THE WILLIAM MUNNY KILLINGS
Original Screenplay by David Webb Peoples
PRODUCTION DRAFT
April 23, 1984
EXT. HOG PEN - DAY
The hog in the mud, snorting and squealing, ugly as hell and
BILL MUNNY in the mud with him, pushing and shoving, trying
to move the stubborn animal and Munny goes down face first
and comes up more covered with mud than he already was and
the words on the screen say,
WRITTEN WORDS (super)
Some months later, Hodgeman
County, Kansas.
Munny is thirty-five or forty years old, his hair is
thinning and his moustache droops glumly over his stubbled
jaw. If it were not for his eyes he would look like any pig
farmer with his canvas overalls tucked in his boots pushing
on a hog. He is pushing on the hog again, grunting with the
effort, when he hears the voice.
THE KID'S VOICE o.s.
You don't look like no rootin',
tootin', sonofabitchin',
cold-blooded assassin.
MUNNY
(looking up, startled)
Huh?
THE KID is only six feet away, the sun behind him, sitting
on a very big and very ancient Morgan horse. He's wearing
a wide-brimmed Texas hat, a vest, a holstered pistol, and he
is a wiry kid, maybe twenty years old, with scraggly blonde
hair, four of his upper front teeth missing, and a funny,
squinty way of looking out of his watery blue eyes. Most of
all, he doesn't look very prosperous.
THE KID
I seen how you got only three
fingers on your left hand, though,
so I guess you're calling yourself
Mister Bill Munny.
Munny does indeed have three fingers on his left hand and he
doesn't like this conversation at all.
MUNNY
William Munny, yeah.
THE KID
Same one as shot Charlie Pepper in
Lake County?
A VOICE
Paw! Hey, Paw!
The voice belongs to WILL, a skinny ten-year-old who dashes
up with his seven-year-old sister, PENNY, right on his
heels. The kids are ragged and dirty, they don't look well
fed or even very healthy. Even as Will speaks to his
father, Munny, his eyes, and Penny's too, go to The Kid.
They don't see many strangers.
MUNNY
What is it, son?
WILL
Two more hogs got the fever.
Munny winces. The Kid ignores the interruption.
THE KID
You shot Charlie Pepper, didn't
you? And you're the one killed
William Harbey an' robbed the
train over...
MUNNY
(sharply)
Hold on, mister.
(to Will)
Son, this here pig gotta be moved
outta this pen, away from them
others. Penny, you give yer
brother a hand...
PENNY
(emotional)
This one's sick too?
Munny ignores the question, already on his way to the
miserable-looking shack.
MUNNY
Let's talk inside, mister.
INT. SOD HUT - DAY
Munny selects a tin cup from a wash pan of dirty dishes. It
is dark and cool inside his one room sod hut... and poor.
The Kid checks one of the three chairs for stability before
sitting down.
MUNNY
You're Pete Sothow's nephew, huh?
Hell, I thought maybe you was
someone come to kill me...
(he has the cups and
he crosses to the fire)
...for somethin' I done in the
old days.
THE KID
(sitting)
I could of... easy.
MUNNY
Yeah, I guess so.
THE KID
Like I was sayin' you don't look
like no meaner than hell cold-
blooded damn killer.
MUNNY
Maybe I ain't.
THE KID
Well, Uncle Pete said you was the
goddamndest meanest sonofabitch
ever lived an' if I ever wanted a
partner for a killin', you was the
worst one. Meanin' the best. On
account of you're cold as snow an'
don't have no weak nerve nor fear.
Munny serves the coffee gloomily and sits down. It appears
his feelings are hurt but The Kid doesn't notices.
MUNNY
He said that, huh?
THE KID
I'm a damn killer myself, only I
ain't killed so many as you because
of my youth. Schofield Kid, they
call me.
MUNNY
Schofield? You from Schofield?
THE KID
(laying his Smith & Wesson
Schofield .45 on the table)
On account of my Schofield model
Smith and Wesson pistol.
MUNNY
Oh.
THE KID
Well, how about it?
MUNNY
About what?
THE KID
Bein' my partner. I'm headin' North
up around the Niobrara in Nebraska.
Gonna kill a couple of no good cowboys.
MUNNY
What for?
THE KID
For cuttin' up a lady. They cut up
her face an' cut her eyes out, cut
her ears off an' her tits too.
MUNNY
(horrified)
Jesus!
THE KID
(pleased with the
reaction)
Thousand dollars of reward. Five
hundred a piece.
WILL
Paw, I can't move that damn pig.
Will has slipped into the house with Penny in tow and they
are both covered with mud and Will is swearing toshow off
to the stranger.
MUNNY
(embarrassed)
No cussin' now, Will. Go on out
the pump an' clean up some an' I'll
be along. Check them other pens.
The two kids back out the door, eyes on the pistol and the
stranger, and Munny walks over near the beds with his back
to The Kid.
MUNNY
I ain't like that no more, Kid.
Whiskey done it as much as anythin'
I guess.
(turning to The Kid)
I ain't touched a drop in ten years.
My wife, she cured me of it...
cured me of drink an' wickedness.
THE KID
Well... you don't look so prosper-
ous. Hell, you could buy her a new
dress out of your half. We could
kill them two an' you could buy
your wife one of them fancy...
MUNNY
She's passed on, Kid.
THE KID
Huh?
MUNNY
Been gone near three years now.
THE KID
(staring stupidly)
Oh.
EXT. SOD HUT - DAY
Will and Penny in front of the house, looking up at The Kid
who is mounted again and Munny is standing there taking
leave of The Kid.
THE KID
Don't tell nobody about the
reward an' all. Don't need no
other gunmen tryin' to collect.
MUNNY
I don't never see nobody anyhow.
THE KID
(riding away)
If you was to change your mind,
might be you could catch me...
due West to the Western Trail
an' North to Ogallala.
Munny waves at The Kid and for a long moment watches him
trot across the flat, grassy fields. Then he turns back to
his shabby farm and the squealing pigs and the two children
who are looking up at him.
WILL
Who's he?
MUNNY
(turning away)
Best we move that pig.
