Joe

Hey, old man, you look at me.

I got something to say to you.

Every time we land someplace new,

you say it's gonna be different, but it ain't.

You mess up a lot, then you leave a mess

for me and Mama and Dorothy to clean up

and that ain't right. That's all I'm saying.

Hell, I do what I gotta do.

You do whatever the hell you want,

whatever you can get away with.

You're just a selfish old drunk.

Yeah, that's what you is.

This place is gonna be after us.

Hell, they'll be on you,

and they're gonna beat your ass.

And I hate to see you go down.

I know you're my daddy.

You know you sure are, ain't you?

I'm talking at you.

What you done this time,

they'll beat your ass to shit.

That's what they're gonna do.

You can count on it.

( man on radio speaking )

Man on radio: ...service but was looking

and it looked as if close to three inches of rain fell

with a little thunderstorm complex--

Round 'em up, Junior.

- Yo, it ain't lunchtime yet. - Round 'em up.

Junior: Let's pack up the gear, guys.

Let's get out of here!

One at a time, one at a time.

- Hey, hey, hey-- one at a time. - I'm trying to get situated.

- Go, go, go. - ( men shouting )

Why y'all moving so slow? Looks like y'all goddamn turtles out there.

It's getting rained on!

Junior: Damn, Joe, when you gonna get that new truck, Joe?

- What's wrong with this one? - ( laughing )

It's raggedy. You can't tell what's wrong with it?

- You don't know? - Yeah--

- think I'd get another one. - Damn right.

Let me get a cigarette.

I'm gonna have to start taking this out of your pay.

All right, then.

See you tomorrow if the sun comes up.

Junior: I'll holler at you in the morning. Let me know.

All right.

Which jersey now? Pittsburgh yellow?

Junior: All right!

TV weatherman: You can see the moisture moving northward

out of Mexico and also out into the Gulf of Mexico,

meeting up with this frontal system,

which is slowly being-- been sagging southward.

As we look at temperatures with the cloud cover,

not as hot as what we've been seeing,

but the cool-down isn't related to Canadian air.

Here's some Canadian air over the northeastern part of the country.

Very high dew points.

This represents a whole lot of moisture available to us

and to those tall clouds producing the heavy rains.

So the showers and thunderstorms during tonight...

- Morning, Junior. - Morning, Joe.

Shit, Joe. If it's gonna rain, call me. I'll show up.

What about Shorty? He get drunk last night?

- Shorty almost got arrested last night. - What? He what?

- Hell, yeah. - ( laughing )

All right. Yeah, I'll be up at Coleman's in 30 minutes.

- Y'all be ready. - Bye-bye!

Ooh, Shorty, that was a rough night last night.

Almost didn't make it to work this morning, boy.

- I heard some stories. - You'd be surprised.

Drinking and trying to touch this lady on the butt.

Junior: Here's Joe, y'all. Here's Joe.

Man #2: Come on, Joe, help a brother out, now.

- Good morning, Joe. - Morning.

Y'all come go with me.

- All right. - Don't know why, either.

Don't make no sense, though, you know?

- Morning, John. - Hello, Joe.

- You want some coffee? - No, I can get it.

It ain't cold, is it? It was cold yesterday.

John: Now let's see, you're Bill, right?

I'm Shorty, he's Bill.

- Where's Sammy today? - Sammy gone fishing, Joe.

Hell, Sammy told me you fired him.

I fired his ass three times already.

You tell Sammy I'm gonna fire him for good

if he don't start helping me out some.

- Y'all want some coffee? - Shorty: Yeah, sure, man.

- See that ball game last night? - Yeah.

Them boys played one hell of a game.

- Junior: Shorty, you want some of these wieners? - I'm good.

Shorty, if you had one like this, you'd be a bad boy, God damn.

Uh-huh, whatever. You got one of these right here.

- ( laughter ) - That's a shriveled Slim Jim.

Junior: Act like you ain't got nothing to do today.

