The Last of the Mohicans (1992)

Maurice Roëves: Col. Edmund Munro

Photos 

Quotes 

• Colonel Munro : And how am I to know it wasn't a raid by thieves?

  Hawkeye : The cabin was attacked by a war party fighting with the French. They're sweeping south along the frontier attacking farms and Mohawk villages, all the men are stuck here.

  Colonel Munro : I need proof more convincing than this man's opinion before I weaken the fort's defenses by releasing the militia.

  Jack Winthrop : Chingachgook had the same opinion about the raid; taken together that's gospel. Your fort will stand or fall depending on Webb's reinforcements, not the presence of the Colonials.

  Colonel Munro : I judge military matters here, not you.

  Hawkeye : Your judgment is not more important than their right under agreement with Webb to defend their farms and families. Major Hayward was there, he was at John Cameron's, he saw what it was.

  Colonel Munro : What exactly did you see Major?

  Duncan : [glancing at Cora]  I saw nothing that would lead me to the conclusion that it was other than a raid by savages bent on thievery.

  Hawkeye : You're a liar.

  Colonel Munro : [as Duncan lunges for Hawkeye]  Major!

  [to Hawkeye] 

  Colonel Munro : Montcalm is a soldier and a gentleman, not a butcher.

  Hawkeye : Easy for you to suppose, it's their women and children on the farms, not yours!

  Colonel Munro : You forget yourself, sir.

  Jack Winthrop : We're not forgetting Webb's promise.

  Colonel Munro : British promises are honored. And the militia will not be released, because I need more definite proof than this man's word.

  Jack Winthrop : Nathaniel's word's been good on the frontier a long time before you got here.

  Colonel Munro : This meeting is over, the militia stays.

  Jack Winthrop : Does the rule of English law no longer govern? Has it been replaced by absolutism?

  Hawkeye : If English law cannot be trusted maybe these people would do better making their own peace with the French.

  Duncan : That is sedition!

  Hawkeye : That is the truth.

  Duncan : I'll have you beaten from this fort!

  Hawkeye : Someday, I think you and I are going to have a serious disagreement.

  Colonel Munro : Anyone fomenting or advocating the leaving of Fort William Henry will be hung for sedition. Anyone actually CAUGHT leaving will be shot for desertion. Now my decision is final. Get out!

• Cora Munro : He saved us. We're alive only because of him.

  Colonel Munro : The man encouraged the colonials to desert in this very room and in my presence! Sir! He is guilty of sedition. He must be tried and hanged like any other criminal, regardless of what he did for my children.

  Cora Munro : But he knew the consequences, and he stayed. Are those the actions of a criminal?

• Cora Munro : Justice? If that's justice than the sooner French guns blow the English out of America the better it will be for the people here.

  Colonel Munro : You do not know what you're saying!

  Cora Munro : Yes I do, I know exactly what I'm saying! And if it is sedition, than I am guilty of sedition too.

• Maj. Duncan Heyward : Might I inquire after the situation sir, given that I've seen the French engineering from the ridge above.

  Colonel Munro : The situation is that his guns are bigger than mine and he has more of them. We keep our heads down while his troops dig 30 yards of trench a day. When those trenches are 200 yards from the fort and within range, he'll bring in his 15-inch mortars, lob explosive rounds over our walls, and pound us to dust.

• Colonel Munro : Death and honor are thought to be the same, but today I have learned that sometimes they are not.

• Duncan : Might l inquire after the situation, sir, given that l've seen the French engineering from the ridge above?

  Colonel Munro : The situation is, his guns are bigger than mine and he has more of them. We keep our heads down while his troops dig 30 yards of trench a day. When those trenches are 200 yards from the fort and within range, he'll bring in his 15-inch mortars, lob explosive rounds over our walls and pound us to dust.

  Duncan : They look to be 300 yards out. lf they're digging 30 yards a day, you have three days.

  Colonel Munro : Damn. Damn.

• Colonel Munro : l have lived to see something which l never expected. A British officer afraid to support another.

  Duncan : Webb can burn in hell. And we'll go back and dig our graves behind those ramparts.

• Colonel Munro : Monsieur Le Marquis, l am a soldier, not a diplomat. You called this parley for a better reason than an exchange of compliments.

• Colonel Munro : Those considerations are subordinate to the interests of the Crown.