"You just remembered." "SHE SNIFFLES" "No matter how miserable life is, there are always a few seconds of bliss - those few seconds between the waking up and the remembering." "Yeah?" "~ Yes." "~ Yeah." "Company!" "Advance!" "BUGLE PLAYS" "March!" "Left!" "Left!" "Left!" "Right!" "Left!" "Left!" "Left!" "Come on!" "Come on, you bone idle bastards!" "It is time to do an honest day's work for once in your lives." "An honest day's work - it will not hurt you." "So get out of your filthy bunks, you bone idle bastards, before I drag you out." "~ I have to..." "~ No." "There are fires to light, food..." "YOU do not have to do anything any more." "I must." "Not today, though." "Will you live with me?" "Here?" "Yes." "CHATTER" "When I shout, "Turn", you turn your back on the hanging." "We will turn our backs on the hanging." "It is I who will shout "Turn"." "Really?" "I... heard you." "You and him." "Better that than talk, you said." "Will you take me to the tent?" "Why?" "To get my bits and pieces." "Why?" "Major Ross wants me to live with him." "You expect me to just watch you leaving?" "They will not let me in without a soldier." "Come." "How long are you here for, Anne?" "14 years." "A long time." "It is better than the alternative." "The alternative?" "The noose." "You?" "Two years..." "Assuming the church is built and a new vicar arrives." "I will miss our..." "What do you call them?" "Sessions?" "Sessions." "Spirits are not bound by geography." "You WILL be able to speak to them in England." "~ Then I would need somebody like you." "~ Yes." "~ Will I find somebody like you?" "~ Perhaps." "Perhaps not." "Perhaps not." "Unless..." "Yes?" ".. you take me with you." "Would that be allowed?" "Why not?" "You and your husband have done good work here." "The governor owes you a favour." "We could talk to your children the whole way home." "I will talk to Captain Collins to see if it is possible." "~ It is no use getting excited, if it is not at all possible." "~ Of course not." "But we will see." "APPROACHING FOOTSTEPS" "Governor?" "Yes?" "Is everything...?" "~ No." "~ They plan to turn their backs." "Forgive this interruption, they plan to turn their backs on the hanging." "That must not happen." "I suggest we hang Barrett from a tree, here and now." "No pomp, no ceremony." "No huge audience." "We hang him, we leave him there." "In time, all will see it and know that this is what happens when you strike a soldier." "Barrett deserves better." "Barrett?" "To bring them all together, as one, allows them to act as one, to demonstrate their strength when they act as one." "Why give them that opportunity?" "So we can never bring them together?" "A hanging, a flogging, the king's birthday?" "No." "This gives us an opportunity too, to show that even when they act together, as one, they fail." "~ Assuming they fail." "~ They will fail." "Sir." "The quartermaster has just been here." "~ We have lost even more of our grain." "~ How much?" "We have about a quarter of what we started with." "We will have to cut the ration again?" "Yes." "But I will announce it AFTER their rebellion has failed." "That way, I can tell them it is punishment, rather than necessity." "Sir." "All the convicts to assemble, sir, or just the men?" "All." "Will you marry me?" "He cannot ask you because he HAS a fiancee waiting back home." "I know." "A highfalutin fiancee." "Posh." "Imagine you turning up at her house." "He would cringe, smuggle you around the back, and have a servant to take you away." "And what would they say to him when you were gone?" ""You were a soldier far from home," ""so, of course, you found something to fuck, but really, Major," ""what possessed the little slut to turn up here?"" "Marry me." "I offer you a lifetime together." "He offers you a few months in New South Wales before getting back on the ship and heads home, never giving you a second thought." "Would you really turn me down for that?" "~ I must." "~ I will have you on any terms." "I will have you on the terms that he once had you - no sex, just come to me and talk to me and..." "HE GROANS" "I will win you