All the King's Men (2006) Movie Script

To find something, anything...
... a great truth,
or a lost pair of glasses...
... you must first believe there will be
some advantage in finding it.
I found something a long time ago...
... and have held on to it
for grim death ever since.
I owe my success in life to it.
It put me where I am today.
This principle:
What you don't know won't hurt you.
They called it idealism
in a book I read.
Get the gun.
Get the gun. Get the gun.
Oh, my God.
The judge won't scare easy.
I don't count on him scaring easy.
You think it's beneath my dignity?
Well, you're governor, they tell me.
Yeah, I'm governor.
The trouble with governors is they
think they gotta keep their dignity.
There's nothing worth doing
a man can do to keep his dignity.
Human frame ain't built that way.
When I'm not governor anymore
because I'm president...
...I wanna meet somebody at midnight,
I'll do that then too.
Hope you leave me
to get a night's sleep.
No, Jack, you going with me
because that's what you want.
Yeah, you and Sugar
with me in the White House.
I'll give Sugar a pistol range
right out there in the garden.
Brace of Republican senators
can set up his tin cans for him.
And I'm gonna appoint
a special member to Cabinet for you:
Secretary to the Bedchamber
of Mr. Jack Burden.
Somebody to keep them
telephone numbers straight...
...and return their little pink silk articles
that get left behind.
But we gotta do this first.
In the middle of the night when we
could just do it in town sometime.
Sometime ain't never now.
Bastard.
Which way up there?
Jack, tell Sugar
how to get to the house.
It's your people live down here.
Suppose he don't open up?
Make him. What I pay you for?
Hey, Jack.
Mr. Duffy.
This is Willie Stark
from up Mason City.
- County treasurer.
- Glad to meet you.
- Jack Burden.
- From The Chronicle.
Good to meet you, Mr. Burden.
Yeah, Willie's on business
for Mason City.
Bond issue them got up there.
Gonna build a schoolhouse.
Yeah. Me and Willie
was in school together.
Oh, you was in school, Alex.
I didn't know.
Not the teacher's favorite,
I don't expect.
No, sir, that's true.
Willie was, though.
Still is, ain't you, Willie?
Yeah, Willie married
a schoolteacher.
Well, you know...
...they tell me that schoolteachers
are made with it...
...in the same place as the rest.
Now, is that right or not, Mr. Stark?
Yeah, that's right.
Slade!
Beers all around.
Not for me, thanks.
Oh, that little schoolteacher
don't like it when you drink?
Well, she don't favor it, for a fact.
Well, beers all around.
Well, I sell beer
to those who want it.
I don't make nobody drink them.
Well, maybe you got some
orange pop for him.
That's what he wants.
Yeah, I think I'd like some orange pop.
Two straws.
Jack, get up Mason City.
See who's this fella
who thinks he's Jesus Christ...
...come down off the cross to scourge
the moneychangers...
...out of that shinplaster courthouse
they got them there.
I know who he is.
Fella with a Christmas tie...
...pushed a school bond through.
- You know him?
- Met him.
Watched him drink
a bottle of orange pop once...
...through two straws on account
of a wife who don't favor drinking.
She favor him
staying parish treasurer?
Don't you know
how things are run up there?
Run up there
like they're run down here.
Yeah? Well, you leave down here
and run on up there.
As a commissioner, as chairman,
I guess you're in a position...
...to know the situation
regarding the schoolhouse contract.
Ain't no situation.
Maybe not, but maybe so.
Ain't any situation.
Board took a bid offer.
A.J. Moore's bid, the fella's name...
...schoolhouse gets built.
This Moore fella's bid,
I take it, was the lowest?
Now, you lookie here.
Ain't nobody tells a board
what bid to take.
Anybody can come along
put in a little pissant bid.
Board doesn't have to take it.
Board takes somebody
who can do the work right.
Ain't nothing done but legal.
Who was it
put in the little pissant bid?
- Name of Jeffers, if I recollect.
- Jeffers Construction?
- Yeah.
- Well, that's a real firm, a big firm.
The board picks
who can do the work right.
That's all I got to say.
Don't you wanna tell mama...
...you wanna see yourself
shining in the table? No?
All right. I wish I could have
sold some to you.
Be out of your way in a second here.
And no brushes, you sure?
- I'm sure.
- All right.
Thank you.
Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.
Mr. Stark.
Why, Mr. Jack Burden,
how are you, sir?
You know, people would think
parish treasurer paid well enough...
...a man wouldn't have to sell
household fix-it kits door-to-door.
- People would think.
- Doesn't in Mason City.
Well, I'm maybe not so good
at mathematics...
...as some other parish treasurers
you may've met.
Or too good at it.
How much they steal
on the schoolhouse contract?
Well, let's see... .
Jeffers come in $ 142,000.
Moore, $ 175,000.
That's $33,000 split six ways,
5500 per commissioner.
They done it so plain and pretty, well,
you'd almost have to admire them.
Just point out Jeffers
uses nigra laborers...
...skilled men, you know?
Next thing, it's, "Lookie here, nigras
making more money than you men.
Pushing wheelbarrows,
hauling dirt."
And that's it. "Goodbye, Mr. Jeffers
and your low bid.
You go build your nigra schoolhouse
somewhere else."
Not that you didn't try and get people
to see what was going on.
Oh, I yelled so long and loud about
these old boys lining they pockets...
...I'm lucky to have
any job in Mason City:
Government, door-to-door,
or any other variety.
I stood out there
on that street corner...
...pencil in one hand,
paper in the other...
...trying to show people
the numbers.
But you stop people out there
in that hot sun...
...try to show them arithmetic...
...well, they can't see it so clear...
...through the sweat pouring in they
own eyes from they own hard labor.
Especially if you put nigras
in the equation.
- Why, you're likely to get beat up.
- Likely?
Once or twice.
You gonna run again in November?
No, I'm done. A lame duck. Lucy too.
They got her fired from teaching.
And I don't care. I don't want to teach
there just so they can steal money.
That's right. You're looking at your
own private two-person leper colony.
Sipping pop.
So, what are you gonna do, then?
I don't know. String my pa a fence,
slop some pigs, milk some cows.
I'm gonna keep the faith, Mr. Burden,
that's what I'm gonna do.
I'm gonna keep the faith
in the people, because you know why?
Time...
...brings all things to light.
I trust it's so.
Joe.
Did you get a photograph of him?
Who?
The next mayor of this town.
You know what people are saying?
People are saying
that God himself had a hand...
...in this schoolhouse business.
That God stepped in
on Willie Stark's side.
Yes, sir. He does work
in mysterious ways sometimes.
Sometimes...
...he has somebody else do it.
Sends over a fat man in a striped suit
with a big car to do his will.
Well, I have had
some worse employers, I admit that.
What you want?
Well, I wanna work for you,
Mr. Stark.
And you wanna work for the people,
unless I been misinformed.
People vote me,
I'd be privileged to serve them.
- What, as the county treasurer?
- Yes, sir.
Mr. Stark, you could run
for mayor of Mason City...
...and you could win without climbing
out of bed in the morning.
You just put the word out...
...about Willie Stark, who tried to take
on the crooks single-handed...
...Willie Stark,
who tried to warn us...
...Willie Stark, who could have saved
our kids if we'd have just listened.
Now, I'm not talking about Willie Stark
for the mayor of Mason City. No, sir.
I'm talking about Willie Stark...
...as the next governor
of the great state of Louisiana.
