A Walk in the Sun Page #2

- Six miles is a long way.

What do they expect? A reception

committee with a dozen taxis?

That's the story.

How's it coming, Mac?

All right, I guess.

We'd better get him

to a doctor, though.

He ain't going to

be pretty any more.

Might not be alive

any more, either.

Bad, huh?

- I guess so.

Trying to talk all the time.

Can't you hear him?

I didn't hear anything.

- Not words.

Just talk.

- Is he comfortable, Mac?

He wouldn't know if he was

comfortable or not.

Tough ticket.

- He don't mind.

Nearly time.

Mac, you can pick us up later.

When it gets lighter, you'll see

a road running from the beach.

We'll be on that road.

Hoist tail! Hoist tail!

Hoist tail!

There'll be a honey

of a show on that beach.

A honey of a show.

Take them up 100 yards from

the beach and hit the dirt.

I've got to get word to the captain,

then I'll pick you up.

Let me get word to the captain.

Remember, 100 yards from

the beach and hit the dirt.

Doesn't matter where you are.

Don't care if it's a pig pen.

OK, Hal.

I was wrong, Eddie,

they did give you the job.

You know the lieutenant got wounded.

As platoon sergeant, I'm in command.

Each one of you knows what to do.

Porter's going to take you up

on the beach.

Go with him

and do as he tells you.

Understand?

Cold water.

Every time, it's cold water.

I'll take you in a wheelchair.

You and your purple heart.

Get them up there, won't you?

Sure thing, Hal.

101, 102.

Hope this beach isn't mined.

- Hey, where's the fire?

113. You think I want to

get caught out on the beach.

Anything could happen there.

118, 119.

120. We'll hold here!

Spread out. Hit the dirt.

Why here?

- 100 yards.

100 yards is 120 paces,

I figured out back there.

All here.

- Good.

Dig in.

- What for? We'll be out

of here in a couple of minutes.

I'm taking no chances.

Dig!

Well, I just conquered Italy.

You can have it.

I don't want any part of it.

I ain't going to give you any part of it.

I found the loving place and it's mine.

It's yours, cold.

- It can't be cold.

It's sunny Italy.

- You read the wrong book.

I read the soldiers' handbook

that said this was sunny Italy.

You calling the soldiers' handbook a liar?

- What page?

- I forget the loving page.

You always do. I wouldn't

trust you with a popgun.

- You've got to trust me with a popgun.

I'm a machine gunnner

with a machine gun.

'Things on that beach

suddenly went dead quiet.'

'The silence was bad.'

'Very bad.'

'Was the enemy 50 miles away?'

'Was he just behind

the beach head...'

'waiting?'

'If a machine gun

would only start up,'

'a man would know what to do.'

'But a man can't fight a vacuum.'

How long will Halverson take?

- Shouldn't be much longer.

- How do you know?

I know everything. What do you think

they gave me the Soldier's Medal for?

For pulling a nurse

out of a swimming pool.

I didn't think you knew.

I know everything. Who held up

the platoon in Sicily while he

stuck his snout in a barrel of wine?

I'd do it again if I knew

where there was a barrel.

Do you know where there's a barrel?

There it goes.

Well, we know where

we are now, all right.

Bet they get her in ten minutes.

When they do, the war will be over.

We just have to sit here and watch

the rest of it being fought out.

What are you batting

your gums about?

It's cold.

A profound comment.

It's always cold at dawn.

Even if I'm up all night with a girl,

or playing cards, or getting plastered,

dawn comes around I begin to shiver.

My feet grow icy,

my teeth chatter.

Me, I'm hot. You kill me.

Nothing can warm me.

Fire wouldn't be bad.

- No,

even a fire wouldn't do any good.

Profound comment.

Nine and one half minutes

to get the gun?

Why should it take Halverson so long?

- He'll show.

There was no need for the lieutenant

to get hurt. No need at all.

He got it, anyway.

What are you going to do if

Halverson doesn't come back, Porter?

How do I know?

- They'll be sending the planes over soon.

The planes come over,

we'll take a powder.

Halverson can...

- Take a powder where?

Try and find that farmhouse.

The sun will be up soon.

Even at nine o'clock in the

morning, in the sun, I'd still be.

Why?

- Don't ask me why.

That's the way it is.

- You guys kill me. You kill me.

Sergeant, I want a discharge.

I'm all fought out.

In the last war,

they sent a guy to France.

It's all there was to it. They sent

him to France, then he went home.

Simple. Real simple.

But what do they do this time?

Do they send you to France?

No, they do not send you to France,

they send you to Tunisia,

then Sicily, then Italy.

Who knows where they'll

send you after that.

Maybe we'll be in France next year,

around Christmas time, maybe.

Then we'll work our way east.

Yugoslavia. Greece. Turkey.

No, not Turkey.

All I know is in 1958,

we're gonna fight the Battle

of Tibet. I got the facts.

Kill that!

- So I want a discharge.

A honourable discharge.

I've done my share. The next

guy can pick up where I left off.

You tell 'em, Jack.

- I hear planes.

I guess I was wrong.

I thought I heard them.

They'd probably be ours, anyway.

They'd better be. We've got

enough guys in the air force.

There goes Jerry's gun.

Told you. Eight minutes.

It should have been you, Rivera.

Always, it should have been you.

It always is me.

Archimbeau, go take

a look down there.

Every dirty job in the army

is my personal property.

Nobody's going to shoot you.

Go on your gut.

- Why the gut then?

Because I said the gut.

You kill me.

Butt me.

Last pack.

- Get your filthy hands off it.

Ask and I'll give.

You call that claw clean?

My own dirt I can eat.

Match.

They are kind of dirty.

A man's hands never

seem to get clean, even if

you don't touch nothing.

Just stay dirty.

It's sort of a special kind of dirt.

G.I. dirt.

Bet one of them criminologists

could take a sample out

of a guy's fingernail,

put it under his microscope

and say, "That's G.I. dirt."

The dirt's always the same colour,

no matter what country

you're fighting in.

Funny thing. I wonder why.

Say! Never saw that fella

'till he moved!

Camouflage.

See, I bet that's what G.I. dirt is.

Camouflage.

Think I'll write Frances

a letter about that.

Dear Frances...

- I can't see the beach or the water.

It's all stopped. No shouting,

no firing, no sound of motors.

The war is over.

- Smells like rain.

- See if you can smell me a plane.

A little while ago, the place was

crawling with troops and now, for

all we know, we might be here alone.

The planes will be coming soon.

They always come soon.

If we were in those woods...

Halverson said he was...

- Yeah. I know. Halverson said.

I never saw anything like it,

never in my life.

Everybody's gone away.

They forgot us.

They don't want us in the war.

Halverson must be playing

black jack down in the barges.

A butt.

- What happened

to the one I just gave you?

I sent it home. They're cutting

down on the butts at home. A butt.

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