By Omeleto
.
.
John Henry is an old American folk tale hero, a man who can move mountains despite the hard-scrabble world he lives in.
John and his son approach a railroad company in search of honest work. John carries a hammer forged partly from the chains that only recently held him as a slave, and he’s determined to earn his living as a free man.
His feats of strength became legendary, turning him into a potent symbol of endurance and dignity for the labor and civil rights movement.
But that came later — first, he has to get the job and prove himself first.
This short allegory is part history, part fantasy — but above all, it’s larger than life and more than lives up to the central character’s stature in American folklore.
Director Brandon McCormick’s storytelling is bold and audacious, and the production value lives up to the ambition, boasting marvelous period details, broad sweeping camerawork and strong performances.
“John Henry and the Railroad” is a short film of 22 minutes, but it’s a grand entertainment — an unapologetically heartwarming story that inspires spirits and champions the value of “grit, sweat and love.”
ABOUT OMELETO
Omeleto is the home of award-winning short films. We showcase Sundance winners, Oscar noms and critically-acclaimed filmmakers from every genre. Subscribe for more: http://sub2.omele.to
The true, tall tale of a freed slave who worked on a railroad. | John Henry and the Railroad
http://youtu.be/kt9NSMZR0dM
http://omeleto.com/243641/
[leave one line of space here.]
Transcript provided by YouTube:
00:13
[Music]
00:15
this was throw two things on your mom
00:18
get check God now you’ve probably got no
00:24
idea what’s going on here that’s my
00:26
fault
00:27
bad storytelling on my part why don’t we
00:30
start at the beginning
00:44
I’m gonna tell you a tale a tall tale to
00:48
be sure so sit back enjoy the story
00:51
because every bit of what I’m gonna tell
00:53
you is that honest-to-goodness truth
00:55
there are some tall tales but this is
00:59
the tallest of all this is the tale of
01:03
old John Henry yes that John Henry to
01:07
one from the railroad story well legend
01:10
goes that John Henry was a freed slave
01:12
at about that time when they were doing
01:14
that sort of thing John took his only
01:16
son out with him looking for work after
01:18
he was free he was out to make a new
01:20
life for himself he heard something
01:23
about railroad work needed to be done in
01:25
these in mountains so that’s where he
01:28
went
01:29
now John was said to be seven and a half
01:32
feet tall with arms that could knock a
01:35
tree down flat truth is John Henry
01:39
didn’t break much over five and a half
01:41
feet but there are no small men and tall
01:44
tales because old John Henry was still
01:47
bigger than any other man alive
01:51
[Music]
02:01
you in charge here I am until someone
02:07
tells me otherwise one of these idiots
02:09
drops a beam on my head
02:10
I heard the railroad companies giving
02:13
land as payment and the railroad track
02:16
reaches blue cut Junction forty acres of
02:18
everyman what it says except you gotta
02:21
get there by January or you get nothing
02:24
yeah well that’s what they’re telling us
02:26
anyway but though I think we’ve got
02:28
things covered here the boys and I’ve
02:29
got it under control
02:31
besides doesn’t it all you’ve ever done
02:33
any rail work before no I have it but me
02:37
and my boy here we don’t blacksmithing
02:39
back but no look I’m sorry but I think
02:41
we doing just fine thank you what we
02:47
gonna do now daddy what I said before
02:49
Oh what on the rare book
02:57
I bet your spot on your gang here as
02:59
well as that fancy hat you got there I
03:02
can drive three spikes three swings
03:06
right here right now okay now leave and
03:15
not come back that impossible it takes
03:19
four swing for one spike it take Buford
03:22
seven swing you know child’s never ride
03:25
about anything but I think he’s got this
03:27
one down it can’t be done
03:30
then it’s an easy bet dear I’ll take
03:36
that bet what these man didn’t know was
03:40
that John was the greatest hammer man in
