The Young Lions (1958)

Marlon Brando: Lt. Christian Diestl

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Quotes 

• Lt. Christian Diestl : [two Nazi officers, escaping on a motorcycle in the middle of the endless desert]  I think I must sleep.

  Capt. Hardenberg : lf you sleep, you'll wake up in a British prison camp. Come on! Talk!

  Lt. Christian Diestl : I wish I was in zee mountains, where it is so cool and peaceful in the snow. So wonderful to feel the wind in your face. Clean and nice. And I like the smell of smoke in the winter, coming from the wood - in the fireplaces.

  Capt. Hardenberg : Talk about something else! Talk about women! Women! Women!

  Lt. Christian Diestl : I have a French girl - Françoise - and I think I can love her.

  Capt. Hardenberg : Was she beautiful?

  Lt. Christian Diestl : Yes! She was beautiful. And I wish I was with her, and not on this motorcycle, because I am - I am sick of Africa. And I am sick of the great German army. And I am sick of doing my duty!

• Margaret Freemantle : Christian, are you a Nazi?

  Lt. Christian Diestl : No, I am not a Nazi. I'm not - I'm not political at all. But I think that they stand for something hopeful in Germany.

• Lt. Christian Diestl : As a rule, Americans speak German with a very bad accent, but your accent is - is really horrible.

• Margaret Freemantle : What can you possibly find to justify - Hitler?

  Lt. Christian Diestl : I think that - that Hitler will bring us a better life.

• Lt. Christian Diestl : Well, do you think that being a Nazi is such a terrible thing?

• Margaret Freemantle : Oh, Christian. This has been so wonderful.

  Lt. Christian Diestl : Yes.

  Margaret Freemantle : I wanna thank you. You've been more than generous with your time.

  Lt. Christian Diestl : Well, that's only because I've had the very worst intentions.

• Lt. Christian Diestl : This is not zee United States. lt's so hard to explain to you, but, you see, it's very difficult for people to rise above their class in Europe. I'll tell you something. At one time, I wanted very much to be a doctor. And I worked - I worked very hard for this. And when there was no longer any money I was forced to give it up, because we have no free university here. And I think this is - this is where Hitler can help us. I think that - that - he has promised to change all this.

• Sgt. Brandt : Lieutenant, I do wish you'd order your driver to slow down. I'm reluctantly willing to die for the Fatherland, but not in a traffic accident.

  Lt. Christian Diestl : We're late, Brandt.

  [to his driver] 

  Lt. Christian Diestl : Go a little faster, Basserman.

• Sgt. Brandt : Lieutenant, have you ever been to Paris?

  Lt. Christian Diestl : No, I have not been there.

  Sgt. Brandt : Oh, what a city! What a wonderful city that is. I'll show you a good time there. Ha! You won't keep those people indoors for ever. Not those Parisians. Ah, what *wonderful* girls! When I was a correspondent there last year, we practically lived in the streets. Simone and I, we will show you Paris the way it always was. The way it always will be.

• Lt. Christian Diestl : I think that perhaps you cannot understand what it means to live on tips from foreigners in your own country, huh?

• Sgt. Brandt : To be French is to be late.

  Lt. Christian Diestl : Two hours.

  Sgt. Brandt : lt's part of their charm.

• Françoise : Vodka?

  Lt. Christian Diestl : Yes, wonderful.

  Françoise : I have some direct from the Ukraine.

• Lt. Christian Diestl : Gay Paris is not so gay.

• Gretchen Hardenberg : How are the girls in Paris?

  Lt. Christian Diestl : Oh, French.

• Françoise : You're not the same.

  Lt. Christian Diestl : When you are - when you are in a hole - filled with your own excrement for days on end, and when you see the faces and the bodies of the men you've killed, you change.

• Lt. Christian Diestl : When you're out there like that, when you have to live with death every day - for so long - you have to keep something in front of you, or you would go insane. And so I was - I was always afraid that - I had just invented you.

  Françoise : Oh, but I am real.

• Camp Commandant : How close are the Americans?

  Lt. Christian Diestl : Well, I think they are - I don't know - five minutes or five hours.