♪ ♪
[gasps]
[panting]
- [insects buzzing] - [birds chirping]
[cattle lowing]
[panting]
♪ ♪
[wind chimes tinkling]
[gunshot]
[cattle lowing]
[gasps]
[♪ Mama Cass: "Dream a Little Dream of Me"]
♪ Stars shining bright above you ♪
♪ Night breezes seem to whisper "I love you" ♪
♪ Birds singing in the sycamore tree ♪
♪ Dream a little dream of me ♪
♪ Say "Nighty night" and kiss me ♪
♪ Just hold me tight and tell me you'll miss me ♪
♪ While I'm alone and blue as can be ♪
♪ Dream a little dream of me ♪
♪ Stars fading, but I linger on, dear ♪
♪ Still craving your kiss ♪
♪ I'm longing to linger till dawn, dear ♪
♪ Just saying this ♪♪
[music playing softly]
Okay, princess.
Time to go to the ball.
[exhales] What time is it?
Time to get you prepped.
5cc's Haldol?
C-Can I have some water?
Absolutely. After.
It may not seem like it now,
but there is great freedom in this gift you're receiving.
Please. Can I at least use the restroom first?
Please?
I don't want to mess myself.
- [grunts] - Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Are we at the ball already?
- Almost, princess. - [grunts]
[panting]
[Ruby screams]
Fuck.
[coughing]
[panting] I wish you would.
[coughing]
- [Gracie] Daddy! - [ax clatters]
Stay here.
[Ruby] Daddy.
[Gracie] Daddy!
[gunshot]
You crazy fucking coon!
Hey!
He fucking killed Earl...
Oh. [grunts]
This fucking pickaninny killed Earl!
Aah!
[Marty groaning]
[both grunt]
Turn your ass over.
[Marty groaning]
[indistinct chatter]
- [woman] He's got a gun. - [Marty] Motherfucker.
[woman] Get out here.
Who's your buck now? Hmm?
- [groans] - [man] Hey, leave him alone.
[shouts]
Oh, God...
You, you fucking ape!
[car approaching]
[speaking indistinctly]
[Marty] I got a kid on the way,
you fucking coon.
You didn't give a shit when they were mine, huh?
[Marty groaning]
[door opens]
[Nat] You get away from him!
Marty! Baby...
[whimpers]
- What'd you do? - Tell her to shut the fuck up.
[crying]
It's-it's o... It's okay, baby.
- It's okay. - I'm-I'm okay, baby.
[Nat] I'm-I'm gonna call
the police.
Go on. Do it.
And your man right here gonna get a bullet in his head.
You dirty nigger!
[heart beating]
Ooh...
[laughs]
[Marty] No, n-no.
No, no, no, no.
Please, please don't.
No, no, no. Please.
Want to feel what it's like to lose a child?
[laughing]
Real tough, huh, buck?
- [laughs] - No, no...
[screams]
[laughing]
- Hands up! - Hey!
[man] Look at me
- when I'm talking to you. - [screams]
- [cackles] - [Ruby] Daddy?
Daddy?
[neighbors murmuring]
Take your sister to your room.
[siren wailing]
[woman shouts]
[neighbors murmuring]
[siren wailing]
[panting]
- Stay right here. - Don't leave me.
- I'm going to get Daddy. - Well, what if Miss Vera...
Miss Vera's not real, Gracie.
But I saw her. Mama said she...
Mama's not here!
She's not real, Gracie.
Say it. She's not real.
She's not real.
Now stay here and close your eyes
and don't open them till I get back. Promise?
Promise.
[neighbors chattering indistinctly]
Ruby.
[door thumping]
Ruby.
[distorted] Ruby.
Ruby.
[distant clapping]
[cheerleaders] ...goes down and the moon comes up,
our boys will shine.
[children] I pledge allegiance
to the flag
of the United States of America.
And to the republic for which it stands...
