Breakdown

THE LONG HOME Written by Steve Janas & Vince Jolivette Based on the novel by William Gay September 3, 2015 -- 1 of 109 -- AUDIO IN: OVER a BLACK SCREEN come strange, distant RUMBL…

Slope-shouldered hills - eternal, mythic - stand against the dying sun

THOMAS HOVINGTON, a wiry, youngish man in 1920’S-PERIOD CLOTHES, stands with his family: PEARL his wife, who’s about the same age; and AMBER ROSE, their infant daughter

A fissure has been ripped into the earth by the eruption

It lies as before - a ragged gash in the earth - while a fearsome THUNDER STORM splits the night

NATHAN WINER, SR

A number of years have passed

It’s raining hard

It’s raining even harder as Hardin drags Winer’s corpse to the lip

WILLIAM TELL OLIVER (late 60’s) hikes through the thick brush and stops to inspect a plant under a tree

Super: TEN YEARS LATER

Oliver sits in his porch swing watching the rain fall

It’s spartan but neat

Oliver watches Winer go, carrying the shoes, til he’s out of sight in the rain

WINER’S MOTHER is a bitter, sullen woman - she and Winer rarely talk

Winer goes out to an old TREE HOUSE and begins climbing the ladder to it

YOUNG WINER is arguing with his mother

Winer stares out at the falling rain

Winer follows Oliver down a steep hillside

The voices murmur unintelligibly below as dark clouds press down from above

Hardin sits at a table in his make-shift honkytonk counting money

Hardin looks up at the sky

Hardin rounds the corner of the hollow and discovers a thin line of SPRAY over the rim of the pit

The clouds are beginning to thin

Oliver looks up at the sky

Oliver approaches a SPRINGBOX completely inundated by floodwaters, which he wades into

Hardin cracks open the door on THREE WOMEN dressed in their Sunday finery

1940’s-VINTAGE CARS line the main street

BY NOVEL RACK Winer, sipping a COKE, is perusing the PULP NOVELS when he’s approached by BUTTCUT, a buddy from high school - the star- athlete type

Winer leans against a tricked-out CHRYSLER parked on the street

Motormouth is in the driver’s seat, Winer next to him

Motormouth’s car roars by, weaving ever so slightly

Countryside zips past the window as Motormouth drives, fiddling with the radio while holding an OPEN BEER

Motormouth runs from his parked car, a shadow dodging furtively through the moonlight

The same broad view of the valley Oliver saw earlier

It’s crowded

Pearl is giving the soldier a blow job out of sight of the house when suddenly Hardin appears from behind a tree

Amber Rose sits on the edge of the bed, tenderly dabbing a WASHCLOTH at Hovington’s face

Pearl comes out of the house

THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD, two figures rapidly approach

From this angle, we can see that part of the marked-off area has been scraped free of dirt, but not much else has been done

Hardin is sitting at the table across from CHARLES LIPSCOMB, 30’s, a jack of all trades - especially talking

Hastily dressed, Oliver stands on the hardpan, looking up at his house in the moonlight

Oliver is walking toward a pit that was torn, bloody and raw, from the Earth

At the bottom of the pit is what looks like a lake, its surface frozen over

Oliver comes awake in his bed, disoriented by the dream

Hardin’s Packard pulls to a stop near the porch

A starlit night, illuminated by a waxing crescent moon

A dreamy morning world of sunlit mist

It’s bustling with the usual mid-day activity

Holding his hat, Oliver sits on a bench outside the locked office as SHERIFF BELLWHETHER, 30’s, and Cooper return from lunch

Bellwhether enters with Oliver, holding the box, right behind him

Bellwhether is showing Oliver, who’s no longer holding the shoebox, out

ON AMBER, dressed for school, waiting for the bus

Deputy Cooper sits at one of the tables across from Hardin, who is whittling a PIECE OF WOOD as he talks

A TRUCK with a HORSE TRAILER comes roaring up the drive, where it stops and begins backing toward the enclosure with the three horses

Oliver is mending the fence of his goat enclosure as Winer watches, looking a little shame-faced

A high sun bakes the valley

Having just been dropped off by Hardin, Winer approaches the house

Winer marvels at the stacks of gleaming, new COPPER POTS & PANS on the counter top

A section of creek near the house that forms a pool deep enough to swim in

Winer’s mother is waiting for him on the porch when he returns from his bath

Another bright, hot day

A GREEN STUDEBAKER is parked in the drive as Winer sits with his mother and her “friend,” LEO HUGGINS, a pudgy fast- talker

