Original subtitles

("Route 66" by Nelson Riddle)

- Maybe if you turned on the radar,

we'd find out where we are.

- Well, you heard the man.

He ought to know, he lived his life in Mississippi, he says,

"Take State 35," he says,

"Cuts across the old Chickasawhay River.

"Cuts your driving time in two.

"Set you down in Biloxi by nightfall," he says.

- Yeah, what night?

- Only 35 doesn't cut across the Chickasawhay.

State 63 does.

- How did we get off US 66, Buz?

- 35 does cut across the Scoop Chitto,

maybe he meant Scoop Chitto when he said Chickasawhay.

- Why not, anybody can make a little mistake like that.

- There's a town here, Garth.

Off the road on the river.

Maybe we can get through that way.

Look for a side road up ahead now anywhere.

- What river is it on?

- Pascagoula?

(suspenseful music)

(gentle calm music)

- Do you see what I see, Libby?

- Yeah.

- Nobody comes down that road.

Nobody but Mr. Garth, and me, and the saw dust crew.

Hurry it across, Libby.

(engine revs)

(wood clatters) (tires squeal)

(groans)

- That's done it.

- The steering's gone.

- That's what it feels like.

- Let's take a look.

(engine starts)

(engine revs)

- I'll stop him.

(emergency brake grinds)

- This here is private property.

How come you're here, boy?

Why you come down that road?

- We're looking for a shortcut to Biloxi.

We had the accident, not you.

It's not our fault, your bridge didn't hold.

- Well, then maybe this will just teach you a lesson, huh?

- We don't need a lesson, we need a garage.

Is there one in town?

- It ain't open.

- That is the town of Garth?

- Forget that name, boy.

Just forget it.

- Look, all we want is a mechanic.

- What time you got?

- 18 past three.

- I'm going along to the mill now, I'll be back around four.

Now you get that and both your tails out of here

the same way you come in 'fore I gets back.

(suspenseful music)

- Hey!

How much?

To take us across?

- Don't let the new car go to your head, we're poor.

P-O-U-R, poor.

- Sir, not if you get me all the money in Jackson

or Vicksburg, I wouldn't carry you across that river.

It just ain't Christian.

Forgetting what will happen to me.

- Yeah, what would happen?

Well, I know what's going on,

Jesse James is hold over there with his gang.

- Now, lookie it here, son.

It ain't nothing to joke about.

- Is this your boat?

- Belongs to Mr. Garth.

- Like the town?

- Was that Mr. Garth in the truck?

- Thad Skinner, he runs a sawmill for Mr. Garth.

He also bosses this here boat.

- The Chamber of Commerce too.

- Suppose we can get this Thad Skinner to say okay.

- Son, he ain't about to.

- What if we get him to change his mind?

- You can change a mule's easier.

(circular saw buzzing)

- Mr. Skinner?

- How do you know my name?

- Skipper down at the dock

says you're in charge of the boat.

You say okay, he'll take us across.

- I already told you, boy.

Just hike on out the way comed in

and get yourself a lift from somebody on the main road.

- That's 15 miles, Mr. Skinner.

Why can't we use the garage in your town?

Just tell me that.

- You need a lesson in manners, boy.

(punch thuds) (suspenseful music)

- Stay out of it, Buz.

(groans)

- Now, why don't you go and talk to the skipper?

(suspenseful music)

- How about giving us a hand,

just long enough to get her up the hill?

(suspenseful music)

- Now you listen to me, boys.

You take her right on up the street,

and keep on a going until you're out of Garth.

- Well, what's with this place?

- Folks in Garth just like to stay close to home,

that's all.

- What's the matter, skipper, you got a local virus?

- You might say.

- How much for the ride?

- Oh, nothing.

Just seeing Thad Skinner getting his comeuppance,

that's better than money to me.

What did y'all use on him anyway?

- Nothing at all, my buddy.

