Learoyd Quotes in Farewell to the King (1989)

Capt. Fairbourne: If you were a communist how could you be king?

Learoyd: Only a communist would think of it.

Learoyd: I have a special relationship with the spirits. I died once. I had to. I had to give up everything, even the will to live.

[first lines]

Learoyd: [coming ashore] He's dead. He's dead.

Sgt. Conklin: Lights! It's a village.

Learoyd: No, no. That's Japanese.

Sgt. Conklin: There's no choice!

Learoyd: No, I've had enough. Bataan. Corregidor. You were wrong! We're free now. We're free. Free to go our own ways.

Capt. Fairbourne: Listen, you can no longer avoid history! I'm sorry. I've said that!

Learoyd: Shut up. History? The world's so full of crap, sooner or later, you're gonna step in it. You call that history?

Learoyd: Don't cry, little one. Don't cry. I'll be with you in the songs they sing in the longhouses. And then when you're older and you have children, well, you'll sing the songs to them. And then they'll sing to their children. And the songs, the songs will make you strong. And you won't need me anymore.

Capt. Fairbourne: Do you trust me?

Learoyd: Yes... If I have a choice between the good or bad in the man, I choose to believe the good.

Capt. Fairbourne: The 'warrior king'.

Learoyd: No, YOU're the warrior. I'm just king.

Learoyd: I could sell your heads to the Japs.

Learoyd: He had been hunting and caught nothing. Only me.

Learoyd: For them it is a man that counts. Not life.

Capt. Fairbourne: What do you want.

Learoyd: Freedom, to be like we are.

Capt. Fairbourne: Anything else?

Learoyd: Guns. So they can't take the freedom away.

Capt. Fairbourne: Well, I'll see what I can do.

Learoyd: And grenades, mortars and mines, so they can't take the guns away.

Learoyd: From this day, from this time on, I'll never raise my hand against another man.

Capt. Fairbourne: [after the Japanese have sacked Learoyd's village] Vengeance is futile. It never ends. You told me that. It's not man that counts, it's life, Learoyd. It's life!

Learoyd: [Brushing right past him] Blood must be answered with blood.

Learoyd: I don't trust a man who can turn away from the hips and thighs fashioned by the spirits.

Learoyd: Who's Vivienne? You kept mentioning her name.

Capt. Fairbourne: She's my fiancée.

Learoyd: So that's why you wouldn't... I said I never trusted a man who had no woman. I was beginning to worry about you.