Being Human Page #2

Synopsis: Five bittersweet vignettes that span the entire human history about five different men, all called Hector and played by the same actor (Robin Williams), who find themselves at a critical juncture in their lives. In prehistoric times, Hector lives in peace with his wife and their little son and daughter in a cave on a quite uninhabited island somewhere in the north. His world is shattered when a group of foreign pagan raiders led by a young chieftain and a somewhat pacifistic priest arrive there. In Ancient Rome, Hector is a loyal well-treated slave of Lucinnius, a somewhat naive big trader with political connections. When his latest shipment fails to arrive and the local corrupt governor Cyprion refuses to lend him money for his further endeavors due to bad omen that a professional soothsayer saw while reading the future from a chicken liver, he is ruined. To make things worse, just as Hector plans to ask his master for freedom and elope with his master's female African slave Thalia, L
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Director(s): Bill Forsyth
Production: Warner Bros. Pictures
 
IMDB:
5.4
Metacritic:
33
Rotten Tomatoes:
50%
PG-13
Year:
1994
122 min
269 Views


Is it the gods' will

that Cyprian...

be well-disposed towards me...

in the future?

Doing it again

means another chicken...

and another 15 sesterces.

I'll have my first 15 now, please.

And, uh, that's 2 for the chicken.

It was our chicken.

Oh, yes. Of course. Sorry.

It's all right.

Cyprian loaned me half a

million to fit out these ships.

I'm finished.

Just when things were going well.

I had plans for you, too, Hector.

In four or five years,

I was going to make you free.

You could've found your

family, brought them here,

everything.

Sounds good.

It does, doesn't it?

I shouldn't give up.

I can't.

I'll visit Cyprian...

first thing tomorrow

before the others get to him.

He's got to see reason.

I can pay him back...

sometime.

It's the only chance

we have, Hector.

Should I do it?

You must.

You're right.

I must.

Thalia,

I think I need one

of your massages.

Hector, you can finish the lamps.

Lower, Thalia.

Ahh...

lower.

Ahh...

[snoring]

[thunder]

Why does the thunder

always stay out at sea?

It thundered like that before

the earthquake, remember?

If he goes down, I'm

asking for my freedom.

He owes it to me.

And yours, too. We'd be free.

Then what?

What do you mean?

What we talk about.

We talk about going home.

Yours is that way...

mine is that way.

Your family's that way.

I made that up.

I don't know where they are.

We can't talk about families anymore.

It's been too long.

It's what you talk--

We talk about it

because it can never happen.

It's just you and me now.

Save your breath for

blowing in my ear.

I think you'll leave.

You are going to leave me here.

Shh.

And, every morning,

the man awoke into the only world

he would ever know.

I can't sleep.

Get me a chicken.

I want to make another sacrifice.

We'll do it ourselves.

[rooster crows]

We'll be first, Hector.

Definitely.

No one else will be there.

Not this early.

Were they friends?

Well, they were

as close to friends

as a master

and a slave can be.

I'm Cyprian--

I mean, Lucinnius.

I've come to see Cyprian.

Do you have a gift?

A gift? No.

Join the line on the left.

Thank you.

Leave the stool.

And as his master

went in to meet

the master of his fate,

the slave was free,

free to feel the sun

on his back

and squat in the dirt

amongst the litter carriers

and chicken imitators.

Cock-a-doodle-dooo...

Bawk bawk bawk bawk...

You seem much happier.

Relieved, anyway.

Relieved that it's over at last.

So...

He's going to help you?

I have to kill myself

by tomorrow morning.

He has my letters to Titanius.

None got through.

He says it's treason.

He says I should want to die.

I'm done for, Hector.

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Bill Forsyth

William David "Bill" Forsyth (born 29 July 1946) is a Scottish film director and writer known for his films Gregory's Girl (1981), Local Hero (1983), and Comfort and Joy (1984). more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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