Original subtitles

*

- No!

No, stop, no!

No!

No!

No, no!

- I'm gonna get you, Charlie.

I'm gonna get you, boy!

It didn't start this morning.

It started about 30, 40 years ago.

That wasn't the first time I run from somebody.

All my life that's all I ever done

is run from people.

Made me do what they wanted me.

"Nigger this, nigger that."

And as long as I was big Charlie nigger boy,

I took it.

But there comes a day.

There comes a day.

Go inside!

Beau boutan trying to kill me!

- Oh, boy!

I know you're in there.

I've come to get you, Charlie!

I've come to get you!

Come on out here, Charlie.

Come to kill you, boy.

- Janey, did you hear that shot?

- Sure did.

- I ain't gonna stay here, mathu.

You know what fix boutan gonna do

when he find out his son is dead,

killed by somebody black.

I just can't stay with you.

- Go on, then.

Get!

- I can't stay, mathu.

They'll hang me.

I just can't stay.

- Go on.

- They're coming now.

- Mathu, what did you do?

That's fix's son Beau.

What happened?

Mathu, you answer me!

I'm afraid for you, mathu.

Mathu, you know what fix is gonna do when he finds out?

That's not just any white man lying out there, mathu.

Mathu, please.

I can't let them kill you.

Not you, mathu.

Aunt glo!

Aunt glo.

- Is your name aunt or glo?

Well, then sit and eat your turnips.

- Aunt glo!

- How come we don't eat nothing but turnips all the time?

- 'Cause I say.

- I ain't no turnip eating machine!

- Aunt glo!

- What's the matter, candy?

- Get snookum out here.

- Snookum?

- Good-bye, turnips.

- What's snookum done now?

- Hurry, aunt glo. I can't talk now.

Snookum, get over here.

Come on!

Snookum, listen to me.

I want you to run and tell yank and Jameson

and corrine and the rest of them

to gather at mathu's house right away.

Now, listen to me good now.

Now, you go up to the front,

and you tell miss merle I say come down here quick.

No--tell her to call Lou and tell Lou to get here quick.

No talking on that phone, just get here.

Now, you heard what I said, snookum?

- Mm-hmm. - Okay.

- Why I'm telling all them people to get here quick for?

- That's none of your business, snookum.

You're a child.

Now do like I said.

Get moving.

Y'all coming to mathu's house right now.

Come right now.

Bring your shotguns, all of you.

- Y'all come to mathu's.

Candy said come to mathu's.

- Mathu's? What do they want us there for?

- Hey, James, come on to mathu's house.

Bring a 12-Gauge shotgun, number five shells.

Edward, come to mathu's house now!

- Janey!

Janey!

- What's the matter with you, boy?

- Candy sent me.

Is miss merle in there?

- No, she ain't.

- Call Lou and tell him candy wants him at mathu's.

- At mathu's?

- It has something to do with Beau.

Something about Beau lying dead in mathu's yard.

- Lord have mercy.

Lord have mercy!

- You gonna give me some tea cakes?

Candy didn't pay me.

- You better get on, boy.

Go home where you're supposed to be going.

Hello, Mr. Dimes.

Lou dimes?

Yes, this is janey over at Marshall's.

Well, now, miss candy told me to call you.

She says she needs you right now.

- Me?

Well, now, that's strange.

I've known her for three years.

She never needed anybody before.

- It's got something to do

with Beau boutan being dead over there in mathu's yard.

She says she needs you.

- I'm on my way.

- Okay.

- I killed Beau, miss merle.

I shot Beau.

- Candy, what's going on down here?

And what is mathu doing with that gun?

- I don't know, miss merle.

I shot him.

But all of a sudden, mathu says he shot Beau.

And then when Ruth came,

he said he had as much reason to shoot Beau as anybody.

So he ran home and got his gun.

He says he shot Beau.

But I'm still the one that shot him.

- No.

Here in mathu's yard?

- Well, I said I did it.

But I need you to help me, miss merle.

I need more guns.

- Candy Marshall, I will do no such thing.

- No, no

now, more 12-Gauge shotguns and people.

I need more people.

- Who?

- Janey knows them.

She can call them.

Get any of them, all of them.

- So they can be killed?

- Is that what you want, blood all over this place?

- We don't have much time, miss merle,

and I want an hour's jump on mapes.

- And what about fix, candy?

What can you do about fix?

- I won't let him touch my people.

I said I did it.

Now, you tell janey to tell all the men to come here

with 12-Gauge shotguns and number five shells,

empty shells.

You tell them to fire the guns.

Now, you don't have much time.

- Candy, nobody in this parish

will ever believe you killed Beau.

- Shh.

- You can't protect mathu.

- Tell janey to wait until Lou dimes passes the house

before she calls mapes.

Well, it's done, mathu.

Can't nothing stop it now.

- Booker!

Booker, chimley!

Janey said miss merle said candy wants y'all at mathu's.

She wants y'all to bring 12-gauges

and number five shells.

- All that for what?

- Got something to do

with a white man dead in mathu's yard.

Charlie's all scared.

He run down my quarter screaming.

- He better run out of Louisiana.

- I'd done my part.

She said y'all can do like she said

or go home and crawl under your bed like you always do.

Me, I'm leaving.

- These white folks

sure know how to mess up the river, don't they?

- Yeah, fish used to come up and asked to be caught.

Come up and tug at your line

like a woman at a bedroom door.

