The General's Daughter (1999)

James Cromwell: General Campbell

Photos 

Quotes 

• Brenner : You killed her.

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : What did you say?

  Brenner : Seven years ago in that hospital room, when you told her to just forget about it, you killed her.

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : Kent killed her.

  Brenner : No. Kent just put her out of her misery.

• [in a flashback, General Campbell finds his daughter Elisabeth Campbell, displaying the recreation of the rape] 

  Capt. Elisabeth Campbell : Here's the answer to your damn ultimatum!

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : Jesus Christ!

  Capt. Elisabeth Campbell : Do you see what they did to me? Do you see? Don't turn away, you coward! Come closer! Get a better look! See what they put me through!

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : [General Campbell screams out]  What the fuck do you hope to accomplish?

  Capt. Elisabeth Campbell : There's a rope around my neck. You can strangle me if you want to, or you can just cover it up like you did before.

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : Have you gone completely out of your mind?

  Capt. Elisabeth Campbell : [Elisabeth stares up at the night sky]  It happened. It happened! I want to hear you say it happened!

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : [General Campbell callously responds]  I don't give a damn what happened to you seven years ago!

  Capt. Elisabeth Campbell : Whatever hurts you makes me stronger. That which does not destroy me makes me stronger!

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : You can't hurt me anymore. We're even.

  Capt. Elisabeth Campbell : That's fine with me. You never helped me!

  Capt. Elisabeth Campbell : [General Campbell turns around and leaves Elisabeth tied down in the nude]  Daddy, please don't go. Come back... Please. Please don't... Daddy...

  [General Campbell gets in the car and drives away] 

• [Colonel Fowler reveals to Brenner and General Campbell that he found Elisabeth Campbell dead] 

  Col. George Fowler : You couldn't expect the man to deal with his own child. She was screaming such vituperations at him.

  Brenner : Course not.

  Col. George Fowler : So he called me... and he asked me to deal with it. And I went. And I found her dead.

  Brenner : [Brenner tilts his head]  You found her dead?

  Col. George Fowler : Of course. But you will never get me to testify against the general.

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : [General Campbell looks Colonel Fowler alarmed]  What?

  Col. George Fowler : I've been by Joe Campbell's side too many times. Looked death in the face with him... too many times. I will not back down now.

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : What in God's name are you talking about?

  Col. George Fowler : [Colonel Fowler's voice starts to crack]  It wasn't like she didn't give him reason.

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : George, for Christ's sake!

  Col. George Fowler : And then when we realized she was... fucking everybody from Bill Kent to Jake Elby, it was too late for official action.

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : [General Campbell yells out]  Colonel Fowler!

  Col. George Fowler : We would have had to ask for all their resignations, then resign ourselves.

• [General Campbell questions Colonel Fowler on who killed Elisabeth Campbell] 

  Col. George Fowler : You had no other choice, sir.

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : You think I killed my own daughter?

  Col. George Fowler : It'll die with me, Joe.

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : You sorry son of a bitch.

• [General Campbell pays a final visit to Brenner before leaving the country] 

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : Remember, when I asked you if you were a cop or a soldier?

  Brenner : Yes, sir.

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : Well, you're a soldier, Paul... and a damn fine one.

  Brenner : [General Campbell salutes Brenner before walking off, as Brenner follows]  General Campbell. You're wrong. I'm a rotten soldier.

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : Oh? And why is that?

  Brenner : You really don't get it, do you? The only mind Elisabeth wanted to fuck with, was yours.

• [Brenner reveals the names of the rapists from West Point to General Campbell] 

  Col. George Fowler : You were just doing what you said - Trying to protect her.

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : I did what I had to. What I thought best for everyone concerned. There's nothing else that could have been done. We never would have found them anyway.

  Brenner : Here you are, sir.

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : [Brenner lays down a paper in front of the General]  What is that?

  Brenner : The names of the perpetrators my associate agent Sunhill, found with a minimum of trouble. Apple pie, sir.

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : That's just brilliant.

