Sayonara (1957)

Marlon Brando: Major Lloyd Gruver

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Major Gruver : [at a traditional tea ceremony: watching, as a Japanese man spends a lot of time carefully making a cup of tea]  He makes such a production of everything.

  Hana-ogi : The pleasure does not lie in the end itself... it's the pleasurable steps *to* that end.

• Major Gruver : You know what I saw yesterday? I saw two rocks that just got married.

  Captain Bailey : [slightly confused]  You what?

  Major Gruver : I saw two rocks that got married. And they looked very happy together, too.

  Captain Bailey : Oh, I'll bet they did.

• Major Gruver : If you were going to be smart, l'll tell you what you do. You get your little shoes shined and you go out tonight - because tonight is gonna be Tanabata.

  Captain Bailey : Okay, what's Tanabata?

  Major Gruver : You're gonna sit with your bare face hanging out and tell me you don't know what Tanabata is?

  Captain Bailey : Yeah.

  Major Gruver : Well, my word, boy. l'm ashamed of you. l thought everybody knew what Tanabata was. Tanabata is the night of love!

• Joe Kelly : [Major Gruver is entering Joe Kelly's Japanese home for the first time]  Hey, off with the shoes. You don't wear shoes in a Japanese house.

  Major Gruver : Okay, comin' off... What about the pants?

• Hana-ogi : [pointing to some large rocks right off the seashore]  You see the rope between the rocks?

  Major Gruver : Yeah?

  Hana-ogi : That is a Shinto sign, showing they are married.

  Major Gruver : [slightly confused]  What, the rocks?

  Hana-ogi : Yes... they've been together so long, our people thought it was time they should get married. They look well together, don't you think?

  Major Gruver : Yeah, they make a handsome little couple!

• Major Gruver : You know, l was surprised to find that they make that stuff out of rice. We have rice back home in America. Of course, we just make rice puddin' out of it and we don't drink it. Eh, this is the first liquid rice l ever ran into.

• Major Gruver : Nothing wrong with me a little bottle of beer isn't going to fix up

• Joe Kelly : Boy, she sure does something wicked to a bathing suit.

  Major Gruver : She has an enormous capacity to fulfill a bathing suit.

  Joe Kelly : l can see that.

• Major Gruver : l'm gonna show you a picture of a girl. lt happens to be my girl, but she's American. And l want you to take a long, long look at her, because l believe that maybe you've forgot what an American girl looks like. And this girl l'm going to show to you, is first of all an American girl, a girl with fine character, a girl with good background, good education, good family, good blood.

• Doctor : Wouldn't you like to tango with one of those beautiful Japanese dolls?

  Major Gruver : Well, if it's your prescription, Doc, then l'll certainly work at it the best l can.

• Eileen Webster : l'm sorry. l guess l've been thinking too much.

  Major Gruver : Yeah, l think you have been thinking too much.

• Major Gruver : That dress, l think it's terrible. lt just goes in and out and - that's awful.

  Eileen Webster : lt's meant to go in and out. l go in and out.

  Major Gruver : Well, we'll talk about that later.

• Major Gruver : Everybody acting like nobody ever kisses a woman.

• Eileen Webster : Hi, Lloyd.

  Major Gruver : You devil. Come here.

• Major Gruver : Gonna be fun. Come on, baby.

• Major Gruver : Kabuki - isn't that the place where there are no dames and the men play all the women's parts?

  Mrs. Webster : Oh, that's right. The way they do at Princeton.

• Major Gruver : Oh, Kelly, you stupid ignorant slob! l mean, go ahead and marry this slant-eyed runt if you want to. lt'll serve you right.

• Nakamura : You - did not enjoy the evening so much, l fear, Maj. Gruver.

  Major Gruver : Oh, yeah, l thought it was a fine play. l thought maybe you could use a Marilyn Monroe here and there, you know.

  Nakamura : Unfortunately, Miss Monroes were barred from Kabuki in the 17th century.

  Major Gruver : Well, l didn't mean to sound corny. l just didn't know what to say about it.

  Nakamura : Oh, please, do not apologize. l am great admirer of Miss Monroe - myself.

  Major Gruver : Well, that's two of us. That's you and me, boy

• Eileen Webster : He's a male actress. lt says here they've been trained since childhood to have the grace of a woman, and yet the power of a man.

  Major Gruver : Oh, my word.

• Major Gruver : Say, boy, give me a martini, will you? Nope, make it lemonade. No, dawg! Give me a scotch and soda.

• Captain Bailey : I hate to be stuffy about this son, but, you Air Force men just wouldn't understand.

  Major Gruver : Ho, ho! Lawd!

  Captain Bailey : Well, the Marines have got l'amour...

• Major Gruver : lsn't that a nice-looking bridge?

  Captain Bailey : Yeah, that's the Bitchi-Bashi.

  Major Gruver : Say what?

  Captain Bailey : The Bitchi-Bashi. Bashi is Japanese for ''bridge.'' We call this particular one the Bitchi-Bashi because there's so much lovely stuff that goes over it.

