleman: Esther? We have to talk about last night.

Esther: Do we?

Kate Coleman: Yes, we do... See, there are certain things that grownups do that children aren't supposed to see, and, uh... that was one of 'em.

[a pause; Esther keeps painting]

Kate Coleman: Esther, listen to me.

[Esther turns to Kate]

Kate Coleman: When grownups love each other very, very much... they want to show each other that love; they want to express it...

Esther: I know. They fuck.

Daniel Coleman: [watching Esther neatly cut up her food] Can you eat normal?

Esther: I am eating normal.

Daniel Coleman: Yeah, maybe in Transylvania or whatever country you're from.

Esther: Incidentally, I'm from Russia. Transylvania isn't even a country. It's a part of Romania.

Daniel Coleman: You're such a freak.

Kate Coleman: Hey.

John Coleman: Hey, Danny... I don't want any more talk like that, all right?

Daniel Coleman: But why does she have to act like that? All my friends make fun of me because of her.

John Coleman: Maybe you need some different friends.

Daniel Coleman: Maybe you should send her back to the retard camp where she belongs.

Kate Coleman: Daniel.

John Coleman: Daniel! Apologize to your sister.

Daniel Coleman: She's not my *fucking* sister.

[Kate overhears Esther playing Tchaikovsky flawlessly on the piano]

Kate Coleman: You told me you didn't know how to play.

Esther: No, I didn't.

Kate Coleman: Yes, you did.

Esther: You offered to teach me, and I accepted.

Kate Coleman: Okay... so, then, you were just... pretending, this whole time?

Esther: I thought you would enjoy teaching me. It must be frustrating for someone who loves music as much as you to have a son who isn't interested and a daughter who can't even hear.

[Esther holds a box cutter to a sleeping Daniel's neck; he wakes up]

Esther: Shhhh...

[She grabs his hair and slams his head against the pillow]

Daniel Coleman: Ah!

Esther: Tell me what you saw.

Daniel Coleman: What are you doing?

Esther: What did you see?

Daniel Coleman: [crying] I saw you and Max in the treehouse...

Esther: [pulls his hair] What else?

Daniel Coleman: What do you mean?

Esther: What else did you see?

Daniel Coleman: Nothing, I didn't see anything else, I swear!

Esther: Did you tell anyone?

Daniel Coleman: No... I didn't tell anyone.

[as he cries, she moves the box cutter down between his legs]

Esther: If I find out that you're lying, I'll cut your hairless little prick off before you even figure out what it's for. Do you understand me?

Daniel Coleman: Yes...

[a dark stain appears on his pants]

Esther: You pissed yourself.

Kate Coleman: I know what you're doing. I will not let you hurt my children.

Esther: Me? I'm not the one who passed out drunk and let Max almost drown in the pond. If it wasn't for John, she'd be dead. And you'd probably still be in jail.

Kate Coleman: ...Who told you that?

Esther: [holds up Kate's diary] It's very intimate. I learned so much about you.

Kate Coleman: Give it to me.

Esther: Jessica. Your cheating husband.

Kate Coleman: Esther... give it to me.

Esther: Where you hide your wine bottles.

Kate Coleman: I'm - I'm warning you right now.

Esther: [reading] "She was still kicking when the doctor told me it was something called phantom - "

[Kate angrily snatches the diary away]

Esther: " - fetal movement. For sixteen days I carried - "

Kate Coleman: Stop it.

Esther: " - my dead baby inside me."

Kate Coleman: Esther!

Esther: "It was the cruelest torture I could imagine."

Kate Coleman: Stop it! You stop it! What's wrong with you?

Esther: Stop talking to me like I'm a child!

[Esther and Max walk up after Daniel has shot a pigeon with his paintball gun]

Esther: Did you kill it?

Daniel Coleman: [crying] It was just a paintball, I didn't think it'd hurt him...

[She picks up a big rock and holds it out to him]

Esther: Put it out of its misery.

[off his look]

Esther: It's in pain. And it's your responsibility.

Daniel Coleman: It was just an accident.

Esther: If you walk away now, it'll starve to death. Is that what you want?

