The Naked and the Dead (1958)

Raymond Massey: Gen. Cummings

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• Gen. Cummings : And this is the kind of thing that backs right up to Washington. You can imagine the conversations going on. "What's happening out there?" "What's holding them up?" "What are they doing?" But do we have any air support? No! They switched priorities on us. We're the only division in combat at the moment that doesn't have dependable air support. In the past week, we have advanced a grand total of 400 yards. Time has run out gentlemen. No doubt the troops would be happier with another general in command. A butcher who would waste their lives to no purpose. Well if they don't perk up, they'll be having their butcher.

• Gen. Cummings : [context: I like to read history in advance. The reason we are fighting this war...]  I like to call this war a process of historical energy. There are countries which have latent powers; these countries may be our allies today; tomorrow they may be our enemies, or vice versa. I can tell you... we are in the middle ages of a new era, we are waiting for the Renaissance -- a real power -- we're out of the backwaters of history now... I am trying to impress on you... that the only morality of the future is a power morality, and the man who cannot find his adjustment to it is doomed. And there is one thing about power: it only flows from the top down. When there are little surges of resistance from the middle level, it only calls for more power to be directed downward to burn them out... The only way you can generate the proper attitude of awe and obedience is by immense and disproportionate power.