- He works in mysterious ways, don't he?

- That's what they say.

You think mathu did it?

- He could have.

See, I remember the fight mathu and fix had.

It started over a coke bottle.

Now, when fix had drunk his coke,

he told mathu to take the empty bottle back in the store.

Mathu said, "hmm!"

He was nobody's servant.

Now, when fix told mathu to take the empty bottle

back in the store again

and mathu didn't,

fix hit him.

And the fight was on.

Mm, man, for an hour, it was toe-to-toe.

But when it was all over, mathu was up.

Fix was down.

Now, them white people tried to lynch mathu.

But sheriff wouldn't let them.

- I ain't never knowed in my time

when a black man kills a white one

and got away with it.

Not in this parish.

- Well, uh, if he did,

you know, we ought to be there, chimley.

- You got any number five shells?

- You sure now, chimley?

- How many times he stand up for us?

- Scared?

- Yeah.

About that bed, chimley:

I'm too old to go crawling under that bed.

Besides, it's too low.

- Yeah, mine ain't no higher.

- Janey!

Jack.

Jack.

Janey, who you know don't like fix?

- Ma'am?

- Don't answer me with a question, janey.

Who?

- Well, I don't know nobody do like fix.

- You got their phone numbers?

Okay, I want you to go inside, call them,

get them over to mathu's.

Hurry.

- Clatoo is somebody you can call.

Was fix set that fire put his junky store out of business.

Now I can have my peapicker.

- Oh, janey, don't you move.

We don't have time for peapickers, bea.

Beau boutan is dead in the quarter,

and candy is claiming she did it.

- Well, what can I do about it?

People die all the time.

She sure got spunk, don't she?

That's my niece.

Probably why nobody wants to marry her.

Janey, you know what time it is.

- Don't move, janey.

- Whoa.

Here on Marshall miss, I say "don't."

And I say, "do."

Okay, janey, what are you waiting for?

About time she shot one of them boutans,

messing up the land with those tractors.

Never should have leased the land to fix

in the first place.

- We don't have time for that, bea.

- His kind never loved the land,

not like our neighbors.

- Now let's go, janey.

- Don't make me do nothing like that, please, miss merle.

- Don't you tell me

don't make you do nothing like that.

Now there is a crazy white girl down in the quarter

claiming she killed a white man.

I know mathu did it, but she's gonna protect him.

And you and I are going inside, janey,

and are gonna call up everybody:

Uncle Billy and clatoo and yank and coot, everybody.

- She got spunk.

- Well, you see, I never wanted none of this,

protect your name and land.

Let my niece have it.

Let her run it.

I don't care if it goes to hell.

- Booker, you gonna tell me something

before you leave here with a shotgun.

- Go somewhere and sit down, beulah.

This is men's business.

- I'm making it my business.

- Catch him laying dead out there in mathu's yard.

Charlie a fool and the others is running.

But for once in my life,

I'm gonna be there when they come to lynch somebody.

Now you know.

- That's got nothing to do with you, booker, you old fool.

Have you gone crazy?

You think I'm gonna let you go to mathu

and get yourself killed?

I bet you your brother will stop you.

Just wait.

- Oh, no, beulah.

Now talk on that.

- What's the matter with you, you old fool?

- What's the matter with me?

All these years we've been living together, woman,

and you still don't know what's the matter with me?

All these years we done struggle

in George medlow's field,

making him richer and richer

and us getting poorer and poorer,

and you still don't know what's the matter with me?

The years I done come home drunk

and beat you for no reason at all.

All of them, woman.

All of them,

how he let him die in that hospital

just 'cause he was black?

How'd he let him bleed to death with no doctor to serve him

just 'cause he was black?

He works in mysterious ways.

Give old nigger like me

one more chance to do something with his life.

I'm going to Marshall, even if I have to die.

I know I'm old, maybe even crazy.

But there's nothing you can do about it.

- Lord have mercy.

- Pray if you want to.

Pray for all us old fools.

But woman, don't try to stop me.

Jacob.

Go get your gun.

We're going over to mathu's place.

Now hurry.

- Uh-huh.

- Old man, what's the matter with you,

you shootin' out that window like that?

- I don't know myself...

Why I'm doing things like that.

- Mm, mm, mm.

- But if them fish ain't ready for me to eat

when I get back,

I'm gonna do myself some shootin' right here.

- How you doing?

- You all shot?

- I'll save mine for the fields.

I might see me a rabbit.

Clatoo gonna be letting us off before we get to Marshall's.

- What's with all these shotguns?

- We're going hunting.

- What, this time of day?

Hunting where?

- We'll let you know when we get back.

- Y'all come to mathu's.

- What for?

- Folks say to come.

Y'all come to mathu's.

- Yank and Jacob was waiting for us by the road.

Yank was in his early 70s,

but he still thought he was a cowboy.

We all felt kind of good,

'cause we was doing something different for the first time.

We didn't do much talking.

It was just feeling proud,

proud as we could be.

- Wait for you at the graveyard, clatoo.

- Hey, you ride back with the rest of them.

- All right.

- You missed him, huh, Billy?

- He was moving.

- I hope you don't miss fix like that.

- He was moving.

- After you stumbled over him, he moved.

- Blind as a bat.

- Yeah, but now you're just laughing at me

'cause I shot that rabbit, man.

I know what that rabbit did.

Y'all laughing.

I shot the best I could.

It ain't every day you can hit a rabbit.

