Van Diemen's Land (2009)

I'm a quiet man.
A quiet man dreaming on nothing.
but whiskey in my blood,
a song in my ear
a woman in my bed.
Wasn't the Devil in you
when you brought me here?
Rain is coming.
The bottom of the world. A lovely prison.
Overseer: Alright. Come on, Dalton.
Come on.
Give me your hand. Come here.
OK, in you get.
Go on.
That's it. Go on.
Come on, lads.
Overseer: There's freedom
in work, lads. Freedom in work.
Sooner you get this forest cut down,
the sooner we can go home.
Great ships are built
on the shoulders of you and l.
Great ships.
Mathers!
Got no tongue in your head today?
Eh? Surely not.
Your man Mathers
has found himself homesick this day
and mute it has made him.
Poor lad.
He misses his Scottish homeland.
He'd rather be there
than with the likes of you.
One...two...three.
If this one sinks,
there'll be some fucking language.
Overseer: It was some meal
I was treated to last night.
Soup, baked bread...
..mutton.
The likes I cannot recall
since I left the homeland.
I was in no need
of my good friend the potato.
But he poured forth.
MAN: I wish myself deaf.
He yaps more than a dog
with three heads.
But I did manage to...
..smuggle a little something to...
There's not much, but...
Well, it'll go wonderfully
with your bread there.
It's there if anyone wants it.
What are you smiling at now,
Bodenham?
No law against smiling.
Not yet, young Thomas.
Not yet.
Where's that mongrel sailor - Greenhill?
Greenhill, eh? Where is he?
Where is he? Eh?
You'll all feel the taste of it
if he's not found this minute.
Arggh!
Greenhill: There's not a boat to be
seen on the harbour. Now's our chance.
- Help! Help!
- Shut him up!
You took your bleeding time.
If I had to listen to one more word...
This is to remove your tongue
if you make noise with it. Understand?
Take his clothes. Take his clothes!
Keep fucking still!
- Greenhill: Pass the coat.
- Get off me!
Get off me!
Come on. Come on! Let's go!
Let's go!
Greenhill: Come on!
Where will you go?
There's nothing out there.
No! No!
Fat...fucking...
Dalton: You hit him one more time...
..one more time, and I swear to fuck
we leave you here with him!
Grab everything! Quickly!
Greenhill: There'll be supplies
on the ship when we get there.
We make our move at dusk.
Dalton: Run!
Ah, Christ.
Come on.
What? Are they shooting each other?
Shh.
- We can't stay here.
- Cant go back now.
I can't move
Quiet.
We head east.
If you don't want a noose
around your neck, follow me.
Eight men in this dark wood.
Far from God's eyes.
- I'm bleeding cold.
- Be quiet.
I need a fire.
We can't, you nikey.
I need the warm!
- Punch that cunt, Mathers.
- You fucking try it.
Ohh. The wee lad wants to be
a little bit of a fighter, does he?
You're all talk, old man.
You're the one fucking talking.
Why don't you just shut your mouth?
You'll be talking
when you're left behind.
Oh, why don't you go to fucking sleep?
We're all fucking cold.
You alright?
Fine.
and yourself?
Enjoying the freedom.
- What are they saying?
- I don't know.
Eh? You're fucking Irish.
Go to fucking sleep.
Do you trust that sailor Greenhill?
I don't trust you.
I didn't know she was your mother.
We only have flour and meat
to last a few days.
We'll hunt.
Hunt what?
There's nothing out there.
Ghosts.
There's a distant scream inside of me.
It's not angry, it's just screaming.
Pearce.
Pearce.
Wake up.
Wake up, Pearce.
What?
Some soldiers last night?
Any soldiers?
Soldiers?
Any soldiers last night?
Five or six.
Told them we were headed
in the other direction.
Good. Come on.
Mathers: You might not see it in me,
but I'm quite the ladies' man
in Hobart Town.
Dalton: Are you just?
When you consider
the odds stacked against us.
Not one complaint, I'll have you know.
Dalton: Is that right?
I've found, in my time,
that rubbing the flesh above the hole
has a powerful effect on all women
and brings a strong wetness
like an ocean.
Useless English bastard.
What did you fucking say?
You alright?
Bleeding Irish scum.
Cooee!
- Quiet!
Where to now, Captain?
At least we'll never be far
from the harbour.
Little Brown.