Winer’s trimming a TWO-BY-FOUR on the SAWHORSE while Hardin trims his fingernails with his knife

The cedar grove Hardin described in his account of finding the knife

Oliver sits under a mature PEAR TREE, peeling PEARS into an old WASHPAN

Bellwhether sits across from Oliver

A dusty vacant lot behind the main drag through town

Sam Long finishes ringing up a FAMILY at his register and glances out the window

SHORTEN SCENE Long intercepts Winer as he walks by on the sidewalk

Winer approaches from the road after work

The back door SLAMS and Winer trudges down the path to the water hole, SOAP, TOWEL and SHAVING SUPPLIES in hand

His hair wet, Winer is again shaving with the mirror balanced in the tree

Holding his things, Winer passes the house

Winer heads across the field, toward the road

The remnant of some long-ago accident, it sits forgotten and overgrown near the highway

Tossing the towel and other items in first, Winer gets in the front seat and settles back to sleep

More of the wooden framework of the honkytonk is in place now

Like usual, the place is way too crowded

Winer’s work is interrupted by LOUD VOICES

Morning

Winer and Amber stand out of sight around the corner of the house

Winer comes alone and sits, looking out over the branch of the river below

Winer sits amid the half-built honkytonk on his lunch break

The same one Winer sat on waiting for Amber before

An abandoned cabin deposited on the riverside by earlier floodwaters

Approaching from the road, Winer trots up the steps

The leaves are starting to turn

Oliver approaches from the direction of the ridge

The same spot overlooking the river, within earshot of the honkytonk, where Winer met Amber last time

Sitting on his cot, feet up on an old crate, Motormouth is holding a GLASS OF BOOTLEG WHISKEY AND 7-UP

Hardin’s in the back bedroom, putting more CASH into ANOTHER FRUIT JAR

Coming along the path, Winer stops by the stumphole for the blanket and is shocked to find it gone

Despite his discovery, Winer sits waiting for Amber at their usual spot

The SAME SHOT, except the moon has now been replaced by the brilliant first rays of the rising sun

The honkytonk is nearing completion

Hardin is paying CASH into Winer’s hand at the end of the work week

Winer’s sitting by the fire, waiting for the COFFEE to boil, when a wash of HEADLIGHTS from Hardin’s PACKARD almost blinds him

The engine IDLES as Winer and Hardin sit

A gray Fall day

With a somewhat puzzled look on his face, Hardin is standing just outside the door, holding the paper Cooper has just handed him

Amber Rose, emerging from the school with the OTHER STUDENTS, stops at the sight of Winer leaning against Motormouth’s Chrsyler, parked at the curb

Winer drives as Amber gazes out the window, enjoying the freedom

Hardin and a STATE PROSECUTOR survey the “garden” Hardin says was destroyed by Blalock’s horses

Hardin swings open the door and heads to the bar

Hardin approaches and enters the wire fence enclosing the horses

Winer and Amber sit parked a short distance down the road from Hardin’s drive

TIGHT ON A HAND MIRROR that reflects Amber’s face

A new, if still not completely finished, honkytonk has risen behind the house

Dressed for a date, Winer approaches the SCREEN DOOR and knocks

Winer emerges from the drive, anxiety over Amber’s fate rising higher and higher within him

Winer, still dressed for his date, sits on one of the stools as the waitress - the same one Buttcut talked back to - approaches

Buttcut’s at a table, shooting pool, as Winer enters and finds him

Winer and Buttcut enter

Bellwhether once again sits across from Oliver

Winer and Buttcut look up as the JAILER opens the bullpen

Winer sits across the desk from Bellwhether, a deep frown on his face

Winer sits outside the cabin, staring into the campfire

Motormouth’s Chrysler pulls up the drive with Winer behind the wheel

Hardin’s behind the bar, drinking JACK DANIELS on the rocks next to Jiminez as Winer enters

Amber runs out the door first followed by Winer, who stops suddenly

Holding the Winchester, Hardin scrambles down the embankment to find Motormouth’s battered Chrysler on its side, propped against a tree, its one remaining headlight shining crazil…

Amber and Winer emerge from the trees

Spring is now in full bloom

Leaning on his staff, mantled in flame by the setting sun, Oliver stands at the spot that overlooks Hardin’s property, now overrun by SCAVENGERS: local people tearing up the scorc…

Oliver has pried up the floorboards and is now stowing a FRUIT JAR FULL OF CASH below, where several others have already been hidden

The same slope-shouldered hills from the beginning

Dressed against the Autumn chill, Oliver again approaches along a path in search of ginseng