Jayne Mansfield's Car Page #7

what was going on today,

they would literally

spin in their graves.

It's just a crying shame.

While our boys are fighting

in the jungle, the hippies are...

they're singing songs

and pissing on our flag.

Well, don't they realize

that there is a rising tide

of communism

that's going to sweep up onto

our shores and overwhelm us

if it's not stopped in places

like Southeast Asia.

Exactly what I've been telling

Carroll, word for word.

PHILLIP:
This war is not

about communism.

It's about nationalism.

The Vietnamese people

just want to be free

of foreign domination...

first the French,

and now the Americans.

JIM:
We ain't trying

to dominate anybody.

We're just trying to bring

freedom.

PHILLIP:

At the point of a gun?

KINGSLEY:
Yeah, well, sometimes

violence is a necessary evil.

That's right. That's right.

It was my turn in '17.

And then Carroll and Skip had to

go off after Pearl Harbor.

And pretty soon, well,

it's gonna be Alan's turn.

We need to keep Alan

around here.

We gotta groom him

to take over one of these days.

JIM:
Well, now there's

plenty of time for that.

What, you want him to come home

with a chest full of medals too,

or get killed?

Or both. Hey.

Well, I'm just glad

I got girls and not boys.

PHILLIP:
Don't you think

you've had enough, Father?

I mean, you're just a day

out of hospital.

I've had quite enough of you

hectoring me about my drinking.

It's one of the few pleasures

that I have left.

And also I've had quite enough

of you posing as some sort

of military expert.

Well, I'm no expert,

but I do know something

about war.

I was a soldier too.

Oh, yes.

I'd forgot.

Yes, you fought in the glorious

battle of Singapore.

- The Nips surprised us.

- Yeah?

Our heavy artillery

was pointed seaward

and they came up behind us

through the jungle.

And we surrendered to a force

a third the size of ours...

the most disgraceful defeat

in British history.

And Phillip was a part of it.

It was a botched business,

I admit.

Yes, well, coward Percival

should have been

court-marshaled, short.

General Percival was a brave

and honorable man.

The situation was hopeless.

The fact is, Phillip,

you spent the war as a prisoner,

as a mere slave of the Japs,

not as a soldier.

But I survived

when a great many of us didn't.

I think I should receive

some credit for that.

KINGSLEY:
Oh, the will to live

is very powerful

even among

the lower animals, insects...

mere instinct.

I surrendered because

I was ordered to surrender.

You didn't have to surrender!

You could have

gone off into the jungle

and fought as a guerilla.

You haven't the faintest bloody

idea what you're talking about!

Yeah.

I am astonished.

What makes you think that you

can speak to me in this fashion?

What makes you think you can sit

there and spout drunken nonsense

and not be called upon it?

Well, face the truth, Phillip.

You're lazy

and you drift through life

and then you blame

everything on the war.

You're insane.

I've never blamed the war

for anything.

KINGSLEY:
You really do live

in a fantasy land.

Fantasy?

You are a pompous old dinosaur

that's outlived his time.

I think those Japanese guards

kicked you too many times

in the head.

I really must apologize.

I have behaved very poorly.

Don't worry about it.

I have busted a few glasses

in my day.

JIM:
Yeah.

Whatever happened

to stiff upper lip?

Yeah.

What are you doing, Skip?

I came to see you.

Just go put a shirt on, get you

some ice cream or something

and go to bed.

Yeah.

You remember me being a kid?

Well, hell yes, you was good

one time, so I remember.

Yeah.

You remember when I was

a little bitty kid?

I just said, yes, I do.

Now you're my damn kid

but, God damn it, I'm going

through some business papers.

Just get you an ice cream now.

Go to bed.

You remember any stories

about me when I was little?

You remember anything,

like one time when you and me

had a conversation sometime,

something like that?

Anything?

I mean, just some story

about me when I was

a little kid, you know?

'Cause, you know,

Mama told me one or two

last time I saw her.

What did she tell you?

Well...

she told me one

about a cousin of hers

that was so wild,

they used to tie him to a tree

while they fed the chickens

and put the wash up.

JIM:
Mm-hmm.

They called him Precious.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

The power's back up.

Put your shirt on.

Go find something to do.

Yeah.

All right.

Turn that music down!

Donna.

Please, fantasy

Please stay with me...

I put a shirt on, Daddy.

Boy, you sure did, didn't you?

Mm-hmm.

My reality

Stay close to me

Stay, fantasy

Please stay...

Boy, I must have been

something else when I was a kid.

Yeah.

DONNA:
What are you

thinking about?

PHILLIP:
I'm not sure.

Well, there's no way

it wasn't gonna happen.

Doesn't it feel good to live?

Yes. Yes, it feels good to live.

Well, you don't seem

too happy about it.

Don't get all English

on me again.

I mean, you can't tell me

that wasn't good.

No. No, I can't tell you that.

Quit being so weird.

You are thinking something bad,

aren't you?

It's not fair to be acting

so weird

and not tell me what it is.

Talk to me.

I'm just tired, just very tired.

Don't make excuses.

Tell me.

Okay.

Those things my father was

saying about me, about the war...

I was a prisoner, a slave,

but I was still a soldier.

God.

That's what you were

thinking about?

Not about me

or about just now...

you know, about us?

You wanted to know.

Well, the war's over.

And daddies are daddies.

They're always yelling

and saying sh*t.

I don't want you to think about

anything else tonight but me.

I'm sorry, but you insisted.

No way you could

really understand anyway,

there's really not.

Hey,

don't treat me like that.

I'm not some idiot.

Did you really spend

the whole war as a prisoner?

You didn't ever fight?

It depends on what you mean

by fighting.

Fighting the enemy, shooting,

jumping from foxhole to

foxhole...

not too much.

Fighting to survive

every crawling,

filthy, miserable,

horror-filled minute...

yes. Yes, I fought.

Where are you going?

I just want a cigarette.

The storm didn't last long.

They never do.

Probably way off

in the next county by now.

CAMILLA:

My father's a monster.

SKIP:
Yeah,

Daddy's a monster too.

- SKIP:
You watch much TV?

- No.

- Hey, Daddy.

- Hey.

I heard you and Kingsley

are going hunting.

Yeah.

We're gonna go out...

out around Ten Mile Creek.

But it ain't hunting season.

In my places

it's always hunting season.

I'm proud of you.

How come? Wha...?

Because of how nice

you've been to Kingsley.

Yeah, well,

I hated that man for 20 years,

blamed him for ruining my life.

Yeah.

- What changed?

- Well...

it started at the funeral home

when they rolled him out

to the ambulance.

I looked at him

on that stretcher...

a strange town,

a long way from home,

just... his wife just died,

he's thinking maybe

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