I'll bring you a two-pound box of candy,
maybe a bottle of perfume, from the drugstore.
How 'bout some colored beads and wampum?
Whatever it takes to make you trade 'em.
No, thanks.
I've done my time with one cold-blooded bastard.
I'm not looking for another.
It's too late, honey, you already found him.
You hardly touched your plate, Mr. Bannon.
Nothing to do with your cooking, Alma.
I just ain't very hungry.
Hear anything from the vets?
No.
They're taking their own sweet time about it.
Well, I ain't going to sit around here and stew.
Kiwanis are waiting for me.
You gonna be in that pig scramble tonight, Hud?
Yup, see if I can make
the Bannons look good for a change.
You honchos want to come on in,
there's plenty of room in the cheering section.
They're letting ladies in free tonight, Alma.
You just might qualify.
Hey, you know, that's the first time
Hud ever asked me to go anyplace in his whole life.
I wonder why he did that.
Lonesome, I imagine.
Just trying to scare up a little company.
Hud, lonesome?
He can get more women comin' than anybody else around.
Well, that ain't necessarily much.
They ain't necessarily company, neither.
Women just like to be around
something dangerous part of the time.
Even Hud can get lonesome
once in a while.
Well, I wouldn't mind watching him chase those squealers.
Well, then, we'll go on in.
I'll stay home. I don't like pigs.
Now let's give these kids a hand.
Now, applaud for the kid that you like the best.
That's it, ladies and gentlemen.
Looks like number ten won it.
All right, now you've all seen one kind of twistin'.
You're about to see another kind.
We've got ten able-bodied men going to tie themselves in knots
trying to catch ten of the fastest greased pigs
you've ever seen in your life.
Now the first man that catches his pig
and brings it back to this little square here
in front of the judges stand is going to be the winner.
Now if you boys'll come on in, we'll get this started, come on.
You guys got the pigs ready down there, Marlon?
You bet!
Okay.
Let's go then.
Come on, let's go there.
Arnold, you're outside there. Step in, will ya?
Hey, Wag, pull your hat off, will ya?
Let's go.
All right, boys, now when I say "three," we'll go.
One, two, three-- go!
Off they go. Look at them go.
Well, it looks like we got a winner-- Hud Bannon.
Hud, that pig looks about as dirty as you do.
Towel back there?
Folks, we sure do thank you for turning out tonight,
and we hope you enjoyed yourself.
Whew!
We look forward to seeing you next year
at the annual cotton festival.
Nice goin'.
Wish I could still get around the way you do, Hud.
Boy, you sure do churn up that dust.
Well, I'm going to kick up
a little more dust before the night's over.
Anybody interested?
Well, that's enough excitement for me, I guess.
I'll be getting back. Lon?
Oh, I don't know. It's still kind of early.
I might just stick around with Hud for a while.
Well, I'll leave the door open for you.
Yeah.
Hitch up your pants, fantan.
I'm going to get cleaned up, then I'll buy you a drink.
You want to put a little kick in that?
Sure, okay.
Come on, I can handle it.
Whoa, whoa.
Kind of pretty girl.
Don't let me cramp you.
Oh, I wouldn't make any kind of move at her.
Why not?
You ain't nailed down, are you?
Well, that's what I call a woman and a half.
You're a pretty good-looking kid.
You dab down that cowlick
and button your collar up over your Adam's apple,
you... you might just make out.
I wouldn't mind driving her the long way home.
Well, you ought to take a crack at that.
Get all the good you can out of 17,
'cause it sure wears out in one hell of a hurry.
Ah, my trouble is I got to like a girl a lot
before I can work up to anything.
I mean, like her as a person.
Honcho, you're a regular idealist.
And what's wrong with that?
I don't know, I just ain't never tried it.
Well...
suppose you think I'm a jerk.
What do you care what I think?
Ah, this is probably going to hand you a big laugh...
...but I do.
You have another little drink,
and I'll have another little drink,
and then maybe we can work up
some real family feeling here.
Well, I think I'll...
shove some change in that juke.
Hi.
What are you gawking at?
Well, I ain't gawking.
I don't like fresh kids.
Nobody's getting fresh, mister, that I know about.