Now, you saw a man
holding out a handful of cash to you...
...and you said no.
This is what I see.
I see a man in a booth...
...Iooking down at a ballot,
a working man.
And he sees three names there:
Harrison, MacMurphy and Stark.
Now, what this man really sees...
...is that picture in the newspaper
of them three little coffins...
...and the one man since
the great Governor Stanton died...
...that had the guts to buck the powers
that killed them.
Now, that man, that voting man,
he's got a pencil...
...he checks a box,
you wake up governor.
And that little lady lying
beside you...
...the one that don't favor liquor...
...she wakes up the governor's wife.
That's what I see.
Now, why don't you take a minute
with your orange pop...
...see if you can't see it too...
...governor.
You got your speech?
All right.
Willie Stark!
Thank you, folks.
Thank you kindly.
My name's Willie Stark
from Mason City yonder...
...and I'm pleased to have a chance
to talk with you all here today.
Now, friends...
...what I wanna talk about is
something that's been troubling me.
- Coffee, please.
- Yes, ma'am.
Can I sit with you?
Or anything else.
No, thanks.
- You don't like my looks?
- I don't care about anybody's looks...
...but I can't recall
ever going for anyone...
...who reminds me
of a box of spilled spaghetti.
Miss Burke, I'm sitting here
having a cup of coffee.
I'm almost through,
then you couldn't sit with me...
...which is what you asked for.
- Sorry.
Not working
for Sen-Sen Puckett anymore.
- Now, he wasn't a bad-Iooking fellow.
- Heel.
Well, sure, politically and elsewise.
Who didn't know that?
I guess I'm slower on some things
than others.
- Like you.
- Am I?
- I think so.
- I think not.
Not on this charade.
That's the topic of the interview.
Then tell me, if you're so smart.
All right. Harrison's a city man,
MacMurphy's a cracker.
Not a cracker precisely,
but enough of one to worry Harrison...
...that crackers won't know
the difference.
So Harrison looks for someone
to split the cracker vote.
Hears about an honest man
up in Crackerville...
...where some cracker kids go down
with a fire escape...
...that was supposed to be stuck with
more than spit to their schoolhouse.
Sends his man Tiny Duffy up there
to romance him...
...and then Sadie Burke
to romance him some more.
Both telling him how good he is...
...how he has better than a chance
in hell to change things in this state...
...where nothing will ever change.
Because you and Tiny
and the rest of them...
...don't care how much of a fool
you make a man.
And you do care, I suppose?
I didn't say that. I don't care.
If I did, I'd do something about it,
wouldn't I?
No, I'd rather watch from here.
Like passing a car crash.
I know you all can't see this
from all the way back there...
...but I've got a pie chart
representing it.
And you can see here where
public welfare and hospitals end up.
They should be the same.
Rather, the ratio... .
We should go.
Not yet.
Let's go in again.
You don't wanna swim?
How you think we doing?
Fine, I guess.
You think?
That how you reporting it?
Sure.
Seems to me they listen less and less
the further I get from home.
Well, that makes sense,
don't you think?
Maybe...
...you trying to say too much.
I'm telling them
what they need to know:
Taxes, wages, highways.
Well, maybe it's how
you're telling them.
Maybe if you told them
the way you tell Lucy or Tiny or me...
...or anyone face to face,
they'd listen better.
I don't know how that is.
Hard to know how you sound
to somebody else.
Mad, fed up, like you mean business
is how you sound.
But not on the platform.
You climb three steps...
...you sound like the rest of them. Like
a man who wants to win an election.
Willie... .
Yeah?
What?
Nothing.
Well, a man don't have to be governor.
I don't deny wanting it.
I won't lie to you,
I lie awake wanting it.
But sometimes a man
can want something so bad...
...be so full of want...
...he plain forget what it is he want.
I could have been a good governor.
A lot better than them other fellas.
But I ain't gonna be governor.
Hi.
Come on in. Why not?
Oh, Mr. Stark.
Sadie.
What's up?
Willie here was just telling me
how he's not gonna be governor.
You told him?
No, I didn't, as a matter of fact, no.
Told me what?
Told me what?
Oh, yeah, well, that makes sense.
I see.
So that's true? I'm being used.
So they tell me.
I saw it in his eyes the first time
he come to see me, Tiny.
But I just pushed it out of my head.
Pushed it clean out.
I should've known better.
Mr. Stark?
Mr. Stark?
You thought you were the little
white lamb of God, didn't you?
Just waiting for the chance to stand
on your hind legs and make a speech.
They would have paid you
to play the part. They pay me.
But you were too stupid
to see even that.
You did it for free.
You're just their dumb sacrificial sap
and I'm... .
I'm sorry I let them.
Your stomachaches, your colics,
your bloats, your diarrhea.
You're looking a little peaked.
I can't imagine.
Slept like a baby.
Got your speech?
All right, then. Let's go. It's time.
"Hail, Hail, The Gang's All Here."
What?
The song.
Yeah. That's what it is.
Hello. Hello.
How are you?
Here's that speech
you was just asking about.
My name is Willie Stark
from Mason City yonder.
I had a speech...
...about this state and what it needs.
There's no use in me telling you
about it, you are the state.
You know what you need.
Look at the knees of your pants.
Look at your crops.
Look at your kids.
You got holes and rot...
...and ignorant offspring
on account of this state.
Well, I had a speech,
but I ain't got it no more.
Mr. Duffy got it now
in his fat little hands.
Don't you, Tiny?
Go ahead, show the people.
Hold it up.
Well, since he got it...
...I'm gonna have to say
something else.
It's all right.
Because I got something else
to say.
I got a story about a redneck hick.
He's like yourselves, if you please.
Well, this fella, a while back,
this hick...
...started thinking about
all the other hicks...
...what he could do for them.
Well, one day...
...it came down
with the powerful force...
...of God's own hand...
...when the only brick schoolhouse
ever built in his parish...
...collapsed on account of it was built
with politics-rotted brick.
And it killed and mangled
a batch of poor, young scholars.
Oh, you know this story.
You heard it.
He fought the politics
that built that schoolhouse...
...with rotten brick and bolts.
But he lost.
He lost.
And it fell.
It fell.
Well, it wasn't long...
...before some public officials
from the city...
...rode out in their big fine car...
...and told this hick how they
wanted him to run for governor.
Them in them striped pants,
they told me...
...MacMurphy was a limberback...
...Joe Harrison, he was just a tool
of the city machine.
And they wanted this nobody,
do-gooder hick...
...to step in,
give them some honest government.
You know who they were?
In that big fine car?
They was Joe Harrison's
own lickspittles...
...coming in to split MacMurphy's
hick vote!
That's right! Your hick vote!
There he is!
There he is right there.
There's the Judas Iscariot lickspittle
nose-wiper from the city, right there.
Come on, Tiny. Look at him.
Joe Harrison's dummy.
Come on, take a bow. Come on. No,
come on now, people wanna see you.
Take a bow, come on.
There he goes.
No! No, let him lie! Let him lie!
Let that hog lie in his own filth!
Let him lie,
but listen to me, you hicks.
That's right, I'm not the only one here.
You hicks too.
They fooled you, too, just like
they fooled me a thousand times.
But it's time I fooled somebody.
It's time I fooled them.
Them big-city, striped-pants lickspittle
hick-haters.
I'm running for governor on my own.
I'm coming for them
and I'm coming for blood!
First thing I'm gonna do
is build me a road out...
...across the swamps and alligators
and anything else that gets in my way.
