Backyard (1984) - full transcript

Before this film
begins I have to tell

a story about my father and me.

When I was 18 I left my
home in North Carolina

to go to college in New England

and ended up living in Boston.

Ever since then,

my father, who was born
and raised in the South,

and I have disagreed
about nearly everything.

When I graduated from college, my father,

who's a doctor and conservative republican,

asked me what I planned to do with my life.



I told him I was interested in film making

but there was also several alternatives,

such as working with
Black Voter Registration

in the South or getting
involved in the Peace Movement,

or possibly entering a
Theravada Buddhist monastery.

My father had thought this
over for a moment and said,

"Son, I think your
concept of career planning

"leaves something to be desired,"

"but I've decided not to
worry about you anymore."

"I've resigned myself to your fate."

I didn't exactly know
how to respond to this

but finally I said,

well, dad, I guess I have no choice

but the accept your resignation.



Here I am, playing the piano,

in the house where I grew
up in North Carolina.

I guess about the only thing my father

and I did agree upon was my decision not

to try to make a living
from my musical abilities.

Anyway, I eventually got a
job at a television station

in Boston.

I managed to save enough
money to buy some film stock,

and borrowed a camera,

and returned home to make
a film about the South,

which for me meant making
a film about my family.

150 over 70.

My father is a surgeon.

Scalpel.

Both my father and grandfather

chose to go into medicine,

but I decided at a fairly early age

not to become a doctor.

In the past I've felt queasy

when I've seen my father scalpel

cut through warm, living flesh,

but I discovered that as long as

I was filming my father operating,

this problem disappeared completely.

Unfortunately I had other problems.

It seemed that all too often
when I tried to film my father,

my camera malfunctioned.

Since moving away I felt I
had become a kind of stranger

to my own family.

My brother had even taken
to calling me the Yankee.

My mother died the year
before I moved to Boston.

My father has since
remarried, and his new wife,

Anne, suggested various
activities for me to film

around the house,

such as the following ritual,

which occurs every Christmas.

♪ Sleep in Heavenly peace ♪

♪ Sleep in Heavenly peace ♪

Masses,
y'all are mighty good to call,

and to sing for us, we thank you.

Thank you, Merry Christmas.

I hope y'all have a
real wonderful day.

Congratulations, Jeannie and Mike.

We thank you.

Then you can meet with,

Susie will see you next time,

this is Peter Market saying, so long,

we're breaking up, bye-bye!

Nice colored copy they were.

He had a carcinoma in his stomach,

10, 15, 10 years ago I guess.

For some reason my
father's wearing a yarmulke.

Despite the fact that he's
a staunch Presbyterian.

Yeah, all right here he is, Tommy.

Yeah.
Telephone.

Go around the index finger
and around the thumb,

around the index finger, around the thumb.

I'm looping it, whoops.

This one.

My brother Tommy
was about to begin

medical school which pleased
my father a great deal.

Now you have to play
it down that way.

Down, up, down, up.

They always like that, Milton?

They always like that?

Are these dogs always like this?

Yeah, when they get
close, just bark then.

Sometimes we need to
hall down the neighbors,

looks like they'd get used to me sometimes.

Galvin Stafford and his wife,

Lucile have worked for
my family for many years,

and I was in part raised by Lucile

and by other black women.

As I grew up in the South
I never questioned the fact

that black men were taking care of the yard

while their wives were taking care of me.

Lucile,
did you want to sit here?

No, it's fine,
I got to stay and watch the pot.

Okay.

Would you want some soup?

No, thank you, not right now.

Is he telling you, Lucy?

Right now, DLT please.

We're taking him out to dinner.

Yes.

I see you're tearing
the tree house down.

My tree house?

Yeah, you'll live with that.

Yeah,
it's been there for too long,

about time for it to come down.

You never used Wister, did you?

Did you ever spend a night out there?

Oh sure,
I spent the night out there

a few times.

Yeah, like in wind or snow.

Kind of nice when
the wind was blowing

back and forth.

I bet it is over there, in fact.

I'll get out tonight,

night time, bye-bye.

Lucile was given
the last of the clothing

that had belonged to my mother.

I had many contradictory
feelings about being home again

and I felt very awkward
about filming members

of my family.

My grandmother tried to
help me out by offering

to sing some old songs for the camera

and I was especially struck by the lyrics

to one of her songs.

♪ Lime trees are blooming
in the corner by the gaze ♪

♪ Mammy and her little cabin door ♪

♪ Curly headed pink nanny ♪

♪ Coming home from school ♪

♪ Just crying 'cause it's
little heart and soul ♪

♪ All the children round about
have skin so light and fair ♪

♪ And all of them with
him were leather play ♪

♪ But mammy in her lap takes
this dusky little chap ♪

♪ And she grooms in her own kind word ♪

♪ Now honey, don't you mind
what them white childs do ♪

♪ And honey, don't you cry so hard ♪

♪ Go out and play as much as you please ♪

♪ But stay in your own backyard ♪

Crops?