03:43
all sir we lack in size we made up
03:50
[Music]
03:56
John made that hammer himself made it
03:59
out of the chains that held him when he
04:01
was once a slave from the day he was
04:03
free
04:04
old John vowed he never let another man
04:07
to beat him again little what I fear
04:11
grits Wendland go
04:16
[Music]
04:33
[Music]
04:35
all right when can you start
04:40
I think I just did
04:54
[Music]
04:56
so John Henry and his boy along with
04:59
that scraggly bunch of scoundrels worked
05:01
sunrise to sunset every day they picked
05:04
up the pace and it looked like they was
05:05
gonna make it to boot cut junction with
05:07
time to spare
05:11
[Music]
05:26
they called for supper a while ago
05:31
why don’t we go eat so didn’t quite
05:35
there just yet but we can do it tomorrow
05:42
I’ll never do tomorrow what he’s doing
05:44
today
05:46
daddy I’m tired son used to be I had to
05:57
work from sunrise to say cuz I had to
06:01
for someone else and I’m working for
06:04
something that’s mine I’m working for me
06:07
and I’m working for you
06:12
now our hard we work with no one’s
06:15
looking
06:16
that’s what we really are in sad
06:19
everybody’s got the next thing to get to
06:22
next Gold kids they strive to do next
06:28
nail in the rails what matters is you
06:31
don’t quit
06:33
even when you’re tired you were hungry
06:37
you wouldn’t look like an even gonna
06:40
make it you don’t quit
06:47
which
06:49
– it
06:52
I love
06:55
that’s the way we live our lives
06:57
[Music]
07:04
last one
07:07
it’s all yours
07:13
hey wait whoa whoa you watch what you
07:17
swing it a day
07:19
[Music]
07:29
now the boys were getting mighty close
07:32
to the end a few more weeks and all that
07:34
land was their land to call their very
07:37
own Oh John ain’t no nothin his whole
07:40
life so for him it was something real
07:44
special what you gonna do with your land
07:53
me I want to start looking for all right
07:57
away I find it all over the place out
08:00
here gonna get rich never have to work
08:05
yeah yeah they gonna start a farm always
08:11
worked on one anyway so they get me nice
08:15
knowing I started owning me sounds like
08:18
a lot of work besides I’d like to leave
08:22
for my boy I’m gone something we can
08:24
grow crops please mmm that’s what I do
08:28
sounds like a lot of work and this right
08:32
we’re gonna get there just in time
08:34
everything is going perfectly but of
08:41
course this would be a terrible story if
08:44
everything did go just perfectly
08:46
cuz the onh railroad was working on
08:49
something brand-new something absolutely
08:52
died Obama
08:55
[Music]
09:17
[Music]
09:20
diabolical what’s going on here this
09:23
local reprobate from the company is
09:25
trying to tell us that we’re off the job
09:26
that we’re fired that we can would
09:28
babysit because this metal monstrosity
09:31
can finish the job without us
09:33
we’ve been replaced John but one giant
09:36
pink and what about the land the
09:39
contract we almost done finished already
09:42
Tori breach of contract I’m calling it I
09:45
learned it on thick now you know what
09:48
you’re doing the ain’t fair
09:49
I’m not gonna let you take this away
09:51
from us weak we work too hard come too
09:53
far we have options John there’s always
09:59
options
10:03
[Music]
10:05
I challenge you to a race man versus
10:10
machine first one horse camp wins name
10:14
of three miles from here
10:16
you win we all go home
10:19
no fuss but if I win you take this love
10:24
sided piece of junk and you get packing
10:26
I will take it apart boat by boat we got
10:39
us a deal Jonah’s too fresh I’ll be
10:47
faster it’s wrong I’ll be strong Johnny
10:50
it’s made of steel and metal it’s not
10:52
ever gonna quit now that well I so now
10:55
it was a race of biblical proportion the
10:58
giant Goliath machine versus the man
11:01
that vowed to never let any man beat him
11:03
again I think it’s time for a little
11:06
racing music that’s my cue
11:10
[Music]
11:27
like David thought against the giant
11:31
Philistine our eyes with the pal the
11:35