- I heard that before.

- I mean...

Old man gonna shoot a rabbit.

- You too?

- Hey, my man.

- How you doing? - All right.

- Good to see you.

- Yeah. - Been expecting you.

- Everything gonna be all right now.

- Remember Jessie?

- She hadn't ought to have got mixed up with no white men.

- My brother Gabe is there.

Uncle ned's in here somewhere.

- We got a whole lot of us in here.

You know, they seem to be getting rid

of more and more of these old graveyards.

Yeah.

I was the only man from this parish

that fought with the 369th infantry regiment.

That's when I went north.

369th was an all colored outfit.

We didn't fight 'sides white folks then.

Oh, we were in France and got decorated,

kissed on the jaw and all.

And I was proud.

Ooh, yes, I was proud

till I came home.

And the first white man I met, very first one,

told me I'm home now

and they didn't cotton to niggers

wearing medals for killing white folks.

That was back in world war I,

and things ain't changed one bit.

Huh, look what happened to my boy Walter

after he come home from the second world war

and they saw him with that picture of that German girl.

I mean, you all know what they did to him with them knives.

Well, this day was a long time coming.

But I reckon a lot of folks in here

will be proud of us before this day is over with.

Of course, maybe some of us might be even joining them.

- You all shot?

- Billy shot a rabbit on his foot and missed.

- Well, now everybody who ain't shot, shoot.

She told us to bring empty shells.

Now, who ain't shot yet?

- I haven't. - I haven't.

- Okay, go ahead, shoot.

Go ahead, shoot.

All right.

Now, them that want to turn back--

anybody want to turn back, you can.

There won't be nothing said.

- I tell you-- - ain't nobody--

- I'm not gonna.

- You know it could get pretty hot around there today.

- Keeping all the way.

- Everybody ready?

Okay.

Heads up, back straight.

We're going in like soldiers, not like tramps.

We're gonna let old mathu see something today.

- That's right. - Let's go.

- All right, gentlemen, in a straight line.

On your shoulders.

Forward march.

Single file now.

One behind one another.

Put your gun by your shoulders.

- We had cane,

tall and blue-green cane on both sides of the road.

This was the very land we had worked,

our families and our people had worked

since the time of slavery.

- How you doing, clatoo?

- Hi, candy.

- Hi, uncle Billy.

Thank y'all for coming.

- Yeah, how you doing?

- Put this away.

Well...

- She called for y'all.

I didn't.

The law'll come.

I'll turn myself in.

- I'm gonna turn myself in.

- You're gonna have to come after me, Jacob aguilar.

- Now, look, it was me who done it.

- I shot him.

- I did it for my brother.

- I shot him.

Chicken hawk came in my yard--

- I did it! - No, I did it.

- I did it.

Now, if some of y'all don't get out of the way,

gonna have to do some more shooting.

- No, no, no.

If anybody did it, it was me.

- Well, you've got to follow behind me!

- I shot him!

- Y'all be singing a different tune

before this is over.

Singing a different tune!

Mathu, put an end to this nonsense.

Please, mathu.

- Go home, Jameson.

- I live here too, candy.

I ain't got no home if they burn the quarter down.

Do you all understand what I'm talking to you about, huh?

Clatoo, you got sense.

Now, you talk to him.

Tell him what can happen.

- I come here to stand. Not to talk.

- That's right.

- You all came here to die.

- Go home, Jameson.

I don't want to have to tell you anymore.

- Are you satisfied?

Are you satisfied?

And this here is supposed to make up for all your hurts.

White man laying flat on his back--

- did everyone shoot?

All number fives?

- Yeah.

- And them shooting them number five shells, huh?

That's supposed to fool mapes?

You think mapes is crazy?

- Reverend Jameson,

nobody listening to you today.

Just go back home like candy said.

- You old bootlicker.

Shut up.

- What did you say?

- Come on, come on.

Come on, you bootlicker.

- You want your men to get killed?

- No, no, I'll whip you crazier than you already is,

you old possum-looking fool.

- You'll just have to suffer the consequences,

all of you.

- Go on, get.

- I guess we showed him.

- You know why, don't you, clatoo?

- Yeah, I know, candy.

I know he looked out for you all your life.

I know that.

And I know it ain't nothing you wouldn't do for him.

I understand, candy.

- Yeah, you old fools!

Is that all, huh?

- Candy.

Candy, candy.

- Let go of me.

- Come on, candy.

What's going on?

What's gonna happen?

- You go back up there with mathu.

I'm glad you got here.

I killed Beau.

- Oh.

And I killed Martin Luther King and Kennedy.

What the hell is going on?

- I'm the one.

- I did it.

- I know you're lying.

If this is a game, it's damn stupid.

Can't somebody cover him up, for god's sake?

- Corrine, go get me a sheet or something.

- Did you call mapes?

- I told them to call mapes after you passed by.

- Did mathu do this?

Huh?

Candy, just tell me the truth now.

Fix is going to demand--

- I did it, and that's what I'm telling mapes,

what I'm gonna tell radio, what I'm gonna give TV.

Go!

- Well, well.

Hello.

How do, folks?

- Hey, sheriff.

- Sheriff.

- Mm-mm.

Turn that thing off.

- Sir?

- The tractor!

- Yes, sir.

- Oh, and Griffin,

get on that radio.

Tell Russ-- nobody else--

tell Russ to go back on that bayou

and keep fix and his crowd back there

till he hears from me.