I think I'll take you out in the alley
and jar some of your teeth loose.
Are you having words with this youngster about something?
I'm about to put him into the hospital.
Is that so?
Why, has he been bothering you?
No. No, he ain't bothering me.
It's her he's bothering.
Well, you didn't, uh,
offer him any encouragement by any chance,
did you there, young lady?
No.
That's funny.
I was sitting way over on the other side of the room,
and I got a little bit encouraged.
Maybe it's the way you move around inside that dress.
All right, smart guy,
I'll take you instead.
Oh, I don't want to be hoggish.
Lon, you want a piece of him?
-Ah. -Whoo!
Whoo! Whoo!
Boy, that is what I call one hell of a night.
I can do that about six times a week.
Well, you don't win 'em all, you know.
Well, I would
if you were backing me all the time.
Hey, that'd make quite a combination, wouldn't it?
Nobody'd ever mess with the Bannons,
that's for sure.
Yeah, felt like old times there
for a little while.
Your daddy and l used to take them all
on a Saturday night.
Yeah, he must have been a pretty good old boy.
What, Norman?
Yeah.
He was the kind of guy--
he used to leave his loose change
just lying out on the bureau
when I was a kid so I could swipe some of it.
Let me take a girl away from him once in a while
like I done it on my own.
He was bigger than you, all right.
He had a bigger wallet,
but I'll tell you something.
When you ain't being a pain in the tail,
you remind me a lot of him.
-I do? -Yeah, you sure do.
Well, then how come
you and me don't hit it off so good?
I got short arms.
Hell, there ain't never been anybody like old Norman,
never will be.
He was one-way-out boy.
Claimed he could hear the grass grow.
He got me to go down to this pasture
one night to listen.
After three or four hours
of just nipping away at that bottle
to keep the dew off of us,
I swore I could hear it, too.
That's the night I wracked up the car.
Piled up on Sampson Creek Bridge.
He died in a half an hour.
I didn't even have a mark on me.
Yeah, I wonder
if your daddy's hearing the grass now,
growing up over his grave.
That story ought to cool you off some.
It doesn't.
Fantan, either you're softhearted,
or softheaded.
I don't know which.
{y:i}Oh, it was sad, dear Lord
{y:i}It was sad, dear Lord
{y:i}It was sad {y:i}when the great ship went down
{y:i}To the bottom of the
{y:i}Husbands and wives
{y:i}Little children {y:i}lost their lives
{y:i}It was sad {y:i}when the great ship went down
{y:i}Oh, it was sad, dear Lord
{y:i}It was sad, dear Lord
{y:i}It was sad when the great ship {y:i}went down...
Shh, shh, shh, shh.
{y:i}Oh, it was shh, {y:i}dear Lord
{y:i}It was shh, dear Lord
{y:i}It was shh...
Hey, Granddad.
All right, he's got you drunk.
What else has he given you a taste for?
All we had was a...
...couple of drinks is all.
I don't remember you being a teetotaler.
I drank. I don't object to his having whiskey.
Well, something seems to be eating away
at your liver.
You, Hud.
Like always.
Hey, what are you climbing on Hud for?
You think a lot of Hud, do you?
You think he's a real man.
Well, you're being took in.
You listen to him, honcho.
He's my daddy, and he knows.
I know you.
You're smart.
You got your share of guts.
You can talk a man into trusting you
and a woman into wanting you.
Well, then, I got it made, ain't I?
To hear you tell it.
Oh, why don't you get it off your chest?
You've been griping at me all this time
as what I done to Norman.
You were drunk and careless of your brother.
You had 15 years to get over it.
That's half of my life.
That's not our quarrel and never has been.
Oh, the hell it isn't.
No, boy.
I was sick of you a long time before that.
Well...
isn't life full of surprises?
And all along I thought it was...
'cause of what I'd done to my big brother.
I took that hard, but I buried it.
Well, all right, I'll bite.
What turned you sour on me?
Not that I give a damn.
Just that, Hud.
You don't give a damn.
That's all.
That's the whole of it.
You still don't get it, do you?
You don't care about people, Hud.
You don't give a damn about 'em.
Granddad...
