Inherit the Wind

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

Good morning, visitors.

For our science lesson for today,

we will continue our discussion of Darwin's theory of the descent of man.

Darwin's theory tells us that man evolved from a lower order of animals.

From the first Wiggly protozoa here in the sea, to the ape, and finally to man.

Some of you are probably gonna say that's why some of us act like monkeys.

But what Mr. Charles Darwin was trying to tell us...

Bertram T Cates?

Come off it, Sam. You've known me all my life.

Bert, you're charged with violation of public act 31428,

volume 37, statute number 31428 of the state code,

which makes it unlawful for any public school teacher

to teach any theory that denies the creation of man as taught in the Bible

and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.

Bertram Cates, I hereby place you under arrest.

Monkey trial! Here's another one. "Monkey Shines In Hillsboro."

The whole world's laughing at us. Look. From Chicago.

"Heavenly Hillsboro. Does it have a hole in its head or its head in a hole?"

I'm telling you we've gone too far.

Let 'em laugh. We fighting the Lord's battle, ain't we?

I'd rather have a heathen laughing at me than have my sons laughing at my Bible.

They mocked the Lord too.

They smote him and spat upon him and he turned his other cheek.

Reverend, we don't want to smite 'em back. We just want to make 'em stop.

Tom, you're a prosecuting attorney. What can we do?

In view of my position, I hardly think it ethical to express my opinion.

You'd better go back to law school.

What do we care what a bunch of foreigners and city slickers think?

- Ever had a Frenchman at your hotel? - You're missing...

How long since you sold a pound of grits to some smart aleck from New York?

Heaven has chosen us to light the road back to the shepherd, back to the fold.

- We're not sheep. - I'd rather be a sheep than a Judas goat!

Wait a minute. Wait a minute.

As mayor, I stand to uphold the laws of this community,

no matter how it may affect my political future.

Now, I shall just ignore these slanders, like water off a duck's back.

You only got two months more as mayor and you shouldn't have been elected.

You've been a lousy mayor!

My friends, as you all know, I deal with figures:

Accounts, cheques, balances.

My bank operates on the principle of practical reality and so do I.

Are you aware that the great big universities throughout the country

will consider student applicants from our state ineligible because of this law?

I don't know whose idea it was to hang up a shingle spelling "horse and buggy",

but, as for me, I won't invest in antiquity.

I want my bank holding credit with New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois.

And I may want my son to go to Yale.

Now, I believe, just as much as anyone in this room,

in a basic fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible.

But we can't close our eyes to all progress, everything which represents...

Wait a minute. Wait a minute!

"Matthew Harrison Brady volunteers to prosecute in monkey trial."

Matthew Harrison Brady.

- The Lord has sent us his right hand. - And I'll be working with him.

They'll pour out of the hills. This town will fill up like a rain barrel in a flood.

It'll be bigger than the chautauqua at Chattanooga.

People will have to have someplace to stay.

And they gotta eat.

This will put Hillsboro on the map of this country.

Let us give thanks to the Lord. Let us pray.

You better start praying, son.

Imagine, Matthew Harrison Brady coming here.

I voted for him for president. Twice.

Once in 1900 and again in '08.

I wasn't old enough to vote for him the first time he run, but my pa did.

I seen him once. At a chautauqua meeting in Chattanooga.

When he spoke, the tent poles shook.

- Who's gonna be your lawyer? - I don't know yet.

I wrote to that newspaper in Baltimore. They're sending somebody.

Well, he'd better be loud.

Ah.

Probably one of those newspaper reporters. You're a popular fella.

- Yeah. - Oh, Bert.

You don't mind, do you? Just for the looks of it. Can't tell who it might be.

Sure. Don't worry about it, Mort.

All right.

- Who is it? - Mort?

Rachel! Come on in.

Ah, you got a present for Bert, huh?

Mort, don't let my father know I came here.

The Reverend don't tell me his business. I don't see why I should tell him mine.

- Is Bert all right? - Of course he's...

The safest place in the world's in a jail.

Come on in. Come on.

Tell them you're sorry.

Tell them it was all a mistake. Please te...

Tell them if they let my body out of jail I'd lock up my mind?

Could you stand that, Rachel?

- At least we'd be together. - It wouldn't be the...

It wouldn't be the same.

Rachel.

Do you remember those warm dark nights down by the river bank?

Just watching the water.

Wondering about the miracle of it.

Wondering what the stars were for.

What's on the other side of the moon.

There'd be no more of that, Rach.

- We could still have that. - No, we couldn't.

That'd be in the locked-off part. For both of us.

Well!

So this is where the fate of learning will be decided for the next 10,000 years.

O tempora, o mores.

Well, I see we have both beauty and biology on our side.

- Who are you? - This your writing?

- Yes. - This is mine.

Hornbeck. EK Hornbeck. Baltimore Herald.

- I've been waiting to hear from you. - Read it.

My typewriter's been singing a sweet sad song about the Hillsboro heretic.

Latter-day Dreyfus, Romeo with a biology book.

Want a bite?

Don't worry, I'm not the serpent. This isn't from the tree of knowledge.

Oh, no. You won't find one growing in heavenly Hillsboro.

A few ignorance bushes, perhaps, but no tree of knowledge.

Ask Adam.

You make me sound like a martyr.

You could be. Martyrs always have a point to prove and so do you.

But you haven't won your halo yet.

That won't come until after they've tossed you into the arena with the lion.

- You mean Brady? - I don't want Bert to be a martyr.

- What are you trying to prove? - I'm not trying to prove anything.

All I wanna do is teach my students that man wasn't planted here like a geranium.

That life comes from a long miracle, it didn't take seven days.

But it's against the law. A schoolteacher's a public servant.

He should do what the law and the school board want him to.

Has the accused anything to say in his defence?

If not, I sentence you to life as a public servant,

a silent butler in the service of your school board.

Wastebaskets for ideas on sale in the outer lobby.

I don't see anything funny in this, Mr. Hornbeck.

- Objection sustained. Neither do I. - Then why don't you leave us alone?

You newspaper people have stirred up enough trouble for Bert.

What do you want anyway?

I came to tell boy Socrates here

that the Baltimore Herald is opposed to hemlock and will provide a lawyer.

- Who? - Who? I don't know yet.

What's the difference? A new lawyer with old tricks, an old lawyer with new tricks.

Wake up, Copernicus. The law's still on the side of the lawmakers,

and everything revolves around their terra firma.

Then why bother, you and your newspaper?

Because I know that the sunrise is an optical illusion.

My teacher told me so.

You don't seem like the kind who'd want to bother. You seem so...

Cynical. True, true. That's part of my fascination.

I do hateful things for which people love me,

and I do lovable things for which they hate me.

I'm admired for my detestability.

Now, don't worry, little Eva.

I may be rancid butter, but I'm on your side of the bread.