Guy Pearce: Charlie Burns

The Proposition

Charlie Burns

Jellon Lamb: Forgive me, sir, but I've been stuck here with no one but this sorry sack of Hibernian pig shit for conversation. Poor, poor Dan O'Reilly. Sit, sir. Drink with me.
[Charlie cocks his gun and points it to Lamb]
Charlie Burns: One more crack about the Irish, Mr. Lamb, and I'll shoot you. Am I clear?
Jellon Lamb: Oh, as the waters of Ennis, sir. Let us drink, then, to the Irish. No finer race of men have ever... peeled a potato.
[Charlie cocks his gun again and points it to Lamb]
Charlie Burns: Do you pray, Mr. Lamb?

Captain Stanley: I wish to present you with a proposition. I know where Arthur Burns is. It is a God-forsaken place. The blacks won't go there, not the tracks; not even wild men. I suppose, in time, the bounty hunters will get him. But I have other plans, I aim to bring him down - I aim to show that he's a man like any other. I aim to hurt him.
Sergeant Lawrence: When you're ready, sir...
Captain Stanley: And what will most hurt him? Well I thought long and hard about that, and I've realized Mr. Burns, that I must become more inventive in my methods. But those be my words listen to me now, *don't* say a word. Now suppose I told there was a way to save your little brother Mikey from the noose. Suppose I gave you a horse, and a gun. Suppose Mr. Burns, I was to give you and your young brother Mikey here a pardon. Suppose I said that I could give you a chance to expunge the guilt, beneath which you so clearly labor. Suppose I gave you 'til Christmas. Now, suppose you tell me what it is I want from you.
Charlie Burns: You want me to kill me brother.
Captain Stanley: I want you to kill your brother.

Jellon Lamb: [speaking about Arthur Burns] "We are white men, Sir, not beasts. Oh, he sits up there in those melancholy hills; some say he sleeps in caves like a beast, slumbers deep like the Kraken. The Blacks say that he is a spirit. The Troopers will never catch him. Common force is meaningless, Mr. Murphy, as he squats up there on his impregnable perch. So I wait, Mr. Murphy. I wait.
Charlie Burns: [Knocks Jellon out with a beer mug] Aye, you wait. You wait here... bounty hunter.

Charlie Burns: Do you pray, Mr. Lamb?
Jellon Lamb: Good Lord, son, no, I do not. I was, in days gone by, a believer. But alas, I came to this beleaguered land, and the God in me just . . . evaporated. Let us change our toast, sir. To the God who has forgotten us.

Charlie Burns: My brother's taken a bullet, Stanley, and is in need of medical attention.
Captain Stanley: Well, allow me to address the subject of your brother, Mr. Burns. Christmas, as you're probably aware, is fast approaching, and Christmas this year will hold a unique significance for young Mickey, here.
Charlie Burns: Mikey.
Captain Stanley: Because on Christmas Day, I have made plans that he be taken from the jail in Banyon and hanged by the neck until he is dead.
Mike Burns: [whimpers] Charlie . . .
Charlie Burns: You're a copper, Stanley, not a judge and jury.
Captain Stanley: Well, clearly, Mr. Burns, I am what I wish to be.