No, thank you.

That counter,
Lucile, you like that?

It don't bother me.

That just ain't starting.

Holy Lord God almighty,

what power and what greatness
is in our midst right now,

this is it.

Yay!

Yay!

That should do it.

Get rid of the ball,
get out of those field chairs,

leave those crutches, everybody get up

and when you can see you can walk,

come on over here, come on over here,

one's getting up off the stretcher there,

there, come on, come on, here they come,

that man's leaving his crutch behind,

come on, come on, get up and come on,

this is the power of God,

get up and walk, get up and walk,

there comes grandmother
walking, oh glory be to God.

Come on, come on, come on,

this is the greatness, come on people,

this is the greatness of God, come on.

This is the ante, hallelujah,
give God a big hand.

Okay, so I'm trying
to figure out a month.

I say 125 a month, spending money.

Which is...

$150 a month for food.

Is that right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

What else?

That's it.

275 a month.

So I think you mail this out to me

and then I'll write them the checks.

Isabelle.

Yeah?

Good morning.

How are you doing?

Oh I'm doing well, I guess.

Sounds like you didn't,
kind of hurting there.

I was hurting pretty bad
when I have to get up to walk.

Do you take some pain medicine?

Do you ask for a pain pill?

Well, once or twice I have
and they gave it to me.

Okay, you stay as
comfortable as you can now,

use the medicine, that's what it's for.

All right, I will.

Okay,
we'll have you out of here soon.

If we can get you to move on something,

out comes that tube, okay?

You understand?

No, I don't know what you mean.

As soon as you pass
gas from the rectum,

or start moving your bowels,

then we can get the tube out,

but it's not safe to take
it out until that happens.

I see.

Else you might get all distended.

I can't do anything, I mean.

Yeah, yes you can.

I can?

Yeah.

These are hot things.

We're ahead of time with these over here.

Well, I'm thinking to
put on my hat and hood.

I ain't getting my care.

Else there's a lot to do.

Clyde Kathy is a beekeeper

who relies on visions from
God to help him locate

his swarms of bees.

Now, don't you worry
about, nothing will happen,

as long as I got bees, you got bees.

That's right.

And I'm gonna keep them as long as I live.

Lord let me.

Clyde also works for my family.

I got to get my gloves.

I dreamt about bees two weeks every night,

it's crazy, before I've come
in contact with the bees

and I didn't know the meanings of that,

and I would tell my
wife I dreamt about bees

and she'd say that was a sign of a funeral,

but to lord, I had prayed to
the lord to give me a harvest

and I dreamt about bees and I had found

four swarms just where I dreamt

and I seed four swarms
and I went down there

and got four swarms of bees

and that's the last of that.

One morning I
encountered a neighbor

who was on a mysterious mission.

What time did they try to strike last time?

It must've been around,
probably yesterday

it was probably around 11 o'clock,

11:15 something like that.

They tried to get
in the first floor

or the second floor?

Well if you look through
here you can see where they

get on the porch,

and they apparently tried

to get up, full up on
that gutter and stay away.

Even the Towns' across the street,

did you hear about that,
they caught a couple of teenage

kids from Iris Park, they caught them.

Nancy had come home from shopping

and her back door was open,

and she's just stepped in
the house to hear somebody

upstairs so she ran out
and jumped in her car

and saw a policeman driving down the street

and ran after him and got him
and they came running back

and caught them.

They'd already taken
down radios and TV sets

and lined them up in the kitchen

ready to take them out
and put them in the van.

The alarm went off over
the weekend at the Pro Shop

at the Club.

I just thought if that was
related to this or not,

I don't know.

It would be exciting if they came right now

while film is going.

You have to able to
identify all those flies.

Just 300 more.

Nothing on here that
faintly resembles a bug.

How much?

You have seen, yeah, okay.

Ledlum is about pass,
he's had nausea and vomiting,

I've put him in observation tonight,

but he may have to come
into hospital tomorrow.

But since Helen Macker's
authority bypass is asked,

then we'd get him to take care of it.

I encounter further
technical difficulties.

Okay Joe, take care.

We'll be glad those big eyes are gone.

My stepmother and
I walked to a wedding

at the Country Club, the
bride, whose name is Kitty

grew up in the house
next door and my family

had always hoped that I
would settle down to marry

someone like Kitty,

but now in her case at
least, it's too late.

Clyde Kathy, the beekeeper also works

for the family of the bride.

I thought I'd come around and see you.