Ever hear of Hell's Kitchen?

It's a neighborhood in New York.

Buz is one of the survivors.

Thanks again for your help.

- Right, so long.

- Sorry about this morning, Tod.

- Can I help it if I got a lousy navigator for a buddy?

Come on, let's find that garage that isn't open.

(eerie suspenseful music)

- Maybe it's the way we dress.

- Feel it?

- Feel what?

- Something in the air.

- Nice, we're not exactly large in Garth.

- Yeah, the feeling.

I can almost reach out and touch it.

(tool banging)

Excuse me.

Can we speak to you a minute?

- I heard all about you two.

Most killed Thad Skinner up the mill.

Well, you're not about to do me the same, no, sir.

I'm fetch me Mr. Dickson.

- Now there's a new name, all we've been hearing is Garth.

- Mr. Dickson's our sheriff.

- Well, we should have thought of him.

- Forget it.

He probably made his badge out of pine wood up at the mill.

Now, what's wrong with our business?

(suspenseful music)

(hinge squeaks) (calm harmonica music)

- I'm sorry.

I just ain't never seen a jacket like the one you got on.

Looks like it feels of May butter.

- May butter?

- Grass is freshest in May, cows give sweeter milk,

and softer butter then.

Fine for chapped hands.

- [Buz] We came to buy the store.

- You wouldn't wanna do that.

- Well, maybe just $1 worth.

- You two aren't so fearsome.

By the way you talk, you'd think that--

- Jenny!

Out back, Jenny.

- But why, Pa?

- Out back.

- It's still light outside.

If I was you, I'd follow the sun right out of town.

- You know, nobody makes any sense around here

except your daughter.

She's the first one that's acted halfway normal.

- That's 'cause she's younger than the rest of us.

- What's age got to do with it?

There's four characters sitting outside on a fence, my age,

stared at us like we just stepped out of a spaceship.

- As far as folks in Garth's concerned, you have.

(door opens) (hinge squeaks)

- Why don't you two fellas come on with me?

No fancy tricks, yeah?

- On what charge?

- Thad Skinner, feeding him to the saws.

That's the charge.

- I did that.

- Don't rile him, he'll shoot.

Look at him, like a gator waiting to snap.

- Jenny!

- He ain't no real sheriff.

We ain't got no real sheriff here.

Mr. Garth just lets him wear that badge.

- Why don't you go away while you're still ahead?

- Don't crowd me, boy.

- Got a message?

(glass breaks)

- Works fine.

We'll pay for the window.

- It's Mr. Garth's.

- In that case, we withdraw the offer.

(rifle thuds)

I'd like to see him try to fire that again.

- There's still a chance, just a chance, if you leave now.

- Look, we've got a valuable car out there

that needs fixing.

- Worth more than your life?

- It's more than just a car to me.

- All right, where do we find the great white father?

Garth!

- Why?

- This is his town, isn't it?

And he wants us out?

Okay, this is his problem.

- You don't understand, boy.

He didn't want you in, but you came in.

Whether he wants you out or whether he'll let you out,

now, I can't say.

(dramatic music)

(ax banging)

- Come here.

Come on!

Now, chop.

You hear me? Chop!

- Garth?

- Who else?

- Get up.

Get up!

- Mr. Garth?

We'd try to call.

- But nobody would lend us a phone.

- You're the one with he grit in his craw.

Busted a window, mashed a good bird gun.

You need a lesson, boy.

- I saw your class, it stinks. - Buz.

- You're a troublemaker, boy.

I don't like no trouble in Garth.

- Now that's what I said to Tod, right away,

as soon as we hit the main drag, I said to Tod,

"Now, Tod, that Mr. Garth, now there's a man

"who don't like no trouble in Garth."

I mean, a place like Garth, pure paradise.

Where else do you find people going out of their way

to make life cozy for you?

Doing all sorts of nice little things,

like giving you a free ride on a buzzsaw?

