All language subtitles for The.Better.Angels.2014.1080p.WEBRip.x265-RARBG-

[RUNNING WATER]

[BIRD SQUAWKING]

DENNIS HANKS:
Want to know
what kind of boy he was?

Well,

I myself, his cousin,

am the only one living
that knowed him that early.

Knowed him
the day he was born.

Lived with him most
of the time until he was 21

and left home for good.

[BIRD SQUAWKS]

[BIRD CHIRPING]

[CHOPPING WOOD]

[SANDING WOOD]

DENNIS: His pappy
didn't drink,

swear,

play cards,

and them were drinking,
cussing, quarrelsome days.

This big old Injun...

Comes running
out of the woods.

And he's got that paint
all over his face

and he grabs me and
he reaches down
and picks me up...

He lines him up,

nice and steady like,

'cause it ain't no squirrel.

Shot rings out

and your uncle, Josiah...

DENNIS: A little slab of bacon
with hoe cake...

[TALKING INDISTINCTLY]

[IMITATES GUNSHOT]

DENNIS: A little cornbread
and milk every day.

[LAUGHING]

He said he
never had a prettier target.

DENNIS: And he was satisfied.

[PUFFING]

You hoe?

Yes.

Do it right.

NANCY: [WHISPERING]
What did you read today?

ABE: About Noah.

He lived to be 950.

Will you stay with me?

NANCY: I'm right here.

DENNIS: She couldn't
read or write none.

Had to make her mark instead.

Cousin could.

Taught hisself.

[RUNNING WATER]

She was a believer.

Now you can mark your place
in your book.

DENNIS: She knew so much of
what she believed was yonder.

Always yonder.

Every day came scrubbin',

washin',

there was so little time to sing or think about the glory.

Her mind and his
seemed to run together.

Look!

What happens is the wind comes

and it blows real hard

and then the seeds rain down
and they're
laying in the earth

and then they grow up.

We should move to a place
where he can be schooled.

I've prayed on this.

Boy has more to learn
here than any school house.

He asks questions
I can't answer.

He's got a gift.

Can't turn our backs
on what God has given us.

I know best.

[SCRAPING]

[THUDDING AND CLANGING]

[CHAIR SCRAPING THE FLOOR]

[FIRE CRACKLING]

[DOG PANTING]

I remember when you were born.

I wrapped you up in
a bear skin
and we slept by the fire.

When you cried

it was your papa who got up
and tended to you.

I watched him hold you...

And I knew that no one
would ever care
for you more.

[FAINT SINGING]

[TURKEY GOBBLING]

We're always bragging
about it. You go a mile,
half a mile back that way.

I don't remember you.

Trevor says,

"What in tarnation you doing
yelling, 'loafer,'
when a fella's passing?"

Runkin says,

"What in tarnation
are you doing passing when
a fellow's yelling, 'Hello'?"

[LAUGHING HEARTILY]

Oh, boy. [LAUGHS]

Swoop up.

Should I?[LAUGHS]

Go. Go.

Over your mama's head.

[LAUGHING]

DENNIS: I was 18.

My folks was dead.

I like it.

I went with
the Sparrow family.

Same folks that
raised cousin's mama.

We lit out for Indiana.

Yes, sir.

[LAUGHING]

Kentucky was
getting stuck up.

Where we heading?

No place for
poor folk anymore.

There's a frog!Catch him!

That's my name.

It don't look
a thing like you.

[GRUNTS]

[SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE]

DENNIS: He was
sharper than me.

He'd learned Henry Clay's
speeches by heart.

Get him by the arms.

Oh!

He took to writing
on the floor.

Think I can get it?

The fence rails,

the wood and fire shovel.

All with a bit of charcoal.

Let's kick them like that.

[LAUGHS]

It pestered his pappy
a heap to having him
writin' all over everything.

He was just wrapped up in it.

Okay.

Lock your fingers,

bring 'em around,

go like this right here.
You ready?

[BIRD CALLING]

[BIRD CALLING FAINTLY]

You're getting it.[BIRD CALLING LOUDER]

[BIRD CALLING]

[BIRD CALLING]

[WHISTLES]

Might be bad water.

[SNORTING]

[WHISPERING]

Ain't no one to drink
from the well no more.

[WOOD CHOPPING]

All my cows are gone.

[GROANS]

All of them.

You too.

Both of you.

Go on.

It's a plague.