You right, Ned?
Is it cold?
Aye, it's fucking cold.
Bodenham: Little Brown!
Swear to Christ!
Hey! You leave him be there!
I won't be hanged
on the account of an old lag.
Swimming, is it, lads?
Are you coming in, William?
Look out, Dalton! There's
a great big snake in front of you!
Don't you worry about this one!
It's the wee little fella back there
that concerns me!
He may be small
but his bite is dangerous.
Kennerly: In my fair opinion, lads,
this spring is even better
than the last.
Dalton: That is the very truth itself,
William Kennerly!
It is a fine spring!
And better than the last, eh, Pearce?
Aye, Mr Dalton,
and...even...better
than the one before that!
Bodenham: You bog trotters
are all mad.
Kennerly: Oh!
Jesus' mother, Mary of God. Joseph.
All the heavenly host.
Fuck the cunt of it.
Upon my soul, lads,
what a beautiful day!
The sun is shining!
We have our liberty!
Ah! Christ, what a land this is!
Hey! Kennerly!
Free Ireland! Free Ireland!
Kennerly: I'm right behind you!
Dalton: Use your muscles, man!
Use your muscles!
Kennerly: And the door
would fling open,
and there she was, standing there
with her wee little dugs
swinging back and forth like a...
Dalton: Don't say it.
Mathers: I've heard it too often and in
too great a detail for it to be false.
No, it can't be.
What's so funny?
It's nothing.
So, every morning without fail,
she'd make me rub her cold legs
and she would sing to me softly
about the sea.
But, by God, wouldn't she fart on me
when I was down there.
A case of the six o'clock farts
would send my eyes burning.
You're standing there
with this great big fucking arse.
Christ almighty!
Them were farts you could
smell through your ears.
- What the hell are you talking about?
- Women, lad.
If they didn't have cunts,
you'd throw stones at them.
What?
Oh, we were just relating
as to what the two of you
were doing in the bushes.
We were getting wood for the fire.
- Do you think it funny?
- Aye.
It has humour.
One question, Robert.
Is it true that Travers here
was a ticket-of-leave man
before you met?
I speak for myself.
So, Robert, is it true that Travers here
was a ticket-of-leave man?
Travers: No.
I had no ticket of leave.
I heard you had land.
And sheep to tend.
Is that true?
Oh, I had a lease of land
promised to me, yeah.
But time... It takes time...
Here you are, huh? All the land
you could possibly desire.
You must have been quite a catch,
Mr Greenhill.
Come on. Come on, Ned.
I'll guide you through it.
Come on. Come on, Ned.
You're coming with us.
Yeah. You're coming with us.
You're coming with us.
Bodenham: Leave him.
He's holding us back.
Kennerly: Come on.
Come on, Neddy.
Come on.
Bodenham: Just fucking leave him!
Come on!
This is not Table Mountain.
Cooee!
You'll be fine!
- Fuck this.
- Kennerly: Wait!
- Fuck this!
- My nose is fucking cold!
Kennerly:
We've got to stop here for Brown!
Bodenham: Leave him!
- Come on.
- Leave him.
Kennerly: Wait!
Wait!
We have to stop here for the night!
- Not here! No! I said leave him!
- Aye!
Greenhill: We leave no-one!
We rest here!
Dalton: We'll freeze up here!
This is madness!
I'm heading to lower ground!
Dalton: I'm following him!
For once he's right!
Pearce! Let's head down!
Mathers: Head down!
Come on!
Come on.
Leave him!
That the last of it?
Where in hell are you taking us,
Captain?
East.
We'll hit the settled districts
before long.
What do we eat?
We've no food left.
And I'm tired of carrying
these godforsaken pots.
- And for what use?
Be quiet Dalton.
No. We'll starve.
There's nothing out here.
He said we were to escape by boat.
Not to walk to our deaths!
This fool doesn't know where he's going!
You heard your man. We're headed east.
Do you miss the flogging?
Easy. Easy, lad. Easy.
Kennerly: I witnessed a young chavy
take 200 lashes once.
After the first 100, you could see
his spine poking through.
So for the next 100
they had to whip his arse.
Blood gushing like a tap.
Never tried to escape after that.
There's no going back.
Not for any of us.
Hunger is a strange silence.
We have to go back.
Go back?
We wouldn't make it.
Hey, what are you doing,
you mad English bastard?
Shh!
