Original subtitles

Vamanos.

Vamanos.

Hey, Diego, I think maybe you got it by the wrong end.

Si. This is the same about your music box.

You have terrified the mule.

This went clear through the war with me.

See there?

- Si. - Kennesaw Mountain.

Stopped a mini-ball.

Wounded in action.

- Comprende? - Si.

Wounded. Then it died.

One should give it Christian burial.

Hey.

Well, there's your trouble right there.

That rising arrow brand.

This? This is my trouble?

Yeah, no wonder that dang critter can't go down mountain.

Look at the way that arrow's pointing.

That's an uphill mule.

¡Ay! Vamanos.

Vamanos!

Good morning.

I'm Padre Francis.

My name's Cunningham.

Bones Cunningham.

I am Diego, Padre.

This is Quito.

I ask if we may walk along with you to the village.

We hear there are bandits in these hills. We haven't much, but...

Ah, Padre, no danger.

The village is but three miles away,

and this valley is always peaceful.

You come from the Caesar Mines?

Is that gold you're guarding?

That ain't really any of your business, Padre.

All due respect.

No, of course not.

Well, God give us all a good journey.

May we join you?

I don't see why not.

Vamanos.

Padre? Padre?

I think you and I have met before somewhere.

No, I am new to these parts.

Sante Fe, maybe.

No, never been there.

Your outfit's got headquarters in Sante Fe, haven't you?

Some of us, not all.

I'm just a poor mendicant friar,

going from place to place, begging for my food and lodging.

I'd swear I know you.

We all look alike. It's my habit.

No, it's your face.

It's an illusion, my son.

Life is full of illusions.

No. No, this is no illusion.

I've seen you before.

Quito!

Quito, forget the boots, you old fool.

That gold is hanging on the sides of the mule.

Bones: Padre from Chimayó.

And about that time it came to me w

here I'd seen that priest before.

El Santuario de Chimayó.

About three, four years ago.

I can't imagine a priest robbin' a gold shipment.

You sure it wasn't a disguise?

No.

He's that same padre I seen before at the mission.

Same face.

Yeah.

Well, out-of-the-way mission like that with no priest and all.

Could fool the Indians anyway.

I'll tell you something,

if he ain't a priest gone bad,

he's somebody that's been around priests.

Just something about him, Matt.

The way he carries himself.

I'd bet my boots on that.

If I had my boots.

I didn't help you very much, Matt.

Just that... that risin' arrow brand on that mule.

Well, I'll ride down that way and check it out.

40 miles north of Sante Fe.

Good luck, Matt.

What are his chances, Doc?

It'll be a matter of hours.

Friend of yours, Marshal?

Yeah.

He was a friend. I worked with him years ago.

Well, we'll do everything we can to make it easy for him.

Thanks, Doc.

Where... where is my coffin?

You aren't dead yet.

I want it before I die.

Here in this room.

I must see it. Lie in it.

All right, all right.

You... you gave me your solemn promise.

It's the least you can do for my share of the gold.

I'll get it.

My coffin... it will be of oak.

Oak?

Where do I get oak? Grow it?

As your great uncle,

I Francisquito Vega, disown you.

In the name of the Father and the Son

and the Holy Ghost.

Amen.

I must be buried in consecrated ground...

at de Chimayó.

This is my final request.

I don't want to go to Chimayó.

But you will.

Or I'll come back.

Come back? You haven't even left yet.

And I won't until you bring me my coffin.

If that's a promise, I'll build it myself.

It can be of pine.

But thick and tightly joined.

So the centipedes can't get in.

You need help to bring out burying box?

Yeah.

But give me a moment alone with him first.

Hey, hombre,

this much gold, you'll rest in peace,

even with centipedes.

Easy.

Push.

Pretty good burying box, hey?

You give me $40 for box and use of wagon.

Those are worth more than $40.

What do I do with boots?

Go on the warpath.

I take boots and $30.

You'll take boots and shut up. Hyah!

I take $10.

Send me a bill!

It is simple to understand, Padre.

The well is dry. I can no longer share.