You understand that?

- Yeah, sheriff.

- Thank you.

Mathu.

- Yeah.

- 12, 13...17, 18.

I count 18 of them.

Is that all you could round up?

- I killed him.

- What for?

- Beau was living in the past.

You just don't beat people with a stalk of cane

and hunt them like animals.

You just don't do that nowadays.

I'll swear to it in court.

And that's my story to the press.

- Is that so?

Griffin, bring me one of them.

- Which one?

- Any one of them who can talk.

- I said I did it.

Now, why are you questioning them?

- Candy, please-- - no.

Because they're black and helpless.

Is that why you're picking on them?

- You.

- What you doing from behind those trees, Jacob?

- I killed him.

- How'd she get you from behind those trees?

- I said I killed him.

- Ahh!

- Why don't you use a stick or a hosepipe?

- I said, "one who can talk," Griffin.

Ah, uncle Billy.

Come on down here.

Hurry along now.

How come you're so far from home, uncle Billy?

- I killed him.

You ever see anybody die in the electric chair, uncle Billy?

- No, sir.

- Well, that ain't a pretty sight.

When that juice hits you, I've seen that chair dance.

Is that how you want to go?

- No, sir.

- Well, I ain't got all day, uncle Billy.

Today is my fishing day.

And I expect to see you and old booker

down on the Charles fishing.

So I'm gonna ask you once again.

How come you so far from home?

- I killed him.

Smack!

- Hey, man!

- Mapes, I'm gonna remember that.

- Now let's try it again, uncle Billy.

How come you so far from home?

- 'Cause I killed him.

Ahh!

- He's an old man now, mapes.

- Is that all you're gonna do?

- What exactly is it that you want me to do?

You want me to go to jail with him?

I don't particularly want to go to jail with him, okay?

- You still go to church, uncle Billy?

- Deacon in the Shiloh baptist church.

- Well, don't your Bible tell you to always tell the truth?

- It do.

- Then why did you kill Beau?

- Beau beat my son crazy,

beat him so crazy I had to send him to Jackson,

beat him so bad the boy don't know me no more.

- Well, don't your Bible say, "thou shalt not kill"?

- Sometimes you have to stray away from that Bible, sheriff.

- Is that a fact?

Griffin, stand uncle Billy over there by the fence

and get me another one.

- You gonna beat them all, mapes?

- Get her out of here.

- This is my land,

in case you forget, sheriff mapes.

- Stay out of my way.

- Like hell.

- Like hell you won't.

Yank.

Come on down here.

- Can you tell me a little something about this man

he just called down here?

- Oh, that there's old yank.

Used to break all the horses and mules hereabouts

till them tractors of fix's took the only work he had away.

- What you doing on mathu's porch, yank?

- I killed him.

You can do that all day long.

- I'm next, mapes.

- Then me.

- We'll all go.

- Lou.

- Sheriff,

you want me to call state in Baton Rouge down?

Let's get some ambulances down here.

- You know mathu did it, didn't you?

He's the only one with guts enough.

- Why don't you just arrest him?

- On what charges?

Just 'cause Beau was killed in his yard?

That's no proof.

Every one of em's got 12s and number 5 shells.

He ain't gonna get out of this one.

He killed a man.

She ain't gonna get him out of that.

Maybe Beau was living in the past, I don't know.

But she sure is.

She's trying to do what her grandaddy did

50 years ago.

Well, she can't.

Can't you talk to her?

I-I don't want anything to happen on this land, Lou.

There's a crowd in Baton Rouge

gettin' drunk for tomorrow's game.

They'd just look forward to a little necktie party.

- Yeah, she won't listen. That's right.

- You tried throwing her butt in the back of your car?

- You seen my car?

You two are gonna make

one hell of a marriage.

- Oh, don't get personal, mapes.

- If she had any sense,

she'd have brought him in herself.

- You seem like maybe you got

something particular against him.

- That's where you're wrong.

I admire that negro.

He's one of the best men I've met,

white or black.

But he killed a man.

And fix ain't gonna take that lyin' down.

I know fix.

- What mapes is trying to do out here ain't working.

You never seen them like this.

They're fanatic.

You just be ready with some backup when I call you.

And check on a helicopter too.

- Beau is dead.

- Who killed Beau?

- Mapes didn't give me the details, Mr. Boutan.

I'm sorry I'm the one that has to--

- auguste!

Auguste!

Call the family together.

Some nigger killed my son.

- How do, Herman?

Well, ain't you gonna get started?

- Sure, mapes.

Bring a stretcher and a blanket.

- How long you reckon he's been dead?

- Oh, two, maybe three hours.

What the hell is going on around here, mapes?

You're sitting there scratching your head.

Bunch of niggers standing around with shotguns.

White man laying dead in the grass.

What the hell is going on?

- I don't know any more than you do, Herman.

You take care of your business.

I'll take care of mine.

And when you go back, don't spread this around.

And don't say who the body is.

- I won't tell a soul.

If they ask about Beau,

I'll say he caught a chill in this heat.

- I'm talking about the shotguns.

And don't get cute with me.

I ain't in a mood for it today.

- Don't worry about the guns.

Nobody around here'd believe it anyway.

Would you?

Crash!

- Mathu, come on over here.

- Stay where you're at.

- I'll come to the man.

- Hey, mapes.

Mind your hands now.

He's not chimley or yank.

Mind your hands.