Oh, you got all that charm going for you,
and it makes the youngsters want to be like you.
That's the shame of it.
'Cause you don't value nothing.
You don't respect nothing.
You keep no check on your appetites at all.
You live just for yourself,
and that makes you not fit to live with.
My mama loved me, but she died.
Why pick on Hud, Granddad?
He ain't the only one.
Just about everybody around here is like him,
one way or another.
Well, that's no cause for rejoicing, is it?
Lonnie, little by little, the look of the country changes
because of the men we admire.
I still think you nailed him pretty hard.
Did I?
Maybe.
Old people get as hard as their arteries sometimes.
You're just going to have
to make up your own mind one day
about what's right and what's wrong.
Where's that cotton-picking housekeeper of ours?
I want something to eat,
and I don't want any hesitating about it.
It's late, Hud.
She's asleep.
Well, ain't that just keen?
Paying her good money to sleep, and I'm starving to death.
Well, maybe I can fry you up an egg sandwich.
Forget it.
Oh, get your butt out of here.
I can't think with you standing around.
Knock some people on their tails around here.
You just might be one of 'em.
Go on, get out of here!
Whoa, there.
Boy, they mean trouble.
Kind of wish I'd have stayed out of bull riding.
Well, from the look of them,
you ain't gonna be riding very far.
Well, thanks, buddy.
I better go check my gear.
Never mind your gear.
You ought to go check your head.
That bull's gonna eat you up.
How are you, hotrod?
Hi, Hud.
Got a good seat for the show this afternoon?
They're getting two bucks for those bleachers over there.
Be my guest.
Well, this is ten dollars, Hud.
It's good. I didn't print it.
Well, thank you.
Stick with me, honcho.
Your jeans will be full of change.
How come?
Well, I'll tell you.
I put on a clean, white shirt this morning,
and I saw me a lawyer.
There's a law that says
when old folks can't cut the mustard anymore,
you can make 'em let go, whether they like it or not.
What are you pulling on Granddad now?
Something pretty raw, kid.
Yeah. It sounds like it.
You take your dough. I don't want it.
Hey, hey, hey, hey.
Don't look down your nose at me, sonny boy.
I'm gonna get old, too.
And I don't aim to end up on county relief
with a bowl of soup and two cigarettes a day,
if I behave myself.
I want what I worked for.
I got a right to it.
You know something, honcho?
You don't look out for yourself,
and the only helping hand you'll ever get
is when they lower the box.
Now you have fun, you hear?
Hud.
You're up awful late.
I got a lot on my mind.
Come on in.
Take a load off your feet.
Talked to the vets today?
I talked to 'em,
but I didn't get a whole lot of information out of 'em.
Yeah, you didn't expect to, did you?
The government man wants you to know something,
he'll call you or send you a telegram.
They said they was watching the test animals pretty close,
but they had nothing showed up yet.
Hud?
Yes, sir.
What's this tricky deal you're up to?
Lon tells me
you're gonna pull the rug out from under me.
That's right.
I haven't got all the rough edges ironed out yet,
but I can give you an idea.
The main thing is you, old man.
You're getting too old to make the grade.
Whether they liquidate us or not when this thing is over,
you just better get yourself a rocking chair
and get out of my way.
What in the hell do you mean?
When an old man goes off
and buys himself a bunch of sick Mexican cows,
it means he's over the hill.
You got the incompetence, Daddy,
and the hotrod's too young to take things over.
Just might get the court
to appoint me guardian of your property.
I don't know.
If I don't get it one way, I'm gonna get it another.
Well, you're badly mistaken about all this.
I'll be the only one to run this ranch
while I'm above ground.
After that, you may get part of it.
I don't know.
But you can't get control of this place.
No way in the world.
Don't go making any bets on that.
Maybe I treated you too hard.
I don't doubt I made some mistakes.
A man don't always do what's right.
Ah, Daddy, you ain't never been wrong.
Been handing out the ten tablets of law
from whatever little hill you could find to climb up on
since I was a kid.
Shape up or ship out.
That's the way you runs things around here.
Wild-eyed Homer Bannon
passing out scripture and verse
like you wrote it yourself.
