[61, 61A] From “Spike Lee’s Huckleberry Finn” by Ralph Wiley

61. EXT. RIVER RAFT. NIGHT. -- Jim is “sitting there with his head down between his knees, asleep, with his right arm hanging over the steering oar. The other oar was smashed off. The raft was littered with leaves and branches and dirt. So she’d had a rough time.” Huck paddles up silently, quietly, makes the canoe fast, boards the raft, lies down under Jim’s nose, “and begun to gap, and stretched my fists out against Jim and says:”

HUCK

Hello, Jim, have I been asleep? Why didn’t you stir me up?

JIM

Huck? En you ain’ dead—you ain’ drowned? Lemme look at you, lemme see…

Jim touches Huck’s shoulders and arms. Near tears with relief.

JIM

…no, you’se back, d’same ole Huck…thanks to goodness.

HUCK

What’s the matter with you, Jim. You been a-drinking?

JIM

…Has I had a chance to be drinkin’?

HUCK

Well then, what makes you talk so wild?

JIM

How does I talk wild?

JIM

How? Talkin’ about me coming back and all that stuff, as if I’d been gone away?

JIM

Huck. Huck Finn. You look me in d’eye; look me in d’eye; Ain’t you been gone away?

HUCK

Gone away? I hain’t been gone anywheres. Where would I go to?

Jim pauses for a few seconds; decides to string along, affects a slightly stronger dialect.

JIM

Well…looky here, boss, dey’s sumf’n wrong, dey is. Is I me, or who is I? Is I heah, or whah is I?

HUCK

Well, you’re here plain enough, but I think you’re a tangle-headed old fool, Jim.

JIM

(unamused) I is, is I? Didn’t you tote out d’line in d’canoe fer to make fast to d’tow-head?

HUCK

Tow-head? What tow-head? I hain’t seen no tow-head.

JIM

Didn’ d’ line pull loose, en de raf’ go hummin’ down d’ river, en leave you en d’canoe behind in d’fog?

HUCK

What fog?

JIM

De fog. En didn’ you whoop, en didn’t I whoop? En didn’ I bus’ up agin a lot er dem islands en have a terrible time en mos’ get drowned? Ain’t dat so—boss?

HUCK

It’s too many for me, Jim. I hain’t seen no fog, nor no islands, nor no troubles, nor nothing. You been dreaming.

Jim “didn’t say nothing for about five minutes, but he set there studying it over. Then he says:”

JIM

…Well, den…reck’n I did dream it, Huck…never had no dream b’fo’ dat’s tired me like dis one.

HUCK

That’s all right, because a dream does tire a body like everything, sometimes. Tell me about it, Jim, about your dream.

Jim purses his lips, knits his brow, then eases his features and speaks:

JIM

…well, d’fust tow-head mus’ stan’ for a man who gon’ try t’do us some good; den d’curren’s is ‘nother man dat’ll get us ‘way from d’ good man. D’whoops is warnin’s dat gon’ come t’us ever now en den, ‘long d’way. D’tow-heads is troubles en all kine o’mean folk, but ef e mine’s our bidness, don’ talk back en aggravates ‘em, we’ll pull thoo en gits to d’big clear river, d’O-hi-o.

Huck’s face clouds up, tiring of Jim’s facility with the lie. Huck himself had started, and not wanting to think about losing his companion at the Ohio. Huck’s face then becomes smug.

HUCK

Oh, well, that’s all ‘terpreted well enough, as far as it goes, Jim. (points to

Dirt on raft) But what does these things stand for?

Jim looks at the detritus, then at Huck, levelly, emotionlessly, then back to the sticks, leaves and dirt; one side of his face—the side away from Huck—lifts in a fatalistic half-smile. He turns back to Huck looking at him steadily, without smiling, and says:

JIM

What do dey stan’ for? I’s gon’ tell you…When I got all wore out

Wid work, en wid callin’ for you, my heart was most broke because

You was los’ en I didn’ k’yer no mo’ what become er me en d’raf’.

En when I wake up en fine you back agin, all safe en soun’…en

all you wuz thinkin’ ‘bout wuz how you could make a fool uv ole Jim wid a lie. (points to detritus on the raft, speaks calmly, clearly).

……Dat truck dah is trash; en trash is what people is dat puts dirt on de head er dey fren’s en makes ‘em ashamed.

Jim slowly rises and enters the wigwam. Huck watches him, then looks out over the river, as if he is too proud to care. But then, he looks down.

61a. INT. WIGWAM. NIGHT. -- Jim sits, pensively. It seems Huck is no different from the “witches and devils” that have ridden him in his days of bondage. Huck enters wigwam. Jim recoils, but holds it in. Huck gets on his haunches, looks at Jim, looks down. Looks up.

HUCK

Jim, I…(inhales, exhales deeply) I’m sorry, Jim.