[cheerleaders] Our boys will shine.
Our boys will shine tonight.
All down the line.
When the sun goes down and the moon comes up,
our boys will shine.
Our boys will shine tonight, our boys will shine.
Our boys will shine tonight.
[children] ...one nation indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.
[distant laughter]
[cheerleaders] When the sun goes down and the moon comes up,
our boys will shine.
Our boys will shine tonight, our boys will shine.
[children laughing]
[screams]
[doorknob jiggling]
[electricity buzzing]
Girls.
♪ ♪
Ruby Lee.
Gracie Jean.
♪ ♪
♪ Lobby ♪
♪ Let's all go to the lobby ♪
♪ To get ourselves a treat ♪
♪ Delicious things to eat ♪
♪ The popcorn can't be beat ♪
♪ The sparkling drinks are just dandy ♪
♪ The chocolate bars and the candy ♪
♪ So let's all go to the lobby ♪
♪ To get ourselves a treat ♪
♪ Let's all go to the lobby ♪
♪ To get ourselves a treat ♪♪
[applause]
[panting]
[♪ Al Jolson: "Camptown Races"]
[laughter]
♪ De Camptown ladies sing dis song ♪
♪ Doo-dah, doo-dah ♪
♪ De Camptown racetrack's five miles long ♪
♪ Oh, doo-dah, day ♪
♪ I come down dah wid my hat caved in ♪
♪ Doo-dah, doo-dah ♪
♪ I'll go back home wid a pocketful of tin ♪
♪ Oh, doo-dah, day ♪
♪ Gwine to run all night, gwine to run all day ♪
♪ I'll bet my money on de bobtail nag ♪
♪ Somebody bet on de bay ♪
♪ De longtail filly and de big black hoss ♪
♪ Doo-dah, doo-dah...
[Tap Dance Man] Ooh...
We just loves us a picture show, don't we, Mr. Henry?
Hmm? No?
[exhales]
Safer up here, I suppose, than outside
with them scheming ofays, the rascals.
[laughs]
Where are they?
Where who?
My girls, nigger.
You touch one hair on their heads, I swear to God...
What I want with them girls and their pretty little heads?
Of course, I reckon you done already seen
a world of hurt, far as chilluns is concerned...
Oh.
- Oh. - Tell me where they are.
[laughs]
Tell me.
If you want to see 'em,
all you gots to do is look
with your own two eyes.
♪ ♪
[laughter]
[♪ Amiri Baraka: "Who Will Survive America?"]
♪ Who will survive America? ♪
♪ Few Americans ♪
♪ Very few Negroes and no crackers at all ♪
♪ Who will survive America? ♪
♪ Few Americans ♪
♪ Very few Negroes and no crackers at all ♪
♪ Who will survive America? ♪
♪ Very few Negroes, no crackers at all ♪
♪ Who will survive America? ♪
♪ Very few Negroes, no crackers at all ♪
♪ Will you survive America with your 20-cent habit? ♪
♪ Yo, four-bag Jones, will you survive ♪
♪ In the heat and fire of actual change? ♪
- ♪ I doubt it ♪ - ♪ Very few Negroes ♪
♪ No crackers at all ♪
♪ Will you survive, woman, or will your nylon wig ♪
♪ Catch afire at midnight and light up Stirling Street ♪
♪ And your ass-prints on the pavement? ♪
♪ Grease was melting in this brother's eyes ♪
♪ His profile was shot up by a simba ♪
♪ Thinking who was coming around the corner ♪
♪ Was really Tony Curtis and not a misguided brother ♪
♪ Got his mind hanging out with Italians ♪
♪ Very few Negroes, no crackers at all ♪
♪ Who will survive America? ♪
♪ The Black future will...