- How you feeling, mathu?

- Fine, sheriff.

You?

- Tired, kind of tired.

Thought I'd get a little fishing in.

Tell them to go home, mathu.

They'll do it if you tell them to.

If they don't, there's gonna be trouble.

- It's up to them.

- You don't have to answer him.

- I don't mind talking, baby.

- Tell them to go home.

I've always been fair with you.

You know that.

Remember that alligator we caught in '53

down on the atchafalaya?

Tell them to tell who did it, mathu.

- I did it, sheriff.

- I know you did it.

But I have to hear it from one of them.

Somebody has to say they came here after it happened.

You don't want to see them hurt, do you?

- Sheriff...

A man got to do what he got to do.

What make him different from a boy.

- I'm asking you man to man, mathu.

Tell them to go home.

- It ain't going to work this time, sheriff.

- Who said that? - I did.

- Clatoo?

You're the last man I thought

would be looking for trouble with the law.

- That's been my trouble. - What's that mean?

- I'm old. - So?

- About time I had trouble with the law.

- You're going to jail.

- I figured I was on my way when I shot him.

- Amen.

- Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Now, ain't it a little bit late

to be getting militant around here?

- I always been militant.

My intrance gone sour keeping my militance down.

- I see. I see.

- No. You don't see, sheriff.

You don't see the flowers we used to see

when there was no weeds.

Uncle moon, auntie spoodle,

ma and pa.

They all used to sit out there on the porches.

They all had flowers.

Nobody had four o'clocks like Jack toussaint.

4:00 every afternoon, they'd open up just as pretty.

Remember?

- Remember Jack and red rider

hitting the fields every morning with them two mules,

diamond and Joe?

- Tell me, who could beat those two men plowing a row?

- Nobody.

Them was men then.

- Lord, lord, lord.

- Tell me y'all can't remember them early mornings?

Son, you used to come up over them trees.

- Remember Harry, that old mule red rider?

How they used to hit the fields?

Any y'all remember anybody

that could outwork Harry and the red rider?

- 30 or 40 of 'em just to hit the cane field.

Sunup till sundown, we all stuck together.

Where's all the folks that used to pray or sing at church?

Dead. Gone.

- And that's something you can't see, sheriff.

That's why I did it.

Fix and that tractor was getting closer and closer

to the graveyard,

and I got scared that that tractor

would plow up them graves and get rid of all the proof

that we ever was.

- You know my brother Silas?

You can't see him.

Last black man around here to sharecrop,

and we told him to stop.

The marshalls dosed out

all the best land to the cajuns anyway.

"Get off the land," we told him.

Raced that mule against a tractor and won.

There ain't no black man supposed to win 'round here.

They beat my brother down into the ground.

And I didn't move, didn't do nothing.

And I was there.

Y'all don't know 'cause y'all wasn't there.

I ain't been able to talk about it before.

Been in here all these years boiling in me.

Fear done spoiled my intrance.

Fear.

I don't know how come I'm still alive.

Silas, forgive me.

Can you hear me? Forgive me, Silas.

Where was the law? Where was the law then?

- If I was the sheriff around here,

they wouldn't be talking to me that way.

- Just stick around long enough.

- Griffin, shut up.

- We ain't run out of stories yet.

- I don't want to hear anymore.

Far as I'm concerned, you've all run out of stories.

So it's all on fix, huh?

Whether he did anything or not.

Fix is going to pay

for everything that ever happened to you?

Is that it?

Fix didn't change things around here.

Progress did.

And fix wasn't even there

the night Oliver died in the hospital, booker.

You're blaming the wrong man.

And you're talking 30, 40 years ago,

with no proof fix was in any of it.

- We get killed, lynched, shot,

guts all hanging out,

and here he come up with "ain't no proof who did this."

Ain't that just like white folks?

- Sure is.

- And it ain't been no 40, 50 years ago.

Right here in them demonstrations,

somebody was always turning up missing.

Things ain't that nicety-nice around here now.

- I could take you to jail, beulah.

- I'm ready to go.

- Me too.

*

- all or none, huh? Is that how you organized it?

- Why don't we just throw that old coon in the back of the car

and get out of here?

- Sure got a big mouth for somebody with hardly any butt.

- Well, we're all one big happy family, ain't we?

- Do you need to lie down?

He hasn't been feeling well lately,

suffering from dizzy spells.

- I get dizzy spells too.

Every time I shoot somebody.

- You know, there's 25 of them there now,

not counting fix's crowd,

and more coming.

- The quiet before the hurricane.

Fix will be here when he gets them all together.

Y'all know that, don't you?

- We'll be here too, sheriff.

We'll be here too.

- Lsu's salt and pepper, that's some combination.

Ooh, did you see that?

It was the block thrown by lsu's Gilbert "salt" boutan,

John bridey of central state,

that led lsu to a 41-10 victory.

And the crowd goes wild.

And there's Sully waving from the bench.

- Yeah, coach, he sure is.

Gil, coach wants to see you in his office.

Ooh.

- I thought we'd gone over tomorrow's game plan.

- I don't think it's about football this time.

- Hey, what's up?

- Gil, what's the matter?

- My brother was killed.

Why today?

- Hey, Gil. That's Cal.

Damn it, Gil. That's pepper.

Gil.

- Why today, Sully, huh?

Give me your keys.

The black people at Marshall,

I just hope to god none of them did it.

Thanks.

- Take care, man.

