Clearcut (1991)

Graham Greene: Arthur

Photos 

Quotes 

• Arthur : [sung in sweat lodge]  I'm gonna cut my fingers off and make a necklace for you fat fucks.

• Arthur : You hate me, don't you? You hate me so much you're scared shitless! You see, a man tears the wings off a bird and he hates it because it can't fly and then it scares him because he doesn't know what it's good for- floppin' around on the floor like a fish...

• Arthur : You're gonna hang here with the crows and watch the earth as it dies. You're gonna hang there and have a little chat with your God about what you killed. Your God. It's your God, your God that shames this earth!

  [to Bud] 

• Arthur : Do you see?

  [looking over the forest] 

  Bud Rickets : No.

  Arthur : You will bloody well hang here until you do. And then you can watch your goddamn machines cut it all down!

• Arthur : [after biting the head off a snake and throwing it overboard]  ... That's oral tradition!

• Arthur : I could scalp him and be a real injun! I should be a real injun, shouldn't I?

• Arthur : So! What does a Man Who Talks For Us do for us?

  [meeting Peter] 

• Peter Maguire : So, where you from?

  Arthur : Recently?

• Peter Maguire : Are you Ojibway?

  Arthur : No.

  Peter Maguire : Cree?

  Arthur : Same thing.

  Peter Maguire : No they're not.

  Arthur : No?

  Peter Maguire : No.

  Arthur : Well, do you know about these things?

  Peter Maguire : Don't think I'm completely ignorant about the Native cultures. I've read quite a few books on them.

  Arthur : Books. Literature. You know, the white man makes me laugh with his writing.

  Peter Maguire : Well, the early Huron didn't laugh, they thought writing was magic.

  Arthur : Is that a fact? You know, us Indian folks have an oral tradition.

  Peter Maguire : I know that.

  Arthur : So the Man Who Talks thinks he knows things.

• Arthur : You know, maybe if a guy thinks he cuts down our trees, somebody'll cut him. And he'll worry. That'd be something eh? You and me, we could make Bud Rickets worry.

• Arthur : Tell 'em that the noise is bothering you. Be polite and see where it gets you with that scum.

  [referring to Peter's neighbors] 

• Arthur : So, you're the superior fucking race?

  Female Partier : No.

  Arthur : No?

  Female Partier : No.

  Arthur : You lying to me all this time?

  [intimidating Peter's noisy neighbors] 

• Peter Maguire : This is Tom Starblanket's truck. He's a good friend of mine, he wouldn't want anybody hurt.

  Arthur : Do you think if I cut off your little whistle, he'd get mad at me?

• Bud Rickets : You've got to clean it first.

  [referring to Arthur's fish] 

  Arthur : It's Indian style. Scales, guts and all.

  Bud Rickets : It's not Indian, that's lazy.

• Arthur : This is Indian land chief.

  Hunter : Actually, I don't think this is Indian land.

  Arthur : Well I'm a fucking Indian.

• Peter Maguire : We've been kidnapped, there's a man over there.

  Arthur : He's confused.

  Hunter : Yeah, I think we're all a little bit confused.

  Peter Maguire : My name is Peter Maguire, I'm lawyer from Toronto.

  Arthur : We're doing a ceremony.

  Peter Maguire : You listening to me? I'm a lawyer.

  Arthur : We're visiting our mother.

  Hunter : Lets get the fuck out of here.

  Peter Maguire : What mother? Is his mother my mother, huh?

  Arthur : It's a ritual, it's confusing.

• Peter Maguire : You disappoint me Arthur. Why you doing this? What's this all about?

  Arthur : What, you wanna go with those guys? Catch up.

  [referring to hunters] 

  Peter Maguire : You'd shoot me.

  Arthur : Maybe. Might shoot you if you stay too.

• Arthur : Do you hear your trees? They're crying.

  [sneaking up on Peter and Bud] 

  Bud Rickets : Indian give me the creeps. It's like they know something we don't.

• Bud Rickets : There's things here I don't understand, so enlighten me. Tell me what my mill has destroyed. Tell me about your traditional way of life. Tell me about freezing to death, that was tradition wasn't it? Tell me about your wars. Tell me about your old people. Tell me about your children, starving winter after winter after winter. Tradition! The mill has given you roads, transportation, medical services, stores, schools, decent houses, sewage, plumbing...

  Arthur : Reserve plumbing don't work.

  Bud Rickets : Well get it fixed chief, it's free! Put your bottle on the table and pick up the phone.

  Arthur : Phones don't work.

  Bud Rickets : Oh, so it's the phones too, is it?

  Arthur : Busted. Everything's busted.

  Bud Rickets : Oh poor Arthur. Poor, poor Arthur.

• Peter Maguire : What are you doing?

  [seeing Bud being skinned] 

  Arthur : Debarking him.

• Arthur : Well, I am your friendly neighborhood cruel Injun.

• Arthur : They always wake up gone from what they do.

  [referring to foresters] 

• Arthur : You think I'm cruel. You don't forget about the trees and the kids born stupid and the judges who laugh. You don't forget! Arthur will still be cruel.

• Peter Maguire : Is this your revenge?

  Arthur : You know that the soldier's used to play catch with the breasts of Navajo women. And they were slippery and hard to hang on to and the soldiers, they'd all laugh. Arthur's cruel and I forget why. Well, it's time for them to pay.

  Peter Maguire : How much?

  Arthur : More than this.

  Peter Maguire : This is enough.

  Arthur : Enough? This is nothing, this is only one man's leg. Goddamn you come cheap.

• Peter Maguire : Do I have to kill you?

  Arthur : [teasingly puts a knife before him]  When you use a knife, you gotta get right between the ribs. If you don't, you just rip the skin, the guy bleeds and he gets pissed off.

  Peter Maguire : [after holding the knife, slams it back down]  Fuck you.