back because I love you more than he." "I will win you back or I will die in the attempt." "FOOTSTEPS APPROACH" "Go." "You do not have to attend Barrett's hanging." "No, I have to attend." "If I get special treatment because I am your woman, they will all shun me." "There might be rebellion." "I-I might have to act ruthlessly." "If so, I want you to remember, it is my duty to act ruthlessly... .. not my nature." "Of course." "DOOR OPENS" "You have asked to see me?" "Yes, yes, er..." "When I am hanged, Elizabeth will no longer be married." "Soldiers will try to claim her." "Yes?" "I want her to marry James, as soon as I am buried." "Would that be possible?" "~ Does she want to marry him?" "~ Yes." "And do you want to marry her?" "What man would not?" "I will talk to the governor." "Thank you." "We are good friends." "He is finding it hard." "I am sure." "What did you do to end up here?" "I have done bad things in my life, Captain Collins, things which may well have led me here, to the scaffold even..." ".. but I never did what it says I did in my file." "Do you believe me?" "Yes." "Goodbye." "Goodbye." "SOLDIERS SHOUT IN BACKGROUND" "Good morning, Captain." "Good morning, Mrs Johnson." "How are you?" "~ Fine." "You?" "~ Fine, thank you." "~ Can I help you?" "~ Yes." "There is a rule, is there not, that a convict who performs exceptional service might be allowed to return home?" "Yes." "~ How would one go about that?" "~ Do you have a convict in mind?" "Yes." "Anne Meredith." "~ Anne Meredith?" "~ Yes." "Er, well, you would... need to tell me the nature of this exceptional service." "Well, that is a problem because it is... personal." "I see." "I was hoping you would take my word for it, that the service she did me was truly exceptional." "I am sure." "Would she travel back with you?" "Yes." "Would she stay with you in England?" "I would have to talk to my husband about that, but, perhaps, yes." "Will you leave it with me, Mrs Johnson?" "~ You will pursue it?" "~ Yes, I will certainly pursue it." "Thank you." "You are welcome." "'Did they not think of sending a Catholic priest as well?" "'" "~ No." "~ I want to confess... you see, and it is hard to confess to a man who does not believe in confessing." "I believe in talking... in telling the truth, and doing so in the strictest confidence." "My plan was to confess, to get all those black marks off my soul, then drown myself and go straight to heaven." "The trouble with that is the drowning." "Suicide would leave the blackest mark of all, so I would still be damned." "~ Yes." "~ Which means I have to hang Tommy." "Yes." "~ Unless..." "~ Yes?" ".. you get Tommy off." "I tried." "I failed." "Try again." "Hello." "Is Private Buckley here?" "I am Private Buckley." "But the damage to your face is so great that I..." "It was a joke." "Forgive me for not splitting my sides." "Of course." "You are here alone?" "Confined to barracks." "I have come to ask you to forgive Barrett and to beg for mercy on his behalf." "~ Another joke?" "~ No." "What would you want in return?" "A woman." "That is not in my gift." "I have, in the past, recommended certain men to certain women, but in your case I could not." "I would have to say to her, "Meet Private Buckley..." ""He took advantage of Tommy Barrett's wife" ""and then told Tommy Barrett all about it." ""And when Tommy Barrett attacked, he failed to land a single blow..." ""but took revenge by gloating from the side," ""while Tommy Barrett hanged."" "Not a glowing reference... .. I agree." "But... what if I could say," ""Meet Private Buckley, who had every reason to want Tommy Barrett dead" ""but, instead, forgave him and begged the governor to show mercy on him." ""Truly, there is no more Christian man in the whole of New South Wales."" "A woman would warm to you then." "Hmm?" "Even you might like yourself a little." "How would I go about it?" "I would pass on your request to the governor." "~ In private?" "~ Hmm." "Yes." "He might refuse it." "He is more than likely to refuse it." "~ Yes." "~ In which case, no-one would know." "My.... magnanimity..." ".. my