Get on Up Page #18

(Cheers.)

Wait a minute go back. Can’t y’allgo back down and lets do the showtogether. We’re black don’t make usall look bad. Let me finish the

show. Step down there. Be agentleman. Lets represent our ownselves. Lets represent our own

selves.

One by one they step back down into the crowd.

JAMES (CONT’D)

Now I ask the police to step backbecause I figure I could get somerespect from my own people. Now wetogether ain’t we.

(Cheers! Screams!)

Hit that thing man.

The band strike back up and James kicks back into “I Can’t

Stand Myself” The stage clear. The crowd calmed. The panic

over.

MAYOR:

(to a policeman)

Holy sh*t. He did it.

105

DEDE:

(sotto)

Of course he did.

Dede smiles proudly.

I Don’t Want Nobody To Give Me Nothing kicks in over intercutArchival footage of Newscasters discussing the last minutedecision for the concert to go ahead.

126 INT. ARCHIVAL NEWS REPORT. 126

HEADLINE, under a picture of James: RACIAL PEACE RESTORED IN

CAPITOL AFTER RIOTING.

ARCHIVAL NEWS REPORT

City officials in Washington DC

have praised James Brown. Order has

returned to the city hit by rioting

largely because of radio and

television appeals from the soul

singer over the weekend.

OVER JAMES’ PERFORMANCE AT THE GARDEN AS YOUNG BLACK GUYS

DANCE.

JAMES (V.O.)

In America today you’ve either got

to be an entertainer or a ball

player or what? If you poor, young

and black, what is there? And you

ask me why they on the street? It

ain’t politics we watchin’. It’s

economics.

127 INT. JAMES BROWN PRODUCTIONS LEAR JET. NIGHT. 127

James is on the plane with Ben Bart.

JAMES:

You got kids out there that can’t

eat, robbing and stealing and doing

what they have to do to make it.

And if you don’t do something about

it we gonna lose the country. I go

to Harlem, talk to Rap Brown, talk

to the Nation they call me a

separatist. Here we’re on our way

to the White House, Pop, and they

already calling me an Uncle Tom. So

what I supposed to do?

(MORE)

106

JAMES (CONT'D)

Write a check for Rap so he buyrifles, machine guns, rally on125th and take it south? What it

say to you, a street kid fromAugusta, Georgia in the WhiteHouse?

BART:

It says you kissin’ up to the Man

James.

James is taken aback. No-one else in the world could saythis.

JAMES:

You asking me to turn this planearound and stand up the President?

BART:

No. I’m saying who gives a sh*t.

You’re already screwed, James.

Think about it. If you stand up

Lyndon Johnson to go kiss up to the

Panthers, you ain’t gone be playin’

Vegas anytime soon because if they

think you can stop a riot, they

sure as hell will expect you to

start one.

JAMES:

So here I am. Just a sorry soul

brother whining inside his private

jet, huh?

They both laugh. But James is troubled. Bart tone changes.

BART:

Don’t be scared my friend. Because

if you’re scared, it doesn’t end

well for the black man. Do your

thing, James.

(He looks at him hard)

It’s worked for you so far.

128 INT. WHITE HOUSE - NEXT MORNING - 1968 128

CLOSE ON JAMES WITH HIS HEAD TILTED BACK TALKING UPWARD:

JAMES:

I want to go to Vietnam. I want toshow unity for the boys out there.

The beleaguered, the tired and inthe dark.

(MORE)

107

JAMES (CONT'D)

And we need to bring awareness, andMr. President, we need to bring thesuper heavy funk.

We widen to see 5’7” James looking up to the 6’4” LyndonJohnson. President Johnson shakes James’ hand.

128A INT. HANGER. VIETNAM. 128A

We are now back in Vietnam at the hanger concert. James

looks right at us.

JAMES:

Take it and flip it.

129 EXT. GOLF COURSE - MORNING. 129

Ben Bart is playing golf with several friends. Bart drives

the ball straight and hard. We watch as the ball land three

hundred yards down the runway.

Back on the tee box. Ben Bart lays face down dead in theturf. His friends race to his side in shock.

CLOSE ON:

Ben’s face is pressed sideways on the grass. His opened,

dead eyes stare right at us.

130 EXT. CEMETERY - DAY 130

A casket lays at the bottom of a grave that has been dug.

TEN MALE FUNERAL ATTENDEES IN SUITS AND YAMMAKAS take turns

shoveling dirt onto Ben Bart’s casket.

Dede and James stand to the side. Completely distraught.

James starts to panic and lowers to the ground. Dede catcheshim under the arm.

One of the men approach James with the shovel. James can’t

bring himself to put dirt on the casket.

131 INT. RECORDING STUDIO. LOS ANGELES. NIGHT. 131

BAND MEMBERS FITTED WITH THEIR AFRICAN DASHIKIS are rolling afunky vamp together into a groove. Clyde hits a fat ‘pop pop’beat. Sweet Charles locks the bass line in to the beat.

Country finds a chunky B-flat-9 rhythm on the guitar and thegroove takes shape.

108

The door opens. James and Teddy walk in. James and Teddy’shair is cut into a short natural. Everyone looks at eachother.

JAMES:

Hit it.

The band starts. James makes a few adjustments. Jimmy Nolenstrikes up a womp-womp sound on a single string. The horns dothe James trademark ladidadidat.

JAMES (CONT’D)

Quit it.

(he pushes the intercom to the booth)

Bring ‘em in.

The door opens. 32 children enter the room. Most kids are

black, except for a few Mexican children. Dede and Teddy arethere, along with some of James’ other kids.

JAMES (CONT’D)

How we all doin’. Hope this ain’ttoo late for you folks.

James and Teddy stand before the group. James puts his armsaround Teddy as he addresses the kids.

JAMES (CONT’D)

I brought you all here today so Icould tell you something veryimportant.

I want you all to know that you cando or be anything you want in thisworld. Don’t let anybody tell youanything different. You understand?

When I was a boy I used to shineshoes in front of radio station.

Now I own that radio station. You

got to build it. And then you gottalearn it... and that’s when youearn it.

James gets all the kids around one mic. He puts Dede andTeddy to the side of the kids.

CUT TO:

Later everyone is cued. Maceo whispers to Pee Wee Ellis.

MACEO:

You think they f*** up he gone takethey pocket money.

Pee Wee laughs and nods his head.

109

JAMES:

We ready fellas?

The groove starts again. James flies into I’m Black and I’m

Proud.

WHICH PLAYS OVER ADDRESSING US DIRECTLY

JAMES (CONT’D)

I think about a lot of things.

About problems. About solutions.

You know one way of solving a lot

of problems that we’ve got in this

country...is letting a person feel

that they important.

Feel that they somebody. It’s it.

Man can’t get hisself together...

...until he know who he is and be

proud of what and who he is and

where he come from! WHERE WE ALL

COME FROM!

James leaves us and continues with the song. He looks to the

children

JAMES (CONT’D)

Say it loud!

They scream into the mic.

CHILDREN:

I’m Black and I’m Proud!

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