Y'all gonna quit pussyfooting around me today.

Man: You gonna get some work out of me, Junior.

All right, you're gonna take the east side over here.

Take the east side over there.

I want you to take the west side over here today, all right?

Why you looking at me like you retarded?

Get that thing on and go with him.

- Shorty, you all right today? - Yeah, I'm good, man.

Feeling pretty good? You look like a goddamn Ghostbuster today.

You all right? You gonna fight like one today?

- You gonna work like one? - I work well, my man.

- Huh? - I'm good.

- All right, don't trip on it. - Yeah.

Huh? Yeah, you're gonna go bust a move on me today, Shorty.

Yeah, bust them trees.

A snake!

Better watch it there, man.

I don't know. That cottonmouth's pretty big.

- ( laughter ) - Look here.

Look at that. Don't know how big he is.

- Watch it there! - Watch it, watch it!

- Watch it! - Ooh!

- ( hissing ) - Hey, Junior.

Whoo-hoo, that's a big one now!

- He can be known as the snake god. - ( laughter )

Junior: Joe, you got nuts of a bear, Joe.

That's what that woman told me last night--

"I need another snake." I've seen one today.

Joe: Yeah.

Junior: That's what that fat woman said.

Man: We got company.

Let me see that snake.

- Ain't he a nice one? - Mm.

See those fangs?

You get bit by those, you're gonna die.

You're gonna wanna die.

Y'all don't kill it. It's my friend.

- Whoa! - Damn!

Junior: Almost throwed it over by me!

Get back to work, y'all. The show is over with.

- I heard you screaming. - I wasn't scared. I just move fast.

Whatever.

What y'all doing? Y'all cutting these trees?

We're killing trees.

What for?

Nedermeyer land.

The owner hires us to get rid of what's on it

so they can come in and put strong pines on it.

Nobody wants these trees. These trees are weak.

They're not good for anything.

These boys will sit down if I don't stay on their asses.

- Hey, mister. - Yeah?

I got a question for you.

You see, me and my daddy just got into town.

I was wondering if you'd give us a job.

- We're looking for work. - ( coughing )

- How old are you? - 15.

Well, you got 45 seconds to tell me why I should hire you.

I baled hay before, I worked on a truck.

I picked tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers.

Uh, okra. Squash.

All right. You're not afraid of work. Good.

- What's your name? - Gary Jones.

I'm Joe.

I pay a day's pay for a day's work.

I pay on Fridays, so you get a little something today.

- Okay. - But your first real payday is next Friday.

We start about 6:00 in the morning,

quit at 1:00 or 2:00.

And if we work till dinner or get rained out, I pay for the whole day.

- Does that sound fair enough? - Yes, sir.

All right. Follow this line of trees--

- Yes, sir. - Close to a half mile back to my truck.

- Juice hatchets are in the back. - Yes, sir.

You get yourself one, fill it up with poison,

come on back same way you went out.

- Yes, sir. - And don't get lost.

- I won't. - Hey!

Don't you want to know how much you're getting paid?

- How you doing? - Good.

Doing all right? You ready to work today?

- Yes, sir. - I'm Junior.

- Gary. - Well, Gary, I'm gonna be over you today.

Raise your right hand. You're gonna have to swear you're gonna work hard for me.

Not that hand, your right hand. Your other right.

Your right hand. There you go.

Put your hand up. You got to swear on something.

Now you on the all-star team.

- You promise to work hard? - Yes, sir.

I don't know why Joe chose you. You must be a good man.

First thing we do is fill these containers up,

so we just gonna put it in there like that.

Once we get it filled up real good, then we on.

- What's in the poison? - Shit.

Shorty's grandmas make this in they basement.

I don't know what's in it, but we ain't gonna worry about it.

I know it works real good.

You thought that was easy pumping that thing, didn't you?

I made it look easy 'cause I'm a man.

You're a little boy-- you got to figure it out. You see what I'm saying?

There you go. See how you figured that out?