There's nothing you can do.

The last of days.

It's all prophesied.

We'll all be buried
by the end of the week.

[LAUGHS]

All gone.

Gone.

We should pray.

For what?

For ourselves.

[OMINOUS MUSIC]

DENNIS: The cows ate
the poisoned weed.

We got milk sick.

One week, they were gone.

Will you get it, too?

No.

NANCY: Don't worry.

[SLOSHING]

[LAUGHS]

[INHALES SHARPLY]

[OMINOUS MUSIC]

[SHIVERING]

[MOUTH HARP PLAYING]

[CROW CAWING]

Shh.

Mama.Shhh.

It's been such a long time.

[THUNDER]

ABE: Please, Mama.

You're a good boy.

[GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING]

[WHEEZING]

TOM: Take her, Lord.

She was yours from the
beginning.

Forgive her for her sins,

though she committed none.

[RAIN FALLING]

[GUNSHOT]

DENNIS: Uncle wasn't worth
shucks that winter.

He put the corn in
in the spring.

Left us to tend to it.

He lit out for Kentucky.

We can't go on like this.

DENNIS: We knowed
what he went for.

Look after yourselves and
don't let our crops
go to waste.

DENNIS: We didn't think
he'd have any luck,

being as poor as he was.

[WATER BOILING]

SALLY: I can't cook like Mama.

Tastes real good.

DENNIS: Me and him got her
a baby coon

and a turtle.

We tried to get a fawn,

but we couldn't catch it.

It makes me think of her.

[WIND BLOWING]

[MAJESTIC MUSIC PLAYING]

DENNIS: He wrote a letter
to our reverend from Kentucky.

Told him that his mama
went without a proper burial.

REVEREND ELKINS: [READING]
"...a long eternity of love.

"Not a sparrow
falls to the ground
without His direction,

"much less a person.

"For we are of more
value than a sparrow

"and know that He is God."

REVEREND ELKINS: Be strong.

Can't fall into despair.

[DEEP BREATHS]

[CRYING]

[BIRDS CHIRPING]

TOM: Get over
and say, "How do."

Pleased to meet you.

This is Tilda.

Johnny.

TOM: Grab a load.

Take it on in.

Come on.

TOM: Bless this food, Lord,
and the hands that made it.

We've endured many
a hard time, Heavenly Father.

You seem good to us now.

Let us live, happily.

Good to see you again.
Thank you.Thanks for dropping them off.

DENNIS: She was a widow.

She'd been fending for herself for a while now.

SALLY: I snuck out of the house and she was outside, watering the horses.

She went back in the house.
I went in there
and snuck out on the porch,

and she had locked the doors.

[LAUGHING]

And I scared her
and she got scared.

Do you pray?

At night?

Do you pray
for her every night?

Not too tight.

DENNIS: Sister was always
a say nothin' little gal.

A couple times.

DENNIS: With eyes like an owl.

Angle it.

DENNIS: She'd chirped right up
with a new mother

and a sister for company.

That was my dress, Mama.

Ten steps.

Nine, ten.

[LAUGHING]

[CHEERS]

[ALL LAUGHING]

DENNIS: I was glad she had
some good times.

[READING]
"A singular number...

"Expresses.""Expresses..."

"Three...""Plural."

"We may..."

DENNIS: She married
pretty young.

Died with her first baby.

I reckon' it was
like her mama.

She didn't have no cure.

She asked if
we'd seen her trinket.

Empty your pockets.

It's nothing.DENNIS: Didn't mean
nothing by it.

I said,
empty your pockets.

Please, Tom.

I don't want this.

Go wash up.

[THUNDERING]

Go on.

Run off.

No one keeping you here.

I see you,

keep your distance.

Burying like hell
at suppertime.

Your mama
saw something in you.

She thought you was blessed.

That you was smart.

You see,
I've always known it to be

that men who are smarter than
you don't got to act like it.

He don't have to show no one
he's better than them,
he just is.

You're like this corn,

you're all closed up.

You won't break free,
you won't come out.

Seed can't stay
in the ground forever, son.

It has to grow

and give.

Don't you like
having a mama again?

Sometimes I forget
what Mama looks like.

That ever happen to you?

[LAUGHS]

Can you do it?

[LAUGHS]

Your eyes closed?

Ooh!

SARAH: I'll never take
your mother's place.

But I'll love you
like she did.

If you choose to love me less,

I'll still love you the same.

