Sunset Song

Say...

"Oo, oo, oo, butin."

: Oo, oo, oo, butin.

No.

Put your mouths as if you were about to whistle.

But don't do it.

Say...

"Oo, oo, oo, butin."

: Oo, oo, oo, butin.

Mrs Hemans, is there one pupil who is in any way proficient in the French language?

Chris Guthrie is one of my best...

especially in Latin.

Let her stand up.

Say...

"Oo, oo, oo, butin."

Oo, oo, oo, butin.

Oh.

I hope your Latin is as good.

Is your father really a socialist?

Yeah.

Chae says that all should be equal -

rich and poor, men and women.

He wants me to learn so I'll be ready for the revolution.

And if it doesn't come?

Well, I'll train to be a doctor and cut the bodies of the paupers.

You better take care you don't die a pauper, Chris.

I'd hate to be standing there with the scalpel in my hand

and looking into your queer dead face and crying,

"But this is Chris Guthrie!"

Marget Strachan!

Oh, but Aberdeen?

Well, it's the best place for a scholar and I'll be trained all the sooner.

Oh, Chrissie, Chrissie, only fools love being alive!

Men, women - what fools they are below their clothes.

There are lovely things in the world -

lovely that don't endure, and the lovelier for that.

Wait till you find yourself in the arms of your lad at the harvest time.

He'll stop joking, and he'll take you like this.

There's not a body to see us! And hold you like this, with his hands held so,

and kiss you like this.

Mwah!

"And when the First Reformation came,"

some folk cried, 'Whiggam, '

and some cried, 'Rome, '

and some cried, 'The King.'

Then Dutch William came and the Kinraddies were all for the Covenant.

But then it was an ill time for the Scottish gentry,

for the poison of the French Revolution came over the seas

and the new Laird of Kinraddie became a Jacobin

"and joined the Jacobin Club in Aberdeen."

Oh, there's no land like Aberdeen.

Or folks so fine that bide there.

Oh, Chris, my lass, there's more to life than your books or studies.

There's the countryside your own...

you, its.

In the days when you're neither bairn nor woman.

Peace, Jean, peace.

She'll do us credit.

Go on, Chris, read us more.

"And there at Aberdeen, he was nearly killed in rioting for liberty,

and equality and fraternity."

Equality should begin at home.

Yes, she sat for her bursary...

and got it.

But two Chrisses there were...

that fought for her heart.

She hated the land and the coarse speak of the folk.

And learning was brave and fine one day,

and the next she'd waken,

with the peewits crying across the hills...

deep and deep,

crying in the heart of her.

And the smell of the earth in her face almost made her cry...

for the beauty of it and the sweetness of the Scottish land and skies.

And the next minute that passed from her and she was English,

back to the English words, so sharp and clean and true.

For a while, for a while, till they slid so smoothly from her throat.

She knew that they could never say anything worth the saying at all.

Amo, amas.

I love a lass.

- Clever enough to be a teacher. - (HORSE SNICKERS)

Aye.

Clever enough.

Move over...

Jehovah.

If I ever hear you take the name of the Lord thy God in vain again,

I'll libb you.

I'll libb you like a lamb.

I hate him.

Oh, Will.

I hate him.

Jean.

Four in a family's fine.

Fine?

There'll be no more.

We'll have what God in his mercy sends to us, woman.

See you to that!

I hate him.

It was her hair.

Her bonny, bonny hair.

Man, it's a fair tough case!

- I'll need your help! - (JEAN SCREAMS)

You, get the doctor an egg for his breakfast now.

Guthrie, man, do you hear me?

I'm not deaf!

She's far too old for that.

She shouldnae be having another baby.

It's him.

- (MOANING AND WAILING) - It's the beast.

But don't worry.

His friend Jehovah will see to it all.

Hot water, jugs of it.

Pour me a basin of water, Chris, and put plenty of soap nearby it.

- (SCREAMING CONTINUES) - Do you hear me?

Aye, Doctor! Only, she's feared.

She'll have a damned sight more to fear when she's having a bairn of her own!

Pour out that water, quick!

It's twins.

We'll need more rooms.

More rooms?

Are we joining the gentry, Jean?

Well...

we're to bide here, then?

Content yourself.

I'll find a place.

Halt!

Get down, you brat!

We'd better loosen up at Portlethen and not try the slug this night.

Damn it to hell, woman, you think I'm made of silver?

I know we're not made of silver, but we might all die of the night.

So that was how she came to Blawearie...

Oh, Kinraddie.

God, you've stripped!

You'd make a fine lad, Chris.

Get out of there at once, you shameful limmer!

Get your clothes on!

What can folks say if they see her out here near naked?

If your neighbours haven't seen a naked lass,

they must have fathered their own bairns with their breeks on.

What's this I'm hearing about you and some bitch from Drumlithie?

Aye, she's not a virgin either!

Right.

I'm off to the mart at Laurencekirk.

No other soul must handle the gun but Father.

Aye.

You and your guns.

What harm was in Will that he used it?

You'll come out to the barn with me.

- Father, you can't. - Hold your tongue.

Or I'll be taking you out as well.

: Shh, shh, shh.

Shh, shh, shh.

There are lovely things in the world.

Lovely that do not endure...

and are lovelier for that.

Well, you'll be my neighbour, Guthrie, man.