American Pastrol Page #2

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And what does

my son need with cows?

Why do they need to live

this far from civilization?

No offense to the locals,

Mr. Orcutt,

Mrs. Orcutt,

but let's be candid.

This is all rock-ribbed

republican out here.

That's true. That's so.

Lou, don't start.

What did I say?

We're out in the middle of nowhere.

This is Ku Klux Klan country.

Dad, will you stop?

I don't see why my brother

wants to live here either

but a couple of cows

doesn't make it Mississippi.

This is Morris county.

Grandpa!

Jerry's right, dad.

No one thinks like you anymore.

We can live where we want.

This is America.

Newark is in America.

Grandpa!

Yes, darling.

What? Yes, sweetheart.

Come to the barn to see count.

Wait till you meet him.

He's so...

I adore merry.

I think she's very special.

- Thank you.

- We all do.

She likes coming here.

She told us that.

Yeah, very much.

Sometimes when

she's here, I ask her,

"merry, what terrible thing

do you think would happen

"if you stopped stuttering?

"How do you think your father or your

mother would feel if you stopped?"

But she can't stop.

I think merry's stuttering

is a strategy.

A strategy for what?

For avoiding competition

with the beautiful mother,

the beautiful

miss New Jersey mother

for winning the handsome father.

This is about our looks?

- Doctor...

- "Sheila."

Sheila, stuttering isn't

something that merry chooses.

It makes her suffer.

Maybe the benefits

outweigh the suffering.

But it's killing us to see her.

It's killing merry's mother.

Maybe that's one

of the benefits.

Have you thought about how

difficult it must be for merry

growing up the daughter of someone

who's had so much attention

for something as

trivial as beauty?

Maybe the reason merry stutters

is to stop people

from asking her

"do you want to be miss New

Jersey just like your mommy?"

But who asks her that?

Nobody asks her that.

I'm not miss New Jersey,

for god's sake.

I'm her mother.

It's just that in

a highly-pressured

perfectionist family, you...

Who says we're a

highly-perfectionist family?

We're an ordinary family.

What about the physiological

basis for her stuttering?

I read an article where...

I can give you organic theories

if that's what you want

but it's not the way I've found

I can be most effective.

Ouch. Ouch.

I told you to wear your shoes.

You didn't tell me

about how sharp

the rocks would be.

No!

Dad!

Do I look like Audrey Hepburn?

Better. You look like

Meredith Levov.

Do you

miss mother?

Sure I do.

Me, too.

She wanted to come.

She couldn't.

I know.

Lady Jane's going to have

her calf any day now.

Mom had to be there.

Yes, dad. I know.

She'll come next time.

Have you had a nice time here?

With you?

- Terrible.

Hold these for your mother.

Daddy...

Kiss me.

No,

really, really kiss me.

Kiss me the way you kiss mother.

No!

And fix your dress.

Oh, I'm sorry, cookie.

Oh, I deserve it.

It's the same at school

with my friends.

I get started with

something and I go...

too far and I get carried...

There's nothing wrong

with that little girl.

Her mind goes too fast for her tongue.

That's all.

There, I just saved you the money you

were going to give to the shrink

because that's

all there is to it.

We just want to help her, dad.

"Help"? That girl? Just give

her a little bit of time.

Let her tongue

catch up to that brain.

The rest will follow from that.

Freddy, is something up

with this machine?

Every now and then, she kicks.

No, no, no. You'll be

throwing stitches soon.

Send it down to the shop.

See my son, Vick?

He picks out the bad machine from 100.

He's got the ear.

He gets it from you, Lou.

How are you feeling, dad?

You don't have to

come in every day.

Who comes in every day?

I don't.

- Besides, where else

am I supposed to go?

Time cards, gentleman.

Thank you, Vicky.

Vicky, my son is trying to tell me

never to come around here anymore.

I didn't say "anymore,"

I said "not every day."

But, Lou, you built this place.

You made a home for all of us.

Where else do you belong?

Exactly my point.

- Here you go.

- Oh, thank you.

You finish your stuttering book?

Mmm-hmm.

Have you written down all the

words that stopped you today?

Do you want to check?

Not if you say you finished.

My teacher in school never

believes me unless she checks.

Well, your teacher says that

you have a stubborn streak.

Merry, why does she say that?

Because of the homework.

The class had to write an

answer to the question

"why are we here?"

And merry wrote...

Merry can tell me herself.

Sorry.

"Why are apes here?"

That's it?

She made her rewrite it.

So I wrote

"why are

"kangaroos here?"

And then last week, the teacher

asked them, "what is life?"

This is what they ask in school?

"What is life?"

What did you answer?

I don't

remember.

Yes, you do.

"Life is just

a short space of time

"in which you are alive."

Daddy,

do you understand?

Yes, I think I do.

He assumed the lotus posture and

another priest stepped forward

and poured gasoline over him.

A very frail, old man

in his 70s, Quang Duc.

Oh, my god.

What is this?

This monk burned himself

and he sat there.

Oh, merry shouldn't

be seeing this.

No.

And then suddenly a towering

flame and the smell of gasoline

and of burning flesh in the air.

For 10 minutes.

And the priests and the nuns

in the audience

moaned and prostrated them...

Why did that poor...

Why did that poor man

have to burn himself?

Hey.

That gentle man and

those gentle people.

It's far away, baby.

It's far away.

Doesn't anybody care?

Of course people care.

Doesn't anybody...

Doesn't anybody

have a conscience?

Yes, you have a conscience.

Cookie.

Don't cry.

Do they look good, daddy?

You've got the touch.

If you don't end up

senator for New Jersey,

you'll make a great

short-order cook.

I'd rather cook any day.

Mmm. Great.

This makes you the first Levov in

history who can prepare edible food.

As long as it's hamburgers.

What's wrong with hamburgers?

It's an American classic.

I came here to speak

to you about Vietnam.

Talk about an American classic.

There's an American

classic a**hole.

We abhor the political murder

of any state by another.

F***ing liar.

He's better than the guy

he ran against.

Barry Goldwater

would have buried us all.

F***ing mad man.

Lyndon Baines

"baby burner" Johnson.

What's going on?

Johnson's press conference.

We don't disagree, Mer. We're all

against the war in this family.

You heartless, miserable prick.

Merry, stop. Please.

What do you care about the war?

You're just contented,

middle-class people.

Some people would

be very happy to have

contented, middle-class

people for parents.

Well, I'm not brainwashed

enough to be one of them.

Merry.

- Dawn. -What? Don't tell me.

Tell her.

Tell her to behave

like a civilized person.

Don't tell me what to do.

I'm your mother.

I can and I will

tell you what to do.

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