[TOM SINGS UNDER HIS BREATH]

♪ Augment our swells

♪ Our tones refine

♪ Performance ours
The glory thine ♪

[CHUCKLES]

JOHNNY: He doesn't say much.

He thinks he's better than us.

SARAH: That's not true.

He talks to himself.

I've seen it.

He's strange.

He's your brother.

Drop it!

Come on!

Come on!

[GROWLING]

Let go of the stick.

[LAUGHS]

Come on.

DENNIS: Found a dead coon.

[WHISTLES]

Couldn't get it off.

The dog made a beeline
for the woods.

Wild dog scenting coon,

tracked the
little animal home,

speedily demolished him.

You do it?No, sir.

You do it?No, sir.

I did it.

[WHIP LASHING]

How'd your husband die?

Bad water.

Were you scared?

Yes.

Scared for him.

Scared to be alone.

Are you sad still?

In a different way.

I'll always miss him.

He was a sweet man.
A good father.

But I have a new life now.

A good one.

[BELLS TOLLING]

[FIRE CRACKLING]

Strong, sturdy...

DENNIS: Everyone was
real pleased to have
a new house for worship.

I can't think of
a better man for the job.

The Reverend asked
his pappy to build it.

It was an honor.

REVEREND ELKINS:
If we call to mind
our beginning,

some of us may find
a time where

our fathers were under
affliction and suffering.

The wilderness in which
our fathers passed the days

of their pilgrimage
are now pleasant fields.

[BELLS TOLLING]

This was not done
to be buried in oblivion,

but to prepare a people

for a greater destiny.

And the remembrance of that

ought to humble us
and create in us

a Christian benevolence

towards our inferiors.

Whoever supports
the cause of some,

promotes the good of all.

[PLAYING UPBEAT MUSIC]

No time!

I want to live on the river.

On a flat boat!

[WHISTLES]

[WHISTLES]

[WHISTLES]

[BIRD CALLING]

[WHISTLES]

[BIRD CALLING]

[LAUGHING]

[LAUGHING]

JOHNNY: That a
snapping turtle?

It'll bite you on the finger,

won't let go
till it turns dark, neither.

Try.

SALLY: Ain't you
gonna do something?

JOHNNY: From here to here.

Come on!

No!

Come on!

Come on!

DENNIS: Never seen
you fight like that.

[LAUGHING]

I want you to finish the
firewood before you go too,
don't want to be without it.

DENNIS: His pappy
sent him to a tannery.

Don't want you to be hungry.

It would take him three days.

He'd never been gone
like that before...

Alone.

She didn't talk all evening.

Just worked.

Stayed by herself.

She didn't have
no education herself.

But she knowed what
learning could do for folks.

SARAH: A new
school's been built.

Only 5 miles from here.

DENNIS: She'd do
anything for him.

[BELL CLANGING]

MR. CRAWFORD: Single file.

Armstrong?Present.

Goslin?Present.

Fagen?Present.

Gore?Present.

Peckington?

Merritt?Present.

ALL: Our father who art
in heaven,

hallowed be thy name.

CHILDREN: Thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,

in Earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day
our daily bread

and forgive us
our trespasses...

...as we forgive them...MR. CRAWFORD: Speed
doesn't matter,

neatness does.

In soft strokes.

MR. CRAWFORD: Better."Neb-a..."

MR. CRAWFORD:
"Nebuchadnezzar."

"Full of..." [STRUGGLES]

MR. CRAWFORD: "Fury."

"And the form
of the visage..."

MR. CRAWFORD: Whose visage?

BOY: I-E-D.

CHILDREN: Delaware,
Pennsylvania, New Jersey,

[CHILDREN RECITING]

Massachusetts, Maryland...

MR. CRAWFORD:
Be without malice

or envy.

Scoff at no one.

Love learnin'.[CHILDREN LAUGHING]

MR. CRAWFORD: Be cheerful.

ABE: Go![LAUGHING]

Go, go, go![LAUGHING]

Oh, no![LAUGHING CONTINUES]

[CHILDREN LAUGHING]

MR. CRAWFORD: Hear,

and answer.

You tell me,

where's your spirit?

How do you know it's there?

CHILD: I feel it.

What did Jesus do when he
was young?

Worked in his father's shop.

MR. CRAWFORD:
What was his mind doing?

"It came to pass
as he was alone, praying.