You can do better.

I saw you knock that kid off his feet.

- That was my son.

I hit him harder.

- Well, that's one way to make him look up to you.

This time, try the ax.

- Buz, your mouth, it's bleeding.

Look, isn't there anyone around here you can reason with?

- Which way was you headed when you come in here?

- To Biloxi, it's oystering season,

a friend of mine's got a lugger, he needs the help,

we need the money.

- Don't lie to me, boy.

You come in here in a shiny new car,

that don't go no poor mouth.

- My father gave me that car, mister, just before he died.

It's the only thing I've got left.

- You don't have to explain anything to him.

- How else do we get out of here?

- All right, you get down in that garage.

I'll ring up Billy

and tell him to make a new part for your car.

But just one thing, when you get in that garage,

don't you leave there until you're ready

to wheel out for good.

Might take Billy most of tonight,

maybe part of tomorrow to fix her up.

Meantime, don't you go wandering about.

Folks hereabouts don't take kindly to strangers.

I wouldn't want anything to happen to you.

I wouldn't want it on my conscience.

- Thanks, Mr. Garth.

For a man with a conscience, he sure cuts deep.

- How's your lip?

- I've been hit harder by dames.

(crying)

- Paul?

You let him hit you again, didn't you?

- Oh, what was I supposed to do, hit him back?

- I swear, Paul, I don't know.

Your face needs tending.

- I had to talk to somebody.

- Paul, you just gotta stand up to him.

Don't you see, you just gotta!

- I used to talk to myself.

I thought if I talk about it enough,

if I just get it out here, where I can listen to it,

try to understand why then maybe it'd go away,

like a train whistle across the valley.

But it always tightens in my throat, Jenny.

And ties my tongue, and always stays right down here,

just right down here, to burden at me, burden.

- Like Pa always says, Paul,

a burden's lighter when two carries it instead of one.

- Not this one, Jenny.

(laughing)

- [Man] Is she a mare or a stallion?

- [Dickson] Can't rightly tell.

(laughing)

- Guess she is a mare, else why, why is she wearing a skirt?

- Don't do that again.

- You a real feather leg, ain't you, boy?

- Why you here anyway?

- Why don't you guys go back and sit on your fence?

- You do all his fighting for him, man?

- Oh, no, you see, we cut it up pretty even.

Tod, here, has been to college.

Me, I only got to the A's in manual arts, the first A's.

So we cut it up like this.

Tod, here, he takes on the better elements, you know?

Me, I take on the slobs, guys like you.

- Beatin' up Thad Skinner,

that don't make you so almighty, man.

- We might just fix your wagon yet.

- Man inside is doing that right now.

(tool banging)

- Tod?

- We were sure starved, thanks again.

I'll get the basket.

- Tod, would you think it forward of me to walk,

walk on out a way and talk?

You're the first stranger I ever talk to.

Except for Mr. Janis, who delivers our supplies,

and Mr. Martin brings gas for the trucks.

- Why?

- It's just how it is.

You and Buz are the first outsiders

to come into Garth for years.

- Doesn't anyone from Garth ever go anywhere?

I mean, outside of Garth?

- Nobody ever has, long as I know.

Oh, maybe Mr. Garth now and then.

- All right, Jenny, let's walk.

(basket thuds)

(calm harmonica music)

Coming over on the ferry,

the skipper said something about this weekend.

What's so special about this weekend?

- I don't know.

Except that every November it gets, well, uneasy.

And people seem to keep to themselves.

It gets awfully quiet.

- I felt it today when Buz and I walked up from the dock.

Is there something in this town, Jenny?

What is it?

What's wrong?

- Pa would never would tell me.

He says it's better I don't know.

- Jenny, where's the rectory?

Where does the minister live?

- We don't have one.

- Who conducts services?

- Nobody.

The church is shut down.

Of course, in our house,

Pa always reads from the scriptures on Sunday morning.