The well is half-dry.

It was our agreement that for my labors in building the well,

we should share.

You call a bucket of mud at the bottom of the well half-dry?

All right, Carlos. It is simple to understand.

What does he want?

He did not say, Padre.

Return the labor and keep the rights to the well.

It was a month's labor. I have fields to plow.

Padre, it's mid-summer.

The heat!

Then why not share the bucket of mud?

It's been a long time, Heraclio.

A year and a half, brother.

- What have you been doing? - Time.

You mean jail?

I don't mean purgatory.

Which reminds me, Uncle Quito...

Uncle Quito's with you?

Well, he's with me but he's no longer with us.

If you take my meaning.

No.

He made me promise to bring him down here to your churchyard for burial.

It wasn't old age.

No. Bunch of renegade Apaches near Taos.

We were prospectin'.

Was there a priest?

Just me. I gave him my blessing.

You must have been great comfort to him.

Domine, exaudi orationem meam.

You must remember how to say amen.

Amen.

And you still pray like a Pharisee mumbling in his beard.

And I sure hope your wine's better than your Latin.

Afternoon.

Mind if I water my horse?

Sure, no charge.

Chimayó is just south of here, isn't it?

Follow the wagon road.

I'm looking for a couple of men that passed through here.

One of them was wounded and they... They had a mule with 'em.

You catch him, you come back this way.

Maybe. Why?

Give back boots.

Take $40 for burying box and wagon.

Burying? You mean, one of them died?

He buried in Chimayó.

Boots fit woman, not me.

Need $40 for box and wagon.

You pay now, I take $10.

Thanks for the information.

Won't you stay for the funeral?

I leave in an hour.

I can't say mass in the afternoon, Heraclio.

You can have burial without mass.

You deny Quito a requiem mass?

I carted him 20 miles to consecrated ground.

That's enough.

Besides, you're not worried about me denying him.

You're worried about me denying you the chance to play God.

On the high altar, full choir, dark angels swooping.

You resent me that much you couldn't bear to hear me say mass?

I never have. I never will.

Can't you separate me from my priesthood?

Like you separated me from mine?

That is a lie.

There's nothing new about that.

What's new is that Quito is dead

and you took the trouble to respect his last wishes.

That's very unlike you, Heraclio.

Eh, you don't know very much about me, brother.

I knew Quito.

He was a decent man until you corrupted him.

At least I didn't corrupt the innocent,

like you do every day of your false life.

False life?

False priest.

If you didn't bring Quito here out of Christian decency, why then?

You underestimate me, brother.

I have a great respect for the dead.

I might even work up some for you

if you ever have the Christian decency to die.

Dust thou art...

and unto dust thou shall return.

But the Lord will raise you up on the last day.

Or even before that.

Where are you off to now, Heraclio?

Oh, I won't be far, brother.

You and I are never far apart.

Certainly not in thought, if distance.

Yes, I do think of you.

Oh, incidentally, I think Uncle Quito

deserves something better as a final resting place

than a common grave.

Would you object if I built a crypt for him?

A crypt? Why?

He was like a father to me.

It will be a worthy crypt, brother, if you don't object.

Something I'd like to build with my own hands.

I do object.

There's no need to disturb the body now.

In fact, you said Uncle Quito's last wish...

Ah, he had lots of last wishes.

But the very last, and, uh...

I recall it distinctly now,

is that when I had time

I should build a stone crypt for him away from the mission.

Why? I don't understand.

Lots of things you don't understand, holy brother.

I'll be back to move the body.

Can I help you?

Padre, my name's Matt Dillon.

I'm a United States Marshal from Kansas.

Hernando Cantrell. Priest of El Santuario de Chimayó.

Welcome in the name of our Lord and St. Francis.

Thank you.

Is there a reason for your visit to Chimayó, Marshal?

Yes, and I'm afraid it's not a very pleasant one.

Uh, have you been here long? I mean, a number of years?

For over five years, yes.

Are there any other priests here?

No. Just the lay brothers who assist me.

This mule belong to you?

No, it does not.

