Apocalypse Now Redux Page #34

TUTOR:

That's right, but the Communists

at home have never been traitors.

DEMARAIS:

No, never traitors. For me, Mendes-

France was a Communist.

TUTOR:

Mendes-France was a Socialist.

DEMARAIS:

He was Communist! That's it!

They get into an argument in French. The others look at

each other, at Willard, as the argument continues.

TUTOR:

Socialist.

DEMARAIS:

How do you want the government to

win when it is Communist?

TUTOR:

Communists have always worked for

peace wherever they are.

DEMARAIS:

They killed the French Army, which

was the strongest. Destroyed

because of who? The Communists.

TUTOR:

The army damaged itself by its

attitude toward the people here.

DEMARAIS:

And why do you think that it did

that? Because it understood it

had been sacrificed by the Communist

government.

TUTOR:

Socialist.

DEMARAIS:

Communist.

TUTOR:

Captain, good night.

The tutor gets up and starts to walk out...gives Demarais

one more shot.

TUTOR:

(to DeMarais)

Mendes-France was a Socialist.

He leaves.

OLD UNCLE:

We can stay. I know we can stay.

You know, we always helped the

people, we work with the people.

The old man continues babbling, as Claudine helps him up.

CLAUDINE:

Come on, we are leaving.

OLD UNCLE:

So we can be friends, we are agreed.

The exit, Claudine consoling him. Now only Roxanne,

Willard, and DeMarais are at the table.

DEMARAIS:

See, Captain, when my grandfather

and my uncle's father came here,

there was nothing. Nothing. The

Vietnamese were nothing. So we

worked hard, very hard, and brought

the rubber from Brazil, and then

plant it here. We took the

Vietnamese, work with them, make

something, something out of nothing.

So when you ask me why we want to

stay here, Captain, we want to

stay here because it's ours, it

belongs to us. It keeps out family

together. We fight for that!

While you Americans, you are

fighting for the biggest nothing

in history. I'm sorry Captain. I

will see if your men needs any

help to repair your boat, so that

you can go on with your war. Good

night, Roxanne.

He rises from the table and moves out of the room. Willard

and Roxanne are left alone at the table.

ROXANNE:

I apologize for my family, Captain.

We have all loots much here. Hubert-

his wife and two sons. And I have

lost a husband.

WILLARD:

I understand.

ROXANNE:

You are tired of the war. I can

see it in your face. It was the

same in the eyes of the soldiers

of our war. We called them "Les

Soldat Perdus." The Lost Soldiers

(a beat)

If you like we can have some cognac.

She rises and moves to the living room.

WILLARD:

No, I have to see about my men

and...

Roxanne stops at the bottom of the stairs. She turns to

look at him.

ROXANNE:

The war will still be here tomorrow.

WILLARD:

Yeah, I guess you're right.

He rises and walks down into the living room. Roxanne

moves toward a table full of liquor bottles.

ROXANNE:

I noticed you had no wine at dinner.

She begins to pour cognac into a glass.

WILLARD:

No, I don't drink wine. I do like

cognac, but I don't want any now,

thank you.

ROXANNE:

Well, then I must drink alone,.

Then.

She picks up her glass of cognac, and walks by Willard out

onto the terrace. Stops and looks back at him.

ROXANNE:

Will you go back after the war to

America?

WILLARD:

No.

ROXANNE:

Then you're like us, your home is

here.

She walks farther out onto the terrace, sits down on a

sofa, with her back to the river below. Willard follows

her and stands next to her at the railing. We can SEE men

working on the PBR down below at the dock.

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