The Wind and the Lion (1975)

Sean Connery: Raisuli

Photos 

Quotes 

• Raisuli : To Theodore Roosevelt - you are like the Wind and I like the Lion. You form the Tempest. The sand stings my eyes and the Ground is parched. I roar in defiance but you do not hear. But between us there is a difference. I, like the lion, must remain in my place. While you like the wind will never know yours. - Mulay Hamid El Raisuli, Lord of the Riff, Sultan to the Berbers, Last of the Barbary Pirates.

• [last lines] 

  Sherif of Wazan : Great Raisuli, we have lost everything. All is drifting on the wind as you said. We have lost everything.

  Raisuli : Sherif, is there not one thing in your life that is worth losing everything for?

  [they both begin to laugh] 

• Eden : Do you pray often?

  Raisuli : I pray to Mecca five times a day.

  Eden : Is that so? I wonder how you find time, when you are so busy cutting off men's heads and kidnapping women and children!

  Raisuli : If I miss the morning prayer, I pray twice in the afternoon. Allah is very understanding!

• Raisuli : It's been a bad year. Next one will probably be worse.

• [repeated line] 

  Raisuli : Mrs. Pedecaris, you are a lot of trouble!

• Raisuli : I will see you again, Mrs Pedicaris, when we are both like golden clouds on the wind.

• Eden : [playing chess with Raisuli]  You are in a lot of trouble! You should never have moved that knight or kidnapped me - both will see you undone.

  Raisuli : It is not I who determine the outcome of these events - it is the will of Allah.

• Eden : And this is your way? Abducting women and children?

  Raisuli : I prefer to fight the European armies, but they do not fight as men - they fight as dogs! Men prefer to fight with swords, so they can see each other's eyes! Sometimes, this is not possible. Then, they fight with rifles. The Europeans have guns that fire many times promiscuously and rend the Earth. There is no honor in this - nothing is decided from this. Therefore, I take women and children when it pleases me!

• Sherif of Wazan : [on the hostage exchange with the Europeans]  I will go. You need not risk yourself any further.

  Raisuli : What does my life matter? I've nothing else to do.

• Raisuli : Woman, I want you to understand this: I am not a barbarous man. I am a scholar, and a leader to my people. I am not a barbarous man. These four men have dishonored me. They have eaten from my trees, they have drunk water from my wells; they have done all of these things to me, and they have not even evoked my name to God in thankfulness. I am treated this way because I make war upon the Europeans... You see the man at the well, how he draws the water? When one bucket empties, the other fills. It is so with the world: at present, you are full of power, but you're spilling it wastefully, and Islam is lapping up the drops as they spill from your bucket.

• Raisuli : This is the Rif. I am Mulay Ahmed Mohammed Raisuli the magnificent, sherif of the Riffian Berbers. I am the true defender of the faithful and the blood of the Prophet runs in me and I am but a servant of His will. You have nothing to say?

  Eden : It has never been my intention to encourage braggarts.

  Raisuli : Your shell is strong like a turtle's, but it is brittle.

  Eden : Your tongue is clever and fast. Be careful you do not trip over it.

  Raisuli : You are a great deal of trouble.

• Eden : Why would anyone want to cut out a man's tongue?

  Raisuli : Perhaps the previous owner had nothing pleasant to say.

• Raisuli : I am the Raisuli. Do not laugh at me again.

• Raisuli : Ignorance is a steep hill with perilous rocks at the bottom.

• Raisuli : It is the wind that passes but the sea remains.

• Raisuli : The lion takes long strides but the path is worn smooth by pygmy armies.

• Raisuli : [during the final battle, Eden finds him tied upside down]  Ah, Mrs. Perdicaris! The Baraka has not deserted me!

  [a shot strikes the wall next to him] 

  Raisuli : Cut me down quick before it does.

• William Pedecaris : What are they singing?

  Raisuli : They are singing songs to God.

  William Pedecaris : Why are you not singing?

  Raisuli : I am the sultan. They do the singing.

  William Pedecaris : That is ridiculous.

• Raisuli : [concerning the two out of four men he has recently beheaded]  A barbarous man would've killed them all.

• Raisuli : Mrs. Pedecaris, I have decided. It would please me to return you to President Roosevelt, because you are a lot of trouble. Perhaps he will know what to do with you.