A thousand miles of concrete,
if that's what it takes...
...so I can come out here and visit with
my fellow hicks on a regular basis.
Then I'm gonna build me a bridge
across that mighty Mississippi.
Name it after myself
because I'm the one who built it.
Then I'm gonna build you all
new schools.
Send your kids home with free tablets
and pencils and books...
...to study and learn on the way
to the new university I'm gonna build...
...where every one of them can go.
Same as rich folks' kids.
Now, I hope you're listening,
you hicks.
Because I don't wanna drive
all the way back home...
...just to drive back out here
next week to tell you again.
And this is it:
If you don't vote...
...you don't matter.
You don't matter!
You don't matter!
And then you're just as ignorant
as them in the city say you are...
...while they stealing food
off your table...
...and every nickel out your pocket,
saying, "Thank you."
Because then you are just a bunch
of ignorant hicks who got nothing...
...because you deserve nothing.
So listen to me.
Listen here.
Lift your eyes...
...and look on the God's blessed
and unflyblown truth:
You are a hick and ain't nobody
never helped a hick but a hick hisself.
It's up to you
to nail these parasites up.
- Up to you and me and God.
- Amen!
- Nail up Joe Harrison!
- Nail him up!
- Nail up MacMurphy!
- Nail him up!
And nail up any bastard
that gets between you...
...and the roads and the bridges
and schools...
...and the food you need.
You give me the hammer
and I'll do it.
I'll nail their hides to the barn door.
- Nail them up!
- Nail them up!
- Nail them up!
- Nail them up!
- Nail them up!
- Nail them up!
- Nail them up!
- Nail them up!
- Nail them up!
- Nail them up!
- Nail them up!
- Nail them up!
- Nail them up!
- Nail them up!
- Nail them up!
- Nail them up!
- Nail them up!
- Nail them up!
- Nail them up!
- Nail them up!
- Nail them up!
- Nail them up!
- Nail them up!
- Nail them up!
More about Stark?
He's colorful. Makes it easy.
You know me,
always looking for easy.
Jack. You know what
The Chronicle line is on the election.
Sure. MacMurphy again because of his
brilliant record as an administrator...
...and high integrity as a statesman.
Why can't you put that in your column,
a little less of Stark's raving madness?
Listen, Jack.
I know Stark's a friend of yours but--
He's not a friend of mine. Personally,
I don't care who's governor.
Are you telling me what to write,
or am I mistaken?
- You know The Chronicle line.
- All right.
What do you mean, "All right"?
I mean it the way I said it.
I, Willie Stark, do solemnly swear...
...that I will support the constitution
and laws of the state of Louisiana.
Willie didn't need me
to get himself elected.
He won by a landslide.
By the biggest margin in the history
of the state.
- All the duties incumbent upon me
as governor so help me God.
Which isn't to say
everyone voted for him.
Jack, get up Mason City.
My editor didn't vote for him.
- Thinks he's Jesus Christ
come down off the cross... .
The publisher of this paper
didn't vote for him.
These men didn't vote for him.
Or these.
The governor's education bill
does not pass.
Or the old boys in the Senate who
were in the pockets of the oilmen.
My mother didn't vote for him.
This is my mother.
She doesn't vote.
Over there, on her dressing table...
... that's her with her first husband.
First of four, if I recollect.
And that's my godfather on the right,
the best man.
He didn't vote for Willie either.
In fact...
... I think it's safe to say nobody from
where I'm from voted for Willie Stark.
And why should they?
His promises to the poor...
... to build roads and bridges
and schools...
... were a declaration of war
on the rich.
They wanted him out.
You Jack Burden?
I've come at the behest of the boss.
Who?
The boss? The governor?
Governor, let me put it in simple words
so you understand:
There's no money for all these things
you wanna do for the poor.
Oh, there's money, senator.
You're wrong there.
There's plenty of money.
Every kilowatt comes out of the river,
every barrel of oil from the ground.
But that doesn't belong to you, sir.
That's right. Don't belong to you either
or them. Belongs to the state.
How about the state don't tax just 5%
to build my roads, we take it all?
These are some powerful companies
you talking about taking money from.
- They ain't gonna stand for it.
- They ain't the power.
The power's in the hands
of the powerless...
...and those hands
have handed it to me.
Realistically, they'll approve
half the money, maybe.
And that's after we beat them up.
So we build them half a highway.
Mile of concrete, mile of dirt,
mile of concrete, mile of dirt...
...all the way to Shreveport.
Now, how's anybody gonna drive
on that?
People ain't gonna stand for that.
They like their roads finished.
That's right.
What's right?
Hey, Jack. Sadie, take Tiny
out of here, explain it to him.
- He just said it and he don't get it.
- Come on, Tiny.
- You want something to eat?
- No, thank you.
- Well, sit down.
- Hi, Sadie.
Hey.
I heard you got fired.
Oh, you heard wrong. I quit.
That's smart. When I get done with that
outfit, they won't be able to pay you...
...nor the nigra
who sweeps the floor.
- You want a job?
- Working for whom?
- The state?
- Hell, no.
Me.
You, me, Sadie, Tiny.
Tiny? I was surprised to hear
Tiny was back.
Well, somebody gotta be
lieutenant governor.
Yeah, sure.
I keep Tiny around...
...to remind me of something
I never wanna forget.
And that is?
When they come around
sweet-talking, don't listen.
Never again.
What would I be doing for you?
Sweet-talking.
All right, everybody.
What on earth is that?
- This is a ballista.
- A what?
Jack will tell you all about it.
Jack, come on. Tell them.
It's a pre-gunpowder weapon
fired with the tension of animal sinew.
Oh, my God.
Jack?
Right. See the eagle
on top of the clock?
One...
...two... .
They say you're in politics,
Mr. Burden?
It must be fascinating
to be in politics.
It's not, I assure you.
Well, they say
you're very influential.
It must be fascinating
to be very influential.
I honestly wouldn't know.
Don't let him kid you, Miss DuMonde.
My godson Jack is very influential.
Like when he was a newspaperman.
All right, then, yes, I'm influential.
Any pals in the pen anyone
wants pardoned, I'll put in the word.
Well, there is gonna be
somebody in the pen.
Before it's over,
what's going on there?
All these wild goings-on.
Fella giving away the state.
Free this, free that, free the other.
Every wool-hat jackass
thinking the world is free.
Who's gonna pay?
That's what I wanna know.
Who's he think's gonna pay?
Standard Oil and the utility companies,
I imagine.
And anyone else that can afford
to pay their share.
You and me, George. We'll pay.
Government's committed
these days...
...giving services
we never heard of back when.
And he's gonna tax this state to death.
Drive business right out.
You don't think it boils down to this:
If the government,
for quite a long time now...
...had done anything
for the people...
...they wouldn't have got fed up
and elected Mr. Stark.
Well, you ask him this
next time you see him:
Ask him how much grabbing there is,
all that money flowing.
Then you ask him what's he gonna do
when they impeach him.
There's a constitution in this state...
...or was, before he blew it to hell.
- I'll be sure to ask him.
- You do that.
Jack, Miss DuMonde plays the piano.
That's nice.
You weren't like yourself today, son,
like you used to be.
Mother, if I'm ever like I used to be,
do me a favor and shoot me.
Who was that at lunch anyway?
Mr. Peyton.
You've known him all your life.
He builds electrical plants
or some such.
The girl, Mother. Miss DuMonde.