And Mr. and Mrs. Thompson from next door, they come over.

We sing from the sacred harp, just the four of us.

Tod, do you know number 402?

That's my favorite.

- Well, there must have been a minister once.

- Oh, he left.

- Why? - I don't know why.

But I do recollect how it used to be on Sunday.

Ma was alive then.

She did my hair up in curls and starch up my Sunday frock,

and there was a smell of fine sausage in the air,

and voices on the wind, and people laughing.

- When did it stop, Jenny?

When did the minister leave?

- Oh, I was a little girl then.

You and Buz leave in the morning, don't you?

- Hmm?

Oh, yeah, as soon as Mr. Bolton's done.

- And I'll never see you again, will I?

- You remembered the good times, didn't you?

How it was when you were a little girl, and the singing?

Well, I'll remember you, Jenny.

- Suit you?

- I like the way you work.

- Who are you, fellas?

- Who are we supposed to be?

- I don't know what you're looking for,

but you shouldn't have come to Garth to find it.

- Looking?

Who's looking?

Like I say, you live it the way you feel it.

When it moves, you go with it.

Tod says I got unrest.

So what's wrong with unrest?

It's as good as anything.

Besides, we're all stuck with it.

You got it.

Sure, I see it in your hammer.

I've been looking ever since I can remember.

Did you ever hear of Saint Francis Home for Foundlings

in New York?

That's what I remember.

That and a job I had with Tod's dad

on a barge in the East River.

Now, Tod, he's looking too.

He had it made, Yale, prep school,

and then, just like that, (fingers snap)

his dad drops dead.

So I say who needs New York?

Only the buildings got roots there

and they don't go too deep.

Sure, we're looking.

Tod says if we keep moving,

we'll find a place to plant roots and stick.

With me, it's fine, just moving.

- You don't make sense, boy.

- Well, maybe, but you know, you dig.

- Well, a couple of hours and I'll have this hooked up.

- Why don't you knock off for tonight?

Finish it in the morning.

- There's some blankets in there.

Not too greasy, due for the night.

- Thanks, anyway.

We have some sleeping bags.

- Night.

- Good night.

- They got Tod.

(dramatic music)

There were four of them, they threw him on the wagon.

(laughing)

They're coming back.

(punch thuds) (groans)

(glass shatters) (dramatic music)

Buz, you'll kill him!

- Jenny?

Get up there and go. - But you--

- Maybe they killed Tod or something,, now move!

Okay, hero, talk or it comes off at the shoulder.

- We dropped him over at the stockade.

Where's that?

- Not more than half a mile down the river.

- When I come back, what you did to him, I'll do to you.

Turn the wagon around.

(dramatic music)

- They kept prisoners here after the war, German soldiers.

- Tod!

Tod!

Tod!

Tod!

- Buz, hurry!

(suspenseful music)

Tod!

What goes?

He ran out.

- It's no wonder, all that noise you were making.

- Tod! - You all right?

- Yeah, once they beat me up, they had their kicks.

- Well, didn't you hear me yelling?

- That's what scared him away.

- Who? - Garth's son.

- What was he doing here?

- Putting flowers on a grave.

Two graves.

- I don't see any graves, just flowers.

- I was down at the river

washing the blood out of my mouth.

I heard him, on his knees, here, talking to the ground.

Talking and crying, both at the same time.

He said, "It's cold down there, I know,

"because the sun can't reach you."

And he looked up at the tree and cursed it.

"How can the sun reach you," he said,

"With that standing over you."

I never heard anything like it, it gave me the shivers.

- Anyone buried here?

- Not that I ever heard.

- What's with this place?

- What's with this tree?

Why is it so much bigger than the others?

- It's our wolf tree.

- [Tod] Your wolf tree?

- That's what the loggers call it.

It's older than the other trees.

So big it cuts off all the light

from the younger trees around it.

