The Golden West (2023) Movie Script
1
When the blight came...
And the harvest failed...
Many prayed to their God...
But he would not answer.
Others fled to far-off lands.
Some died of sickness.
Most, of hunger.
And some...
Like our Daddy...
Went mad.
We lost everything to the ground.
But when you've nothing left to lose...
Well, sure, that's when
there's something to find.
You've just got to know where to look.
Give it here.
Talk to me, Fionnuala. What is it?
Did I find one? Is it a shiny
little fecker, is it so?
Quiet, Noreen!
It's your tooth.
What?
Which tooth?
Wait, Fionnuala!
'Twas me molar.
Will you stop with your humming, Noreen?
I've a tune stuck in me head.
Told you we should have gone to America.
Aye, and you don't know what you're talking about.
All millionaires they are now, in America.
We'd have had better luck there.
Well, if you love America so much,
why don't I cut you loose and you
can feck off there yourself, so?
They say a hundred thousand men-
Jaysus, Noreen!
If a hundred thousand men go searching
for gold in America...
Well then don't you know they end up splitting
that gold a hundred thousand ways?
Whereas I'll be keeping my treasure all to myself...
'Cos there's no other fecker
here to be splitting it with.
I'm here, Fionnuala.
That's the one thing...
That I like about you, Thomas-
Sorry, Thomas.
I have to- Thomas, I think I dropped it.
Found it, Thomas. I found it.
Round the back.
Sorry, Thomas.
Anything?
It gets awful lonesome in the dark, Fionnuala.
Stop with your grousing.
I told you, it was an accident.
Terrible lonesome.
You awake, Fionnuala?
No.
What'll you do with your gold?
Go to sleep.
I'll buy myself seven purple dresses...
One for each day of the week.
And when people pass me
in the street, they'll say...
'Old Noreen does be keeping
her purple dress awful clean.'
And I won't tell them I've six more
hanging in the wardrobe.
All identical.
I won't be telling them that.
And I'll have a little cottage out West...
With a wee stable, where
Thomas can grow old.
There'll be a little window...
Where you can see the sun come
down on the water every night...
All golden, like.
Do you suppose we'll
ever go home, Fionnuala?
There's no home for us there anymore.
But what if we can't be finding
any treasure after all?
Then we're not looking hard enough.
It's just - with the winter coming in-
You were always a quitter, Noreen.
Always looking for the easy way out.
Lord knows I'd have found
my treasure long ago
If it wasn't for lumps like you
always lagging two steps behind.
We'll be putting a bullet through our
skulls before we give up here, Noreen...
And that's the end of it.
'Half a pound of tuppeny rice...'
'Half a pound of treacle...'
'Half a pound of tuppeny rice...'
'Half a pound of treacle...'
'That's the way the money goes...'
Noreen!
What? What is it?
Did you get something?
No.
'Up and down the city streets...'
'In and out the Eagle...'
'That's the way the money goes...'
Come on!
Any luck?
There's no gold round these parts.
They all say that...
Until somebody finds some.
You ought to be careful,
mind, with winter on its way.
I like the cold.
My brother's off to America...
Sure you wouldn't have
better luck there?
Then again, I suppose you'd
only end up competing
with him and the other hundred
thousand already there.
Exactly.
America's loss, if you ask me.
Bree?...
Bree-esh?
What about 'water'?
What's 'handsome'?
Fionnuala?
Who are you talking to?
Give me a minute there now, Noreen.
Morning, Miss!
Who's that?
Is there a man in the water, so?
Noreen-
What's that, secret chats
with men in the water, is it?
And me panning away
over yonder like a goon.
I said just give me a minute.
Sorry about her...
She's going loony in her old age.
Me loony?
What's happened to your eyes there, Miss?
Ah, she caught her reflection
in the water, so, and blinded herself.
Sorry, Miss, I-
No, no, you laugh away there, Mister...
Sure, if it's jokes we're doing...
Then why don't you tell him
the real reason, huh, Fionnuala?
Now that's a real side-splitter-
Noreen-
Tell the nice man in the water
how I really lost my sight...
Tell him the truth now, Fionnuala.
Will you just feck off so!
Was it from seeing my reflection in the water, was it?
Or was it from you clubbing me round the
head with the butt-end of your pickaxe?
I didn't even hit you that hard.
Oh, it was hard enough, I tell ya.
Ah, it's always mountains out
of fecking mole hills with you.
Battering your sister into blindness...
And then accusing her of
mountains out of mole hills.
Yeah, that sure sounds 'loony' to me.
What do you reckon, Mister?
Where'd he go?
I am sorry, Fionnuala-
I said no talking.
I am awful cold.
You'd never let old Thomas come
and just sit next to me, would you?