So I just naturally had to go bad
in the face of so much good.
Hud, how did a man like you come to be a son to me?
Well, that's easy.
I wasn't
no bundle left
on your doorstep.
Wasn't found in no bulrushes.
You've got the same feelings below your belt
as any other man.
That's how you got stuck with me for a son,
whether you like it or not.
He was just so drunk, Alma.
Did he hurt you?
Should I take you to town, get you a doctor?
Go on out of here.
Well, what are you looking at?
I'm looking at you, Hud.
Oh, climb off it.
You've been wanting to do pretty much the same thing.
And wanting to wallow her from the day she got here.
Yeah, I been wanting to do it.
But not mean like you.
Here comes Mr. Burris.
Good morning.
Your timing's off. You missed breakfast.
Thanks, but I've eaten.
I guess you got something to tell us,
or you wouldn't be here.
I guess the tests are done.
Yes, sir, they're done.
You got the worst thing you could have.
And there's no cure at all?
None we know of.
It's like a bolt of lightning--
it won't hurt you till it hits, then it hurts a lot.
Your cows are public enemies now.
You gotta handle this thing fast
before it spreads.
Well, what do I do?
Just drive them into a pit and shoot 'em?
I can't abide that.
I know it's a terrible thing even to think about.
I've seen it during the Depression.
It's a sight worse to see than it is to think about.
Look here, Mr. Bannon, you're getting up in years.
You can afford to slow down.
The rest won't hurt your grass any.
You might even sell a few oil leases.
My daddy thinks that oil
is something you stick in your salad dressing.
If there's oil down there, you can get it sucked up
after I'm under there with it.
But I don't like it, and I don't aim to have it.
There'll be no holes punched in this land
while I'm here.
They ain't going to come in and grade no road
so the wind can blow me away.
That's all to me.
What can I do with a bunch of rotten oil wells?
I can't ride out every day and prowl amongst them,
like I can my cattle.
I can't breed them or tend them or rope them
or chase them or nothing.
I can't feel a smidgen of pride in them.
'Cause they ain't none of my doing.
There's money in it.
I don't want that kind of money.
I want mine to come
from something that keeps a man doing for himself.
We're much obliged to you for coming out in person to tell us.
Start shootin'.
Didn't take long.
It don't take long to kill things.
Not like it does to grow.
Well, there's a couple we missed.
I'll get 'em.
Where do you think you're going, mister?
To finish this job.
Somebody needs to.
Well, you just close that gate.
I'll kill them two myself,
seeing as how I raised 'em.
Something wrong with you, mister?
There's no guarantee you'll do it.
He just said he would.
You get in the car.
We're going down and finish buying those carcasses,
and then we're leaving.
Mr. Bannon can handle the rest of this
without us bothering him.
You just get along, Mr. Burris.
I know none of this here ain't your doing.
You see about the burying,
and then get that fellow there off'n my ranch.
All I can say is I'm sorry.
I'm sure sorry.
He ain't such a bad fella.
Just got a cruddy job.
Boys...
I don't plan to have any work
around here for some time.
I can't afford to keep you on till things get better, so...
...I'll just have to let you go.
Give me the rifle.
Lord, but I've chased 'em longhorns many a mile.
I don't know if I can kill 'em.
But I guess I can.
Guess this is the worst thing that ever happened to you.
Oh, I'll get over it,
if my health don't go to failing me.
Lon, you go away someplace.
Well, them old bulls are hard to kill.
Drag 'em away and bury 'em!
Bury 'em quick!
Go on!
Did you call about the bus for me?
Yeah, it leaves at 10:26.
And can I buy my ticket on it?
Yeah. They said that'd be okay.
Alma?
I got $200 calf money,
-if you're short. -You just keep it.
Well, I'm ready.
Wish you weren't going off and leaving us, Alma.
You look after your grandpa.
He's getting old and feeble. He's your job now.
We need you around here.
I sure do.
You'll get along just fine.
I wish you'd stay.
Well...
I been all over this cow country,
looking for the exact right place
and the exact right people, so once I got stopped,
I wouldn't have to be movin' again.
And it just hasn't worked out.
Good-bye, honey.
You take care of yourself.