Does it belong to anyone in the village?

As a matter of fact, it belongs to my brother, Heraclio.

My twin brother.

Your brother, where is he?

He left about an hour ago.

Do you think I'm lying, Marshal?

Well, no, Padre.

It's just that I want to be sure you're telling the truth.

You are built to be a Franciscan, but you have the tongue of a Jesuit.

Well, I'm sorry to be blunt.

But see, a gold train was robbed, west of Black Mesa, by two men.

A United States Marshal and a guard were killed.

And you think these two men came to Chimayó?

One of them was wearing padre robes.

I have reason to believe that this is the mule that was carrying the gold.

Mules are bought and sold, Marshal.

My brother brought our uncle in for burial.

He was fatally wounded by Indians.

- Do you have any proof of that? - Proof?

No.

There has been Indian trouble, though, from time to time,

as you well must know.

Padre, I'd like to talk to your brother.

Marshal, my brother is an intemperate man.

But I cannot believe he is capable of murder.

Well, won't you have a glass of wine with me?

We can discuss this further.

Heraclio was persuaded to leave the order and the seminary

at the end of his second year of study.

- He was never ordained? - No.

He was completely free of any connection with the Franciscan Order...

With the priesthood.

Well, Marshal Cunningham, just before he died,

told me that he thought the man that shot him

had been the padre of this mission.

Your friend Cunningham... I'm sorry.

I'll offer my mass tomorrow for the repose of his soul.

But I cannot point the finger of guilt at any man

because of a mule and a pair of stolen boots.

It could well have been two other men involved in that robbery.

I hope you're right, Padre.

But I'd still like to talk to your brother.

Can you tell me where to find him?

He did not tell me where he was going.

- Well, I better ride out. - In the dark, Marshal?

Why don't you take advantage of our hospitality here

and rest yourself for the night?

It may be that Heraclio will return to the mission by morning.

All right, thank you.

Brother Antonio will see to your horse.

Will you come with me, Marshal?

I'll be back before dawn.

Faster, faster, faster!

Fat. Too many tortillas.

Oh! You are fat in the mouth!

Faster, faster, faster!

Oh!

Baby, ángel.

Baby, baby, baby!

Stupid! This dress cost 27 green dollars.

Here.

Now it's mine.

And I want it.

Give it to me.

I want my merchandise.

Oh!

I'll wait outside.

Who told you to stop?!

You think he's the Holy Ghost?

Huh? Dance!

It's only my brother, the priest.

Come on, hombre.

Well, if it ain't Brother Priest and Brother Jackass.

Yes, and this is Brother Burro.

What do you want?

The truth.

How was Uncle Quito shot?

I told you.

You lied, Heraclio.

And you weren't prospecting for gold, were you?

If you're asking me, stop telling me.

And you never heard of a man named Bones Cunningham?

Never heard of him.

Somebody's been telling you tales, brother.

You killed him, Heraclio.

You, my own brother, committed murder.

A cold-blooded murder.

Who have you been talking to? Who told you?

- You won't deny it? - Let go of me.

I came here to hear your confession.

If you die with this mortal sin on your soul,

you will be damned for all eternity.

I murdered no one. Who told you that I did?

Will you make your confession?

I wouldn't kneel down to you if hell itself

were about to open under my feet.

It will not go beyond me.

What you say in confession is sealed forever.

I came here to help you save your soul.

After you confess to me, you may do what you will.

I won't say anything to anybody, not even the marshal.

The marshal? What marshal?

I didn't tell him where you were.

I waited until he was asleep.

There's a marshal at the mission?

- He knew about the robbery? - Yes.

And then you came here, straight to me?

Get that horse!

Wait.

I'm sorry, Marshal.

I... it was a mental reservation.

I... I thought I could talk to him,

convince him that his soul was of some importance.

I failed.

That's your problem.

Now I'm gonna track him down.

Whatever happens after that is up to him.

Thank you.

Give it up, Cantrell. You haven't got a chance.

Give it up.

Hernando!

Hernando, in the name of God, sanctuary.

Heraclio, what happened?

