Original subtitles

From Television City in Hollywood.

Scratch it out.

I don't remember you reserving this room.

Sure is a dumb Peyton.

His arm is twice as long as his body.

Get lost.

Man, that's the dumbest Peyton I've ever seen.

Why'd you make his arm so long, J .J.? Why don't you get lost?

Now you know, ain't nobody got an arm that long.

I warned you, girl. I got one nerve left and you dancing on that.

twice as long as the body.

You're going to have a lip twice as fat as your face.

Okay, fine. I'm going to say another word.

Good.

Except ain't nobody got an arm that long.

An arm this long is going to stretch out and bust you in your big mouth.

All right, JJ.

Well, then tell him to stop bothering me while I'm painting.

Leave him alone, tell him.

That's a nice painting, JJ.

Real nice.

Son, don't you think his arm's too long?

You know, the other night they had a movie on TV about Van Gogh.

The guy that cut off his ear.

And you know why he cut off his ear? Because his mother and sister kept

in it.

And you know why he left the other ear?

So his mama would have something to box when he got sassy.

You stop laughing and make yourself useful. Go get the clothes off the bed.

I did the beds.

Florida, would you mind getting the rest of the clothes yourself?

Oh, thank you, Florida.

I don't know what I'd do without you.

Okay, I'll get them. That's all right. Go on with your painting. I like to see

you paint.

Mama, someday I'm going to make you famous.

You know that painting, Whistler's Mother? Well, someday I'm going to paint

of you just like that. You know, hang it in a museum.

I wouldn't mind being like...

At least she got a chance to sit down.

Hi, gang.

Hi, Wilona.

Oh, Thelma. I got something I know you'd be interested in. There's an article in

there about your main man, Billy D. Williams.

Oh, thanks, Wilona.

You won't thank me when you read it. It's all about how happy he is with his

wife.

about marrying Errol Flynn.

You've got to be kidding. Errol Flynn?

My name would have had a nice ring to it.

Florida Flynn.

But Errol Flynn was white, Ma.

Honey, in my days, those were the only stars we had to dream about.

It was either Errol Flynn and Clark Gable or Steppenfetch and Rochester.

mess with me, I'll tell her.

Uh, we'll, uh, tell on each other.

I don't care. My children know my age. I also know your weight.

My lips are sealed.

Oh!

What is it because we're off the project's painting today?

Ooh! Hey, don't you think that... I know.

The arm's too long for the body.

No, the body is too short for the arm.

He better do it. When you're rich and famous, you can hire somebody to explain

it to me.

back for another two hours.

Michael, come here.

Now answer me.

What are you doing home?

I got suspended.

Suspended? For what?

Nothing. That's what I used to always get suspended for.

Michael, a good student like you don't get suspended for nothing. Now why were

you sent home?

Because I'm black.

I want the truth, Michael Evans. Daddy! It's the truth, Mama. I am black.

Michael, I want to know why you were sent home, and I want to know now.

I said something my teacher, Mrs. Danvers, didn't like.

What? I told her that George Washington was a white racist.

What? Well, he was, Mama. He owned slaves.

You little squirt. When do you come off calling the father of our country a

racist?

Where'd you pick up such trash?

In a library.

In a book on black history.

Well, you still don't say things like that about George Washington.

If you had to insult somebody, you should have played it safe and picked on

somebody like Benedict Arnold.

Mama, I was just telling it like it is. Look, boy, I don't... Mama, boy is a

white, racist word.

This child is so black, I'm going to have to lead a protest march before

say I'm his mama.

Michael, I want you to go right back to that school and apologize.

Why? Tell them the truth. Mama, I'm quitting school. I'm going to get a job.

Oh, come on, Gramps.

Now, don't make a big hassle out of this. Go on back to school and apologize

like your mama said.

Yeah, because Daddy's going to be home soon, tired and grouchy from working all

night. You better not let him see you here.

I don't care. I'm not going to school just to learn what they teach.

Then play it my way.

