The Gardener's Son
McCarthy completed this screenplay in 1976, and the 16mm film, directed by Richard Pearce, was broadcast on PBS that year. The story is about the deep-seated, unending, undefined but palpable pain that exists between the Greggs, a wealthy family that owns and operates a cotton mill in post^-Civil War South Carolina, and the McEvoys, a poor family that works at the mill. This pain is made visual when Robert McEvoy, the only McEvoy male offspring, is involved in an accident, which may or may not have been caused by James Gregg, that results in the amputation of his leg. Now in the open, their silent battle can rage. This is a monumental small work for McCarthy, lesser in scope and impact than hisAll the Pretty Horses(1992) orThe Crossing(1994) but bearing in full measure his gift--that ability to fit complex and universal emotions into ordinary lives and still preserve all of their power and significance.Bonnie Smothers