The Last Valley

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Go away, we don't want beggars here.

I'm not a beggar, I'll pay...

for food and lodging for the night.

If you want to pay,

give me seeds or new tools...

give me a horse,

raise my sons from the dead...

or stop this stinking war.

Go away or we'll drive you away.

I'll work or write letters...

or tell you about

the places I've seen, anything.

I need only a little food.

Can't you see we are starving? Go away.

Live, die. What difference does it make?

Jesus has forsaken us. Go away.

Plague.

Where are the others?

I don't know, I came here alone.

Not a soul, Captain, except this bastard.

Where are your friends?

And where are your cattle?

Wake him up.

I don't know.

I came here alone this morning after food.

I've never seen this valley before.

That won't do. Speak fast.

I lost patience 12 years ago.

Two ears are better than 40, Captain.

You can't bargain with me.

I can crush you and your village

like a bedbug.

That's what I want to talk to you about.

Break open every house.

Gather all we can use in that barn...

nothing in your own saddlebags.

We'll round up the peasants...

and fire the village at leisure.

Korski, over there. You, come with me.

I don't like secrets.

You can come, too, Korski.

Well?

There's famine all over Germany...

plague, pestilence, even now...

and winter's coming.

In 10, 20 years,

have you seen a richer valley?

I don't answer questions.

Take their grain and cattle,

and they starve this winter.

I'm tiring of you. Come to your point.

I'm there now, Captain.

Take all this food back to your army,

and down it goes into a thousand stomachs.

Why such waste?

Winter here, occupy the valley.

What?

Winter here.

Live while your army dies.

You'll never get another chance like this.

Is this scum asking us to desert?

Is that it?

A soldier has no future and no past...

and a full belly covers the present.

You talk too much, and not like a peasant.

What are you? A stinking priest?

I don't know which side you're on, Captain.

But I'll wager half your men don't care.

What of those who do care?

Get rid of them.

Good ideas are rare these days.

Very rare.

You are a priest on the run?

No, I was a teacher.

- What's your name?

- Vogel. Yours?

Captain. Where are you from?

From nowhere, everywhere, Captain.

Yes, I have almost forgotten...

where I was born, also.

You have fever?

No, it's nothing.

Didn't you say, "Get rid of them"?

Yes, but it was so sudden.

And clean.

One moment alive, one moment dead.

You philosophers are such hypocrites.

I only do what is necessary.

No more.

If to kill is necessary,

I do it without conscience.

Now, make peace

with whatever God you worship.

Peasants hate soldiers, Captain.

Soldiers hate peasants.

I'm not a soldier or a peasant.

I could speak to them

just as I can speak to you.

I can help.

You'll need help. I'll be very useful.

I'll give you two days to prove it.

No more looting, Captain?

No.

We eat the place at leisure

and drink it dry by spring.

Spring?

We'll eat while the army starves.

By the Madonna,

I'd give my life for a winter of peace...

with good food, decent women,

and maybe no killing.

Where's Korski?

Where else would Korski be, but on watch?

We found the valley, other patrols could.

Ours, or enemy.

That's right, Captain.

What about our women?

Yes, I have a wife and family back there.

What about the army and the baggage train?

Listen to Hansen...

plenty of women

where there's plenty of food?

Has it ever been different?

And isn't one as good as another?

But we've been winning all year.

How much pay we got?

Not a god-rotting pfennig.

I say we stay. It's a good valley. A miracle.

I say it stinks of Satan.

You stink of Satan.

How else could it be like this?

Perhaps we've been led

into the Promised Land, Eskesen.

Then it's agreed?

- Yes.

- No.

I've got a woman back there.

First, I want to hear what Korski says.

Korski will know what's right.

Graf, take him to join Korski.

Yes, Captain. Come on.

Move.

Remember, be careful

as you circle and hide.

This ambush must be perfect,

and no killing.

But what about that, Captain?

It stays. Untouched.

But we burn all churches on raids.

That's your rule.

Yes, but this time, we must bend the rule.

Catholic or Protestant,

it would make no difference.

This time, we need the peasants to work.

That church must be an exception.

The exception.

But it stinks of Satan.

It's the breeding place of evil.

So it will burn.

Stop him.

Get away, or you'll join Shutz and Korski.

Lord Jesus, help me to strike down

Thine enemies.

Papist scum!

The church stays.

Anti-Christ.

Devil worshipper.

Ours is the true faith, by God,

you Protestant heretic.

Blasphemer!

Death to the anti-Christ!

Make your peace with your God.

Mercy, Captain.

Our first rule...

is no religious quarrels among ourselves.

He who breaks it is a dead man.

Let him also be an exception.

The exception.

Let the church stay, but let him

and the Protestants build another church.

Yes, give him quarter.

Let one man escape that rule...

and we'll all be dead by sundown.

You all swore holy oaths to fight as a unit...

and sell your skill to the winner,

whatever their religion.

Protestants may build if they wish

without hindrance.

Vornez, Geddes, Tub...

burn him along with the others.

We want no plague here.

- Go on. Run along.

- Yes, Inge.

Go to your homes. Go.

Vornez!

I said no killing.

Who will speak for all of you?

- Here, you.

- Fetch Gruber.

It should be Gruber.

Where is he?

Captain...

let him take me to Gruber.

I'll speak to him for you, if you wish.

And then you'll come back? Like a lamb.

Within the hour,

or you'll go after him, Hansen.

You and Pirelli.

You take him to Gruber.

You can all...

You can all go to your homes.

You are safe for the moment.

Why not kill us all now and be done with it?

- Butchers!

- You're young, so you're impatient.

Be patient, puppy. Wait your turn to die.

What is your name?

Erica Torfield.

Which is your husband?

Why trust him?

I trust no one.

My name is Vogel.

I bring a message from the Captain.

I persuaded them

to let me come alone with him.

- There's about 20 of them.

- That can wait.

Do you have pains in your throat,

in your chest?

Is it hard to swallow?

He has plague?

The Captain undertakes to protect

your village from all other soldiers...

on condition that he and his men

be well-billeted for the winter.

The power of Jesus Christ

and Our Lady of the Shrine protects us.

We don't need any soldiers here.

The Captain is a reasonable man.

If you accept, nothing will be looted.

Your women won't be tampered with.

No one will be hurt.

If not, your valley will die.

Enough talk.

If the Captain will keep discipline, I agree.

What has changed that we need soldiers?

The soldiers are here, Father.

That's what has changed.

Our Lady of the Shrine will rid us of them.

In good time, Father, in good time.

Is he unclean?

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