Go to school and don't learn nothing.

mouth of yours for eating, J .J.

Honey,

I thought you wanted to go to college and be a lawyer.

I do. Mama, someday I'm going to sit on the Supreme Court.

If your father catches you here, you ain't going to be able to sit anywhere.

Honey, in Washington's time, lots of people owned slaves.

You got no call to be disrespectful to George Washington because he owned

slaves?

He's a great man. He was our first president.

He wasn't our president. He was their president.

No, Michael. He was our president, too.

They're all our presidents.

Why do you think so many black folks are named after presidents?

Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, Roosevelt, every president. It's

because they were all our presidents, too.

Ain't no blacks named Nixon.

I am telling you. Grams, come on. Go on back to school.

No. Okay.

If you don't take back what you said about George Washington, your father is

going to make sure you have a Betsy Ross behind.

Red, black, and blue.

Mama, I'm ready to take my punishment. I knew when I was born black, life wasn't

going to be easy.

When you were born, you didn't know you was black.

J .J. Thelma, take him in there and see that he stays in there even if you have

to sit on him.

Come on, Michael, it's for your own good.

Mama, I still say I didn't do anything wrong. I didn't do nothing wrong.

I knew that child was stubborn from the time I carried him in my belly.

J .J. and Thelma just kicked. He stomped.

Well, you've got yourself an 11 -year -old Nat Turner.

You better get him back to school and fast. you can keep this from James just

long.

I feel just like those people in California.

They know an earthquake is coming, but they don't know what the heck to do

it.

Whoops. Well, here's your earthquake now, honey.

Good luck.

Hi, James. I was just leaving.

That's all right by me.

I ain't in no mood to listen to the Rona Barrett of the projects this morning.

Got your bed ready. You can go right to sleep.

Hey, wait a minute.

What kind of kiss is that for a man that's been working a 16 -hour gig, huh?

Oh, I'm sorry.

That's more like it. Come on now, let's go beddy -bye.

Beddy -bye?

Later for beddy -bye. Why don't you get me a beer?

You sure you want one before you go to sleep?

You know how they run through you. You'll be up before you're down.

Just get the beer, baby. I'll take my chances.

Daddy, ain't you asleep yet?

What's going on here? How come everybody's in such a big hurry to get

to sleep? Because we know how tired you are.

Michael, you come back here. No.

I'm sorry, Mama. I turned my back for a minute and he escaped.

Now, what the hell's happening here?

Now, Michael, what you doing home from school so early?

I got suspended.

You what?

I got suspended.

Lord. I know you busy, but this is top priority.

I need help, and I need help quick.

One of the greatest presidents we ever had, and you called him a racist?

Well, he was.

Why, you militant midget, you.

Where do you get all the bad mouth from the man whose picture's on our $1 bill?

He shaped the dollar bills in. He sure couldn't afford to buy no slaves now.

I ain't in the mood for none of your jokes, J .J. Just trying to ease the

tension.

Why don't you ease back into Thelma's room, all of you, because I want to talk

to your mother alone.

What you hanging around for?

You gonna have a fight with Mama, ain't you? You better believe it. Well, I

think I should stick around because I'm the subject.

I'll have my words with you later. Now, get.

Florida, were you trying to hide all this from me?

I wasn't trying to hide nothing from you, James. I was just trying to solve

problem without bothering you. You got enough on your mind. Now, look here,

woman. I'm the father of those kids. Never deny it, Doug.

Any problems be solved around here, I'll do it. It don't make no difference how

busy I am. I want to know what's going on in this house every minute. You got

me? You want all the details?

Damn right. Okay.

I woke up at 7 .05.

I got out of the bathroom at 7 .10.

At 7 .15, I made hot oatmeal for the kids. At 7 .40, I washed your shirts. At

.10, I went shopping. All right, now what I'm talking about is... And I can't

finish detailing yet.

but it was too expensive, so I moved on over to the baloney.

Now, look here.

I want to talk to you about solving these problems.

If you don't think shopping is a problem, try going with me sometime.

