Calvary Page #8

---

(CONTINUED)

44.

54 CONTINUED:
54

TERESA:

It is easier?

LAVELLE:

It’s never easy. More understandable,

let’s say. Less unfair.

TERESA:

Unfair.

LAVELLE:

Situations like this one, people

are shocked. The randomness of it.

They curse God. Curse their fellow

man. They lose their faith, in some

cases.

TERESA:

They lose their faith? It must not

have been much of a faith to begin

with, if it is so easy for them to

lose it.

LAVELLE:

Yes. But what is faith, at the end

of the day? For most people it’s

the fear of death, nothing more than

that. And if that’s all it is, then

it’s very easy to lose.

TERESA:

(after a pause)

When we are children we are told to

say our prayers. Our parents tell us,

our teachers. Then we grow up and we

think people who say their prayers

are stupid. They’re ridiculous.

Unless we want money, of course, or

a good job, or we have a child who

is sick, or a lover who is dying.

Then we are allowed to pray again.

Then it is okay.

LAVELLE:

Yes. But the prayer must be answered.

TERESA:

Yes, the prayer must be answered.

And if the prayer is not answered

then there is no God and it is all

a lie. If God does not pay attention

to us, because we are so important,

then God does not exist.

LAVELLE:

Yes. We must be paid attention to.

(pause)

He was a good man, your husband?

(CONTINUED)

45.

54 CONTINUED:
54

TERESA:

Yes, he was a good man. We had a

very good life together. We loved

each other very much. And now he

has gone. That is not unfair, that

is just what happened. But many

people do not live good lives, and

they do not feel love. That is what

is unfair. I feel sorry for them.

LAVELLE:

(after a pause)

Will you say a prayer with me,

Teresa?

TERESA:

Yes.

LAVELLE:

Hail Mary, full of grace-

TERESA/LAVELLE

--the Lord is with thee. Blessed

art thou amongst women, and blessed

is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for

us sinners, now and at the hour of

our death. Amen.

55

EXT. HOSPITAL - NIGHT 55

HARTE is smoking a cigarette. LAVELLE steps outside.

HARTE:

Finished with all your gobbledegook?

LAVELLE does not acknowledge the insult.

HARTE:

How’s she holding up?

LAVELLE:

She’s a strong woman.

HARTE:

Good-looking, too. I could be in

there. I have a thing for widows,

did I ever tell you?

LAVELLE:

I think you might have done.

Your material is getting a little

stale after all.

HARTE:

Ah sure, the atheistic doctor,

it’s a clich.d part to play.

There’s not that many good lines.

(MORE)

(CONTINUED)

46.

55 CONTINUED:
55

HARTE (CONT'D)

One part humanism to nine parts

gallows humour. Playing you,

though, that might be interesting.

LAVELLE:

Playing me. Who’s “me”?

HARTE:

The good priest.

They look at each other. Then HARTE looks up at the moon.

HARTE:

I heard a story once about one of

the astronauts who slept on the moon.

He had a dream where he was driving

one of those moon buggies across the

surface of the moon, and he rode and

he rode until he came upon another

buggy that was exactly like his.

He looked into the face of the man

who was driving the buggy and he saw

that it was himself. And his double

said to him, “I’ve been waiting for

you for thousands of years.”

And that was the end of the dream.

LAVELLE studies him. HARTE turns aside, opening the door --

HARTE:

Excuse me, won’t you. I have to go

kill somebody.

56

INT. SACRISTY - DAY 56

TITLE -- “Wednesday”.

MICHE.L is in his vestments, swinging a thurible to and

fro, the incense rising. LAVELLE moves in and out of

frame, preparing for Mass.

MICHE.L

They’re mad auld things thurifers,

aren’t they?

LAVELLE:

That’s a thurible. You’re a thurifer.

MICHE.L

I’m a thurifer?

(pause)

Thurifer. Funny word.

(pause)

I like the smell of this stuff.

It gets me high.