[pause]

Daniel Coleman: I'm not doin' it...

[after a moment, she smashes the pigeon with the rock]

Esther: [to Max] It's all right. It's in Heaven now.

Daniel Coleman: What's wrong with you?

John Coleman: Where'd you get the idea for this one?

Esther: My paintings always tell stories. This one's about a sad mother lion who can't find her cubs.

John Coleman: She's smiling.

Esther: She's dreaming about her babies. It's the only thing that makes her happy.

John Coleman: I hope she finds them.

Esther: She will. Look.

[She begins painting the cubs]

Esther: They were lost in the jungle, and they were so scared because they didn't have a mother or father. But just when they thought they'd be alone forever, they found their mother asleep under this tree. Now when she wakes up, her dream will have come true. She'll have her family again.

[to Max, after smashing Sister Abigail in the head with a hammer]

Esther: Stop crying. Grab a foot, and help me get her off the road. Now!

[whispering into Max's hearing aid]

Esther: I'll shoot Mommy if you tell.

Esther: I like it when it's just the two of us. You don't know how long I've waited for a daddy just like you.

John Coleman: Mommy too, right?

Esther: I don't think Mommy likes me very much.

John Coleman: Hey. That's not true, Mommy loves you.

Esther: It's all right. It must be hard to love an adopted child as much as your own.

John Coleman: Sweetheart, you're just as much part of this family as Danny and Max, okay? Why don't you do something nice for Mommy, show her how much you love her?

Esther: That's a wonderful idea.

Esther: I have a special surprise for you, Mommy!

Esther: I think people should always try to take the bad things that happen to them in their lives, and turn them into something good. Don't you?

Esther: Going somewhere, Kate?

John Coleman: She painted all these.

Kate Coleman: Really?

John Coleman: Yeah.

Kate Coleman: These are fantastic. These are really wonderful.

Esther: Thank you.

Kate Coleman: Well, where did you learn how to do this?

Esther: I've just had lots of time to practice, I guess. It's really boring here.

Kate Coleman: It's boring here? Hey, if you're so bored, then why aren't you down at the party?

Esther: I've never really seen the point of it. Nobody's ever talked to me before. I guess I'm different.

Kate Coleman: There's nothing wrong with being different, you know.

John Coleman: Well, you two have a lot in common.

Esther: Kate, it's too late. It's your own fault. You took your family for granted.

[She tries to leave; Kate grabs her]

Kate Coleman: What do you mean?

Esther: What are you going to do? Hit me?

Kate Coleman: Go to your room.

Esther: Honestly, we're past that now, aren't we?

Max Coleman: [signing] You tricked me.

Esther: That doesn't matter. They'll send you to jail just for helping me hide her. I had to kill her, because she was going to tell on me. You're not going to tell on me... are you?

[pointing a revolver at Max's head]

Esther: Do you want to play?

[Holding a big rock over an unconscious Daniel's head]

Esther: Don't worry. You're going to Heaven.

[as Daniel rummages through his treehouse, Esther suddenly enters behind him]

Esther: Are you looking for this?

[pulls the hammer and her bloody clothes from Max's backpack]

Esther: Poor Sister Abigail. I couldn't have done it myself, you know. Max is just as guilty as I am.

Daniel Coleman: Whatever Max did, you made her do it!

Esther: Think about it.

[pulls Max's drawings from her pocket]

Esther: How did she even know what was up here? It's always better to burn the evidence.

[begins spraying lighter fluid on the pile]

Esther: If they find these things, they won't just be coming for me. They'll be coming for Max, too.

[lights a match]

Esther: Is it really what you want?

Daniel Coleman: Wait!

[She drops the match and sprays more fluid all over the floor]

Daniel Coleman: What are you doing? Are you crazy?

Kate Coleman: Go to your room!

Esther: Honestly Kate, we're past that now, aren't we?

[Juan ties Esther's wrists and ankles]

Esther: [laughing] This is a new game!

Juan: In every tragedy, there is an innocent victim. In this case - you're it.

Esther: Did you practise free love?

Juan: Yes.

Esther: I want to start but mother won't let me.