While they got the whole world watching the price of gas, they are sneaking food

prices up again.

Okay, so we both got it tough.

is easy working two jobs, eight hours in a greasy spoon, busting suds, and eight

hours in a car wash, and in a greasy spoon, everybody orders eggs and leaves

dried egg yolk on their plates?

Baby, have you ever tried scraping dried egg yolk off of 200 plates?

So don't tell me about your problems, woman. I got enough of my own.

I don't know.

That's how come I didn't tell you about Michael.

Michael?

That's what we're supposed to be arguing about in the first place.

I don't know.

I guess we both were so upset about Michael that we started snapping at each

other for no reason.

You're right, baby.

Now, about the suspension.

What are we going to do about getting him unsuspended?

All he's got to do is apologize to Ms. Danvers, but that stubborn little mule

won't do it.

Maybe you leave that to me here.

Michael, get your butt out of here!

See, there's some things only a father can handle.

and Michael, what you two doing out here? I'm the attorney for the defense.

Tell me he'll act as court stenographer.

Michael, this is what we're going to do tomorrow.

I'm going to take off from work for a few hours and you and me are going to go

down to that school and you're going to apologize to Mrs.

Danvers. Nope.

No.

Did you say no?

You're going to talk that way to me?

Now, does that make sense to you?

Yep.

Daddy, I got nothing to be ashamed of. You can beat me all you want to, but I'm

not apologizing. I claim innocence for my client on the grounds of insanity.

Now, sir, when you mess up in school, you're messing with something serious.

Now, you march your behind back in that room, and you got exactly ten minutes to

change your mind, or you're going to get a whipping that you're going to

remember for the rest of your life.

Now, get.

Hey, James, can a friend have a vote?

Now, stay out of this, Walona. This is between me and my son.

I know. Grant's not care what happens to him.

He's just being a little stubborn now. He'll get over it. I'm going to help him

get over it.

Florida, not only did he show disrespect to George Washington, but he also

showed disrespect to his teacher and to me. And I'm not going to have that.

Yeah, some teacher.

I had that Mrs. Danvers in the sixth grade. She was 20 years behind the times

then, and just sitting there waiting for her retirement.

Yeah, I had her in sixth grade, too.

Twice.

Talk about fat.

Somebody put a tack on her chair one day, and it took her 15 minutes to jump

off.

Yeah, you should see the way she runs her class.

Good morning, class.

Today we're going to learn some facts about American history.

when this was an all -Indian neighborhood.

James, that's the trouble in the projects today. There's just too many

and not enough good teachers to go around.

Yeah, well, maybe so, but it's the only game in town.

And I don't want Michael getting out of line, him of all people. I mean, he's

got too good a future for that.

So you're going to beat the future out of him, huh?

No, baby, I just want to teach the boy to have some respect for authority.

Now, you're going back in the room and tell your brother you got exactly two

minutes.

Well, I guess there's nothing else for me to say, is there?

Not unless you want to share Michael's paddling.

Well, this is Rhoda Barrett of the Projects with a word of advice to

Get back to your own apartment.

What's the big deal about apologizing? You don't have

to mean it. I ain't giving up my principles.

You're going to be giving up a lot of skin.

Like I told you before, Michael, when it comes to getting suspended, you ain't

in for no ordinary whipping.

You're going to get the VIP job.

Very intense pain.

Michael, if you apologize, I'll give you my autographed picture of Billy Dee

Williams.

Hey, did he lead any protest marches? No, I don't think so. I ain't

Michael, maybe you're right about George Washington.

But George already made his farewell speech.

No reason you making yours.

Listen to J .J. He might not ever be right again.

Selma, J .J., I love y 'all both, but nothing's going to change my mind.

And you're supposed to be the small one in the family.

You get good grades in school, but you get an F in survival.

of points how to get through one of daddy's triple a specials now first we

you over his knee get one of them so full what did i do you can

pull it off but you got that sweet innocent face

personally it never worked for me yeah michael it helps to cry a lot that's

i always do try men don't cry at whippings don't cry just grow

like the world's coming to an end. That usually cuts down on the beating time

considerably.

