"Judge Gardner: You know what nobody understands about certain kinds of low-pay public service work, every now and then you get to put a fucking stake in a bad guy's heart. I'm not supposed to talk about that when I visit third grade classes for career day and it doesn't get you very far in the country club locker room, but it's hard to beat when you actually get to do it."

"Zoe Kazan - Mona"

"Billy Burke - Lt. Rob Nunally"

"Cliff Curtis - Detective Flores"

"You look closely enough, you'll find that everything has a weak spot where it can break, sooner or later."

"Ryan Gosling - William "Willy" Beachum"

"Fiona Shaw - Judge Robinson"

"Knowledge is pain."

"Nicely done, Willy. Truly. A regular chain of evidence. Great stuff. Vivid. Heartbreaking. The victim cries out from beyond the grave. Yeah. Jurors love all that sort of crap, don't they? I bet you don't even need a confession anymore, do you, Willy? I tell you what, though, old sport. Let's make you a new one just in case. The real deal, all the juicy details. You can get your rocks off on that, then, can't you? Huh? I shot my wife in the face, right there. She didn't look so pretty after that. And l stood there looking down at her... and l watched her eyes go all empty. I could smell the blood and the shit. Smelled like metal. And the look on his face! He was trying to get her back to life and l was pissing myself laughing... because I took both the bastards out with one fucking bullet. Yeah. And now you've got your little bullet, haven't you? Got what you want. So bring it all on, kiddo. Bring it all into court. Except you can't, can you? Let's see, now, first year law, double jeopardy. I went to trial, you lost. Oh, pity about that. It doesn't matter what you do now. It doesn't matter what you know. I mean, she could come back from the dead, you see... and testify, spill the beans, and it would mean... nothing. So you can't touch me... ever."

"Even a broken clock is right twice a day."

"It ain’t legal, but it sure as hell isn’t traitorous."

"I know Maxwell Danforth very well; he killed my wife. Not with his bare hands, of course. The Danforths of the world don't murder that way. They use words like terminate, exterminate."

"The truth is just a lie that hasn't been found out."

"What you've just witnessed is, in many ways, a life-sized video game. You saw a liar talk to a killer and you couldn't tell them apart. But hey, it's only television. As you may know, television programs are just the filler between attempts to steal your money. So if you want to save some, turn me off. It's a simple movement, done with the hand and what is left of your free will. The moment is now. My bet is you can't do it. But go ahead and try. [pause] Am I still on?"

"[the RV has just exploded, killing all four inside as Osterman and Tanner watch] And then there were two."

"Cassie Yates - Betty Cardone"

"Sandy McPeak - Stennings"

"Burt Lancaster - Maxwell Danforth"

"Christopher Starr - Steve Tanner"

"Helen Shaver - Virginia Tremayne"

"Craig T. Nelson - Bernard Osterman"

"Dennis Hopper - Richard Tremayne"

"John Hurt - Lawrence Fassett"

"What would you do if a total stranger proved to you that your three closest friends were Soviet Agents?"

"Rutger Hauer - John Tanner"

"Chris Sarandon - Joseph Cardone"

"Meg Foster - Ali Tanner"

"The first reaction was the movie was bad, and the received wisdom is that it’s worse. Peckinpah, however, was always a foe of received wisdom, and this is why: The Osterman Weekend isn’t a terrible movie. It’s not even a bad movie. It’s certainly not a great movie, but its status as the movie that literally and figuratively buried him is entirely unjust. Like Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, it’s a misunderstood, underrated film that deserves a second look, if not a complete reassessment. ... The Osterman Weekend’s themes are exactly the kind that are best suited to its convoluted, complicated story. It’s about paranoia and distrust and desperation. It’s about panic and confusion and betrayal. It’s not about reality; it’s about perception."

"Writing a defense of Sam Peckinpah’s The Osterman Weekend is doomed to failure if your goal is to prove that it’s a great movie, because it’s not. It’s clumsy, it’s poorly edited, and it takes too long to get going. But if I’ve been overzealous in trying to make it sound better than it really is, it’s only because 20 years of critics — including some of Peckinpah’s biggest defenders — have busied themselves trying to make it sound worse than it really is. It’s an accomplished film with excellent performances and extremely memorable scenes, and all the attributes a discriminating viewer would expect from a Sam Peckinpah project. He may not have gone out at the very top of his game, but neither did he go out at the bottom; when he had to go, he went down swinging."

"Think of them as fleas on a dog hit by a car driven by a drunken teenager whose girlfriend just gave him the clap. It will help you sense of perspective."

"It will be a weekend to remember...if they survive it!"

"The one weekend of the year you won't want to miss."

"The screen zeros in on the most suspenseful adventure drama of our age!"

"Frieda Altman - Mrs. Jennie Johnson"

"Hildy Parks - Betty Black"

"Nancy Berg - Ilsa Woolfe"

"Russell Hardie - Gen. Stark"

"Russell Collins - Gordon Knapp"

"Janet Ward - Helen Grady"

"Sorrell Booke - Congressman Raskob"

"William Hansen - Defense Secretary Swenson"

"Dom DeLuise - Sgt. Collins"

"Louise Larabee - Mrs. Cascio"

"Frank Overton - Gen. Bogan"

"Edward Binns - Col. Jack Grady"

"Dana Elcar - Mr. Foster"

"Henry Fonda — The President"

"Walter Matthau — Professor Groeteschele"