- I didn't want to head home right away.

I wanted to go to Marshall quarters first.

This was cajun country.

You had a few other whites, a few blacks,

but mostly cajuns,

with names like jireaux, monteux,

rautmare, broussard, lambreux.

- Are you Gil? All right, go on.

- Our family doesn't own any land.

My father was the first one

to lease this land from the marshalls,

and my brother Beau was working it.

- Hello, Gil.

- Where's my brother, mapes?

- Took him to the morgue.

I got Russell back on the bayou.

Told him to keep your daddy back there.

Don't want him here at Marshall.

I'll have this over by sundown. He'll be in jail.

- You know who did it?

- Yep. I know.

- Why don't you arrest him, mapes?

- You'll let me take care of that.

- Mapes.

My brother been dead how long, huh?

Four hours and...

You mathu?

- Yep.

I did it.

- What's going on here, mapes?

What the hell is going on here?

- Beau come in here stalking Charlie with a shotgun.

- You're lying.

Beau would never come after Charlie with a gun.

A stalk of cane, yeah, but never a gun.

- Whoa, Gil. Whoa.

- You never did like us, candy.

Looking at us like we were some breed below marshalls,

but we're not.

We're not.

Your folks had a break, not mine.

My god.

You're pathetic.

You know that?

Pathetic.

When's it going to stop, huh?

Won't it ever stop?

*

I do all I can to stop it.

- Don't you think you'd be better off up at a house?

I can keep you posted on things down here.

- I'm not leaving.

- Yeah, well, Gil just got here.

Gil?

They're waiting for you inside.

Go ahead.

- Uh, I'd like you to come in if you don't mind.

- Sure, Gil. Anything.

Look at that and that.

How could I stop it?

Man, it's up to you now, Gil.

Talk some sense into them.

Calm 'em down.

- Yes. Oh, hold just a minute.

Gilbert's just come in here now.

- Really good man.

We gotta get the one that did it to him.

- Sorry, Gil.

- We're so sorry.

- This is terrible, Gil.

- Sorry, Gil.

- Sorry, Gil.

Be strong, Gil.

- How're you so late getting here, Gilbert?

- I went by Marshall, papa.

They'd already taken Beau to the morgue.

- What was mape doing? Do we know who did it?

- He don't want you down there, papa,

until he sends for you.

- My boy dead, shot dead like a dog,

and mapes don't want me in the quarter?

Tell me, does he know the one who did it?

- He thinks mathu did it.

Claimed Beau chased Charlie into his yard with a shotgun.

- Why would mathu kill my boy?

- He'd been too big for his pants since I known him, fix.

I think we're wasting time,

and what difference does it make why?

He shot Beau. That's all we need to know.

- You're not a member of this family and you don't speak.

Get out if you can't hold your tongue.

Right?

- At Marshall, there's a bunch of old black men with shotguns.

- Let's go get 'em.

- Old men, papa. Your age.

Auguste's age.

And they're waiting for you.

- What are you trying to say? Get to the point, Gilbert.

- Papa, I want to be an all-American, see,

and we have a really good chance, Cal and me.

It'd be the first time ever, black and white together.

And I depend on him, papa,

every moment I'm on that field.

- Your brother was killed today, Gilbert.

I don't care if the one who did it was black or white.

Your brother was killed today!

- Your brother you're talking about.

- Papa, look.

If we're involved in anything that's against the law,

even if our name was involved,

do you understand?

- But your brother.

- I love Beau, but we can't bring him back.

And I won't go, papa.

You can beat me, but I won't go.

- What you think of this great all-American here?

Alfonze?

- Auguste? - Hmm.

- Jean, Mr. Hog butcher. - Pop.

What will we do when we go to the quarter, huh?

And who else will go, and for what reason?

- You forget your brother was murdered today!

- Papa, me, I won't ever forget today.

But if they are friends, show respect, huh?

Stay out of their quarter until mapes has all this cleared up.

- Beau's been dead for hours and mapes ain't done nothing yet.

- Mapes will take care of it.

- Don't listen to Luke, fix.

He's no friend of your family.

- He is a friend.

- Then we go to the quarter.

- No! - Don't try it!

- I won't have none of that in my house!

No!

- Luke wants trouble, fix.

- Fix? Mr. Boutan.

In my house, I decide what's right and what's wrong.

Me! William fix boutan.

What should I do, auguste?

- I'm an old man.

I don't know if what they say is right or wrong anymore.

Je connais pas.

- Well, auguste don't have all his senses,

and all Gilbert wants to do is play football with niggers.

I say we go.

- Luke's days are over, papa.

The day where you take the law in your own hands,

those days are gone forever!

- The day when family responsibility is put aside--

- the day of the vigilantes, they want us to go there, papa!

I want people to know that we're not what they think we are.

- And the rest of you.

- Are we going to let them niggers stand there

with shotguns and not accommodate them?

- I'm not interested in you, Luke.

Only in my family.

And if the majority feel that Beau was not worth it,

then the family has spoke.

- Papa. - Leave, Gilbert.

Go. Run the football.

Let that take the place of family.

Change your name, Mr. All-American.

Get out of my house!

- Papa, don't send me away.

*

- You want my opinion?

Go on back to lsu.

Get some rest, and tomorrow play the best game

you ever played in your life.

- What about them, Russ?

- You want to do something for them?

Play in that game tomorrow with pepper.

Gil, sometimes you have to plow under one thing in order--

- just leave me alone, Russ.