Christianity... would do me no good at all." "You wish to see me, sir?" "Yes." "Have you ever used a pistol?" "~ Yes, sir." "~ In anger?" "No, sir." "Could you look a man in the eye and shoot him dead with it?" "~ I think so, sir." "~ You think so?" "Yes, sir." "I cannot KNOW it, sir." "I will only know it... when I have done it, sir." "There have been times when you have wanted to shoot me." "No, sir." "This conversation is forgotten as soon as it has finished." "There have been times when you have wanted to shoot me." "~ Yes, sir." "~ But you lacked the stomach." "~ No, sir." "I am a marine." "You are my commanding officer." "That is why I could not do it." "That is the only reason, sir." "Take it." "Sir." "You will bring it to general assembly." "Leave behind your musket." "Sir." "Dismissed." "Sir!" "Boss?" "Do you want me, boss?" "Yes." "You have been learning to read and write, Anne." "Yes." "And yet you signed your own transportation?" "~ I got someone to sign it for me." "~ Who?" "My brother." "~ Back home in England?" "~ Yes." "Is there something wrong, Reverend?" "The necklace." "My mother's." "~ Is it worth anything?" "~ Only to me." "You gave it to the ship's purser for safekeeping?" "Yes." "And when we landed here, he returned it to you, yes?" "~ Yes." "~ You signed for it, Anne." "And the signature is the same as on the transportation, yes?" "(Yes.)" "You wanted to see me, Captain?" "I am so, so sorry, Mrs Johnson." "What is it?" "This woman can read and write." "What?" "!" "Why did you pretend that you could not?" "~ (To get close to your wife.) ~ Exactly." "~ To ease her pain." "~ To win her confidence." "No!" "What did you do when you were alone together?" "You told Captain Collins that she had performed" ""exceptional service" for you." "~ Yes." "~ What was it?" "What was this "exceptional service"?" "(I spoke to our children.)" "HE SCOFFS" "~ I know what you are thinking." "~ Did we not speak about this?" "You think that this woman has duped me, but she has not..." "To take part in a pagan ritual is bad enough, but to be duped into" "~ doing it, to be exploited, used, abused by a woman such as this." "~ She did not abuse me." "Will you tell my wife why you are here, Anne?" "What you did in England to merit punishment such as this?" "~ Shall I?" "~ No, please, Anne." "I stole two pounds, ten shillings and sixpence from the vicar of All Souls, Hackney." "From the vicar's wife!" "(From the vicar's wife.)" "~ To whom you told a pack of lies." "~ I did not lie to you, Mrs Johnson." "You gained the trust of the vicar's wife by telling her a pack of lies." "~ Yes?" "~ Yes." "But I did not lie to you." "SHE SOBS" "SHE CONTINUES SOBBING" "ANNE SOBS" "~ May I go after your wife?" "~ No." "You pick on vicars and their wives because they turn the other cheek." "Well, not this time, Anne." "You have exploited the woman that I love most in this world and for that I will have you flogged." "I have exploited no-one." "I told your wife what I believed and it brought her comfort." "What you believe brings her nothing but sorrow." "HOW DARE YOU COMPARE YOUR FAITH WITH MINE!" "Why not?" "The only difference is you do better out of yours." "Mine got me two pounds, ten shillings and sixpence, and a noose around my neck." "Yours puts food in your belly, clothes on your back and a roof over your head!" "Now, if you will not go after the woman you say you love, you bloody hypocrite, I will." "(To HELL with you!" ")" "I am praying for you." "~ Thank you." "~ We all must pray for you." "No Christian should judge another, I know, but your soul must be as black as the hobs of hell!" "~ I did not lie to you." "~ Oh!" "You want me to stay away..." "I shall." "But when you have had your baby, I will approach you again." "Whether that is in London, or here in New South Wales, I will approach you and I will say, "See, Mrs Johnson..." "".." "I told you I did not lie."" "Your husband wants me flogged." "When you yourself have been wronged... .. forgiveness is easy." "But when the person you love has been wronged, it is much harder." "I will talk to him." "He will turn the