  Major Gruver : Did you say stuff?

  Captain Bailey : Brother, l said stuff.

• Major Gruver : l was all set to take the exams at West Point and there was a teacher there who made me take a part in a school play. They were doing one of those Hungarian things by Molnár. You never did hear a Hungarian play played in a Southern accent, did you?

  Captain Bailey : No, l'm afraid l missed that.

  Major Gruver : That's a shame, because l was awful good in it. Anyhow, l suddenly didn't want to go to West Point.

• Hana-ogi : l realized the hate was of my own making. That is why l came to ask you to forgive me for what l have been feeling. Gruver-san, will you forgive me?

  Major Gruver : Well, you make me feel like an awful fool, Miss Ogi. l really feel that l ought to - ask you to forgive me for some of the things that - l've been thinking.

• Major Gruver : How come she's dressed like that?

  Captain Bailey : The tall ones play men's parts, mostly. They play women's parts, too.

  Major Gruver : How do you do?

• Major Gruver : l'm not up too good on Japanese ways of doing things and maybe l'm saying the wrong thing. l mean, maybe my American manners are embarrassing. But l figure, if you've come over here tonight maybe you were interested a little bit in meeting me, too. Now, maybe l'm wrong, but if l'm wrong, then you've got to tell me. Where do we go from here? Because l don't know what to say. l'm running out of things to say.

  Hana-ogi : My father was killed - by American bomb dropped on my country. You have been my enemy. l have hated Americans. l have thought they are savages. There's been nothing but vengeance in my heart.

  Major Gruver : Miss Ogi, there were an awful lot of Americans that were killed, too. And l think it would be best if we forgot about that.

• Joe Kelly : She says that Hana-ogi will not speak to an American.

  Major Gruver : Well, why not?

  Joe Kelly : We shot her brother and killed her father with our bombs.

  Major Gruver : Oh, shoot. l didn't do it.

  Captain Bailey : Sure you did, Ace. We all did.

• Major Gruver : Did anyone ever tell you, Miss Ogi, that you're a fine-lookin' woman? l mean, real *fine*.

• Joe Kelly : How about playing poker with Katsumi and me?

  Major Gruver : Oh, l'll be delighted to take your money *and* your pants.

• Hana-ogi : Are you going back to the officer's quarters tonight?

  Major Gruver : No, l think l'm going to just fool around here.

  Hana-ogi : What will you do all evening?

  Major Gruver : What am l going to do? l'm going to get some beer and some pretzels and bring girls up here. I'm going to have a little fun, for a change.

  Hana-ogi : Good. l don't like you to be lonely.

• Joe Kelly : Is Hana-ogi coming over tonight?

  Major Gruver : Yeah, if she can get away. We're going to cook up some fine St. Louis goulash - with a little Memphis greens in there.

• Major Gruver : l just been lying here - thinking about myself. You know, l can't believe l'm really here. It's hard to believe that, you know, it's hard to believe me being the same Lloyd Gruver that came over from Korea just a little bit ago. You know, l been thinking that - all my life l been so busy snapping to and giving orders and taking orders and being a general's son and doing the job and - all that. l just never took time to sit right down and, you know, think about what my reason for living is. And l been spending some afternoons here just - being peaceful and - easy and thinking. And l believe for the first time l'm just beginning to understand what it's all about, what l really am, what l really want. It's a nice feeling.

• Major Gruver : You were telling me about Harry Truman and New York Yankees and sex and New York Yankees and Harry Truman and sex...

• Major Gruver : Hello there, Double Ugly. How are you?

• Hana-ogi : l cannot think. l cannot even understand your thinking.

  Major Gruver : I'm not thinking! I'm not thinking. For the first time in my life, I'm not thinking and I don't care.

• Major Gruver : l don't want you to tell me anything more or anything less than you feel in the very deepest part of you; because what you answer to me now is going to affect us for the rest of our lives. Do you love me, Hana-ogi, or don't you love me?

  Hana-ogi : l'm so frightened and confused.

• Major Gruver : Don't give up on it. l think there's gonna be a way out of it. There's got to be.

  Captain Bailey : You think so?

  Major Gruver : Yes, I do.

  Captain Bailey : I don't.

• Hana-ogi : Please, Lloyd, can't we talk about this later?

  Major Gruver : There isn't going to be any later. There's only going to be right now.

• Hana-ogi : But, Lloyd, we must do the right thing.

  Major Gruver : What are you talking about, the right thing? We've been wasting two good lives trying to do the right thing - the right thing for Matsubayashi, the right thing for my father, the right thing for the military, the right thing for Japanese tradition, the right thing for the great white race.

  Hana-ogi : But we have duties and obligations.

  Major Gruver : That's right, we do! We do have duties and obligations - and the first obligation we have is to love each other.

• Hana-ogi : What would happen to our children? What would they be?

  Major Gruver : What would they be? They'd be half Japanese, half American. They'd be half yellow and half white. They'd be half you, they'd be half me. That's all they're going to be.

• [last lines] 

  Major Gruver : Tell them we said, "Sayonara."