[Lucky screaming]
♪ Scraping nickels out the inside of nigger daydreams ♪
♪ Few Americans, very few Negroes ♪
♪ Maybe no red Negroes at all ♪
- ♪ Who will survive America? ♪ - ♪ Who will survive America? ♪
♪ Who will survive America? ♪
♪ Very few Negroes, no crackers at all ♪
♪ The stiff-backed chalk-lady Baptist in blue lace ♪
♪ If she shrinks from blackness in front of the church ♪
♪ Following the wedding of the yellow robots ♪
♪ Will not survive ♪
♪ She's old anyway ♪
♪ And they're moving her church in the wind ♪
♪ Old people? No ♪
♪ Christians? No ♪
♪ First Negroes to be invisible to truth ♪
♪ 1944, Minnesota? No, no ♪
♪ Nothing of that will be anywhere ♪
♪ It will be burned clean ♪♪
[Tap Dance Man] Poor, poor Mr. Henry.
I says it before and I'll say it again.
Don't never seem to be
in the right place at the right time.
Not at boss man Berks',
not even in your own home when them ofays come
and strang you clear up to the ceiling.
But you was that day, I reckon.
[laughs] Ooh, Lord, you was that day.
Poor Miss Lucky, she just wanted him to stay a while
and enjoy the morning with their girls and that sweet
little boy-child.
But Mr. Henry had his mind
all made up.
[laughs] He wanted to take his gals to the picture show,
get him some of that
Mr. Monroe's good old greasy kernel corn
before it all got ate.
So, that day,
he left an hour early.
One...
hour...
early.
Mr. Henry was finally gonna be
in the right place at the right time.
Ooh-wee, Mr. Henry.
I think you really gonna like this picture.
♪ ♪
[applause]
[woman] Oh, beautiful day.
[cheering]
[Lucky] Yes. Yes, it is.
Thought we were friends.
Fuck off back to hell, devil.
Why do you think we met, Ruby Lee?
Why do you think I chose you?
Because I know.
Know who you want to be.
Who you don't.
[Ruby] She had a gun. Outside.
- [screams] - Everybody saw her.
It was embarrassing.
[Doris] What do you want?
[Ruby] I don't want to be like them anymore.
I don't want to be... ugly.
- [gasps] - [Ruby] We'll never be like Mama.
[Ruby and Gracie] We'll never be like Mama.
- Stop. - But it's too late for you, Ruby.
You already are just...
[distorted] ...like her.
Kept your baby brother in a box.
[Epps' voice] The sow.
[crowd shouting, jeering]
Burn their fucking house down!
- Fuck you, nigger! - You shouldn't be here!
No!
[Clarke] What the fuck were you two doing
- in the Emorys' basement, Marty? - [Marty] Teaching that family
of apes that this place is ours.
- [gun cocks] - Marty!
Shut up, bitch!
Protecting what our fathers built.
And you, treating what we earned
as a gift instead of a birthright.
You know who said that?
Your wife.
I wouldn't waste a bullet on a fucking traitor.
Faggot.
[gun clicking]
[screaming]
[wailing]
My fucking leg...
♪ ♪
[man] You got a surprise coming to you, boy.
- [woman] You don't belong here. - [Carol Lynn] You Black bitch!
I should've known the day you came at my boy.
Betty was right about you people.
- She knew. - She knew.
- What'd you do to Betty, huh? - Murderer!
- Fucking animals! - This is our home!
You never should have come here!
What did you do to Betty?
You don't belong here.
This is our home.
Go back to where you came from!
[screaming]
[woman] In the beginning...
- In the beginning... - God created...
- the heaven and the Earth.
the heaven and the Earth.
- And God said... - And God said,
"Let there be light."
- And there was light. - [screaming]
- And there was light. - And God said...
And God said, "Let the water be gathered
- unto a firmament. - unto a firmament.
- And let the dry land appear." - And let the dry land appear."
And God called the dry land...
- Earth. - ♪ My country, 'tis of thee ♪
♪ Sweet land of liberty ♪
♪ Of thee I sing ♪
♪ Land where my fathers died ♪
♪ Land of the pilgrims' pride ♪♪
Girls?