I intend to suffer in silence.

Well, go ahead and suffer, but do yourself a favor.

Yell!

Yeah, Dad's gonna say, this hurts me as much as it hurts you.

Make him believe it.

He's had his time.

James, please. Now, baby, this is something I got to do now.

Lord, make that child's hide a little tougher.

And make James' belt a little softer.

All right, you two, out.

Well, I got one last thing to say to you, Michael.

Better you than me.

split, you're gonna be next.

Well, Michael?

Hey!

Now, don't rush me.

Might as well get it over with.

Well, I'll set the pace around here if you don't mind.

Now, before I do what I got to do, at least give me a chance to explain why

doing it.

You see this hand, son?

What do they mean to you?

They're the ones that's going to hit me.

I mean these calluses, Michael.

Son, that's why I want you to finish school, so your hands don't never have

look like this.

That's why I don't take no excuses when you mess up in school.

I'd rather you be hurt a little bit now than hurt for the rest of your life. You

understand me?

Now, what the hell is your big hurry?

One of my heroes, Christmas Addicts, wasn't afraid when his turn came.

Now, who was... Crispus Attucks. He was a black man. He was the first man to die

in the Revolutionary War.

One of us fought in the Revolutionary War?

More than one.

There was Peter Salem.

He was the hero at Monkey Hill.

Well, I'll be damned.

But the school don't teach you about that, and they also don't teach you

Dr. Daniel Hale Williams. He did the first open -heart surgery in this

Or about Pedro Alonso Nino, who was... Oh, now, wait a minute now.

couldn't be no brother.

Well, he was.

He sailed with Columbus.

A spook sailed with Columbus?

He did the rowing, didn't he?

He was a navigator.

You know what, son? Next Columbus Day, I'm taking off from work.

Baby,

did you know a spook sailed with Columbus?

over the South Pole, East Pole, and West Pole.

Michael, where'd you learn all that stuff from? In my black history book.

Son, what made you go to the black history book?

Well, Mama, there was nothing about us in the other one, and I just knew we had

to have done something in this world.

But you wouldn't have gone to the black book if you hadn't read the other one.

I don't understand.

What I'm trying to say is, if you hadn't found something wrong,

In the first book you was reading, you would never go to the second book.

School ain't perfect, you know.

But that's no call to drop it.

It's got a lot of good in it.

You take that good and use it.

You understand?

Yeah, son, you suck it dry of all the knowledge you can.

If that ain't enough, then you get some more. But you get what's there.

Michael, you can't drop out.

We ain't even dropped in yet.

And there's one more thing I want to say to you, son.

I want to apologize for wanting to give you a whipping.

Daddy, you're apologizing to me?

Mm -hmm.

Well, if you can do that, I can go back to school and apologize to Mrs.

Danvers tomorrow.

Well, all right. Now, that's my man.

my black history book. I gotta take it back to the library tomorrow.

Must be where you left it.

Beats me.

Hey, Thelma, you see my black history book?

No.

I've got enough troubles reading about Billy Dee Williams' happy marriage.

Hey, JJ, you see my black history book? Back off, Jack.

It's gotta be around here someplace.

Hey, baby, you see what it says here in Michael's history book?

Daddy, I...

Yeah, well, you can just get it renewed, mister, because I ain't finished with

it yet.

Maybe it says here that Alexander Dumas, you remember the guy that wrote The

Three Musketeers, said he was black.

He was.

If he was black, he sure blew it.

He sure named those three dudes Jimmy Brown, Shaft, and Superfly.

Just looking out of the window.

Watching the asphalt road.

Thinking how it all looks when we die.

Good times.

Keeping your head above water.

Making a way when you can.

Temporary layoffs. Good times.

Good times is recorded on tape before a live audience.

Repair and Synchronization by Easy Subtitles Synchronizer 1.0.0.0