- If you think this is over, you're crazy.

- Stay away from Marshall.

- Sure, Russell.

We're just going to tee-Jack's for a few drinks.

Why don't you just go kill him off, Gil?

He's already half-dead anyway.

- Luke will was always hanging around my family,

but he wasn't from around here.

He worked with the oil drilling.

On the side, he did other little jobs,

like turn over school buses

or throwing a few snakes into churches.

*

- How you doing tonight?

Are there any spiders in there?

- Yeah, there's some cobwebs in there.

Listen.

Why don't you do something?

Go home, take a bath.

Come back in a little while.

You're not going to miss anything, and I'll be here.

- Oh, come on, Lou.

You know what mathu means to me.

This is my land. They're my people.

I know. I got to help.

- I don't know what you're talking about.

Your land, your people.

That sounds like something from a hundred years ago.

Let me tell you something, you can't do any good here.

These old men, they don't need any help from you.

- Oh, yes, they do.

And I need you back up to the front there,

so mapes doesn't do anything stupid.

Don't--don't stand around here waiting on me.

Go on.

- Mapes?

Mapes?

- Oh. How are you?

- I brung you some sandwiches. - Oh, good.

- But it's all I brought. - That's fine.

- There ain't no beer.

- Water will do.

- Snookum.

Now I want you to go and get that jug of ice water

out of the icebox.

Get me them jelly glasses out of the safe

and bring it to the sheriff right away now.

- Too late to go fishing now anyhow.

- Yep.

- Griffin, hurry up.

Get the rest of it out of the car.

You see the sun?

It's getting late, candy Marshall.

And don't come up to the house bleeding,

because I'm not patching up anybody.

*

look at these guns.

Never saw anything like this in my life.

Have a sandwich.

- Thank you, deputy.

- Thank you, deputy.

- Thank you, sir.

- Thank you, deputy.

- Just look at that.

- Thank you, deputy.

- Guns all over.

Have one and pass it right on up there.

- Hello, Mrs. Merle. - Oh, Lou.

You know, I've known candy for over 20 years.

She was no more than 5 or 6

when her father and mother were killed in a car wreck.

Mathu here in the quarter and I at the main house

done as much to raise her as her uncle and aunt,

maybe even more than they.

Yes, we done more than they.

*

- That river where the people went all their lives,

where they fishing, wash their clothes,

where they got baptized-- St. Charles river.

No more.

Can't go there no more.

*

- Got you.

- All right, got some news for you.

Fix ain't showing up.

- That's a lie.

- Y'all might as well go home.

- He's got to show up.

Look at the blood on that grass.

That fix's boy's blood.

- Fix ain't the fix of 30, 40 years ago.

Fix ain't coming.

- That just don't sound like fix.

- I say it's a lie.

- Just trying to throw us off.

- Mathu?

You ready, old friend?

- Hey, sheriff.

I just called you a liar in front of a bunch of niggers.

Ain't you going to take me in?

- Come on along, mathu.

- I'm ready, sheriff.

- Now, hold it. Hold it.

The show is over with.

What you think you're going to do with them empty guns?

- Hold it.

Sheriff, can we talk with mathu inside?

Give us a few minutes?

- Well, make it quick. I'm real tired now.

- All right. Y'all come on inside.

All of you.

- Griffin, back door.

- Not you, candy.

We don't want you there this time.

- Nobody's talking without me.

- This time we have to.

- What did you say?

You know who you talking to, clatoo?

Get the hell off of my place.

- I'm not going anywhere, candy.

- Y'all can go on and listen to clatoo if y'all want.

But clatoo got his own land,

and y'all don't have nothing but this.

You leave here now, and you won't even have this.

- It sound familiar.

- You want to keep them slaves all their lives, is that it?

- I'm protecting them.

My family has always protected them.

Mathu.

Is that what you want?

- I want you to go home.

That is what I want.

I got to pay.

No.

- Candy, now you go on home.

- No.

No, you have paid enough already.

My granddaddy told me that you've paid enough.

Let go of me, Lou dimes. Get off of me.

Mathu! Mathu!

This place is gonna die without you!

This is nothing without you!

- Well, the man going to take mathu in.

- Then we go too. - And do what when we get there?

- Same thing we was going to do before.

- I already said it.

If they take mathu to jail,

they take me to jail.

- You think I'm stupid, don't you?

- No.

Maybe you don't know it,

but after tonight there's going to be a big change in your life.

That old man's free of you now.

He set both of you free. You know what I'm saying?

He doesn't need you to protect him anymore.

What little time he's got left, he wants to live it his own way.

- What about me?

- What about you?

You know what, candy?

Before I leave here tonight,

I want a yes or a no

as to where our relationship is going.

And if I don't get any answer,

I won't be coming back here anymore.

- You bastard.

- That's highly possible.

I wasn't there when it happened.

Well, if that's how you feel about it,

thank you, ma'am.

I'll just stick around till mapes takes him to bayonne.

That's all I'll need for a story.

- Now, y'all can see the man's Patience done run out.

To fight 'sides him.

That's why we all came here.

Now to fight who? Ain't nobody to fight.

- I ain't come all this way for nothing.

I don't care what clatoo say.

- No. No, no.

Clatoo is right.

There ain't nothing more to prove.

Ain't nothing more.

Look. Look at here.

Chimley with a gun.

Bill and yank.

Gentlemen.

