Malcolm X Page #20

EXT. THE PRISON YARD - DAY

A baseball game is in progress. A BLACK TEAM is playing a

WHITE ONE.

Most of the CONVICTS are watching the game; partisanship at

every pitch. A base hit gets a big reaction.

ANGLE - MALCOLM AND BEMBRY

They are out along the right field wall. They walk throughout

the scene.

ANGLE - The ball is hit over the fence for a home run. There

is a big cheer from the black prisoners. Pete, the batter,

trots proudly around the bases.

MALCOLM:

Ole Pete ain't much in the head, but

he can lay in there with the wood.

BEMBRY:

Lemme tell you about history: black

history. You listening?

TWO-SHOT - Malcolm still watching the game.

MALCOLM:

You pitch, baby; I'll ketch.

BEMBRY:

The first men on earth were black.

They ruled and there was not one

white face anywhere. But they teach

us that we lived in caves and swung

from trees. Black men were never

like that.

Malcolm is listening to Bembry's intent statement.

BEMBRY:

We were a race of kings when the

white men went around on all fours.

There is a crack of the bat and Malcolm turns to watch another

base hit, by a black convict, stir the crowd.

MALCOLM:

This a helluva game. Somethin's going

on.

He sees a black convict, CHUCK, nearby and calls over:

MALCOLM:

Hey, whatsa score?

CHUCK:

10 to 1; we murdering them, Din't

you hear?

MALCOLM:

What?

CHUCK:

The Brooklyn Dodgers brought up Jackie

Robinson and we pounding the hell

out of them, celebrating.

MALCOLM:

How bout that?

BEMBRY:

Sure, white man throw us a bone and

that's supposed to make us forget

400 years.

MALCOLM:

A black man playing big league ball

is something.

BEMBRY:

I told you to go behind the words

and dig out the truth. They let us

sing and dance and smile -- and now

they let one black man in the majors.

That don't cancel out the greatest

crime in history. When that blue-

eyed devil locked us in chains --

100,000,000 of us -- broke up our

families, tortured us, cut us off

from our language, our religion, our

history.

SHOTS OF THE FACES OF THE BLACK BALL PLAYERS AND THE CONVICTS

In the stands, cheering and joyous.

BEMBRY:

Do they know who they are? Do you

know where you came from? We are the

Original People.

Malcolm is listening to him now.

BEMBRY:

What's your name, boy?

Malcolm is startled; answers like a boy.

MALCOLM:

Little.

BEMBRY:

No. That's the name of the slave-

master who owned your family. You

don't even know who you are. You're

nothing. Less than nothing. A zero.

Who are you?

CLOSE SHOT - MALCOLM

Wrapped in thought.

ANGLE ON MALCOLM

MALCOLM:

I'm not Malcolm Little and I'm not

Satan.

BEMBRY:

Who are you?

CLOSE - MALCOLM

Malcolm cannot answer because he truly does not know.

A ball is hit. Malcolm watches its flight but his face is

fixed somewhere between understanding and anger: it is the

face of the future leader.

BEMBRY:

I told you we are a nation, the lost

Tribe of Shabazz in the wilderness

of North America.

INT. ANOTHER PART OF THE PRISON - LATE AFTERNOON

The rays of the sun come through bars that cut across Malcolm

and Bembry's face.

BEMBRY:

Allah has sent us a prophet, a black

man named Elijah Muhammad. For if

God is black, Malcolm --

MALCOLM:

Then the devil is white.

BEMBRY:

I knew you'd hear me. The white man

is the devil. All white men are

devils.

MALCOLM:

I sure met some.

BEMBRY:

No. Elijah Muhammad does not say

"that white man is a devil." He

teaches us that the white man is the

devil. All white men.

CLOSE SHOT - MALCOLM

Listening.

BEMBRY:

Have you ever known a good white man

in all your life? Think back, did

you ever meet one who wasn't evil?

A prison whistle is heard.

INT. A NICHE IN A PRISON WALL - P.M.

Malcolm and Bembry standing close together. The feeling is

of someone taking communion: with Bembry the minister and

Malcolm the communicant.

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