I can think of a lot of things to call Saito, but "reasonable"... that's a new one.
Read more Shears QuotesFrom: The Bridge on the River Kwai
Colonel Saito: English prisoners... let us ask the question... "Why does the bridge not progress?" You know why. Because your officers are lazy! They think themselves too good to share your burdens! This is not just. Therefore, you are not happy in your work. Therefore, the bridge does not progress. But there is another cause. I do not hide the truth. With deep shame and regret, I admit to you the failure of a member of the Japanese staff. I refer to Lieutenant Mioura.Colonel Saito: He is a bad engineer! He is unworthy of command!Colonel Saito: Therefore, I have removed him from his post. Tomorrow we begin again. I shall be in personal command. Today we rest. All work and no play make Jack a dull boy. As token of regard for your efforts in the future... I give presents to you all!Colonel Saito: Let us be happy in our work. Company, dismissed.
Maj. Warden: Kill him... Kill him!Major Shears: KILL HIM! KILL HIM!
Maj. Warden: You'll go on without me. That's an order. You're in command now, Shears.Commander Shears: You make me sick with your heroics! There's a stench of death about you. You carry it in your pack like the plague. Explosives and L-pills - they go well together, don't they? And with you it's just one thing or the other: destroy a bridge or destroy yourself. This is just a game, this war! You and Colonel Nicholson, you're two of a kind, crazy with courage. For what? How to die like a gentleman, how to die by the rules - when the only important thing is how to live like a human being!... I'm not going to leave you here to die, Warden, because I don't care about your bridge and I don't care about your rules. If we go on, we go on together.