They can never grow much when they're near a wolf tree.

- Let's get out of here.

(suspenseful music)

- I told them to stay put, I warned them!

I didn't want no trouble.

- They was right there, Mr. Garth.

They was messing around

like they knew what they was there for.

And Jenny was with them.

Mr. Garth, we ain't going to let them live, are we?

Now they've been out there?

- You get on back, Dickson.

You tell all the men to get over the church house

just as soon as they can.

(suspenseful music)

Slade?

They took her, they took Jenny.

They took her against her will.

- Took her?

Who?

- Those two who come in here this morning,

and knocked Dickson through that window.

- No, not those two.

They wouldn't.

- What kind of father you call yourself?

Not those two, they wouldn't, well, they did!

- I have to hear it from Jenny, Mr. Garth.

- Are you calling me a liar?

What Jenny says or don't say don't matter!

This is between you and me, Slade.

And I say they did it!

And I say we're gonna swing the pair of them

higher than a buzzard can fly!

- No, no, Mr. Garth, a man gotta draw the line somewhere.

- Are you daring to talk back to me, you counter jumper?

You do like I tell ya!

You hated me a long time, haven't you, Slade?

Don't think I don't know.

Yes, and I know about this too.

Your tell-Garth-to-go-hell money!

- Please, Mr. Garth.

- Oh, don't worry, I ain't gonna take none of it.

How much money you got in here?

- There's almost $200.

- $200? (laughs)

How long it take you to save it?

- 10 years.

- And how much you owe me?

I'll tell ya, more than 2,000.

Rate you're going, man, it'll be 100 years

before you can march up the hill to that big house of mine

and throw that money in my face.

Meantime you do like I say.

Now we all having a meeting over at the church house,

you get right on over.

And you better act like a father should

whose daughter just been drug into--

(hinges squeak)

(suspenseful music)

I got me a better idea.

We're going to show the folks what they done to her.

- Pa! Pa!

- Mr. Garth!

(screaming) (crying)

- Pa!

Pa!

Pa, Pa, get off your knees!

- Well, they say this sort of thing builds character.

You know, I think I like this nose better.

- Well, just stick with me.

- That's what Dad used to say.

He put me on your barge every summer, didn't he?

- It just doesn't make any sense.

Big outfit like that, all gone.

- I guess in big business

sometimes you get stretched out thin,

what with taxes and creditors.

At least everybody's paid, I can start even.

More than even, if you think about that poor Garth kid,

running around the woods like Hamlet

talking out of his head.

How'd you like to have Caleb Garth for an old man?

- They're coming for you!

Mr. Garth took Jenny to the church, I couldn't stop him.

Run!

(intense dramatic music)

- Thank you, Mr. Slade. (rifle cocking)

- Hey, man, you wanna try that again?

- I warned you not to wander.

As God is my witness I warned you.

- They never touched me.

Pa, tell 'em, tell 'em!

- Why us?

- Kicks.

Look at him, he needs a keeper.

All right, boys, let's get them!

(screaming)

- All right, boys, come on!

(dramatic music)

- They're gonna bury us in the same graves?

- Dickson, get that rope up there.

That's right.

Pull that other one down.

Put the noose around him.

All right, now we'll have four men to a rope,

that oughta do it.

- No prayers?

- Libby, come here.

You're good at such, make him a prayer, but make it quick.

- But-- - Go on, get on with it!

Paul, you get away.

- Who belongs here more than I do, Pa?

- Ah, get him out of here.

- Chop!

Isn't that what you've been after me to do, Pa?

- Boy, you give me that ax.

- Why, Pa, so you can do it again?

- You know why we done it, Paul.

- For 15 years I heard you tell me why,

and I still don't know.

- They killed you brother, don't that count with you?

- My brother died overseas with honor.

All you've done is to shame his memory.

- I tell ya, they killed him!

- A soldier, just like him.

Their lives against his.