[Gracie cries out]
- [Miss Vera] What need have you for the book? - [pained cry]
Miss Vera!
Mama?
Not today, bitch.
[shrieking]
Mama!
And one day
I'll be a teacher, just like Mama.
I have the smartest little girl sitting right here,
so this teacher's doing just fine.
- [Lucky gasping] - [Miss Vera growling]
You'll never be like Mama!
[gasping]
[grunts]
You'll never be like Mama. [grunting]
[hyperventilating]
Are you really back, Mama?
I'm back, baby. Mama's back.
I'm back.
[Epps' voice] While your daddy was
at the picture show that day...
...your mama had other plans.
Clean the laundry...
Clean the child.
I had to, Ruby Lee.
Before the picture was over...
Clean him good.
Before we got home...
[distorted] Now I'm going to clean you, too.
[Ruby gasps]
[Ruby crying]
[slashing]
[Lucky] Ruby Lee.
Ruby Lee.
- Ruby Lee. - [breathing erratically]
Ruby Lee?
My Ruby.
It's all right, baby.
It's all right.
[gasps]
What happened that day... to your brother...
to me...
That's not something you ever need to know about.
But you must know this.
I would never, ever hurt you, Ruby Lee.
I would never, ever hurt you.
Don't you know that?
[sobbing]
Why are you my Ruby?
- Because I sparkle. - That's right.
I'm so sorry, Mama.
[sobbing]
Nothing to be sorry for.
Nothing. You hear me? Nothing.
It's okay. It's okay.
It's okay.
[woman] [on screen] Oh, is that your baby?
[Lucky] [on screen] Yes. Yes, he is.
[woman] What's his name?
I said wh... what's his name?
[Lucky] Chester.
You're gonna want to pay attention here,
Mr. Henry.
I can't.
Sit down, nigger!
- [woman] Will you give him to me? - [Lucky] Go on.
Go!
[woman] I'm right here.
This here is the best part.
[woman] I'm right here.
[man whistling on screen]
[Lucky straining]
[gasping, crying]
[crying out, sobbing]
[Lucky] No! No!
[Tap Dance Man] Why they do you like that, Mr. Henry?
- [Lucky crying] - [man moaning]
These crackers just take and take and take
like it's all theirs.
Like it's all for them.
- [Lucky screaming] - [man moaning]
♪ Take your missus, take your child ♪
♪ Take your work, take your home ♪♪
[laughing]
When they gonna stop taking from you,
Mr. Henry?
[inaudible]
They won't.
[Tap Dance Man] That's right, they won't.
They start with your pinkie.
No telling where they gonna end.
I only got one bullet left.
You don't need no bullets.
[breathing heavily]
[Tap Dance Man] Couldn't protect your missus
or your boy-child that day.
But you sure can protect your family now.
[siren approaching]
So go out there...
go out there with your bare hands,
and show them crackers what they came here to see.
A beast.
[roars]
A beast of the field.
[roars]
A beast. [roars]
A beast of the field.
[roars]
A beast of the field.
[roars]
A beast of the field.
♪ Whatcha gon' do? ♪
Beast of the field.
- ♪ Whatcha gon' do? ♪ - Beast of the field.
Beast of the field.
You take.
And take.
Take.
Take...
and take.
Take...
and take.
Take.
- [Lucky] Henry. - And take.
[breath trembling]
[softly] Luck.
I should've...
- I should've been there. - Shh...
I should've been there, Luck.
Couldn't have known, Henry.
We couldn't have known.
I'm sorry.
[exhales]
I just wanted to make it all right.
The job.
The house.
I know it.
We all know it.
Got two little girls out there who need their daddy.
I need you.
We got this, Henry.
We got this, Luck.
