Castle Keep Page #2

My niece is my wife, commandant.

I think you'd better see

to your wife, duke.

God is neutral, along with the pope.

But as a traditionalist,

he must respect the hierarchy.

The Maldorais.

The Maldorais line must continue.

And God must know

where the Americans fit.

Americans are brave and that is why

they seem lik e children.

They are young, wild animals.

So, what can you expect?

I can expect a child.

After the war,

the flowers will be dead.

And the husbands will take over.

Excuse me, sir.

I'd like your permission

to hang this Delacroix...

...and some other paintings

in the parlour for my lecture.

Your lecture?

I'm organizing an entertainment

program for the men.

If it is a matter

of their requirements...

Requirements?

That can be taken care of in the village

at La Reine Rouge.

- The Red Queen?

- The whorehouse.

- A cigar, captain?

- No.

- Hobbema.

- Yes, a very early one, isn't it?

You live with such things, count.

Works I've read about, second-hand

descriptions that don't do them justice.

I've begun an inventory. Unbelievable.

A Botticelli, two Corots.

- Fragonard...

- We are in danger.

Do you intend to do anything

about it, captain?

Wait! That's the count's car!

- Enlisted men can't steal his car.

- Right.

- Where you going at this hour?

- Drilling, sir.

- Drilling?

- Drilling the girls at the Red Queen.

So now we were

on the way to Sainte- Croix.

The cowboy,

the 24-karat Indian, the cook...

... the bak er and myself.

The rage of Paris, France,

and all women everywhere.

Bring out early in your book

that you're very young and Negro...

...unscrewed and unpublished.

I hate this car.

Who's home to welcome the heroes?

Hey, Rossi.

Where there's a bakery,

there's a baker's wife.

The place is closed.

- Where do you come from?

- We come from the castle.

To where are you going?

To the ends of the Earth.

And I think we're there.

Parlez English?

Enough.

I'm a baker.

I'm a baker's wife.

Beautiful.

Beautiful.

Where's the baker?

Gone.

That's what a man needs.

A baker's wife, kid, family, home.

Come to bed.

I've been making an inventory too,

Captain Beckman.

You should be interested

in that inventory.

If those Americans

don't hold that ridge...

...your inventory will be shot to hell.

- We don't have to defend here.

- We can drop back to...

- I do, Beckman.

Major, I don't think you know

what this castle means.

It stands on the most important

crossroads in the Ardennes.

- Isn't that...?

- On the road to Bastogne.

- I think we should pull back.

- Don't think, Beckman.

If something isn't saved,

then what's it all for?

You can't save anything

by giving it to the Germans.

If you give them anything,

you have to give everything.

Is that what you wanna do,

Beckman?

You know all about this...

...castle.

But you don't know how to hold it.

You want it in ruins. Everything.

Do I, Beckman?

My purpose is madness.

It's the only way you can tell

what really happened in war.

By lying, you can open the door

a little crack on the truth.

Right, baby.

I love the Red Queen.

Red Queen is lovely.

Everybody loves the Red Queen.

Hey, where's Elk?

You're standing on him.

This whole thing has an ineffable,

dreamlike quality.

Like I've been here before.

This place, this queen, girls...

- Major Falconer is a warmonger.

- Yeah.

- Besides that, he's immoral.

- What?

Three of them. It just ain't right.

Three of them.

- Who?

- Major Falconer and the duchess.

- Well, that's only two.

- No, the duke is there.

Probably tucks them in.

It just ain't right.

I see. Two people is okay,

three people, then it's dirty?

For chrissake, Alistair,

can't you see it ain't natural?

Besides that, she's his nephew...

Niece. Anyhow, it just ain't right.

A cowboy like you. American cowboy.

So that's what goes on in that big,

wide, wide, outdoor brain.

The movies never told us

this about cowboys.

- You wanna fight?

- Not now, I'm thinking.

- I could whip your ass.

- Yeah, that doesn't concern me.

Right now I'm working on your

moral indignation.

- What the hell is that?

- Your evangelists.

- My evangelists?

- The evangelists of the American Army.

Hey, you're waking everybody up!

Go back to your outfit!

- Excuse me?

- You're waking everybody up.

Go back to your outfit.

We have no outfit.

We've withdrawn.

- We don't believe in fighting.

- Well, who believes in fighting?

We believe in God.

That frightens you, doesn't it?

All you believe in

is fornication and killing.

- What?

- We're conscientious objectors.

You mean you conscientiously

object to fornicating?

Hey, didn't you tell them?

They're supposed

to excuse you from combat.

They said that our sect

was too small!

- Your what was too small?

- Sect! S-E-C-T!

Let the people of the city sleep.

The hell's the matter with you,

lieutenant?

Can I tell you something?

I wish I had the courage

to go to the Red Queen's.

It would be a way of breaking away

from my father.

How does one get the courage,

Captain Beckman?

You have to be an enlisted man.

Cinderella left the ball in such

a hurry, she forgot her glass eye...

Slipper. Now, that's how the prince

traced her. She had the smallest eye...

- Foot in the world.

- Wait a minute.

You say at midnight,

if we don't get back to the castle...

...we're gonna turn into soldiers?

- No, we'll turn into soldiers anyway.

It'd be nice to be in the castle

when it happens.

- Where do you come from?

- My bakery.

- To where are you going?

- To that table where my buddies are.

Everybody should eat more bread.

It feeds the heart.

And remember, the heart's the second

most important organ in the body.

It disturbs you,

my wife and the major.

You find me degenerate.

Or worse, French.

No, I am only impotent.

And I want a son.

What could be more bourgeois,

Puritan, even American, than that?

- You're how old? Twenty, 21?

- Twenty-three.

There ought to be an age limit

on the killing.

That doesn't interfere with you,

does it?

The German officer under

the topiary tree threw his life away.

He made it difficult not to kill him.

He was billeted here?

Yes.

In this room?

Well, how do you feel?

I don't understand.

You don't show much, do you?

What do you want me to do?

I guess there isn't much you can do.

You're not 20 or 23.

You're 1000 years old and you're

trying to keep a castle, aren't you?

The war came close today.

I would like to end it.

For a little while, if I can.

You want to end it, don't you?

For a little while.

For a night.

Just before the end of the world,

Captain Beckman gave us soldiers...

... a lecture on the history of art.

Here was a captain

in the American Army...

... talking about strength and the force...

Private Benjamin, if you feel

more qualified to give this lecture.

Thank you, sir. No, sir.

I'm sorry. Go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Private Benjamin.

We have the privilege of living

in this monumental tribute...

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