That's Mr. Orton's sister's child
and she will inherit his money.
Somebody ought to wait
until she inherits it, then marry her...
...and drown her in her bathtub.
Oh, don't worry,
I'd like to drown her but I won't.
Was Mr. Peyton saying
those people you're with...
...are mixed up in some sort of graft?
Graft's what you call it
when who's doing it...
...doesn't know which fork to use.
- Well, whatever you call it.
- Because I worry to think that--
- I don't know.
How would I, careful as I am not
to know what anybody anywhere...
...is doing at any time?
Oh, Jack, make a note.
Find out where they got
Senator Tucson's boy locked up.
- What's his name?
- The boy? Hell, I don't remember.
Find out when's the trial,
get a lawyer down there.
- Who? Evans?
- Not Evans.
Find somebody
with less oil in his hair...
...and don't look like he sing
with a band.
Put one of your pals on it.
You have any idea who it was got cut?
I don't care if it was the sainted aunt
of the Apostle Paul.
Well, I just happen to know.
Fella's son of a doctor, paper said.
They're pretty important around here,
you know, a doctor in the country.
They think they're somebody.
And maybe it gets out you're
trying to fix it to get the boy off.
Wouldn't do you any good.
- Now, it appears to me, maybe--
- You don't know a goddamn thing.
Had you been listening...
...I told Jack to prime
the lawyer through a pal.
Find somebody who don't need to
see his name in lights.
That way, nobody knows
who picked him wasn't me.
Might as well been the pope
himself far as anybody knows.
All right.
I get you.
Yeah, just barely.
- Hey, there, Pop.
- How you doing, son?
- How you making out?
- Oh, I'm getting along.
Good to see you.
You looking good.
- I brought the infantry here.
- How are you?
- More prettier than ever.
- Hey, Grandpa.
How you doing, buddy?
How's the arm?
- He gonna be all-American.
- I know he is. I know he is.
All right, governor, sir, here we go.
One, two... .
Bastard.
Give me a slug.
Pa don't favor drinking.
Used to be Lucy didn't favor it.
I don't know what she do
or don't favor no more.
Not that it matters.
Yeah, I must have poured 10,000
gallons of swill in them troughs.
Still doing it. Pouring swill.
Some things never change.
Hey.
- What's up?
- Judge Irwin.
Judge Irwin what?
- Spill it.
- I'll spill it when I have my breath.
You're using it up
explaining you don't have it.
You think it's funny?
You won't when I tell you.
- You tell me later.
- Byram rang up.
He said the afternoon papers
have got the judge saying...
...the allegations warrant
a full-on investigation.
Two-timing bastard.
That two-timing bastard.
Clear them out.
Tiny was figuring
on having supper up here.
Clear them all out.
Which way up there?
Jack, tell Sugar
how to get to the house.
It's your people live down here.
Suppose he don't open up?
Make him. What I pay you for?
- Yeah, who is it?
- It's Jack.
Jack?
Well, I'll be.
Hey, come on in.
You're not in any trouble, are you?
No, Jack's not in any trouble.
Matter of fact, he doing all right,
all things considered.
I trust you don't mind
if Jack pours me a slug.
I didn't know his duties
ran to those of manservant...
...but if I'm mistaken, I'm sorry.
- Oh, hell.
Sometimes Jack pours me a drink,
sometimes I pour him one.
Sometimes I pour myself one.
I could pour you one.
No, thank you.
This today's?
Yeah, I don't get much time
to read the papers...
...rushing around the state
doing the good work.
Well, perhaps, I can relieve
your curiosity on one point.
Somewhere in there's my opinion
on the severity...
...of the allegations against you,
if that's of interest.
Somebody told me that.
But you know how rumor
hath a thousand tongues.
And how them newspaper boys,
they can exaggerate some.
It's no exaggeration.
Yeah, I see.
If you're clear on that
and finished with your drink...
...I'd appreciate it
if you'd just get out.
Hey, thank you, judge,
I think I will have just one more spot.
So I see it there in the paper,
and I hear you say it...
...but are you sure
you took it to the Lord in prayer?
I settled it in my mind.
See, that's unsettling.
Because if I recollect right,
I recollect that...
...when we had our conversation
in town that time...
...you sort of felt like what MacMurphy
and his boys were saying about me...
...was beneath contempt.
I made no commitment to you
or to them, only to my conscience.
- I beg your pardon, your what?
- I beg yours.
You been toiling around politics too
long to use a word like conscience...
...so easily.
No, my change of conscience came
when certain features of your...
...public services, shall we say,
came to my attention.
Somebody dug something up for you?
In the dirt?
Yeah, not just one thing
and not very deep.
Well, dirt's a funny thing.
Ain't nothing but dirt on God's green
earth except what's under the water.
And that's dirt too,
come to think of it.
Dirt makes the grass green...
...let it breathe.
The diamond on my wife's finger
ain't nothing but dirt got awful hot.
What are we, but dirt blowed off
the hands of God almighty?
You and me
and George Washington.
And Jack there.
Still doesn't alter the fact.
I'm not trying to alter anything,
just illuminate it.
Yeah.
You saying MacMurphy and his bunch,
yelling for my impeachment...
...they're responsible,
law-abiding men?
Yeah, they're responsible all right,
to Alta Power and oil companies...
...and the rest of them thieves.
I wouldn't know about that.
Only way to not know
is to not wanna know.
I'm retired, Mr. Stark. A reporter
asked my opinion and I gave it.
If you was retired, no reporter
would wanna ask you anything.
What you say matters.
A lot more than you pretend it don't.
So I'm asking you...
...call off the dogs.
Asking is different than telling
and that sounded like telling to me.
Didn't it to you, Jack?
You been a judge a long time.
Yes, I have.
How would it feel, do you think...
...to not be one no more?
No man has ever been able
to intimidate me.
I said what I said and I see no reason
to say or think anything different.
Despite your expositions
on laws and men, sir.
Suit yourself.
You're right, Jack.
He don't scare easy.
Judge, it's more in pain
than wrath I go.
Let's go.
It's past Sugar Boy's bedtime.
Your employer is calling you, Jack.
I wouldn't go around
advertising this visit to anyone.
In case you change your mind.
Bastard.
Well, Jackie,
you got a job cut out for you.
- MacMurphy.
- No, the judge.
You bring down the lion...
...the rest of the jungle will quake
in fear and they'll all fall into line.
- I won't find anything.
- Oh, yes, you will.
A man is conceived in sin
and born in corruption...
...and passeth from the stink of
the didie to the stench of the shroud.
You'll find something.
And make it stick.
Apart from pleasing the boss,
I could see little advantage...
... in finding anything beyond what
was already known about Judge Irwin.
What was known
was that he was kind to you...
... when your father left you
and your mother without saying why.
What was known
was that he taught you...
.... the things your father
should have:
How to be a gentleman.
How to firmly shake a hand.
How to safely load a shotgun
and lead a duck if you wanted to hit it.
What was known...
... was that he was more of a father
to you than your real father...
... who you didn't know at all.
Hold it, please.
Governor's penthouse.
How you doing digging
something up on Judge Irwin?
Nothing.
Nothing. Found nothing
or done nothing?
There was nothing to find. I could
dig to China, wouldn't find anything.
- And I'm not framing him.
- Framing?
Ain't nobody talking about framing.
That's never necessary.
The truth is always sufficient.
You just find the truth.
It's a waste of time and money.
Jesus, doesn't anybody listen
to what I say anymore?
