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"There's more to you than just plantin' and plowin', Huck."
Directed by: Rodrigo Garcia
Written by: Daniel Knauf
Summary
On a bankrupt family farm in the middle of dustbowl Oklahoma, a traveling carnival encounters Ben Hawkins, a young man desperately trying to hold off a bulldozer from the bank-at least long enough for him to finish burying his mother. Seeing that Ben is on his last legs, members of the Carnivale wearily grab shovels and give the woman a half-decent burial.
But just as the hymns are sung and the bulldozer plows into the Hawkins home, sirens are heard, and the chain around Ben's ankle suggests he is what they're after. Samson, the diminutive boss of the troupe, orders the crew to grab Ben, who has passed out with exhaustion, and make some dust.
Later, Samson tells Jonesy, the boss of the roustabouts, that he has discussed the Carnivale's new stowaway with Management, the mysterious owner of the show. "You know what he said?" Samson asks, shaking his head. "He was expected." The mystery only deepens when the mentalist Lodz touches Ben asleep and is overwhelmed by the boy's devastating and powerful visions.
When Ben comes to, he seems unnerved by the people that have saved him: Lila, the bearded lady, the strong man Gabriel, Gecko, the lizard man; the Siamese twins Caledonia and Alexandria. He also clashes with Jonesy, a weary cynic who ridicules Ben as "a huck."
Meanwhile, half a country away, a minister named Brother Justin Crowe attends to his flock, including a down-and-out Okie who has stolen from the collection plate. But when the woman begins vomiting a stream of silver dollars, it becomes clear that something profound is happening to Brother Justin. Later, he has a powerful vision outside Chin's, a local house of ill-repute.
At the Carnivale, Samson (at Management's behest) tries to convince Ben to join the outfit fulltime. But despite his lack of options, the taciturn Ben is repulsed by the idea. The only person he seems to be able to talk to at all is the young fortune teller Sophie. But when she finally gets him to sit for a Tarot reading, the cards-evoking the past, transformation and a hidden talent-draw Ben into memories of his terrible, terrible secret.
Running far from Sophie's bus, he finds himself in front of a local girl confined to a wagon, a sweet kid who loves the Ferris Wheel and whose legs are crippled by a painful condition. Resigned, he kneels down and places his hands on her shins...
He doesn't look back as he runs after the caravan and pulls himself up on the departing truck. He doesn't see the little girl stand up and skip away. He knows what he has done for her. And he knows there will be a price to pay.
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Carnival Fact
Johnny Eck, AKA the Half Man, was born in Baltimore in 1911. He had no legs. In 1932 he had a role in Tod Browning's film, Freaks. He died in 1991.
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