David and Bathsheba Page #2

and let your father marry you to another.

- Against my will.

- You can say so.

But I cannot help thinking that real

love would have fathered a stronger will.

Then why did you take me back?

You might have guessed.

Without Saul's daughter at my side...

...the northern tribes would not have

acknowledged me as king.

DAVID:

By taking you back...

...I made Israel one.

[SOBBING]

Michal...

...we're past the days of our passion...

...love or hatred or anguish,

even cruelty.

Why should we torture ourselves?

We have to go on living, Michal.

[FOOTSTEPS]

DAVID:

Abishai.

There is a house over there...

...under that big terebinth tree.

- You know it?

- Yes, sire.

- The house of Uriah the Hittite.

- Uriah the Hittite.

- He's a captain with the army.

- Yes, I know him.

Does he, by any chance,

have a sister?

No, sire. He has a wife.

A Hebrew woman of Benjamin

called Bathsheba.

Bathsheba.

During my visit to the army...

...this Uriah's gallantry was called

to my attention.

It's been in my mind to reward him.

Perhaps, in his absence,

his wife could accept the reward.

- I'll send for the woman in the morning.

- No. Send for her now.

She shall dine with me tonight.

Yes, sire.

DAVID:

You're not eating.

I dined earlier, sire.

It is my custom when I am alone.

As a soldier's wife,

you have good reason...

...to hate the king who keeps

your husband from your side.

The king does what he must.

His needs are the kingdom's.

Not all of them.

This wine is Phoenician.

I find it mellower than ours.

It has the blandness of the sea air.

Have you ever visited the coast?

No, sire.

I lived for several years

among the Philistines.

A cold people like their sea.

We Hebrews are of the desert.

We breathe its wind

and our blood runs hot with it.

Our emotions are fierce,

like the desert wind.

We worship our God fiercely...

...we love fiercely,

we feel sorrow fiercely...

...even the lesser sorrows,

like the absence of a loved one.

Has Uriah been away for long?

We have been married seven months.

Of this time,

we have been together six days.

A poor return on the hopes

your betrothal.

DAVID:
You are generous indeed

not to hate me.

I had no hopes, sire.

I first saw Uriah on our wedding day...

...when my father brought me

to his house.

Then six days is the sum

total of your love?

Of our marriage, yes, sire.

One of the vanities of kings

is that they think virtue...

...can be rewarded with a bauble.

How God must laugh

at the spectacle of unvirtuous kings...

...hanging bits of rock

and metal on virtuous men.

That is for virtue.

Now you understand

why I sent for you.

My understanding is not necessary,

sire.

Why not?

You are the king.

Is that all?

Well, leave the king out of it.

Think if any man would be content

with such an answer.

What other answer can I give, sire?

You have sent for me

and made known to me your will.

What else is there for me to say?

In Egypt that would be enough.

There, the pharaoh has certain rights

he can command but I...

Even if I had the right I've never used

my power to take anything by force.

All that I have ever had

has been given to me.

Freely, without restraint.

Even Israel. I refused the throne

until every elder of every tribe...

...would come to me

and beg me to take it.

It's been a kind of pride.

My pride.

Never to force myself on anyone.

So I said nothing to you.

Until you told me

that there is no love in your marriage.

Yes, you told me that.

And so did Uriah.

DAVID:

His dream of glory is his wife in tears.

You better go.

Oh, no, keep that.

It's only a stone

but you lend it beauty.

Uriah's a fool.

When I looked on you

from my terrace tonight...

...I knew that every future moment

spent away from you...

...would be a moment lost.

Yet he's found only six days for you

in seven months.

The perfume of his beloved

is the stink of war.

Does he think a man was made

only for the agony of battle?

Does he call that manhood?

Has he no blood, no heart?

Now go.

And be thankful

that I am not the pharaoh.

At least I can console myself

with the thought that your modesty...

...matches your beauty.

Perhaps you would prefer

truth to modesty, sire.

Before you went away,

I used to watch you every evening...

...as you walked on your terrace...

...always at the same hour,

always alone.

- Today, I heard you had returned.

- Then you knew that I...

BATHSHEBA:
That you would be

on your terrace tonight.

Yes.

I had heard that never had the king

found a woman to please him.

I dared to hope

that I might be that woman.

Why are you telling me this now?

Why not before?

Because first...

...I had to know

what was in your heart.

If the law of Moses is to be broken,

David...

...let us break it in full understanding

of what we want from each other.

No, please. I'm not finished.

There are women you could send for

and send away again.

I am not one of them.

What do you want?

To please you.

Have I not made it plain enough

that you please me?

I'll never send you away,

if that is what you want.

Never as long as I live.

No, David.

That is not all I want.

Think not of this one night...

...but of all the days

and all the nights to come.

Think if I can give you

what you need...

...for as long as you live...

...as your wife.

But you're not free.

If I were free?

A king is not supposed

to need anything.

Only a fool would suppose that.

Well, then...

...friendship.

I had a friend once,

but I destroyed him.

The others,

who call themselves friends, I...

I never see their eyes...

...only the tops of their heads

as they bow to me.

Their hands are extended to me...

...but palms upwards, for favors.

Even my own sons.

Will I see your eyes, Bathsheba?

You will see them.

And my hand will be in yours.

That much is easy, David.

I am only a man, Bathsheba.

I need someone to understand that.

I need the kind of understanding...

...that only one human being

can give to another.

I need someone to share my heart.

The man I watched from my window

is not the king...

...but a man whose heart

is well worth the sharing.

[BLEATING]

BATHSHEBA:

Oh, David.

[DAVID LAUGHS]

No, David. The boy, he'll see us.

No matter.

Shepherd boys learn early about life.

Did you, David?

Did I what?

Learn about life early.

Before I was 12...

...I knew almost everything

there was to know about life...

...and death.

At 12, I had killed wolves.

At 13, a man.

Tell me. Not about the killing.

Tell me about the boy you were.

It couldn't be of any interest to you.

A woman is interested in everything

about her man.

Particularly in what he was

before she knew him.

Well, there's not much to tell.

I was a shepherd

like thousands of others in Judah.

You slept out under the stars.

DAVID:

Mmm.

BATHSHEBA:

Did you dream, David?

What did you dream about?

[DAVID CHUCKLES]

Surely a man is entitled to the privacy

of his dreams.

- Then they were of women.

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