Dogma

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EXT ASBURY PARK BOARDWALK - DAY

Jersey spring day. Beyond the wooden planks that make up the aged fun pier,

the ocean waves crash into the sandy shoreline.

An OLD MAN stares at the empty beach. Sun-worshipers hours away from

besmirching the dunes. His features are simple. He wears an old overcoat.

His face belies good years gone by - a face that has seen more sunrises

than one would suspect. He inhales the crisp, salty air and lets a small,

satisfied smile cross his face.

Behind him. a large arcade with steel shuttered doors sits on the

boardwalk. Three young boys skate around by on roller blades, passing a

street hockey ball between them proficiently. The Old Man views them

briefly. checks his watch, and looks back toward the ocean.

The skates of the three hockey playing youths skid to a halt. We pan up to

their faces - now cold and dispassionate. They look at one another and nod.

Their skates glide out of frame.

P.O.V. SKATERS - The Old Man leans on the railing that overlooks the beach.

We get closer and closer to him until...

One of the skaters checks him hard into the railing. The Old Man exhales

violently and falls to his knees. The two other skaters begin savagely

beating on him with their hockey sticks, as he crumbles beneath them.

Repeatedly their blades crash down hard on his head.

OC VOICE:

I don't understand - how can you base your lack of belief in God on the

writings Lewis Caroll?

The three skaters cease their beating and check the Old Man's pulse.

Satisfied, they skate away, leaving his crumpled form on the boardwalk.

INT AIRPORT - DAY

LOKI walks beside a NUN in a semi-busy terminal. They pass through the

metal detectors. The Nun carries a donation can.

LOKI:

Leaving 'Alice in Wonderland' aside, look closely at 'Through the Looking

Glass' - particularly 'The Walrus and the Carpenter' poem: what's the

metaphorical meaning?

NUN:

I wasn't aware there was one.

LOKI:

Oh, but there is - it colorfully details the sham that is organized

religion. The Walrus - with his girth and good-nature - obviously refers to

either the Buddha, or - with his tusks - the lovable Hindu elephant god,

Lord Ganesha. This takes care of the Eastern religions. The Carpenter is an

obvious reference to Jesus Christ, who was purportedly raised the son of a

carpenter. He represents the Western religions. And in the poem. what do

they do? They dupe all the oysters into followmg them. Then. when the

oysters collective guard is down. the Walrus and the Carpenter shuck and

devour the helpless creatures, en masse. I don't know what that says to

you, but to me it says that following faiths based on these mythological

figures insures the destruction of one's inner-being.

BARTLEBY sits amongst a row of seats by one of the arrival gates. He eats

popcorn and stares at...

A steady stream of TRAVELERS, exiting the gate, meeting lovedones, family.

OC LOKI:

Organized religion destroys who we are or who we can be by inhibiting our

actions and decisions out of fear of an intangible parent-figure who shakes

a finger at us from thousands of years ago and says "No, no!"

Bartleby smiles at the meet-and-greets, warmed. Loki saddles up beside him,

kneeling on one of the seats, facing the Nun.

LOKI:

'Through the Looking Glass' - a children's tale? I think not.

NUN:

(really dazed)

I've... I've never really thought about it like that...

(beat; shocked; off her cassock)

What have I been doing with my life...?'.

LOKI:

Don't look back. Just get out there and taste life.

(off donation can)

Leave this for the unenlightened. Poverty is for the gullible - it's

another way the church is trying to control you. You take that money you've

been collecting for your parish reconstruction and go get yourself a nice

piece of ass. You deserve it.

The Nun nods at him, and saunters off, obviously grappling with something.

A passerby tries to stick money in her can, but she yanks it away. Loki

faces the proper direction in his seat and plops down beside the

still-transfixed Bartleby.

BARTLEBY:

(looking OC)

Here's what I don't get about you: you know for a fact that there is a God.

You've been in his presence, he's talked to you personally. And yet I just

heard you claim to be an atheist.

LOKI:

C'mon man - you know I don't believe any of that sh*t I was telling her. I

just like to f*** with the clergy; keep 'em on their toes. When her head

stops spinning, she'll be facing the way of the Just again. But oh. will

she have a bunch to confess.

(looks around)

Now here's what I don't get about you: why do you feel the need to come

here all the time?

BARTLEBY:

(off travelers)

I like to watch. This is humanity at it's best. Look at them.

A reunited FAMILY share a group hug and move on, making way for two young

LOVERS to embrace and kiss passionately.

OC BARTLEBY:

All that tension, all that anger and mistrust, forgotten for one perfect

moment when they come off that plane. See those two? The guy doesn't even

know that the girl cheated on him while he was away.

OC LOKI:

She did?

Bartleby and Loki continue to watch the arrivals.

BARTLEBY:

Uh-huh. Twice. But it doesn't matter at this moment because they're both so

relieved to be with one another. I like that. I just wish they could all

feel that way more offen.

LOKI:

Maybe if someone gave them free bags of peanuts more often they would. Now

what was so friggin' important that I had to miss cartoons this morning? If

it was to share in your half-assed obsessions with Hallmark moments, I'm

going to slug you.

BARTLEBY:

(still looking OC)

You're never going to believe this: we're going home.

LOKI:

(off Bartleby's popcorn)

Let me have some?

BARTLEBY:

(pulls out envelope)

Look what somebody sent us in the mail.

(hands him a newspaper article and corn)

LOKI:

Did you say we're going home?

(reads)

"Cardinal Glick Cuts Ribbon on 'Catholicism - Wow!"

Campaign."

(to Bartleby)

And?

BARTLEBY:

Keep reading.

LOKI:

(reads)

"Updating the church... television spots... Papal consent...

rededication...

(to Bartleby)

Again - and?

BARTLEBY:

(snatches article) Give me this

(getting up; reading)

"The Re-dedication of Saint Michael's Church on it's hundredth anniversary

is the kickoff of a new campaign that seeks to bring the Catholic Church

back into the mainstream. With a papal sanction, the archway entrance to

the centuryold, Jersey shore house of worship will serve as a passageway of

pleanry indulgence, which - according to Catholic beliefs - offers all who

pass through it's arches a morally clean slate."

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