Thomas?...
Come here to me now, boy...
Thomas?...
- Thomas is gone.
What?
- I let him go.
Fionnuala, no-
Me lugging around one useless
old lump is enough as it is...
I don't need a second.
Not my Thomas.
Fionnuala?
What?
You went quiet...
I thought maybe you found something.
No, nothing.
Noreen!
What?
What are you doing?
I'm done, Fionnuala.
I can't do this anymore.
You said we'd stick a bullet
in our skulls before we gave up...
Do you remember?
Aye.
As far as I can tell...
A bullet in the head would be
a walk in the park compared to all this.
We're never going to find anything...
Are we?
No.
No, I don't suppose we are.
We tried our best...
We just didn't have the luck.
Like Daddy?
Like Daddy is right...
Just like Daddy.
I just want some peace and quiet.
Bit of peace and quiet would be nice.
Fionnuala?
If I did it...
If I stuck a wee bullet in my head there...
Would you do it too?
I don't want to do it alone.
I would, Noreen.
Promise?
Promise.
Right then.
What's that you're doing there?
To see who goes first.
Left or right?
Hold on a second now I...
I thought you were going to, you know...
I thought you were going to lead the way.
No, no... I think we ought to let
God decide the order.
Left or right?
Left.
You first.
What?
Wait, wait, uh... Let me just
grab me rosary here, Noreen.
You take your time.
Holy Mary, Mother of God...
Pray for us sinners, now
and at the hour of our death...
Amen.
Goodbye, Noreen.
God bless you, Fionnuala.
May God have mercy on my soul.
Goodbye, Fionnuala.
Surprise.
I knew I never hit you that hard!
Rotten, isn't it?
What some folks'll do when
they think you're not watching.
Noreen, wait...
Don't do this...
I'll get you your purple dresses...
I'll get you the wee house out
west, with the view over the water...
We can live there together...
Just the two of us.
Like it used to be...
Please.
Always lagging two steps behind.
You can't just leave me here to die.
No...
No, you're right.
'Half a pound of tuppeny rice...'
'Half a pound of treacle...'
'That's the way the money goes...'
'Goes the weasel.'
Thomas?
Ah, don't look at me like that, Thomas.
Come on.
That's it... Come on, Thomas.
Hey, you there...
Which way to the nearest port?
Come on, Thomas.
Where are you off to, Miss?
Where you going?
West.
When the blight came...
And the harvest failed...
Many prayed to their God...
But he would not answer.
Others fled to far-off lands.
Some died of sickness.
Most, of hunger.
And some...
Like our Daddy...
Went mad.
We lost everything to the ground.
But when you've nothing left to lose...
Well, sure, that's when
there's something to find.
You've just got to know where to look.
Give it here.
Talk to me, Fionnuala. What is it?
Did I find one? Is it a shiny
little fecker, is it so?
Quiet, Noreen!
It's your tooth.
What?
Which tooth?
Wait, Fionnuala!
'Twas me molar.
Will you stop with your humming, Noreen?
I've a tune stuck in me head.
Told you we should have gone to America.
Aye, and you don't know what you're talking about.
All millionaires they are now, in America.
We'd have had better luck there.
Well, if you love America so much,
why don't I cut you loose and you
can feck off there yourself, so?
They say a hundred thousand men-
Jaysus, Noreen!
If a hundred thousand men go searching
for gold in America...
Well then don't you know they end up splitting
that gold a hundred thousand ways?
Whereas I'll be keeping my treasure all to myself...
'Cos there's no other fecker
here to be splitting it with.
I'm here, Fionnuala.
That's the one thing...
That I like about you, Thomas-
Sorry, Thomas.
I have to- Thomas, I think I dropped it.
Found it, Thomas. I found it.
Round the back.
Sorry, Thomas.
Anything?
It gets awful lonesome in the dark, Fionnuala.
Stop with your grousing.
I told you, it was an accident.
Terrible lonesome.
You awake, Fionnuala?
No.
What'll you do with your gold?
Go to sleep.
I'll buy myself seven purple dresses...
One for each day of the week.
And when people pass me
in the street, they'll say...
'Old Noreen does be keeping
her purple dress awful clean.'
And I won't tell them I've six more
hanging in the wardrobe.
All identical.
I won't be telling them that.
And I'll have a little cottage out West...
With a wee stable, where
Thomas can grow old.
There'll be a little window...
Where you can see the sun come
down on the water every night...
All golden, like.
Do you suppose we'll
ever go home, Fionnuala?
There's no home for us there anymore.
But what if we can't be finding
any treasure after all?
Then we're not looking hard enough.
It's just - with the winter coming in-
You were always a quitter, Noreen.
Always looking for the easy way out.