You don't wanna do it, don't do it.
Or are you just looking for a raise?
I'm gonna give you $ 100 raise
whether you want it or not.
If I wanted more money, I'd make it.
You gonna tell me
you work for me for love?
I don't know why I work for you,
but it ain't for love or money.
Well, that's right, it's not.
And you don't know why.
But I do.
Why?
Boy, you work for me
because I'm the way I am...
...and you the way you are...
...and that's just an arrangement
founded in the natural order of things.
She sure could skate.
Right now...
...hidden away in chambers...
...not out here in the open
like you and me...
...there's a legislature
full of hyena-headed...
...belly-dragging sons of bitches...
...setting around trying to figure out
how to impeach me.
Now, they say it's because
I got crooks on the payroll.
I say, "Is that all?"
Of course I got them.
I got a can of oil in the garage too...
...because there ain't a machine
made by man...
...don't need a squirt of that
from time to time just to keep running!
But my crooks...
...unlike theirs...
...are all atremble...
...to be too crooked.
They're itty-bitty compared
to their crooks in there.
The Standard Oil
and the power companies.
Besides, I got my eye on mine.
Ain't nobody watching
over these crooks.
Ain't nobody got their eye on them...
...while they rob
the resources of this state!
Who made that son of a bitch
what he is? Who made him governor?
And he goes and two-times me?
I'll kill him.
No, he's two-timing Lucy.
You need some other kind of
arithmetic for what he's doing to you.
Lucy, she's a fool. She's... .
- I don't know what.
- His wife.
A hick with a college degree
from some Baptist hole in the ground.
What was she like?
- I didn't know Lucy any further back--
- The slut on skates.
I don't know,
I was looking at her skates.
Sure you were.
- Was she pretty?
- Look, just forget it.
How young was she?
- Who cares?
- Look at me.
He'll be back.
The world is full of sluts on skates.
Skates, grass skirts, geisha outfits.
Contortionists.
Every man a king
Every man a king
For you can be a millionaire
But there's something
Belonging to others
Well, there's enough
For all people to share
When it's sunny June
Or December too
In the wintertime or spring
Well, there'll be peace without end
Every neighbor a friend
With every man a king
The judge married money.
Savannah money.
The daughter of an industrialist
out there.
He's clean, Willie.
He's washed in the blood.
- You call yourself a detective.
- I'm most certainly not--
The son of a bitch
is washed in whitewash!
- Wanting it isn't the same as being it.
- I know!
- I can feel it.
- That isn't the same either.
Where did you find this itty-bitty out?
Hall of Records. It's all there.
Marriage licenses,
property deeds, public record.
The public record is for the public,
not us. That's why it's called that.
You ain't gonna find nothing there!
Now, I told you to dig,
not scuff your shoe a little bit.
- You gotta get out and talk to them.
- To whom?
The public.
The people who knew him.
This was a long time ago.
Well, look, he's still alive, isn't he?
Causing trouble.
So you gotta chafe up your hands
a little, for chrissake...
...like the rest of us.
Where the hell is everybody?
Whatever there was to find
in the case of the upright judge...
... would be long-buried
in the past...
... like a dead cat in the back yard.
But what could be buried there
like that...
... in a place like Burden's Landing?
Where you and your friends
grew up...
... shaded
by 300-year-old live oaks...
... and the sense
of your own entitlement.
To dig around that past
in that back yard...
... you must first- - You tell yourself.
- seek out the girl from that past:
Anne Stanton.
The daughter of the governor
back then.
The little sister
of your best friend, Adam...
... who, one day, you noticed...
... and it struck you
kind of all of a sudden...
... wasn't little anymore.
She was the first one
you loved like that.
And the last, it turns out.
So you hold on to her pictures
in your mind...
... year after year...
... in the belief that someday
it'll be like that again...
... even though
you have no evidence.
In church, they call this faith.
So that's what I'll call it.
Every month or so,
I come out here and light a fire.
Dry the place out.
I know it doesn't really
accomplish that...
...but I got a feeling if I didn't,
if nobody ever came...
...the place would just one day
cave in on itself.
Adam never comes out?
No. Not anymore.
He took the piano, or someone did.
Took it and put it in that place
he's living. Have you seen it?
God forbid my brother
ever spent any money on himself.
Or that people knew it.
How's your wife?
I'm sorry, I've forgotten her name.
That didn't quite work out
as I'd hoped.
A lot of tangled bedclothes
and unspoken loathing...
...then spoken loathing
and no tangled bedclothes.
Didn't I read of your engagement
in the society column?
Which you know
I always turn to first in the paper.
I was engaged. More than once.
Adam didn't care for any of them.
- Why that should matter, I don't know.
- Who needs them, anyway?
Anne, way back,
was Judge Irwin ever broke?
What?
Judges don't make
the kind of money your father did...
...or my father,
or anyone who lives here.
Why on earth would you want
to know such a thing?
- Someone asked me and I didn't know.
- Asked you what?
What I just asked you.
Why?
Oh, Jack,
what are you doing for that man?
- That man.
- Whatever it is, don't.
That man is what those pushed
away from the trough call him.
Those invited to it
should find another name.
Accepting state money
for scholarships...
...is different
from being on his payroll.
- Is it?
- Yes, it is.
- Oh, don't ruin it.
- What?
Don't ruin this?
Or that fine, beautiful time
we all had here once?
You sure that's what it was?
- Yes.
- Then why did it turn into this time?
With me drinking myself to death...
...Adam getting more reclusive
and strange...
...and you once a month coming out
to a house with the electricity cut off?
This time came from that time.
We should go.
The fire can burn.
It will anyway, you know, one day.
What will what anyway?
Cave in on itself.
Everything.
Is the Seaboard Bank in Savannah?
Not since 1938.
What happened in '38?
Bought out by Georgia Fidelity.
Got any idea
who was president then?
Franklin Roosevelt.
Ma'am, of the bank.
LeMoyne Carruthers was my friend.
A dear friend.
And his daughter, Mabel,
well, I did what I could for her...
...even after her financial reversal.
The year of her financial reversal
was roughly what?
She threw that inheritance away.
Two or three notes I paid myself.
For the memory of LeMoyne,
my dear friend.
But she'd come back at me without
shame and say, "I want money."
For parties and balls
and to adorn herself.
For she was plain, to be kind.
Then she was broke
when she met the judge.
So was he. This is when
he was still attorney general...
...under Governor Stanton
pulling down 3400 a year...
...while paying off liens on his place
on the Row to the tune of 42,000.
Well, you see there,
you are a detective.
You dug and chinked
the metal box...
...and are enjoying the sound of it
a bit, if I'm not mistaken.
Might still be empty.
No, it's full.
Crawling with maggots
by now, maybe...
...but still a little something they was
chewing on. Just have to look.
Still have to find the key.
And that ain't gonna be easy.
Well, there's nothing easy
that means anything.
You'll do it. I have faith.
I like this one, Slade.
Now, they all is yelling that I got
no right to what's on their table.
What's on their table is theirs.
I'm not trying to take it.
"Go ahead, sit down at that table,"
I tell.
"Have all you want to eat.
Eat till you can't eat no more.
Now, what's left on that table...
...when you can't eat no more,
even if you tried...
...leave that there
because that's for the rest of us."
And for that, they're trying to ruin me.
For taking
what they left on the table...
...and using it
to build something for you!
To build 3000 miles
of paved highways...
...a hundred and eleven new bridges,
208 new schools...
...60,000 brand-new jobs!