good Lord gives to me and I will smite
11:38
the ones who fire
11:40
the cumin
11:43
from going home
11:45
[Music]
11:52
you can’t stop this train
11:58
[Music]
12:00
my chains you can’t stop this train
12:06
it’s wedding love Britt sweating love my
12:15
de calais from the fires of suffering
12:18
and I left him with the faith of a
12:21
mustard seed I cry
12:23
Lord said tell the mountain to move
12:28
Mountain so much
12:31
[Music]
12:39
we can’t stop
12:44
Grand Slam
12:48
subjects
12:50
[Music]
12:52
it’s wedding love bread sweating love
13:01
[Music]
13:16
well I’ll be a baboon’s blue backside
13:19
look at the size of that one we’re gonna
13:23
have to go around it
13:40
go right through the mouth never make it
13:43
around in time there’s no way to break
13:48
through that big old mountain we’re done
13:50
for us and what I always tell you what I
13:53
would be about life I know but look at
13:57
that mountain what do we do even when we
14:06
tie and all right don’t quit what do we
14:12
do do you want it like we ain’t gonna
14:15
make it we don’t quit and what do we do
14:20
when it looks like we’re going to smash
14:23
to a big old mountain
14:26
we get the big hammers
14:30
we’ll get the big hat much fake hummus
14:34
big hammer they’re bigger hammer is
14:40
always a bigger hammer here our deal
14:46
for soon don’t you worry about
14:55
[Applause]
14:59
[Music]
15:09
just say
15:11
[Music]
15:20
my way
15:22
stop this train
15:25
[Music]
15:29
change kids
15:32
[Music]
15:41
[Music]
15:50
[Music]
16:02
[Music]
16:15
[Music]
16:22
I’ve never seen anything like that in my
16:25
entire life
16:27
heaven heaven
16:30
unbelievable are you are you alright
16:33
of course he’s alright he does knock
16:37
down a mountain legend says John Henry
16:47
died that day after treating that old
16:49
machine turns out that just ain’t true
16:52
John lived a long time after working
16:55
hard on that farm he earned for his boy
16:58
in fact he outlived that dirty machine
17:02
[Music]
17:03
there’s two kinds of stories in this
17:06
world kind of everyone remembers and the
17:09
kind that everyone’s forgot to remember
17:11
this is the true tall tale of John Henry
17:14
how do I know cuz I was there that day
17:19
John Henry he’s my daddy and he passed
17:24
those big ol hammers down to me before
17:25
he died but not before changing him one
17:28
last time he took the cold steel of the
17:30
change then enslaved him turn him into
17:32
the hot hammers that knocked down a
17:34
mountain then he made him into this Higa
17:37
tar and with it I can sing about his
17:40
story share what my daddy taught me
17:43
about Brittany sweat and most
17:47
importantly love
17:50
[Music]
18:01
[Music]
18:17
[Music]
18:25
like David fought against the giant
18:29
Philistine our eyes with the bow the
18:32
good Lord gives to me
18:35
with smite the ones who fire
18:38
the kid Minh
18:40
from going home
18:43
from going
18:46
[Music]
18:48
my case
18:55
[Music]
18:58
my change you can’t stop this train
19:04
it’s wedding love Britt sweating low my
19:13
the catalyst from the fires of suffering
19:16
and I left them high with the faith of a
19:19
mustard seed I cry the good Lord said
19:22
tell the mountains
19:25
Mountain the moon so my girl
19:28
[Music]
19:37
you can’t stop this train
19:42
[Music]
19:44
change of kids
19:47
[Music]
19:50
it’s wedding love bread sweating love
20:02
it’ll all be
20:07
soon don’t you worry
20:13
hurry back
20:14
[Applause]
20:19
[Music]
20:29
just say
20:31
just see
20:40
my way you can’t stop this dream
20:45
[Music]
20:50
kid stuff
21:01
[Music]
21:03
I’m running
21:10
[Music]
21:28
you
—
This post was previously published on YouTube.
—
Have you read the original anthology that was the catalyst for The Good Men Project? Buy here: The Good Men Project: Real Stories from the Front Lines of Modern Manhood
◊♦◊
If you believe in the work we are doing here at The Good Men Project and want to join our calls, please join us as a Premium Member, today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.
Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
—
Photo credit: Screenshot from video