And with that, a crack in Jim’s soul is patched. Huck looks down again as Jim regards him with slightly knitted brows. His face softens. He reaches out with the flat palm of his hand—hesitates, then rubs the boy’s bowed head. Huck looks up, so thankfully, his eyes shining wet.

[7, 7A, 8, 9] From “Spike Lee’s Huckleberry Finn” by Ralph Wiley

7. EXT. WIDOW DOUGLAS HOME. REAR. NIGHT. –Huck scrambles out of the window onto the roof of attached shed. He jumps down and crawls back among the trees and underbrush behind the house and there is Tom, grinning. They tiptoe along a path among the trees. Passing the back of the corral, where Jim sits, using an awl on what appears to be a doll’s head. Huck steps on a dry branch and it snaps. At this sound, Jim surreptitiously puts away the doll-object and picks up a rack of tallow candles; his head comes up as he begins to snap them off.

JIM

Who dah?

The boys bend over, stock-still, grimacing, then hide behind separate trees. We can see that Jim catches a glimpse of them. Jim walks back into the foliage with two candles, and stops in a space between the two trees. Only a fool would not have seen the boys. So Jim pretends to be one.

JIM

Say—who is you? Whar is you? Well, I knows what I’s gon’ do. I’s gon’ set down heah…ahh!…and listen till I hears it agin.

Jim sits down on a natural seat under the tree. Huck is on the other side. Huck shuts his eyes tight. Jim settles into a comfortable position, puts his hat on the ground and sighs contentedly.

7a. EXT. MOON SHOT. SILVERY RIVER. NIGHT.

8. EXT. TREES. NIGHT. – Huck hears heavy breathing from the other side, begins to peer around the tree. We see Jim, eyes slitted open, obviously awake, feigning sleep, as he continues to make the sound of a man deep in slumber. Tom Sawyer’s cap begins to emerge from the other side of the opposite tree. Jim’s eyes close effortlessly. Tom makes a sign to Huck; he and Huck creep away on their hands and knees in opposite directions away from the trees.

9. EXT. MEDIUM SHOT. JIM UNDER TREE. NIGHT. –Through the foliage we can see Jim. Huck and Tom’s profiles enter from opposite sides of the shot, close-up. They look at each other, then back at Jim, then back to each other.

TOM

Let’s tie him to the tree.

HUCK

No, let’s don’t. S’pose he wakes up? It’s my bust, not yourn.

TOM

Go on ahead. I’ll happen to borrow some ’a them candles from Jim.

Huck slips off.

NARRATOR

Nothing would do Tom but he must crawl to where Jim was, and play something on him. Tom didn’t borry the candles, he left Jim a nickel for them…he also slipped Jim’s hat on a limb.

Tom creeps up to Jim and picks up the candles and leaves a nickel, turns to go, but is unable to resist a trick. He picks up Jim’s hat and places it on the limb of a tree, and then, with a look of glee, races off to catch Huck. As he goes, Jim smiles and opens his eyes, looks down and smiles at the nickel even more affectionately. He palms the nickel; then calmly looks up and takes his hat off the limb of the tree, puts it on his head, and walks away, all action as Narrator says…

NARRATOR

Afterwards, Jim said witches bewitched him, put him in a trance and rode him all over the State, and then set him under the tree again and hung his hat on a limb to show who done it. Next time Jim told it, he said they rode him down to New Or-leans. Next time it was all the way ’round the world. Strange niggers came from miles away to hear Jim talk about it. Jim, he was most ruined for a servant, he got so stuck up, on account of having seen the Devil…

10. EXT. HILLSIDE. NIGHT. – Seven boys, including Huck and Tom, run along the hillside, in the moonlight. Tom stops and howls like a wolf at the silvery moon.

NARRATOR

…and been rode by witches.

[from 130] From “Spike Lee’s Huckleberry Finn” by Ralph Wiley

130. INT. PHELPS HOUSE. PARLOR. –Huck is sitting in a split-bottom chair, looking around. Aunt Sally sits on a little low stool in front of him, and takes him by both of his hands.

AUNT SALLY

Let’s have a good look at you. What’s kep’ you? –boat get aground?

HUCK

Yes’m—she—

AUNT SALLY

Don’t say yes’m—say Aunt Sally. Where’d she get aground?

NARRATOR

I didn’t rightly know what to say, because I didn’t know whether the boat she was talking about would be coming up river or down.

HUCK

…it warn’t the grounding—that didn’t keep us back but a little. We blowed out a cylinder-head.

AUNT SALLY

Good gracious! Anybody hurt?

HUCK

No’m…

Huck studies Aunt Sally’s reaction to his next statement.

HUCK

…killed a nigger, though.

AUNT SALLY

(relieved) Well, it’s lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt.

Huck drops his head as she natters on. She can’t—won’t—help him free Jim.

(130 continues….)

© copyright 1997 Ralph Wiley, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Printed with permission of the author. May be reproduced for classroom use only. WGA-E Registered #107314-00