Don't you be lazy, now.
How are you, Peewee?
Looks like we're losing a good cook.
Maybe we should, uh...
boosted your salary a little.
You ain't letting that little ruckus we had
run you off, are you?
As far as I can get on a bus ticket.
You saying that I'm the first guy
that ever stuck his foot in your door?
Oh, no.
The first one that ever got rough, huh?
Well, I'm sorry.
It ain't my style.
I don't usually get rough with my women.
Generally don't have to.
You're rough on everybody.
So they tell me.
You want to know something funny?
It would have happened eventually,
without the roughhousin'.
You look pretty good without your shirt on, you know.
Sight of that through the kitchen window
made me put down my dish towel more than once.
Well, why didn't you speak up sooner?
I'll remember you, honey.
You're the one that got away.
Come on, there, boy, git!
Stupid knucklehead, what'd you hit the brakes for?
You got your life's work in front of you
paying for this car.
Granddad's out here.
He's crawling in the road!
Grandad, what happened?
Are you hurt?
I wanted to... take a look around the place.
I fell off my horse.
This old man's hurt pretty bad.
Let me up.
A man ain't to crawl.
Take it easy.
Lonnie, take my car, get to the ranch,
call an ambulance, tell 'em to get here quick.
And tell 'em we got an awful sick man here.
It won't start!
All right, forget it.
Forget it!
There's a bottle of whisky in the dash.
Bring it over.
Come on, easy, easy, old man.
Don't make me drink that stuff.
Lonnie, go on down to the main road,
try to flag a car down, get some help up here.
Go on, move.
Don't send him away, Hud.
I'm right here, Grandad, don't you worry.
I feel kind of cold.
Everything's going to be all right.
I don't know if I want it to be.
Don't talk like that.
You're going to be just fine.
I feel like...
throwing in the sponge.
Like giving up.
You've never quit on anything in your whole life.
Hud there is waiting on me...
and he ain't a patient man.
He isn't gone, is he?
Yeah.
I meant to buy him
a brand-new, blanket-lined jacket...
and give it to him sometime or other.
Lonnie...
Hey.
It was the best thing.
Man, he was wore out, and he knew it.
He didn't seem so bad.
He didn't seem so bad off at all.
Well, he was.
Trying to get up, hurting himself.
He couldn't have made it.
Lonnie, any way in this world,
he couldn't have made it another hour.
He could if he had wanted to.
You fixed it so he didn't want to anymore.
You don't know the whole story.
Yeah, him and me fought many and many a round together.
But I guess you could say that I helped him
about as much as he ever helped me.
How did you help him, Hud?
By trying to sell him out?
By taking the heart out of him?
By making him give up and quit?
Is that how you helped him?
He ain't in any loaf-around eternal life.
He's the way he always was--
enjoying his good horses, looking after the land,
trying to figure out
ways to beat the dry weather and wind.
You better settle down, boy.
You still got the graveyard in front of you.
I know what you're feeling, my boy,
but look at it this way-- he's gone to a better place.
I don't think so.
Not unless dirt is a better place than air.
Well, we took him to the graveyard
and put him down.
It's all over with now.
What have you got there?
My gear.
You going someplace?
Yeah.
Traveling kind of light, ain't ya?
Got everything I need.
Planning to go for good?
That's right.
What about your half of the spread here?
Well, you can put my share in the bank.
I'm going somewhere else and work for a while,
if I can happen onto a job.
Ain't you a little bit green to go cutting loose on your own?
Well, we'll see.
I was about your age when I went in the army.
Granddaddy had bought me a Mars candy bar down at the station,
and he said to me, "Character's the only thing
I got to give you to be a man."
Well, I guess he was kind of worried.
You're trying so hard to get out of the draft and all.
Honcho!
I just wanted you to know that...
if you don't make your million,
you can always come back here and work for me.
I won't be back this way.
Well, I guess you've come to be of your granddaddy's opinion
that I ain't fit to live with.
That's too bad.
Yeah, we might have whooped it up some, you and me.
That's the way you used to want it.
I used to.
So long, Hud.
You know something, fantan?
This world is so full of crap,
a man's going to get into it sooner or later
whether he's careful or not.