Now, they wanna ruin me...
...because they wanna ruin you.
But your will is my strength.
Your need is my justice.
And I won't let them!
It come to me in a dream.
Whilst you were up in Savannah with
your pail and shovel, eating oysters.
What did?
I'm gonna build me
the best-staffed, best-equipped...
...biggest goddamn health center
this state ever saw.
This country ever saw.
The All-Father hisself.
You want me to do what
to further this noble enterprise?
Deliver me my chief of staff.
Fine. You give me a list
of who you're thinking to run it.
Only one name on it:
Dr. Adam Stanton.
That's my boy, Tom! That's the way!
You see that?
That's an all-American pass.
Goddamn it. Attaboy, Tom!
Well, somebody gotta
run this hospital.
He's gotta be the best, don't he?
- Adam Stanton is not the best.
- Well, he is for what I need.
They'll never approve
the money otherwise.
Willie, Adam's an old friend of mine.
As I certainly know,
else I wouldn't be asking.
I know him and I know you.
He won't do it.
What's wrong with me?
To him, what isn't?
You're everything
his father fought against.
He hates what you represent,
if not you yourself.
I'm not asking him to love me.
- I'm asking him to run a hospital.
- Your hospital.
The people's hospital, where any poor
redneck and nigger can get the best...
...without paying a dime.
He ought to like that.
No. What you're asking is for him
to put his family's name next to yours.
So you can trot him out
in front of senators and say:
"Lookie here,
lookie who I got standing next to me.
The son of the most honorable man
who ever served this state."
Just get him.
Not easy being the son
of a great man.
It don't look so hard
for my boy Tom out there.
Far as you know.
We should go.
Not yet. Let's go in again.
The friend of your youth...
... is the only friend you'll ever have.
For he doesn't really see you.
He sees in his mind a face,
which doesn't exist anymore.
And speaks a name- -
Spike, Bud, Red, Rusty, Jack.
- that belongs
to that now nonexistent face.
He's still the young idealist
you used to be.
Still sees good and bad
in black and white...
... and men as sinners or saints,
but never both.
- Hey, Adam.
- Feels superior in the knowledge....
... that you no longer
can distinguish the two.
- Jack.
- That's what drives you to it...
- ... try to stick the knife in.
- Come on in.
For there's a kind
of snobbery in failure.
Like the twist
to the mouth of a drunk.
You're looking good, Jack.
Thank you.
I'll take that as a compliment.
Been playing much?
Who wants to know, my sister?
It was just a question.
- Everything good?
- Yes, Jack, everything's good.
All right.
I'm gonna tell you something.
I don't want you to start yelling at me
until I'm finished.
Governor Stark
wants you as director...
...of the medical center he's building.
Whatever you want...
...all you have to do is say,
it's yours.
- Money?
- I didn't say that.
What do I want money for?
I got everything I want. Look around.
I didn't say money.
Then what?
What's next when that doesn't work?
- A threat of some kind?
- Of course not.
That's how he gets things done?
What he relies on?
The bribe and the threat?
I would never do that to you
or let anyone else. You know that.
I don't know what you think
he's thinking, Jack...
...or what you're thinking,
but couldn't be flattery.
He's thinking what he thinks about
anybody he wants something from...
...who doesn't wanna give it.
- Something from their past.
- You just said he wasn't.
- Not their past, their weakness.
- Same thing.
- No, it isn't.
I'm not gonna debate it with you, Jack.
We're not in school anymore.
I don't care if you know I'm right.
I don't care if I am right. But I am.
Then what is it, Jack?
What is my weakness?
You can't look at anybody
with something broke...
...without wanting to fix it.
- And that's a weakness?
- Some would say.
You would say.
- It's no disgrace.
- Well, then tell me, Jack.
Tell me, please.
How is that a weakness?
- I don't need to tell you.
- I think you do.
If you don't know, I'll leave you
to think about it. It'll come to you.
No, it won't, Jack.
And you'll have to go to your boss...
...and tell him you failed
without taking out the big guns.
So tell me, for your sake,
how is that a weakness?
Because it makes you do things
you don't wanna do.
If they're good.
And this is. He may not be...
...but this is.
It was good to see you, Adam.
Now, before I tell y'all the story
about how this great university...
...changed the life of a boy
from Mason City...
...who, by all rights,
should still be swilling hogs...
...first, I'm gonna set your minds at ease
on another point of interest.
I brung my checkbook with me.
- You own one share?
- I do. I just bought it.
Now, that gives me the right
as a stockholder...
...to view the company's
equity records, doesn't it?
Governor, sir?
Miss Littlepaugh?
You're from the insurance company.
No, no, I'm not.
But I know about your brother's
insurance policy.
Not that there was much left on it
to collect.
He borrowed against it
almost down to nothing. Didn't he?
Which means you lied...
...for almost nothing.
Now, don't you go
jumping out a window.
It wasn't the money...
...it was the disgrace.
I wanted him buried in the good part
of the cemetery...
...not in the back,
with all the sinners.
Why did he kill himself?
They drove him to it.
To make room for that thief, Irwin.
My brother went
to the Justice Department...
...and told them he knew
all about their man Irwin...
...and the bribes...
...but they wouldn't listen.
- Are you lying to me?
- No, that's what killed him.
He wrote the letter to me
and told me.
And then that night he... .
All right, wait. What letter?
The letter he wrote me
explaining it all.
The lawsuit Irwin was paid
to let up on...
...and how the power company
hid the payoffs...
...by firing my brother
and giving Irwin his job.
Where's the letter now?
What happened to it?
Oh, I have it.
Kept it all this time?
You have the letter here?
You bring down the lion...
... the rest of the jungle
will quake in fear...
... and they'll all fall into line.
Your employer is calling you, Jack.
Thank you.
Hello.
Hello, Anne.
- What's that?
- Orange soda.
Two straws.
- I think I might want something else.
- I didn't say one of them was for you.
It's the way it's drunk. Tradition.
- I know you went to see Adam.
- I did. What of it?
What did you say to him?
I went there and I offered him a job.
No use blaming me.
- I'm not blaming you.
- Well, that's what it sounds like.
That's what you sound like.
If you could hear yourself.
I want him to take it.
I want you to go back...
...and ask him again.
Jack, you know how it is.
My brother is the son of a governor...
...the grandson of a senator,
the great-grandson of a general.
She wasn't telling me anything
I didn't already know about Adam.
But she was doing it
walking next to me...
... which is all that mattered.
So I let her go on
as long as she wanted.
I knew that Adam
had already made his decision.
He had decided to take the job
when I first brought it up.
He was just putting some time
between my visit and now...
... out of pride.
He needs to do this
to be part of something himself...
...before he disappears.
But something about
what she was saying bothered me.
The way an off-stage noise
bothers you.
What kind of life is that?
Something you hear- -
He's a guardian of dead men.
- but not clear enough
to catch the meaning of.
I want him to take it.
He has to do it.
So you push it aside.
I guess that's one of your gunmen
I've heard about.
Sugar Boy, hell, no.
He just carry that peashooter
for decoration.
I tell you one thing, though.
Ain't nobody can drive like him.
So, what do you think, doc?
I think it'll do the people of the state
some good...
...and get you some votes.
There's a lot of ways to get votes.
Cheaper ones.
So I understand.
Because there are some things
I understand.
And some things you don't.
Just like there's some I don't.
What I do know
is what makes the mare go.
And that you can always
make goodness out of badness.
