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Get Low
A movie spun out of equal parts folk tale, fable and real-life legend about the mysterious, 1930s Tennessee hermit who famously threw his own rollicking funeral party... while he was still alive.
2010 · Directed by Aaron Schneider · 103 min · Drama · Mystery · Comedy · Screenplay in the scene database · 9 frames
Tagline
A true tall tale.
Plot
No one really "knows" Felix Bush, who lives as a hermit in the woods. Rumors surround him, such as how he might have killed in cold blood, and that he's in league with the devil. So, the town is surprised when Felix shows up at Reverend Gassy Horton's church with a large roll of cash and requests a "funeral party" for himself, which Rev. Horton refuses to do. Frank Quinn, the owner of the local, financially troubled funeral parlor, covets Bush's money and agrees to advertise and help organize a funeral party. Townsfolk and others in the area are invited to come to the event and tell Felix Bush the stories they've heard about him. To ensure a good turnout, Bush insists upon a raffle, with his property as the prize; many people buy tickets at $5 a piece (equivalent to $110 in 2025).
Things get more complicated when an old mystery is remembered, involving a local widow named Mattie Darrow, who was Bush's girlfriend in their youth, and her deceased sister, Mary Lee Stroup. With the help of Charlie Jackson, a preacher who insists upon the truth from forty years ago being revealed, Bush intends to confess his shame about and complicity in a terrible occurrence. He reveals to Mattie his affair with her married sister, Mary Lee, telling her that it was Mary Lee who was his true love, his only love. To the people gathered for his funeral party, he tells the story of how the two of them made plans to run away together and, when she didn't arrive at the agreed place, he went to her home to search for her. He discovered that her husband had attacked her with a hammer, knocking her out. The husband threw a kerosene lamp against a wall to set the house on fire and kill himself, the unconscious Mary Lee, and Bush. Bush freed himself from the attacking husband, but as his clothes caught fire, he also saw Mary Lee catch fire. As he went to put the fire out, he felt himself flying through the window, possibly pushed by the husband, and he was unable to re-enter the house to save Mary Lee.
Mattie leaves the party, the raffle is held and a winner proclaimed. Later, after everything has been packed away and everyone has gone, Mattie returns; she seems to have forgiven Bush. He dies shortly after, walking toward whom he sees as Mary Lee coming down the lane toward him.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: C. Gaby Mitchell, Chris Provenzano
- Cinematography: David Boyd
- Edited by: Aaron Schneider
- Music: Jan A. P. Kaczmarek
- Production design: Geoffrey Kirkland
- Produced by: David Gundlach, Dean Zanuck
Cast
- Robert Duvall as Felix Bush
- Bill Murray as Frank Quinn
- Sissy Spacek as Mattie Darrow
- Lucas Black as Buddy
- Bill Cobbs as Rev. Charlie Jackson
- Gerald McRaney as Rev. Gus Horton
- Scott Cooper as Carl
- Chandler Riggs as Tom
- Lori Beth Sikes as Kathryn
- Linds Edwards as WKNG Announcer
Production
- Country: United States of America, Germany, Poland
- Language: English
- Studios: K5 International, Zanuck Independent, David Gundlach Productions, TVN
- Budget: $700,000
- Box office: $10,522,511
- Themes: hermit, tennessee, funeral director, 1930s
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