Man against man, gun against gun, in a war.

- But the Germans killed your brother.

It was the Germans put him under ground!

- Not these Germans.

You didn't even know how old he was, or what his name was.

But I know.

I dug so's I could know.

Look at him, Pa.

Yeah, Ludwig!

Ludwig Schmidt, age 19!

How could you do it all over again,

after all we've been through?

How could forget even one second of it?

- Look at that Nazi killer.

Look at him!

That's the breed that killed my son!

Get a good look at him, because we gonna fix him good!

Now you move off, Reverend.

- Mr. Garth, turn this boy back to the proper authorities.

- They're gone, Reverend.

Lock, stock, and barrel.

And they took all those other Nazi killers with them.

- Prisoners, Mr. Garth.

Boys, most of them, like this one.

- You read that telegram this morning, Reverend.

The whole town read it.

We regret to inform you that your son.

All right, Reverend, you come up to my place,

and you come into my Johnny's bedroom,

and you look at that empty bed,

and then you dare to tell me again to turn the other cheek.

- Look at him, Mr. Garth.

Not even a man yet.

- He was man enough to escape.

He was man enough to hide when they took the others north.

Now let's see if he's man enough to die like my boy died.

Paul, you come here.

I want you to look at the breed that killed your brother.

Look at him!

- God forgive you.

- Thad, give me that ax.

- No!

- Get the Reverend away from him.

- No!

- You watch this, boy, watch it.

Thad, you make him watch it.

That's it.

I want you to see this, boy.

I want you to remember the kind that killed your kin.

I want you to remember it for the rest of your life.

(intense dramatic music)

- I swore, as long as I lived, I'd never touch an ax again.

- You're holding one now, Paul.

Chop the wolf tree down and let the sun in.

- They never touched Jenny.

I was out here tonight and I saw them.

- Paul's right!

Jenny come home the same as she left.

Mr. Garth tore her dress to make it look like

those fellas there done it.

And I'm not afraid any longer, Mr. Garth.

- How about it, Mr. Garth?

- He lied to you.

He used you just as he's always used everybody.

Like he used the town to cover up a personal crime.

Like he spread his shame over all of us.

Untie 'em.

Stand clear, Pa.

I'm gonna fell me a tree, a wolf tree.

(ax banging) (confident music)

(idyllic music) (ax banging)

- How long you reckon the earth will keep turning?

- Long enough, Mr. Bolton.

- Well, that's how long that'll keep turning.

- Thanks.

- It's us that thanks both of you.

Might say, you set us free, you and Paul.

He ain't stopped all night.

Not a man in town wouldn't like to spell him, but, well,

you might say he's chopping her down for all of us.

(ax banging)

(tree cracks)

(tree thuds)

(hopeful calm music)

- I hear a lot of people are leaving, how about you?

- I don't know.

Garth used to be a fine place to live.

Maybe now it'll be a fine place again.

- So long. - All right.

- Bye. (engine starts)

- Come on in, huh?

- No, this is your goodbye, not mine.

How do you spell Biloxi?

- Jenny?

(calm harmonica music)

I'd give you an address, in case you ever felt like writing,

but after Biloxi,

well, you know Buz, swinging on a star.

How about if I write you?

- I don't know where we'll be.

Pa says we gotta stay until the sheriff comes

and clears those who can be cleared.

- Certainly your father isn't responsible for--

- Pa feels just as guilty as Mr. Garth, Tod.

He kept a secret for 15 years.

- So did the rest of them.

- Pa says that don't excuse him.

- If you do decide to stay here,

it will be a different town now, a better town.

I will try to get back.

- Goodbye, Tod.

- Goodbye, Jenny.

(sad music)

- She cry?

- Why don't you shut up?

- 'Cause I got no manners.

Hey, why so serious?

- She's a nice kid.

- They're all nice kids.

("Route 66" by Nelson Riddle)

(engine revs)

(engine revs)