other cheek." "May I ask a favour?" "Yes." "Will you keep quiet about all this?" "Yes." "That is not a condition." "Forgiveness and mercy do not come with strings attached." "I feel..." "I feel rather naked right now." "I promise I will not say a word." "Thank you." "'We all know why you are hanging him." "'You are doing it to maintain law and order." "'If convicts can strike soldiers, where does that leave law and order?" "'But what good is law and order without justice?" "'" "If you hang Tommy Barrett... you shit on justice." "And if you shit on justice, can we not shit on your law and order?" "~ That is what they are saying, boss." "~ What else are they saying?" ""Does he think the soldiers control us because they have guns?"" ""No," they are saying, "the soldiers control us" ""because we let them control us." ""Ten convicts to every soldier - does he think they stand a chance" ""if we said, 'enough'?" ""Well, if he shits on justice, we might just say that."" ""Our rebellion." Who is saying this?" "Would you give me their names?" "Spragg would be one." "Spragg." "Yes, definitely Spragg." "I will be your informer." "I will grass on everyone and everything, if you just say," ""I need not hang Tommy Barrett."" "Informers are easy to find." "Hangmen are more difficult." "I am sorry." "Please..." "FREEMAN SIGHS" "You promised me rum." "Yes?" "May I have it now, please?" "When you have hanged him." "I cannot do it sober!" "You must." "Leave." "MUSIC BUILDS TO CRESCENDO" "BUGLE PLAYS" "ORDERS ARE SHOUTED" "Why does the king want me to dress like this?" "It is not so they will respect me - it is so I will despise them." "I, in my finery, they in their rags, I can treat 'em like rats." "Hang 'em, flog 'em, not give a damn." "I know you will do the right thing." "Hey, James, where have you been?" "Tommy wants us." "It is general assembly." "~ Yes." "~ They will be here soon." "We will not let them hang you." "~ Hold hands." "~ Why?" "Hold hands, woman." "Promise me you will marry her." "Promise me you will marry her." "I promise." "And you will always look after her." "I will always look after her, if she allows it." "Yeah." "And promise me you will have him." "There is no need to promise anything." "They will not hang you." "~ Promise me you will have him." "~ We will not let them hang you!" "Promise me." "I promise." "FREEMAN SOBS" "And I promise you that I will watch over you both." "I promise... that I will bring you a ship full of food." "And I promise you... .. you will survive." "DOOR OPENS" "~ Secure his hands and bring him out." "~ No!" "~ Sorry, Thomas Barrett, it is time to go." "~ No!" "~ Are you allowing this to happen?" "~ Pray with me, Elizabeth." "~ I will not pray with you." "~ Our father..." "~ "I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down,"" "declares the Sovereign Lord. "I will shepherd the flock with justice."" "That is the word of the Lord, vicar, "I will shepherd the flock with justice."" "Do you call this justice?" "Stop chanting your bloody prayer..." "Secure her hands!" "How dare you lay your hands on a man of God!" "A man of God?" "!" "He is no man of God." "I have shit better!" "Why are you praying, vicar?" "~ Our Father..." "~ Not for Tommy, but for you." "For yourself." "Lose yourself in prayer and you are deaf to the appeals for justice." "Lose yourself in prayer and you can ignore the fact that this, too, is a crucifixion." "~ You should be ashamed." "~ Give us this day, our daily bread..." "And you, Governor, you and your "Birth of a Nation"." "What kind of a nation?" "I am carrying this man's child." "Hang him and the first child born in New South Wales will have no father." "And what a father - brave, strong, true, principled - every virtue that a newborn nation will need." "~ Can you not see this?" "I..." "~ Enough!" "Elizabeth, the less he deserves to die, the better." "If Christ himself had struck a soldier, I would hang him, such is the enormity of the offence." "Without soldiers, Elizabeth, we die." "CHORAL MUSIC" "Tommy." "UPROAR" "Order, please." "Order." "UPROAR" "Order, please." "Order." "I am