An animal?
By Christ, lad, you're seeing things.
Would you shut your fucking mouth?
You'll never catch it.
He'll never catch it.
Them imaginations are too fast.
Fuck you! Aarggh!
- Hey. Hey.
- Do what you're fucking told, old man!
Hey, you get your fucking hands off!
Get your hands off!
Get your fucking hands off.
Arggh!
Mathers: Bodenham!
Stop it!
- Bodenham: No-one touches me!
- Mathers: Stay back. Bodenham!
Dalton: Pearce! I will not fight.
Bodenham: Fuck you!
I will not fight!
Dalton: Pearce?
Kennerly: # It's oft-time
# When I slumber
# I have a pleasant dream
# With my pretty girl I be roving
# Down by a sparkling stream
# In Ireland I've been roving
# With her at my command
# But I wake up broken-hearted
# 'Pon Van Diemen's Land.
Dalton: That was a beautiful song,
William Kennerly.
Aye.
Did you have a pretty one back home?
I hope not, for lonely she'll die.
Yourself?
A few.
My sister, my mother...
and old Grandmother.
If you have no scars,
the crows will eat your eyes.
Damn you.
Travers: What about Pearce?
You have to do it.
You have to do it soon.
I'm hungry, Robert.
Greenhill: Hmm. I know.
Dalton: Cooee!
Greenhill: It's the law of the sea.
I've seen the like done before.
It tastes like pork.
Mathers: I couldn't.
Greenhill: Don't be a fool.
Mathers: I'll have no hand in it.
Greenhill: I'll not hang for it.
I'll eat the first piece myself
but we all take part.
We agreed?
Travers: Pearce?
What say you?
Aye.
Mathers: Who then?
Dalton.
Mathers: Dalton?!
What about Bodenham?
Greenhill: Are we agreed?
Tell the others to get walking.
We need to keep moving.
Are you sure you didn't
know she was my mother?
We'll die out here Pearce.
Christ knows where
Greenhill's taking us.
We're sure to reach the settled
districts before long.
We'll never make it.
I'm going back.
We have to keep moving.
What about a song, William?
Fire in my belly.
I'm so hungry I could eat my own arse.
Sorry I am, William.
Rest yourself.
God be with you.
Bodenham: Fuck! Fuck!
You fuck...
Keep quiet!
Kennerly: You animal!
You filthy English scum!
- Goddamn you to hell!
- Not one more fucking word!
Travers: We have to bleed him.
We can't eat him if we don't.
- Bodenham: Eat him?
- Travers: Pearce, come here.
Mathers, grab his legs.
Travers: Grab his legs.
Mathers: Fuck!
Travers: Tie his legs.
Tie his legs over there.
Over there.
Will you not eat?
Kennerly: Never.
Travers: They won't eat.
Greenhill: Then they die.
Eight days to get here.
At least 10 to get back.
Is there a man here
who thinks he could live without food
for another 10 days?
God forgive you Alexander.
A man with no blood on his hands
is no man.
Stay with me. We're leaving.
Mathers: What?
Oh, Christ, they've gone!
- Settle down.
- They've gone!
- What are you saying?
- They've gone, they've gone!
They've gone!
William Kennerly and Little Brown.
They've gone.
Well, are we after them?
If they make it back, we're as good
as hanged. Let's go after them.
They'll be dead in two days.
Bodenham: Come back!
Come back!
Kennerly!
Little Brown! William Kennerly!
William Kennerly, come back!
William Kennerly!
Little Brown!
This could have been me.
I was sleeping right next to him.
No. No, it couldn't.
It's a river for the angry
that one.
No fucking way!
He's right. We won't make it.
Look at the bloody thing!
We cross here.
You're mad, the lot of you.
We have to cross.
Travers: I can't swim.
Mathers: Neither can Bodenham.
Greenhill: You swim fine.
Mathers: Not in that.
Greenhill: Here, stop here.
Pearce: Will you light the fire, lad?
You light it?
Mathers: Bodenham.
Bodenham.
You didn't need to do that.
He was just a kid.
We have plenty of food.
We rest tomorrow.
Agreed?
We'll need more wood.
Mathers holds to his true heart.
but the flesh of Dalton
rots his teeth.
Easier than cutting sheep.
Oh, Jesus fucking Christ!
At last Dalton can rest in peace.
Mathers: Aargh!
