Nickel Boys (2024)
Ethan Herisse: Elwood
Quotes
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Turner : This can be a three-day job we play it right. We till the garden and fix up her house, she may even adopt our black asses. Well not you, you got family. I'd yessum her for a chance out of Nickel.
Elwood : That ain't no freedom. I mean you know Director Hardee and his wife ain't supposed to use us like we're slaves.
Turner : Man, all those guys on the school board have us do chores. Sometimes it's favors, sometimes it's for real money.
Elwood : But it's against the law.
Turner : [Turner laughs] Man, the law's one thing. You can march and wave signs around and change a law if you convince enough white people. I saw those college kids in Tampa with their nice shirts and ties sitting at the Woolworth's. I had to work, but they were out protesting. And it happened, they opened that counter. But I didn't have the money to eat there either way. Gotta change the economics of all this, too.
Elwood : My grandma got me that lawyer, man. Make a move there, first.
Turner : The courts play both the white and the black. They just move us around when they're ready.
Elwood : And we have to be like knights. Checkmate.
Turner : How many people you know done that, El? There's four ways out of Nickel. Serve your time -or age out-. Court might intervene -if you believe in miracles-. You could die -they could kill you-. You could run. Only four ways out of Nickel.
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Elwood : If everybody looks the other way, then everybody's in on it. If I look the other way, I'm as implicated as the rest.
[Turner is silent]
Elwood : It's not how it's supposed to be.
Turner : Don't nobody care about s'posed to be. The fix's always been in- game is rigged.
Elwood : That's what I'm telling you. It's not like the old days. We can stand up for ourselves.
Turner : Even that shit barely works out there, what do you think it's going to do in here?
Elwood : You say that 'cause you got no one out there sticking up for you. I got my grandmother, I got a lawyer.
Turner : [deliberately hurtful] Yeah? What was the last time you heard from them? You got to watch how people act, what they do, and then you try to figure how to get around them like an obstacle course. I mean, if you want to walk out of here.
-
Elwood : I've been writing everything down.
Turner : Everything what?
Elwood : Our 'community service'. The deliveries, the pay-offs, the yard work, the chores. The names of everybody and the dates.
Turner : Why would you do a thing like that?
Elwood : You told me. No one else can get me out of here, just me.
Turner : Man, no one ever listens to me. Alright, why you got to start?
Elwood : God damn it, it's not an obstacle course, Turner. You can't go around it, you have to go through it. Walk with your head up no matter what they throw at you.
Turner : All right, I get it, you mad and need to get it off your chest, that's cool, but...
Elwood : -No, I'm telling you. There's a fifth way out: Get rid of Nickel.
Turner : They put us in the goddamn ground! They going to take you out back, and bury your ass. Shit!
[He remains silent and thinks]
Turner : Oh, Jesus! They gonna take me out back, too. Elwood I vouched for you man, the hell is wrong with you!