going to tell you something... about convicts." "I am going to tell you something about convicts, something that not one of you is prepared to admit." "It is this..." "You would sooner 100 soldiers in charge than 100 fellow convicts." "Do you think 100 convicts with guns would share out the food equally?" "No, they would kill you first." "You need these soldiers." "You need them to protect you from the natives, yes, but you also need them to protect you from each other..." "Turn!" "Turn and face the scaffold!" "A convict recently told me... .. that we govern you only with your consent." "That is true." "But to withhold consent is certain death." "To rebel is certain death." "Now turn and face the scaffold." "Turn and face the scaffold." "~ Major Ross." "~ Yes, sir." "Do whatever it takes to get every man and woman facing this scaffold." "Yes, sir!" "Spragg!" "Yes, boss!" "Raise your hand, identify yourself." "Here, Boss." "Keep your hand raised." "~ Corporal MacDonald." "~ Yes, sir." "Approach Mr Spragg." "Yes, sir." "Touch him." "Yes, sir." "Draw your pistol." "~ Yes, sir." "~ I will count to ten." "If, on the count of ten," "Spragg has not turned to face the scaffold, shoot him dead." "CROWD GASPS Yes, sir." "One, two... .. three... four, five... six... seven, eight..." ".. nine... ten!" "CROWD GASPS" "SPRAGG CROAKS" "Corporal MacDonald!" "~ Yes, sir." "~ Touch the next man on your right." "Yes, sir" "~ Reload." "~ Yes, sir." "SPRAGG GROANS" "NEXT MAN:" "Please..." "Reloaded, sir." "I will count to ten." "If, on the count of ten, your convict has not turned to face the scaffold, shoot him dead." "~ Yes, sir." "~ One... two, three... .. four... five, six... ~ Major Ross, sir!" "~ Yes?" "I am "Letters" Molloy, sir." "SPRAGG CHOKES" "~ Corporal MacDonald." "~ Yes, sir." "Move to the next man on your left." "Yes, sir." "~ Touch him." "~ Yes, sir." "I will count to ten." "If, on the count of ten, this man does not turn and face the scaffold, shoot him dead." "Yes, sir." "One, two, three... .. four... five, six... ~ Major Ross, sir!" "~ Yes!" "I am the blacksmith, sir." "SPRAGG CHOKES" "Major Ross, sir!" "Permission to put that man out of his misery, sir!" "Denied!" "I am essential to the running of this colony, sir!" "Eight... .. nine!" "HE GRUNTS" "I am essential." "I am indispensable!" "~ Corporal Macdonald." "~ Yes, sir." "Move to the next man on your left." "Touch him!" "~ Yes, sir." "~ I will count to ten." "If, on the count of ten, this man has not turned to face the scaffold," "~ shoot him dead." "~ Yes, sir." "One, two..." "SPRAGG CHOKES" "~ Corporal MacDonald." "~ Yes, sir." "Put that man out of his misery." "Yes, sir." "~ Reload." "~ Yes, sir." "Governor." "Thank you, Major." "I represent the king." "To turn your back on me is to turn your back on the king and that will not be allowed to happen." "Thomas Barrett... do you have any last words?" "No..." "Boss." "Will the hangman step forward, please?" "Major Ross, permission to speak, sir!" "Granted." "You can see what he did to me... in his vicious... and cowardly attack." "Nevertheless, I forgive this man." "And I ask you, the governor, to show this man mercy." "MURMURS FROM CROWD" "I, the victim, ask you, the governor, to show this man mercy." ""Merciful and gracious is the Lord, slow to anger" ""and abounding in kindness."" "ALL:" "Amen." "I thank you, Private Buckley... but Barrett is not being hanged for what he did to you - he is being hanged for what he did to the uniform, to the flag, to the king himself." "Will the hangman step forward now, please?" "Will the hangman step forward now, please?" "~ (What?" "No.) ~ Shame on you." "Traitor." "CHATTER" "Come up onto the scaffold." "Will you tell them why, Governor?" "Bind his ankles." "I am doing this upon pain of death!" "I had the hood over my head, the noose around my neck, and in the last second he offered me life!" "He offered me life!" "If I agreed to be the hangman... .. and I agreed." "As you all would have done." "I hang... .. or I am hanged." "Bind his ankles." "God gave you courage, Tommy... .. he gave me none... .. that is the