LAVELLE:

What do you know about “high”?

(CONTINUED)

47.

56 CONTINUED:
56

MICHE.L

I know plenty.

LAVELLE:

Miche.l, why did you become an

altar boy? I ask this because it

can safely be said, without fear

of contradiction, that you have

no vocation whatsoever.

MICHE.L

My Ma told me they give you money

at weddings and christenings.

LAVELLE:

I see. It was purely a moneymaking

scheme on your part.

MICHE.L

Yeah. To pay for my oils.

LAVELLE:

To pay for your oils.

MICHE.L

Yeah. And I haven’t had a sovereign

off anybody. People round here are

pure mean.

57

EXT. INISHMURRAY ISLAND - DAY 57

HIGH-ANGLE SHOT -- LAVELLE and RYAN walking through the

remains of an early Irish monastic settlement. They enter

the cemetery. RYAN leaning heavily on his shillelagh.

LAVELLE:

Is this where you want to be buried?

RYAN:

Why in the hell would I want to be

buried in this godforsaken place?

LAVELLE:

(with a laugh)

Where then? Pere Lachaise? Next to

dear old Oscar?

RYAN:

No. Next to Apollinaire and Max Oph.ls.

LAVELLE:

Oh very fancy, I must say.

(pause)

I have your gun for you, by the way.

RYAN:

Yeah right.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED:

48.

LAVELLE:

I do so. A Webley. Circa 1920.

Still in good working order, though.

Or so I’ve been told by a man who

would know.

RYAN:

Hand it over, then.

LAVELLE:

I don’t have it on me.

RYAN:

I knew it. Worried I might follow

through with it, huh?

LAVELLE:

You might take a potshot at me,

for all I know.

RYAN:

Why would I do that? What have

you ever done to me except talk

garbage?

LAVELLE:

Sure that doesn’t mean anything.

Bloody idiots can’t even be bothered

coming up with a reason for murder

these days. They wake up in a foul

mood and it’s bang bang bang.

RYAN:

Oh I don’t know about that.

Some people have very good reasons.

58

EXT/INT. CONFESSIONAL - DAY 58

CLOSE on FIONA and LAVELLE. The shadow of the grille

playing across their faces. DISSOLVE THROUGH -

FIONA:

There was a Japanese writer

committed suicide. He wrote out

a list beforehand of all the

famous suicides throughout history.

He included Christ.

LAVELLE:

Sounds like a smartarse.

FIONA:

In the Middle Ages they would’ve

said I was possessed by demons.

LAVELLE:

Maybe you were. Maybe they were

nearer the mark back then.

(CONTINUED)

49.

58 CONTINUED:
58

FIONA:

You think what happened was un-

important. Insignificant in the

great scheme of things. To provoke

such a reaction. But what may mean

nothing to you may be very important

to me.

LAVELLE:

I’d never say it was unimportant.

I’d just say that the choices you

make when you’re thirty are not

the same choices you’d make when

you’re sixty.

FIONA:

That’s irrelevant. Every moment of

living has its own logic.

LAVELLE:

Maybe so. Maybe you’re right, there.

I’d have to have a think about that.

(pause)

It’s a tired old argument, I suppose,

but what about those you leave behind.

FIONA:

I belong to myself, not to anybody

else.

True. False.

LAVELLE:

*

FIONA smiles. LAVELLE waits, attentive.

FIONA:

Funny, in the old days it was the

priests who’d tell you you were sick.

Now it’s the psychiatrists.

(pause)

You know Freud had cancer of the gums

at the end of his life. The smell

from his mouth was so bad even his

own dog wouldn’t go near him.

He asked his doctor, an old friend

of his, to give him an overdose of

morphine. Which he did.

*

*

*

*

LAVELLE:

Not a big fan of Freud. Never have

been.

*

FIONA:

(after a pause)

The absurdity of existence versus the

absurdity of nothing.

Rate this script:5.0 / 1 vote