Country of My Skull (2004)

Samuel L. Jackson: Langston Whitfield

Photos 

Quotes 

• Col. de Jager : You want to kill me now, don't you? We're all the same. You're just like me.

  Langston Whitfield : I would love to kill you.

• Langston Whitfield : Since only whites benefited during the Apartheid system, shouldn't all whites be held accountable for the crimes committed in its name?

  Elsa Malan : We must not lose sight of the facts that whites were killed too. Many black people have also applied for amnesty.

• Langston Whitfield : Where was God when they needed him?

  Anna Malan : He was on our side.

• Dumi Mkhalipi : [to Anna after she takes a cigarette from Dumi]  You don't smoke.

  [to Whitfield after he takes a cigarette from Dumi] 

  Dumi Mkhalipi : You don't smoke.

  Anna Malan : I need a drink.

  Dumi Mkhalipi : I know a place.

  Langston Whitfield : I got a car.

• Langston Whitfield : Look, Mr. de Jager, they've thrown you to wolves. You're going down. Wouldn't you like to take them down with you?

  Col. de Jager : [puts his hand on Whitfield's shoulder]  Precisely. Say, we have a common purpose. Let us exploit each other, Mr. Whitfield.

• Langston Whitfield : You never finished telling me about African justice. What exactly does Ubuntu mean?

  Anna Malan : It means we're all connected. What hurts you, hurts me. What affects you, affects me, what affects everyone.

• Anna Malan : I'm not talking about skin.

  Langston Whitfield : Well, I am. See, skin is everything. It's all about skin. Skin is what draws the line in the sand.

• Anna Malan : I'm African.

  Langston Whitfield : No. No, no, no, no, no. Not in my book. And definitely not in any Tarzan movies I ever saw.

  Anna Malan : I belong to this continent.

  Langston Whitfield : How do you belong to a continent?

  Anna Malan : I would die for it.

  Langston Whitfield : Well, I guess I don't belong anywhere then. If you're black in America, everyday of your life, you're made to feel like you don't belong. In fact, they keep trying to send us back here. Why would I die for a country where I'm not welcome?

• Anna Malan : [Platonically sharing a bed with Langston and Dumi while being stuck in the middle of nowhere]  What's so funny?

  Langston Whitfield : I was just thinking. A black man sleeping with a white woman in South Africa. A few years ago, I could have gotten life in prison for doing something like that.

  Anna Malan : What about a white woman sleeping with two black men?

  Langston Whitfield : What would you have gotten?

  Anna Malan : Well, possibly, um, a lot of satisfaction.

• Langston Whitfield : Nobody gives a shit, Dumi. As long as it's black folk getting killed, nobody gives a shit.

  Dumi Mkhalipi : It's not that simple, bro. It's not always black and white. Sometimes it's gray. Sometimes it's fucking gray.

  Langston Whitfield : Sometimes it's fucking gray?

• Sgt. Dreyer : Do you know what an Askari is?

  Langston Whitfield : Yes, I do. When you captured a guerilla.

  Sgt. Dreyer : A terrorist.

  Langston Whitfield : You beat the shit of of them until they betray their comrades, then they have nowhere else to go.

  Sgt. Dreyer : Yeah. Change sides. And they make the best killers for us.

  Langston Whitfield : Why?

  Sgt. Dreyer : They sell their souls. Betrayal. When you despise yourself, it makes it much easier to despise others, you must know that. Imagine, Langston, imagine if your people hadn't been taken across the sea. Imagine if you'd stayed in Africa. What would you've become? A terrorist? Or, an Askari?

• Langston Whitfield : Why do you think Apartheid was necessary?

  Col. de Jager : It was simple mathematics. Four million of us, Thirty million of them. When you're under constant attack from terrorists, the normal rules of the road don't apply. You have to do what you have to do.

  Langston Whitfield : Including torture.

  Col. de Jager : Correct. To get information.

• Langston Whitfield : [on the phone]  Page 7, Tony? The bottom of page fucking 7? Remember, you're the one who sent me over here. At least show me the respect of not burying what I write in the back of the goddamn paper. Too re - too remote? Since when is police brutality too remote from the lives of the American people? Oh, I'm sorry, Tony, I must be losing my mind. How can it be news when the victims are black?

• Langston Whitfield : I didn't know? No where have I heard that? You didn't know about people being electrocuted?

  Anna Malan : No.

  Langston Whitfield : Hands in bottles?

  Anna Malan : No.

  Langston Whitfield : You didn't know about tongues being pulled out?

  Anna Malan : What do you want me to say? Yes, I knew. Yes, I saw things. Is that what you want? Yes. Yes! Yes! So, I knew things! We all knew things! But, none of the fucking details.

  Langston Whitfield : You call cutting a man's hands off: details? You call shooting a woman in the vagina a *fucking* detail?

• Langston Whitfield : Don't you feel anything for the people you've injured, Colonel? No compassion? No shame?

  Col. de Jager : You talk of compassion. I see nothing but hatred in your eyes.

• Anna Malan : It's not about blame. It's about - we're trying to find the truth. South Africans want peace and we're all making compromises.

  Langston Whitfield : What compromises have you whites made? Blacks can sit on your park benches now?

• Col. de Jager : So, they sent me a black man. Well, well.

  Langston Whitfield : You - have a problem with that?

  Col. de Jager : [chuckles]  I have nothing against blacks.

• Langston Whitfield : What do you say when you come home? What do you say to your wife when you kiss her hello or pick a kid up, put him on your lap and tell him a bedtime story, huh? What do you say? I had a nice day?

  Col. de Jager : You know what you say? You know what you tell yourself after cutting a man's throat? You tell yourself you're saving your country. You're saving your country from a bunch of savages who would fuck your women, kill your children, destroy the country your forebearers created with their blood. You tell yourself, the blacks come out of this country, they'll drive it into the ground like they did all over the rest of Africa. You tell yourself, the blacks need us whites to control them; because, they're not fucking human beings.

  Langston Whitfield : This is bull shit! I've heard it all before. There's nothing new here. I wasted my time. Good night, Colonel. Fuck you, very much.