Where are you now?
Here.
By this tree, on this rock,
in this rain.
Greenhill: Pearce, hand me your axe.
Hand me your axe!
We need the kindling.
No way.
- Carry it.
- I'm not carrying it.
Yes, you fucking are.
Give me the axe and I'll carry the bag.
Suit yourself.
Four Godless men
walk to the Devil.
We have to get away
from Greenhill and Travers.
If we don't, one of us will be
served as the others before long.
I wouldn't be surprised if that was
their plan from the beginning.
To come out here without food
is madness.
Greenhill ain't mad.
He's a cunning fuck.
We have to get away.
You hear what I'm saying?
I'm leaving.
Are you with me or with them?
You. I'm with you.
We leave in the dark of morning.
Travers: Just drink it.
Mathers: To brew the strength
from the leaves needs time.
You've gone mad.
Pearce: Smells rotten.
Soup. For the hunger.
Arggh!
Stay back, wife! Or I'll kill him dead!
Oh, Christ, my head.
Pearce.
I'll sit for the night.
If either of you come near me,
I will use the axe.
I'm OK. Just...thirsty.
We need to leave them behind.
Have to keep an eye on them, Pearce.
He's a taste for blood, that one.
As soon as we lose sight of them...
..that's when we make our move.
Pearce.
You miserable fuck.
- Fucking kill this cunt!
- Travers: I can't.
- I fucking can't.
- Do it!
Mathers: Born to whores and nothing!
I've no fear of you - not one!
I'll eat your fucking souls!
Dalton: Cooee!
No, Pearce.
You're not dead yet.
Travers: I have the hunger
on me now, Robert.
Do you feel it, Pearce?
Do you feel the hunger?
I've not the need.
How are you doing? Hungry, Pearce?
I preferred Dalton to the rest.
Tender, like lamb.
Mathers gave me the wind of December.
Fitting, as the mad cunt never shut up.
- And Bodenham...
- Quiet your fucking mouth.
Travers: You've a hungry look
on you, Pearce.
You're in need of eating.
Pearce.
Pearce.
Pearce. Pearce.
Pearce.
Pearce!
Pearce.
Arggh! Arggh! Robert! Fucking thing.
Where is it? Fucking snake.
Greenhill: Where is it? Hey.
Fucking...get the fucker!
- Ugh!
- Shh.
Oh, fuck, Robert.
You'll be fine. You'll be fine.
Come on.
Shh.
Come on. Come on.
- Come here. Come here.
Come on.
Do you feel it now Travers?
Do you still feel the hunger?
Leave me. I won't make it.
Go on without me, Robert.
I don't like the way
that he looks at me.
Greenhill: # Well met,
well met, my own true love
# "Well met, well met," cried she
# I've just returned
from the salt, salt sea
# And it's all for the love of thee
# I could have married
the King's daughter there
# She would have married me
# I've forsaken the crown of gold
# All for the love of thee
# All for the...
Greenhill: Shh.
I'm here.
- Travers: Oh, no.
- Greenhill: Shh.
Pearce: He'll not make it.
# All for the love of thee...
Travers: No, no! No!
You'll be taking
your leaving of me now, Robert.
There's nothing to a piece of man.
Travers: You'll make it without me.
Please, Robert. I'm so tired.
I'm so tired.
I need sleep.
You can't...
Wait. Don't.
Please, Robert. Please!
No.
You'll make it without me.
I need sleep.
You can't... Wait.
Don't! Please, Robert.
Please!
Robert...
No.
Don't touch me.
Pearce is going to...
Pearce... Pearce is going to...
Keep him away from me.
- Shh.
- Don't leave me.
Shh. Shh.
Your soul to the Devil.
Travers: Please...don't...
Let God have his Heaven.
I am blood.
Where now?
Have you...
Have you ever thought at it, Alex?
This thing...
This thing that's...
It grows fat on itself. This is...
It's...burning alive, Alex.
We're burning alive.
Logs for the fire.
Just logs for the fire, Alex.
You don't fucking say much,
do you, Pearce?
What brought you here?
Shoes.
Six pairs of shoes.
We have to keep moving.
We're close.
Dalton: Cooeeee!
Hard of sleep, Robert?
Aye.
Get on with it.
Arggh!
Pearce: So beautiful.
How can it be so beautiful?
I've looked up at God looking down.
He dances with an axe in his hand.