- That would be two things.
- Them's the two things I know, then.
And both of them wrong.
No, neither one of them, sir.
I beg your pardon.
You can always make good from bad,
in all things.
In politics, poetry...
...everything in between.
Makes no difference.
A man writes a sonnet...
...and it's good.
Is it less good if it turns out...
...the dame he wrote it about
is married to someone else?
That his passion was illicit?
Come on,
I wanna show you something.
I wouldn't mind
understanding something, actually.
Lf, as you say, there's only bad
to start with from conception on...
...and that good must be made
from bad...
...then how do you ever know
what the good is?
Well, that's simple.
You just make it up as you go along.
Make up what?
The good. What else
are we talking about?
Make it up as you go along?
Yeah. Just like folks have been doing
for a million years.
Since we fall out of trees,
crawl out the swamp.
They just cook up what is right.
If nobody likes that, well,
just cook it up again...
...a little different with a lid on.
And you know what?
Things under a lid
don't look no different than things...
...not under a lid
when there's one on it.
You don't have to convince me
of anything, Mr. Stark.
You've already done that.
I'm here, aren't I?
That's right.
And you're a good boy too, doc.
A lot better than you think.
So goddamn it.
Don't let none of them bastards
tell you no different.
I got a question since everybody's
trying to understand everything...
...all of a sudden.
Back when we met...
...at Slade's old place,
when we shook hands--
Do you remember that moment?
Like it was yesterday.
Did you or did you not
give me a wink?
A wink?
Well, that's just gonna have to remain
a mystery.
- You don't remember.
- Sure I do.
Then...?
You know, I... .
I just do recall giving you a wink.
But then,
maybe I got something in my eye...
...which would make it more
of a blink.
Did you have something
in your eye?
What if I didn't?
What would that mean?
That maybe you figured
you and me...
...had something in common
the others didn't.
Well, I'm not gonna tell you
and deprive you of the mystery.
There's just too few honest-to-God
mysteries left to go around.
And long after I'm dead and gone...
...and long after these sons of bitches
are dead and gone...
...I'm talking eternally now...
...the Willie Stark Hospital
will still be standing.
Where every man,
woman and child...
...who's sick or in pain can go in...
...knowing they'll get
all a man can do.
Not as charity,
but as a right, as your right!
As it is that every child
shall have a complete education!
That no person, aged or infirm,
shall want or beg for bread!
That no poor man's land
or house will be taxed!
That you shall not be deprived
of hope!
And if any man...
...stands between me...
...and fulfilling your rights...
...I will strike him down...
...so help me God!
Hip, shin, thigh and neck bone,
I will hit him.
I will hit him with a meat ax.
Somebody give me a meat ax...
...and bring me another one
for my friend and ally!
Because it's not only God's only son
with us on this one.
It's the son of the last
great leader of this state:
Governor Joe Stanton's boy,
Dr. Adam Stanton!
All right. See there?
It's not so bad.
It's not gonna kill you.
What's up?
Sadie.
Now he's done it.
He's done it again,
and I swear this time... .
- Done?
- Don't act so dumb.
Or any dumber than you are.
He's two-timing me again.
Or four or one or whatever timing
you wanna call it...
...because you're such a smartass.
- She skate?
- Shut up.
You and your friends.
Your highbrow friends.
All the money and privilege
and everything else...
...you pretend means nothing.
To someone with it, it means nothing.
Don't look so dumb.
I said it annoys me.
I have no idea
what you're talking about...
...or what it was tangled you two up
in the first place, love or hate.
You know what I'm talking about.
Maybe you fixed it up.
I'm sure you did.
Surely he's fixed you up,
like that pathetic...
...crazy brother of hers,
to say thanks.
"Thanks, Jack.
She is a looker, I do declare.
I'm naming you SDP,
yes, sir.
State Director of Pimps."
What are you saying?
Are you saying...?
Thank you.
Are you s--?
I love you.
We're gonna walk some more.
All right.
Hello.
Hello, Mother.
Yes, Mother. Yes.
All right.
All right, Mother.
Goodbye.
She and the Peytons
and the bridge partner...
...are going to La Grange
for a nightcap.
- Jackie.
- What?
I came up here.
This was years ago,
you understand.
Back when things
weren't set in concrete.
Back when you had a way
of changing the course of things.
If you knew how.
She was perfect.
She had always been perfect.
I wanted to keep her that way...
... and like this.
To be young and older...
... somehow.
Of course that's not
what it looked like to her.
When I came home
from school at Christmas...
... we saw each other, of course.
We talked about things,
but never that.
We talked about love in general.
Like it was the subject of an essay
instead of real.
She said it was like jumping off
the high dive, love was.
Or like almost getting drowned.
Which, honestly,
I didn't understand.
For a long time.
You wanna know the reason
I stopped that night?
It wasn't nobility.
That's only what I told myself.
We have all the time
in the world, right?
It was that I knew something
was about to be taken from us...
... leaving in its place
something we didn't know.
Which didn't make her sad...
... but it did me.
You only get a couple of moments
that determine your life.
Sometimes only one.
And then it's gone.
Forever.
I talked to Senator Loden
this morning.
He said you find something nice
to put on his plate...
...he might come around.
Vote any way you like.
While you cut yourself a slice.
- I ain't saying that.
- I know what you're saying, Tiny.
You know, I'd rather bust a man
than buy him.
- Well, that's up to you now.
- Yeah, sure is. Now go on. Get.
Do you have
any information for me?
You sure there's not something
you neglected to mention?
Something you forgot?
Jack.
No.
Nothing.
Nothing. Well.
How about that, Sugar? Nothing.
Am I alone in this?
The bastards
are pounding at the gate...
...they're gonna put a vote
of impeachment on the calendar!
They take that vote today, I'm out!
I need Judge Irwin with me.
Or at least not against me.
So whatever it is...
...that you don't have on him...
...use it.
I'm sorry, what did you say?
I said I'm going over to the judge's.
Well, you mean later.
He'll be napping this time of day.
There isn't any time
he'll wanna hear...
...what I have to tell him.
He's not well, you know.
I can't help that.
I do wish
you wouldn't get mixed up in things.
It isn't me mixed up in them.
The judge is napping right now,
Mr. Burden.
I'll wait in his study
until he comes down.
Fire this marble.
Watch the chandelier.
Okay, you can fire.
Hello, Jack. I didn't know
you were at your mother's.
- You just get in?
- Last night.
Yeah. It's a bit early in the day,
but what do you think?
A touch of bourbon
never hurt anyone.
Least not you and me.
We're indestructible, aren't we,
you and me?
- No, thanks.
- "No, thanks," he says.
Begging the question,
as the old man pours just one drink...
...what's on your mind?
Out with it.
You know who I work for.
How could I forget?
But let's just sit
and pretend that I have.
Come sit over here with me.
The truth is I don't hold
the same low opinion of him...
...as many of our friends
on the Row.
I was almost for him at one time.
He was busting out windowpanes
and, yeah, letting in some fresh air.
But now I am worried about him
knocking down the whole house.
So you threw in with his enemies
after you said you wouldn't.
Oh, Jack.
What is politics
but a matter of choices?
You make a choice knowing there's
a chance it's the wrong one.
You've made a choice
and you know how much it's cost you.
There's always a price
for everything we do.
When we came by that night
and were leaving...
...you said you would think
about it.
About calling off the dogs?
No, I did not say that.
Your memory is faulty, sir.
He said, "Think about it"...