Clyde, thank you.

Take care of yourself, okay?

No photo click, Ross?

Such a sweetheart.

Don't let Clyde cry,
he'll make me cry.

Bye, daddy.

Safe cruise.

Bye, love you all!

Bye-bye!

Blow, blow for them!

The father of the bride

graciously offers me a ride home.

Ross, you want to go home?

No, sir,
I'll just go back with you.

Okay, you live in my house?

Right next door.

Oh you live in my back yard,

that's what I tell your daddy.

Whose car is that?

Mine.

Is it Clyde's or his?

I don't know.

Who's that coming out?

I don't know.

Who's that?

I don't know who it is.

We're celebrating.

What?

A wedding.

I decided to go
back to the country club

to take a second look around.

Where's the flag?

It's on the planet here,

they probably already taken it down.

They took the flag down, I'm late.

Well, that's life.

He's rolling that thing on us.

He's rolling that on us.

Yup, that's what I'm doing.

He ain't gonna use all of
it, don't worry about it.

You spying all about
the dirt around here?

He just simply refused to eat

and the doctor said that
he was just malnutritioned,

saying he was lower
than anybody he ever saw

to be walking around with malnutrition.

I'm really sorry
to hear about that.

So he went on all day Saturday,

and they gave him glucose

and all day Sunday,
they thought he was getting better

and all of a sudden,
Sunday afternoon he just had

a slight heart attack.

But he came out of that on Monday,

and they put him back in his room,

they took him out of the hot unit

and put him back in the room,

and then Tuesday morning at about 8 o'clock

in the morning they had
to do a Tracheal on him,

you know that's, put that hole in there,

and put the tube in him and
for days he couldn't talk.

I went with Lucile and Owen

to visit Lucile's brother in the hospital.

Something you want for yourself?

Medal, shoes,
you want some metal shoes on here?

Nothing.

That's not it.

He does need something.

You look good.

What time is it?

We got to leave him by three.

You take it easy,
and don't forget to pray.

Okay, bye.

It's the day before
my brother leaves

for medical school and my
family's planned various

activities in his honor.

Well, I do think it's
important how you're spending's

your brother's expensive film on...

Leaving town, on his way out!

Tell him to at least stop for a quick beer

with a dame.

One, two, three, four.

My brother and I spend
the last day together.

Not much more to be
said, not to me.

It's up to me now.

I've much pressure on me,
it's about half of shvarna.

I'll hate to come back here if I screw up.

Cast that new thing and go out with.

All right,
let's get this good photo,

I got to get going,

I don't want to stick
around here any longer.

Sick of it all.

Three years ago my
mother underwent surgery

for cancer,
she was then allowed to return home

and she seemed to be doing fairly well,

but one night she collapsed in the hallway.

My father found her first
and gave her artificial

respiration and called
for me between breaths,

I called an ambulance and
then ran back to the hallway

to see if there was any
way I could help my father.

The ambulance arrived
in the matter of minutes

but my mother had died as
my father and I held her.

I have never been able
to talk about that night

with my father and I still
didn't understand exactly

why my mother had died so suddenly.

Somehow I thought it would
be easier to talk about it

with my brother who I
assumed knew more about it

than I did because of
his pre-medical training.

Do you have any
particular desire

to work with cancer patients
more than anybody else?

Not really.

You know,
what about your mother's death,

how do you deal with?

Sometimes I think about
that, but...

Did you know how sick
she was the entire time?

Like right up until her death?

I really don't
even know how she died.

I know about exact cause of her death,

I mean you die of cancer,
but I don't know if she had

a pulmonary infarct or
heart attack or what,

I really do want to know
what she died of though.

I've just never found the
right time to ask dad.

One day I'll find out I guess.

Well,
I told him we'd loot the gains.

Yeah, you sure did.

I don't like camping out.

You know I told you I lost both ones.

If you lose two, that ain't
bad, I say I lost both.

That was hurting you pretty
bad when that happened.

I know it,
I can't go out of here, I lost.

Can them home, it's at home now.

Now you see, that's why I
keep a jar hanging around,

they go down in there
and they can't get out.

You sure did.

You killed them, didn't you?

They go down in there and
see if they go down in there,

you understand and they think
they can get out of here

and they don't know how to
come back out of the bottle.

And if you're gonna let them eat honey

out of the jar,

you turn it like this.

And they can go in and go out.

They'll come in and go out.

Thank you very much.

Bye, bye.

My father and I are
getting along pretty well

these days and I get back down
to visit him whenever I can.

He continues his medical practice

and I continue to make films.

My brother is now a surgeon and Lucile

continues to keep the house in order

while Nelvin keeps moving the lawn

and basically things go along smoothly,

pretty much the way they always have.