I must thank y'all for the proudest day

of my life.

Thank y'all, gentlemen.

My lord, I never thought I'd live to see this day.

Ain't nothing but a mean, bitter old man.

Hating them white folks out there by the river,

hating y'all in the quarter.

Hating them because they never let me be a citizen.

Hating y'all 'cause you never tried.

Put myself above all of y'all.

I'm proud to be an African.

I ain't nothing but a mean, bitter old man

till this hour.

Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you.

- We'll never gather like this again.

- Now wait a minute.

Clatoo, you can have anything in here you want.

The rest of it, just throw it all away.

- Hey, where you going?

Y'all just stay where you at.

Mathu ain't going to no jail.

One of y'all that ain't doing nothing,

call a lawyer in here.

Man up, all right.

Man.

- It ain't fix.

You heard him yourself.

He wanted to come but wouldn't come without his sons.

The way I see it, he left it to us.

- Fix ain't coming?

- Man, what's this world coming to?

- The end.

Plus, we the only ones left.

If it wasn't for us, the nigger might get away.

What do you say, sharp?

- I say we go see those niggers and kick some Booty.

- I hear that.

- Maybe fix is right, Luke.

- You telling me you agree with Gil boutan?

- No, but mapes is out there.

I say let the law take its own course.

I mean, that's what we pay him for, ain't it?

- What you mean?

You scared of some old niggers with shotguns, sharp?

- I ain't scared of nothing, Luke.

Boutans are not like they used to be.

I got a wife and kids.

If I go to jail, who's going to take care of them?

You?

- A nigger killed Beau.

Now are we going to let that slide?

What are we going to let slide next?

When one of them rapes your wife?

- I'm with you, Luke. - Shut up.

I ain't drinking with you no more, sharp.

Go on.

Go home to Lois. We'll do it without you.

- Yeah, go on home, sharp. We don't need you.

- I ain't seeing you this afternoon, Luke will.

- Tee-Jack.

- Good evening, Mr. Marshall.

- Heard about Beau, Mr. Marshall?

Got killed by a nigger on your property.

Fix don't like it too much.

Your niece is out there playing games.

Can you hear me, Mr. Marshall?

- I have no niggers.

Never had any niggers, never wanted any niggers,

never will have any niggers.

They belong to my niece, miss candy semly Marshall.

Now if you don't mind, I'd like to finish my drink, Luke will.

- This is Griffin calling.

Can anybody hear me? - Yeah, we can.

- This is Griffin, over.

I think we got something going on down here.

I tried to tell mapes from the beginning.

Now he's gone in the house.

18 men with shotguns,

and he's been in there 15 minutes.

We're going to need a code three down here right away.

And call state too.

- Come on, radio. Come on.

- They cut him off, Luke.

- Let's go.

- Yeah, let's roll.

- Go easy on that liquor, Leroy.

- You got your own, Luke. Can't get none of mine.

- I said let go of it.

- Hey, hey.

Quit it. Not in here.

Get out!

Get out of my place.

- Shut up.

Alcee!

Leroy!

Don't let me down, Leroy. Not you.

Don't let me down.

- I won't let you down, Luke.

- Move over.

- Started in the field, sheriff.

Beau cussed me.

Said he was going to beat me.

I told him I wasn't going to lie no more

when I turned 40.

He didn't think I'd hit him,

but there comes a day.

He chased me in here.

And mathu say he'd rather see me dead than run from another man.

He give me his gun.

When Beau wouldn't stop,

he raised his gun and I pulled the trigger,

and I told mathu to say he did it.

- Charlie, I don't believe you.

- Yes, I did!

Then I ran.

I ran. I ran.

And everywhere I turned, I was still on the Marshall place.

Like a wall everywhere.

I fell down and screamed.

Ate dirt.

Then I heard a voice coming across the swamp,

coming from the graveyard.

I thought it was the dead ones awake

when you fired them shots over the graves.

I listened, and I listened.

And I heard their voice say, "come back."

A man come back to pay up, sheriff.

Stops running.

- All right, Charlie.

Let's go.

*

- I'm all right.

- Good Charlie. - Thank you.

- Charlie, what in the devil possessed you?

- There just comes a day, sheriff.

Just comes a day.

- Griffin, cover him!

- I ain't in this.

I ain't fighting no white men over no niggers.

- You jughead.

- Hold it!

Where you going with Charlie?

- You got business around here, Luke?

- You know why I'm here!

I want the nigger killed Beau!

- I got him.

He's going to jail.

- Don't you foolin' us, mapes!

There ain't nobody but Charlie.

Now, we come for mathu. You know that.

- There he is.

You want him, you take him.

Now I'm taking my prisoner into town.

You can stay or you can leave.

It makes no matter to me.

Charlie, go ahead.

*

- Whose sheriff are you, mapes?

- Hey! Hey!

- Get on out of here.

The sheriff got Charlie!

- Get out! Get out!

- What are you doing this for, Luke?

- Get out!

What the hell's wrong with you?

They're a bunch of old men, for god's sake.

- I thought you said it was mathu.

*

- Back up, Luke.

They're going to shoot you, Luke.

Get in here.

- Ain't going to be no lynching, tonight,

Mr. Luke will.

- Come on!

- I'll be coming back! Do you hear that, candy?

Goddamn it! Wait for me.

- Lord, have mercy.

We done did it!

- And we didn't back down.

*

Corrine?

*

- yeah!

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