ONLY difference between us." "Not courage, James... .. love." "I loved you too much to do this to you." "I loved you, Tommy... .. but I loved life more." "Do you think your life will be worth living now?" "They will all despise you." "They will all be looking for a chance to slit your throat." "Oh, the irony, James... when you end up hanging yourself." "Hood?" "No." "Reverend." "Have mercy upon this miserable offender, oh, Lord!" "We will be in paradise together, Tommy." "Me and you and eternity ahead of us." "I love you, Tommy." "Tommy Barrett, the bravest." "Tommy Barrett, the toughest." "Tommy Barrett, the strongest." "~ Tommy Barrett, the shrewdest." "~ Pull!" "~ Tommy Barrett the kindest." "I love you, Tommy Barrett." "I love you with all my heart, Tommy Barrett." "I love the way you make love to me, Tommy Barrett." "I love the way you sing to me when you make love to me." "I love the way you whisper in my ear when you make love to me." "I love you with all my heart, Tommy Barrett." "I love you." "~ I love you." "I love you..." "~ Pull!" "~ I love you." "I love you." "I love you." "I love you!" "SHE CRIES" "ELIZABETH SOBBING" "Let this dispel the myth that I do not have it in me to hang a man." "If I can hang a man like Thomas Barrett... then I can hang anyone." "Private Buckley." "Sir!" "You will guard our hangman, Private Buckley." "~ If he dies, you die." "~ Sir." "I thought current rations were too low." "In fact, I thought about increasing them to make the hanging of Barrett more palatable... .. but this disobedience shows you have energy to burn." "Free her hands." "Accordingly, I hereby cut your rations by a further quarter and, for the first time in New South Wales, this cut applies to convicts only." "And that is due entirely to your disobedience." "This man will be protected, day and night." "If you threaten him in any way, you will be shot as that man there was shot." "Disperse." "Disperse!" "Disperse!" "~ Disperse now." "~ Disperse!" "Disperse!" "Disperse!" "Disperse!" "Move along." "ELIZABETH CONTINUES SOBBING" "You may go to him." "Take him down." "Help me." "FREEMAN YELLS" "BUCKLEY:" "Leave him!" "Leave him, woman, or I'll shoot you!" "No, no, no, no!" "I will shoot you." "Do not shoot!" "Do not shoot!" "Do not shoot, do not shoot!" "SHE RAGES" "THEY CRY" "You wrote a last letter home for Tommy Barrett?" "Yes, Boss... ~ to his mother." "~ Full of lies?" "Well-intentioned lies, Boss." "Lies designed to spare his mother pain." "You know why he went to his death." "You saw how he went to his death." "You saw it with your own eyes." "You did not read it in a file, yes?" "Yes, Boss." "Could any man be braver, any mother prouder?" "No, Boss." "Then write that." "Write the truth." "~ If you insist, Boss." "~ I do." "TOMMY: 'Dear Elizabeth..." "'I refused the hood... '.. because I wanted your face to be the last thing I saw." "'The face I loved more than anything else in the world.'" "This is the first thing I've ever written." "I will consider it a huge honour... if you'd accept this from me." "It says "Tommy Barrett"." "Tommy Barrett." "Saint... .. Paul." "♪ Rock of Ages, cleft for me" "♪ Let me hide myself in thee" "♪ Let the water and the blood" "♪ From thy riven side which flowed" "♪ Be of sin the double cure" "♪ Save me from its guilt and power" "♪ Not the labours of my hands" "♪ Can fulfil thy law's demands" "♪ And my zeal no respite know" "♪ Could my tears forever flow" "♪ All for sin could not alone" "♪ Thou must save... ♪" "What are you doing?" "Katherine McVitie." "Letters Molloy." "Elizabeth Quinn." "Notice I did not change her name to Barrett once she married." "You see, within these files, nothing can change." "Why are you doing this?" "What did you think of Tommy Barrett?" "Brave." "Principled." "Heroic." "Not in my file." "Do you know how my file described him?" ""An incorrigible rogue." ""No morals whatsoever."" "I am sorry." "I am so... .. so sorry." "I get more rations now." "I could give you some." "I promised Tommy I'd look after you, you see... .. and I will." "For as long as I live... .. I will look after you."