The Marshal. He ran me to ground. Please.

I can't give you sanctuary.

You can. I demand it.

- You are a murderer. - I never admitted it.

You haven't denied it.

For the love of God, have you no mercy?

Sanctuary is for the oppressed, for the unjustly accused.

But you're my brother, you sanctimonious hypocrite.

I may be brother to you,

but first I am priest to all men.

Giving you sanctuary would outrage all sanctuary.

Would make a mockery of all priesthood.

I am innocent!

Then why are you running?

You faker.

What'd you come to Cajon for?

You promised to save my soul, to hear my confession.

You refused to confess.

It was my obligation as a priest to hear your confession,

to give you absolution if I possibly could.

You refused.

Padre Hernando...

that's exactly why I ask for sanctuary.

To make my confession to you.

Heraclio...

if you are lying...

No, no, no, no, no. I swear.

Very well, then.

I'll hear your confession, here and now.

But, Padre, I...

I need time to prepare myself, to examine my conscience.

You killed.

You robbed. I don't need details.

I must inspect my motives, my state of mind.

You can't deny me the sacrament of absolution.

You must, under pain of mortal sin hear my confession.

If you refuse,

then you will have made a mockery of all priesthood

and you will have my lost soul on your own,

damned for all eternity.

How dare you attempt to coerce me.

How dare you attempt to bluff me.

You best get outside and meet that marshal.

Before he comes busting in here

and violates my sanctuary.

You have granted sanctuary?

You can call it that.

On what grounds?

The salvation of a soul.

I see.

Just give me till morning, Marshal.

All right.

And your gun?

I've already locked up his.

Just one thing, Padre.

I want you to understand...

I'm not leaving here without him.

You've made a miraculous recovery.

An hour ago you could scarcely move.

You know something, brother,

you have a powerful effect on me.

I mean, the more I examine my conscience, the more conscience-struck I become.

What would you say to...

to my joining the Order again?

How's that strike you?

It's incredible.

Ha! It's the easiest thing in the world!

Just hand me down one of your old habits,

give me the oath, Third Order scapular,

and we're in business.

What's incredible...

is my stubborn belief that you can really be so spiritually destitute,

so ethically ambivalent as you appear to be.

Is this the best you got?

A little seedy.

Brimstone.

Old Franciscans never die.

They just lose their faculties.

Heraclio!

Take that off.

Why?

Don't you want me to join the Third Order?

Might mean my salvation.

You don't have to wear the habit in the Third Order of St. Francis.

I know.

I love the habit.

Is that why you wore it to your last robbery?

You believe everything the marshal tells you?

Heraclio, why did you come back?

What do you want?

What does everybody want?

First I want all I can get.

Then I want all I can't have.

Then I want you to admit that I was right about everything.

And most of all,

I wanna nail that marshal's hide to the chapel door.

See you at supper, brother.

"And God said to Satan, hast thou considered my servant Job?

For there is none like him in the earth,

a perfect and upright man.

And fearing God and withdrawing from evil."

Oh! Here it comes, Marshal.

God's going to bet the Devil that the Devil can't corrupt Job.

Quiet.

Caleb.

"To which Satan answered and said,

'Does not Job fear the Lord in vain?'"

He sure doesn't.

Thank you, Caleb.

You know what happens next, Marshal? Hmm?

I understand that Job was known for his patience.

I'm beginning to admire yours, Marshal.

I'm glad you two are getting along so well.

All I need now is a dunghill to climb on and wait while you decide my fate.

So now you're Job, a perfect and upright man.

God permits the Devil to smite Job with boils

after he promised himself and told the Devil

that Job's person was not to be touched.

Can you believe it?

God gambling with Job's goodness like it was pieces of silver?

But Job did not deny the Lord.

Oh, he denied him all right.

He just didn't defy him.

He climbed up on his dunghill and howled for 40 odd chapters,

until the Lord told him to shut up.

And he did, Marshal.

He did.

I think there's a pretty good lesson in there for you, Cantrell.

Heraclio.

That's enough.

Either I hear you confession tonight or I'm turning you over to the marshal.