• [Brenner threatens General Campbell with a court martial] 

  Brenner : You traded her trust for your career. You made a deal, didn't you? You kept silent, and they gave you another star.

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : You watch your mouth, Brenner.

  Brenner : I'm gonna say that in my report, that you knew she was out there, that you went out and talked to her and left her there to die.

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : [General Campbell responds in a low voice]  You don't have the balls.

  Brenner : [Brenner chuckles]  Oh, you're wrong, sir... because that's just about all I have left.

• [in a flashback, General Campbell meets with General Sonnenberg to discuss Elisabeth Campbell's rape at West Point] 

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : I want justice for my daughter.

  Gen. Sonnenberg : I would give anything for this never to have happened, but it did, and I'm trying to tell you the reality of the situation. We'll never find them, so we'll never know who did it. But we do know this... a coed academy is a good call, a necessary call. Better one unreported and unvindicated rape than to shake the foundations of West Point... to cast suspicion on a thousand soldiers who did not gang-rape a woman that night. All you have to do is convince your daughter that she, the academy, the Army, and the cause of equality would be best served if she just forgot about the whole thing. These are the times we live in, Joe.

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : [in the present]  He was right. If it had gone public, it would have permanently damaged women in the military. It would've destroyed West Point. It was an untenable situation.

• [General Campbell gives his retirement speech to the dinner table] 

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : Thank you, all. As you know, my official retirement isn't until next week. But this here, now, tonight with you is my real retirement. Because you and I have known fear together, shed blood together, battled pain and suffering and all of their foot soldiers. We know there is no glamour in sudden death and that no one ever wins a war, and it is that knowledge that will bind us together forever. That, and a love for this country that no bayonet can pierce, no bullet shatter.

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : [the General holds up his drink]  To you.

• [in a flashback, General Campbell talks to Elisabeth Campbell about her rape at West Point] 

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : [General Campbell sits over Elisabeth's hospital bed, staring into her bruised and beaten face]  Daddy loves you... and he's so proud of you. Shh. Rest now. Try not to think about it anymore.

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : [Elisabeth tries to speak]  Shh. No, shh. Baby, listen to me. I only want what's best for you. Trust me. Do you? Hmm? Like you always did?

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : [Elisabeth smiles nodding up and down]  Then don't ever think about any of this again.

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : [Elisabeth's face suddenly freezes]  I know, I know, it was an awful thing. A terrible, terrible thing. But thinking about it won't help it, so... close your eyes.

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : [General Campbell lowers his head closer to Elisabeth as she pulls her head back, in a low voice General Campbell whispers as Elisabeth has a tear run down]  It never happened. None of this... ever happened.

  [General Campbell then kisses Elisabeth's forehead as she tries to turn her head away] 

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : [in the present]  Not my finest hour.

• [General Campbell asks Brenner is he's a soldier or a policeman] 

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : Look, let me be blunt. You're going to have to decide on this one, Paul - Are you a soldier or a policeman?

  Brenner : I'm a soldier, sir.

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : I'm counting on it.

• [Brenner tells General Campbell about the first time he met the General] 

  Brenner : Sir. When I enlisted I was underage. They - They sent me straight to Vietnam, and you were my commander. You were a captain, and I - I was so scared. And one day when I was on watch, you came by and... And - And you saw the fear. You... You said, um, 'Well, where you from? And I said, 'Boston'. And you said, 'Did you know that last night the Boston Red Sox won against the St. Louis Cardinals in the sixth game of the series'? And you just walked away. Well, I knew - I knew then that, I was gonna get through it.

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : Boston lost that series.

  Brenner : Yes, but I made it home. We'll find the son of a bitch, sir.

• [Brenner tells General Campbell and Colonel Fowler his theory of the murder] 

  Brenner : I got to thinking, what if I was wrong. What if it wasn't the same car three times, but three different cars?

  Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell : That's certainly an interesting theory, but what difference does it make since Moore is dead?

  Brenner : Probably none, sir. But then it got me thinking of your daughter and what she told me she taught. 'Mostly, we fuck with people's minds', she said.