...which I don't have to.
I don't have to think
about things I already know.
You should think it over.
Even now...
...because it's not too late.
Too late for what?
Hey, Jack.
Jesus.
- What is it?
- Just say you'll back Stark...
...against these attacks.
- No!
Now, that has the sound of finality,
don't it?
- Yes, it does.
- Yeah.
You know,
I find this difficult to believe.
For me too.
And that your boss would even think
he could pressure me.
Could blackmail me.
- The first word is better.
- The first word is prettier, not better.
Don't you know that this stuff
wouldn't stand up? Not in any court.
It happened almost 25 years ago.
You couldn't get any testimony...
...except from that woman
who is related...
...and whose testimony,
if she gave it...
...would be worthless.
And everybody else, Jack...
...everybody else is dead.
You're not.
You're not dead.
And you don't live in any court.
You live in the world, where people
think you're a certain kind of man.
I am a certain kind of man.
You know, when I was a kid
it seemed natural...
...that a grown man
would stay up nights with catgut...
...and steel wire, pliers and scissors,
and make little catapults.
Read books about them.
Will you change your mind?
You know, I could hurt you, Jack.
Like you're trying to hurt me.
I could say something.
I could tell you something...
...that would hurt.
But I won't.
Think it over. I'll be by tomorrow.
My mind's made up now.
I'll come back tomorrow.
Made up now.
Mother. Mother.
- Mother. Mama.
- You! You! You did it!
- What?
- You killed him!
- Who?
- You killed him.
- Mother, who?
- You killed him.
- Who?
- You killed him!
- Who, M--?
- You killed him! You killed him!
- Who, Mother?
- Your father!
You killed your father!
"I am the resurrection and the life,"
saith the Lord.
"He that believeth in me,
though he were dead...
...yet shall he live.
Whosoever liveth and
believeth in me shall never die."
I know that my redeemer liveth...
...and that he shall stand
at the latter day upon the earth.
And though this body be destroyed,
yet shall I see God...
...and I shall see for myself...
...and mine eyes shall behold,
and not as a stranger.
We brought nothing
into this world...
...and it is certain
we can carry nothing out.
- The city of God, the holy place
of the tabernacle of the Most Highest.
God is in the midst of her.
Therefore,
shall she not be removed.
- In every good work to do his will...
...working in you that which
is well pleasing in his sight...
...through Jesus Christ to whom
be glory forever and ever. Amen.
I told you to scare him,
not scare him to death.
- He wasn't scared.
- Then why did he do it?
- Jack?
- I don't wanna discuss it.
Well, let me just say this.
I know that he was some kind of
friend of the family...
...growing up, all that, so I'm sorry
the old bastard shot himself...
...but we still got MacMurphy
and his boys to deal with.
And that didn't work out
the way we hoped.
You need to get someone else
for all of it. I'm through.
Through with it or with me?
I don't wanna discuss it.
After any great trauma or crisis...
... after the shock subsides
and the nerves stop twitching...
... you settle down
to the new condition of things...
... because you know that all possibility
of any more change...
... has been used up.
You've seen the pattern finally...
... because you've stepped back far
enough to take in the whole picture.
But it's too late now to do anything
but accommodate yourself to it.
And that's it.
There's nothing left to do or say...
... except that God and nothing
have a lot in common.
The end.
What you don't know
is that you're wrong.
Oh, God, Jack.
You've gotta help me.
He's crazy. He came to see me,
said the most terrible things. . .
...and then he walked out.
- Who? Willie?
No, Adam.
He said it was my fault.
- Everything was my fault.
- Well... .
Someone called him...
...and told him...
...about me.
About you?
About you and the governor.
You can say it, Anne.
It doesn't hurt any more to hear it
than to know it.
He told him what I'd done...
...and he said that I'd do anything
to help the governor...
...get what he wanted.
Even if that meant...
...sacrificing my brother
to some kind of fraud.
Which is all the hospital was.
Nothing but a scheme to rob the state.
And that when the truth came out...
...and it would,
Adam would take the blame.
He'd go to prison. For every scheme
needs a fall guy and he's it.
- Whoever said that is lying.
- I know.
I tried to tell him that's not the way
it was. That he was wrong.
But he wouldn't listen.
He grabbed me and said
that he would not be made a fool.
That everything else
could be filthy and corrupt...
...but that a man didn't have to be.
And then he said that...
...he wouldn't be a paid pimp
to his sister's whore.
He said that to me.
Well, neither will I.
Why did you do it?
- You knew what it would do to me.
- It had nothing to do with you.
- Then what?
- I don't know!
- Well, you better think of something!
- I wasn't thinking--!
Yes, you were! Yes, you were.
Was it because of me
or in spite of me?
I'd never hurt you like that.
You would and you have.
Oh, God, Jack.
You have to help me.
I'm afraid Adam's gonna
do something to himself.
Adam?
Dear God, you are the unseen Lord
of this chamber...
Dear God, you are the unseen Lord
of this chamber...
...the silent listener...
...the judge of our deliberations.
Bless the senators you sit among.
We place our trust
in your guidance.
You are our Lord and Savior.
- Amen.
- Amen.
All persons are commanded
to keep silent...
- ... on pain of imprisonment...
- Adam!
...while the Senate
of the state of Louisiana...
... sits for the trial
of the articles of impeachment...
... against the honorable William
Stark, governor of state of Louisiana.
I'll go up and make some calls.
Anne...
...I'm sure it's gonna be fine.
- Mr. Gidr.
- Nay.
- Mr. Honor.
- Yea.
- Mr. Hobbes.
- Nay.
- Mr. Landmark.
- Nay.
- Mr. Latch.
- Yea.
- Mr. Mouton.
- Nay.
- Mr. Pelerant.
- Nay.
- Mr. Rivette.
- Yea.
- Mr. Rousseau.
- Nay.
- Mr. Savoir.
- Nay.
- Mr. Tesh.
- Nay.
Seventeen yeas, 22 nays.
The impeachment
of Governor Willie Stark fails.
There is a line between
what is acceptable and what is not.
Now, the governor has stepped over
that line to guide this vote...
...using means
that are inappropriate.
Now, I'll call that undue influence.
I'll go further, I'll call it coercion.
Mr. MacMurphy!
You say every word
but the one you mean, sir!
Go ahead, say it out loud.
We're all friends here.
But I blackmailed nobody,
to be factual!
I merely gave you
the opportunity to act...
...in accordance
with your own nature...
...and like all good men,
rise above principle.
Jack!
We did it! We did it, boy!
We stopped that clock!
Ain't gonna be
no impeachment today!
Someone called him, Adam.
And said that I'd do anything to
help the governor get what he wanted.
Even if that meant sacrificing
my brother to some kind of fraud.
Which is all the hospital was.
Nothing but a scheme
to rob the state.
Adam would take the blame.
He'd go to prison. For every scheme
needs a fall guy and he's it.
That's not true.
Whoever said that is lying.
Hey, doc. Where you been?
You been out there swimming?
So listen to me. Listen here...
... and lift your eyes...
... and look on the God's blessed
and unflyblown truth:
You are a hick and ain't nobody
never helped a hick but a hick hisself.
It's up to you
to nail these parasites up.
Up to you and me and God.
- Nail up Joe Harrison!
- Nail him up!
- Nail up MacMurphy!
- Nail him up!
And nail up any bastard
that gets between you...
...and the roads and the bridges
and the schools...
...and the food you need.
You give me the hammer and I'll do it.