Holy brother,

if you will permit me to prepare my conscience in chapel.

You must have wondered what there is between my brother and me.

Well, it's really none of my business, Padre.

It's a personal thing.

Something he's never stated openly.

Neither have I.

You know, there's one thing that is my business... the gold shipment.

It was bulky and it weighed a lot.

Now when he brought the wagon in,

did he transfer any saddlebags to the horse?

No, the horse had just a saddle.

Certainly no place to hide gold.

And the wagon, the only thing on that was the coffin?

Yes, I was there.

Marshal, he would never desecrate...

But of course he would.

Nothing is sacred to him, nothing.

I should be getting started, Padre. It'll be light soon.

He's in the chapel. I would like to talk with him.

A final talk.

I think you're wasting your time.

If I am, you make take him immediately.

My dear Christian subjects.

The text for tonight is from the gospel according to St. Heraclio.

The Lord moves in mysterious ways,

His blunders to reform.

Heraclio.

Are you ready for your confession?

Well, well, well,

if it ain't Holy Mother Hernando.

I thought you two would never get the gold up out of there.

I watched from the bell tower till it wore me out.

I wonder if you care about the gold.

I wonder if you've ever cared.

What do you want, Heraclio?

What are you seeking? Death?

I'm seeking to show you who you really are.

You've heard of noonday devils?

Eh, they're the worst kind, brother.

Actually believes he's an angel of light.

Lucifer before the fall.

Wanders around the world ruining all kinds of good souls

under the delusion that he's doing good.

He points their souls to heaven, feet first...

and you never understand why it always ends up

that they get trundled into hell.

And what's this got to do with your confession?

Well...

you wouldn't want me to confess to a noonday devil, would you?

- I am a noonday devil? - In priests robes.

Wearing the collar I should be wearing.

Preaching the sermons I should be preaching.

Hearing the confessions I should be hearing.

Heraclio, for God's sake, stop it.

Stop all this hatred.

Would God permit a devil to be ordained a priest?

Christ permitted Judas to become an apostle.

I believe you're the bad one, not me.

You really believe that?

I believe we should all be like the apostle says...

Afraid of alarms in the night

and the arrow that flies in the day,

and of evil that walks to and fro in the darkness,

and of death and the noonday devil.

Don't you use your priesthood against me.

Don't you dare raise your hand

and invoke heaven to serve your hell.

Heraclio...

you leave me no choice.

You are the devil.

Not I.

I said don't! No!

Oh, Heraclio.

You must confess. You must.

Don't.

I was giving you absolution...

I don't want absolution.

- Before I die. - You won't die.

Yes.

I will die.

And you will not.

And you will see that I am dead

and that you are alive.

And you will know finally...

that you are not me.

That's...

That's all there ever was between us...

Your wish to be me.

There was never anything between us.

All there ever was... between us.

Your wish to be me.

Padre, the door is latched.

Brother Antonio,

my brother Heraclio is dead.

I will say a requiem mass.

Brother Antonio, what happened?

We don't know.

The padre's only told us that he found his brother Heraclio

at the foot of the altar, dead.

Marshal?

We have a long ride ahead.

Ride?

We have a lot to talk about.

I don't understand.

I'll explain it on the way.

Has it to do with Heraclio, what he did?

Yes.

Will we be gone long?

Probably.

Because I have much to do here.

I must be back to Chimayó for the blessing of the harvest.

Well, I... I know it sounds crazy, Doc,

but it was like two faces... Two sides of the same man.

The good and the evil that's in all of us.

It just may not be as strange as you think.

You know, there's strong evidence in support of the fact

that in some rare instances,

identical twins are so close

that they have been known to feel each other's pain.

Now you don't believe that he remembers any of the killings?

Sure the way it seemed.

It was like from the minute his brother died

he became exactly what he appeared...

A dedicated priest.

Well, then what you're saying is that Heraclio Cantrell

has ceased to exist.

Yeah, I guess that is what I'm saying.

Well, then...

what can you say at the trial?

I don't know, Doc.

Do you?