Lord knows I'd have found
my treasure long ago
If it wasn't for lumps like you
always lagging two steps behind.
We'll be putting a bullet through our
skulls before we give up here, Noreen...
And that's the end of it.
'Half a pound of tuppeny rice...'
'Half a pound of treacle...'
'Half a pound of tuppeny rice...'
'Half a pound of treacle...'
'That's the way the money goes...'
Noreen!
What? What is it?
Did you get something?
No.
'Up and down the city streets...'
'In and out the Eagle...'
'That's the way the money goes...'
Come on!
Any luck?
There's no gold round these parts.
They all say that...
Until somebody finds some.
You ought to be careful,
mind, with winter on its way.
I like the cold.
My brother's off to America...
Sure you wouldn't have
better luck there?
Then again, I suppose you'd
only end up competing
with him and the other hundred
thousand already there.
Exactly.
America's loss, if you ask me.
Bree?...
Bree-esh?
What about 'water'?
What's 'handsome'?
Fionnuala?
Who are you talking to?
Give me a minute there now, Noreen.
Morning, Miss!
Who's that?
Is there a man in the water, so?
Noreen-
What's that, secret chats
with men in the water, is it?
And me panning away
over yonder like a goon.
I said just give me a minute.
Sorry about her...
She's going loony in her old age.
Me loony?
What's happened to your eyes there, Miss?
Ah, she caught her reflection
in the water, so, and blinded herself.
Sorry, Miss, I-
No, no, you laugh away there, Mister...
Sure, if it's jokes we're doing...
Then why don't you tell him
the real reason, huh, Fionnuala?
Now that's a real side-splitter-
Noreen-
Tell the nice man in the water
how I really lost my sight...
Tell him the truth now, Fionnuala.
Will you just feck off so!
Was it from seeing my reflection in the water, was it?
Or was it from you clubbing me round the
head with the butt-end of your pickaxe?
I didn't even hit you that hard.
Oh, it was hard enough, I tell ya.
Ah, it's always mountains out
of fecking mole hills with you.
Battering your sister into blindness...
And then accusing her of
mountains out of mole hills.
Yeah, that sure sounds 'loony' to me.
What do you reckon, Mister?
Where'd he go?
I am sorry, Fionnuala-
I said no talking.
I am awful cold.
You'd never let old Thomas come
and just sit next to me, would you?
Thomas?...
Come here to me now, boy...
Thomas?...
- Thomas is gone.
What?
- I let him go.
Fionnuala, no-
Me lugging around one useless
old lump is enough as it is...
I don't need a second.
Not my Thomas.
Fionnuala?
What?
You went quiet...
I thought maybe you found something.
No, nothing.
Noreen!
What?
What are you doing?
I'm done, Fionnuala.
I can't do this anymore.
You said we'd stick a bullet
in our skulls before we gave up...
Do you remember?
Aye.
As far as I can tell...
A bullet in the head would be
a walk in the park compared to all this.
We're never going to find anything...
Are we?
No.
No, I don't suppose we are.
We tried our best...
We just didn't have the luck.
Like Daddy?
Like Daddy is right...
Just like Daddy.
I just want some peace and quiet.
Bit of peace and quiet would be nice.
Fionnuala?
If I did it...
If I stuck a wee bullet in my head there...
Would you do it too?
I don't want to do it alone.
I would, Noreen.
Promise?
Promise.
Right then.
What's that you're doing there?
To see who goes first.
Left or right?
Hold on a second now I...
I thought you were going to, you know...
I thought you were going to lead the way.
No, no... I think we ought to let
God decide the order.
Left or right?
Left.
You first.
What?
Wait, wait, uh... Let me just
grab me rosary here, Noreen.
You take your time.
Holy Mary, Mother of God...
Pray for us sinners, now
and at the hour of our death...
Amen.
Goodbye, Noreen.
God bless you, Fionnuala.
May God have mercy on my soul.
Goodbye, Fionnuala.
Surprise.
I knew I never hit you that hard!
Rotten, isn't it?
What some folks'll do when
they think you're not watching.
Noreen, wait...
Don't do this...
I'll get you your purple dresses...
I'll get you the wee house out
west, with the view over the water...
We can live there together...
Just the two of us.
Like it used to be...
Please.
Always lagging two steps behind.
You can't just leave me here to die.
No...
No, you're right.
'Half a pound of tuppeny rice...'
'Half a pound of treacle...'
'That's the way the money goes...'
'Goes the weasel.'
Thomas?
Ah, don't look at me like that, Thomas.
Come on.
That's it... Come on, Thomas.
Hey, you there...
Which way to the nearest port?
Come on, Thomas.
Where are you off to, Miss?
Where you going?
West.