♪ ♪
[Tap Dance Man] ♪ Whatcha gon' do? ♪
♪ Whatcha gon' do? ♪
[chuckles] ♪ Whatcha gon' do? ♪
♪ Whatcha gon' do? ♪♪
[Lucky screams]
[♪ David McCallum: "The Edge"]
You ain't me.
And you ain't never gonna be me.
[laughing]
[laughing dies away]
♪ ♪
[crowd clamoring]
I'll go out there first.
Bring the girls out behind you.
I don't want you to go, Daddy.
Hey.
I'll be all right, baby girl.
Okay?
We all gonna be just fine.
What happened to us?
What if they come back?
They are never coming back, okay?
What about them?
[Lucky] We're not running from them.
We're not running from anyone anymore.
[Epps] Lucky.
[flames crackling]
[Epps] Sow.
No more running.
[Gracie] Mama?
Luck.
No more running.
Luck.
It's not over, Henry.
♪ ♪
Why have you come here?
Not your concern, devil.
What is...
is that I'm here now.
[Epps] Your trespass upset
the order of things.
God intended our community stay pure...
of intention...
of purpose...
of blood.
Who gave you the right?
The Lord Himself.
As it is written, your vile, indolent race suffer,
toil at our hands.
Not in any book I've read.
Spiteful beast.
Have you considered...
this... shall...
not end?
That your curse follows you?
Followed you here to our land.
And will follow you without escape
into the next.
You had a covenant.
A most sacred bond
that you failed to uphold.
You failed him...
on that day.
I, too...
know this pain.
The loss of a child.
Of one's dear...
...sweet boy.
And the hole it leaves.
A hole...
[Chester crying]
...we must inhabit.
[gasping]
[Lucky sobbing]
- [Chester cries] - [Lucky shushes]
The gift...
I offer you...
is one I was not blessed to receive.
Leave your suffering.
Out there
- will only ever be... - My baby.
a torment to you.
Pain.
But here
with him...
...be as if new.
My baby.
[Epps] Yes.
Your baby.
My boy.
[sobbing]
I'm right here.
♪ ♪
I'm right here.
My boy is gone.
You lost your boy?
Huh?
Well, that's where our similarity ends, devil.
All this time you've spent trying to blind me.
Us.
Stop us from seeing ourselves.
Well, I'm right here, motherfucker.
And I see you.
[gasps]
[Epps whimpering]
I see you.
[Epps groaning]
I see you!
[whimpering]
I see you.
♪ ♪
[Epps groaning]
[♪ Nina Simone: "Young, Gifted and Black"] ♪ Young, gifted and Black ♪
♪ Oh, what a lovely ♪
♪ Precious dream ♪
♪ To be young ♪
♪ Gifted and Black ♪
♪ Open your heart ♪
♪ To what I mean ♪
♪ In the whole ♪
♪ World you know ♪
♪ There's a million boys ♪
♪ And girls ♪
♪ Who are young, gifted and Black ♪
♪ And that's a fact ♪
♪ You are young, gifted and Black ♪
♪ We must begin to tell ♪
♪ Our young ♪
♪ There's a world waiting for you ♪
♪ Yours is the quest ♪
♪ That's just begun ♪
♪ When you feelin' really low ♪
♪ Yeah, there's a great truth ♪
♪ That you should know ♪
♪ When you're young ♪
♪ Gifted and Black ♪
♪ Your soul's intact ♪
♪ How to be young ♪
♪ Gifted and Black ♪
♪ Oh, how I long ♪
♪ To know the truth ♪
♪ There are times ♪
♪ When I look back ♪
♪ And I am haunted ♪
♪ By my youth ♪
♪ Oh, but my joy ♪
♪ Of today ♪
♪ Is that we can all be proud ♪
♪ To say to be young ♪
♪ Gifted and Black ♪
♪ Is where it's at ♪
♪ Is where it's at, is where it's ♪
♪ At... ♪♪
[song ends]