"His disciples were with him

"and he asked them, saying,

"'Who say the people
that I am?'

"They answered and said..."

Then he tried to stop
and come back,

well when he did this,

he came back and hit his
head on the wall.

MR. CRAWFORD:
Just shake my hand.

DENNIS: I ain't no scholar.

Firm, yeah, that's good.
Keep your head up.

Do it again. Very good.

You could smile,
it won't hurt ya.

DENNIS: I asked him where'd he
get so many blamed lies.

He told me when a story learns you a good lesson,

it ain't no lie.

God tells truth in parables.

MR. CRAWFORD: I was struck by
his honesty the other day.

I saw a buck's horn hangin'
against the wall

that was broken off,

thought some of
the boys did it,

so, the next day

when they all got still,
I asked 'em,

"Who done it?
Who broke it off?"

And he said, "I did it."

Takes the blame
all to himself,

won't put any on anybody else.

He won't stay in
these woods forever,

and even if he keeps on in
Spencer County,

he won't be a back woodsman
for long.

Now, as immigration is going
on now, by the time he's

30 years old, it'll be a whole
different world.

MR. CRAWFORD:
He'll make his mark.

[CHILDREN LAUGHING]

ABE: [READING]
"I came down to Friday

"and asked him if he would
stay by me.

"He was very cheerful."

[LAUGHING]

"He would die when I bid die."

[SQUEALING]

[WHISTLING]Here, boy! Come on, keep up!

[SARAH LAUGHING] Oh!

DENNIS: And when he'd come to
the house at night,

he'd tilt the chair
by the chimney

and sit on his backbone
and read.

ABE: Where did that come from?

The jungle.

DENNIS: She always put
a candle

on the mantelpiece for him.

His pappy'd just shoo him
off to bed.

She said it didn't bother
her none.

MR. CRAWFORD:
He's a fast learner.

Interested in everything.

I'd like to tutor him here,
in fact,

on days away from school.

TOM: You was in the war.

Nothin's ever the same since,
I bet.

Takin' odd jobs,

never had no
proper learnin' yourself.

I'll pay you in corn and odds.

If you want more,

you're gonna have to take it
someplace else.

Well I don't want payment.

I brought two books for him.

JOHNNY: I'm ready.

TOM: Who wants this?
Come on, get it on.

[EXHALES]TOM: You're up next.

Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa!

All right, nice work there.

Come here.
I want to show you again.

Come on, push harder!
Come on. That's it.

See come on. Come again.

Get down low. Yeah.
That's nice.

All right, you're up now,
come on.

You and me.

Get your hand up there strong,
put it out strong.

All right, see?

Get a grip on me so you can
feel me now, can't ya?

And you got that other hand,

you're looking
to get in there,

trying to work that leg.

Come on, I got you all tangled
up now, see?

Come on, start again,
start again.

[GRUNTS] Come on.

Look, oh! He's got him.
He's got him now.

Come on,
you can't get like that.

Don't give me your back.

Come on, I ain't finished yet.
Come on.

That's it. Try to
knock me down. Nice work.

You're tying me up. Good.

That's good. That's good!

[LAUGHING]

JOHNNY: My pappy got real
sick and died.

Sure glad to have another one.

Yours is real nice.

DENNIS: Everybody
runs him down.

Never gave him credit for
what he was.

He made a good living.

His pap kept his word.

He paid his way.

Couldn't say that of
every man.

Not even today.

When men are decent-er
than they used to be.

Found 'em.

You found 'em, son. Keep 'em.

I wanna be as strong as you.

You're a good boy.

Your ma would be real
proud of you.

I ain't

a fair man.

Not to nobody.

You always looked out for you
and your sister.

You're gonna be
twice the man I am.

[FAINT SINGING]

[LAUGHING]

One, two, three,

four, five, six, seven...

[LAUGHING]

Three, four, five,

six, seven, eight...

Ah!ABE: Hey! You cheat!

Now, it's your turn.Two, three,

four, five, six...

JOHNNY: What it means when you
hear locusts nearby

is somebody died and their
soul is risin'.

It's true.

My dad told me that once.

DENNIS: There ain't nothin'
worth talkin' about.

Nobody worth much talkin' to.

Since he's gone.

My God.

I had to go out to the farm

to tell her.

She was living on there,

alone.

I knowed they'd kill him.

I'd been waiting for it.

She never asked no questions.

I reckon she thought she'd
soon join him.