Parer's War Page #3

---

George Prentice

at the military censor's office?

Thank you.

Thank you.

I suppose you've heard

General Blamey's on the point

of replacing Syd Rowell.

Replacing?

Instead of listening to him?

Yeah, that's the rumour.

He's argued the conditions at

Kokoda we reported back to him,

but Blamey and MacArthur

are refusing to listen.

Oh!

George, old man.

Yes, I've got a rather urgent matter

I think you'd want to know about.

I wasn't going to do it,

but I bloody am now.

'General Rowell was on the job, and

now we had a really fine command. '

Will Ken Hall let you say this?

I don't think I'm gonna tell him

why I want to say it.

Ken won't want to get mixed up

in the politics.

No. I don't blame him.

DOl won't like the flak either.

Oh, to hell with them!

I'm giving it a good go.

Hello?

Is this our young lass?

What's taken you so long, Cotter?

Sorry.

I got held back at work

for an air raid drill.

Just smile and nod.

You won't get a word in edgewise.

Marie, this is Chester.

Wilmot.

Oh.

How very nice to meet you.

Yes, I know who you are.

You're the one who tells me

everything he doesn't.

Ah! A discerning listener.

Mmm, a bit too much.

I was half expecting you

to still be 'slimed in mud,

unwashed for weeks

and odorous as a polecat'.

Ah. Thankfully not.

I assume you heard my account

of Damien's cooking prowess

with bully beef and hardtack.

Mmm, and weevils.

Well, I admire your courage.

Lord knows what's in these pots

he's prepared for us.

Ha!

I didn't know that

you listened to Chester.

Well, of course we all listen.

Chester's the first thing we talk

about at work the next morning.

All the girls?

Yeah.

He'd like that.

I'll bet.

Well, everyone knows about someone

who's missing or hasn't come back.

It's just as well you're not in

all the fighting,

so I don't have to worry

about that.

Oh, not likely.

It's just me stooging around with

a camera, making a pest of myself

when it's all over.

Yeah, that's what Ronnie said.

Eight days ago, I was with our troops

on the withdrawal from Kokoda.

No. I still don't like it.

'Withdrawal'.

Sounds too much like 'retreat'.

The way MacArthur's PR department

are getting it out there,

it is not the story

we want to tell.

Let's go again.

Slate one, take two.

Eight days ago, I was with our

advanced troops in the jungle,

facing the Japs at Kokoda.

It's an uncanny sort of warfare.

You never see a Jap,

even though he's only 20 yards away.

They are complete masters

of decept... of...

Oh, bugger!

It's 'camouflage and deception'.

Go easy on yourself. Relax.

Remember the story.

It was the spirit of our troops

and the knowledge that

General Rowell was on the job,

and now that we had

a really fine command.

Was that better?

It'll do.

Eight days ago,

I was with our advanced troops

in the jungle,

facing the Japs at Kokoda.

It's an uncanny sort of warfare.

You never see a Jap,

even though he's only 20 yards away.

They are complete masters

of camouflage and deception.

When I returned to Moresby,

I was full of beans.

It was the spirit of our troops

and the knowledge that

General Rowell was on the job

and that we now had

a really fine command.

There seems to be

an air of unreality,

as though the war were

a million miles away.

It's not.

It's just outside our door.

Jungle warfare

is a new kind of warfare.

The rarely seen enemy is close.

Green uniforms,

faces and hands painted,

hidden in treetops, slinking

through the green wilderness.

Where the patrols go,

the bearded Parer goes too,

so that this strange,

uncanny warfare

may vividly be brought to

the outside world.

What's that shot doing there?

Where was all this filmed?

Mubo, with the commandos

five months ago.

Hey!

Shh, quiet!

.. business of man

against man, kill or be killed.

If only

everybody in Australia

could realise

this country's in peril,

we might forget about

the trivial things

and go ahead with

the job of licking them.

Let's get out of here.

Bloody Ken.

Cutting in those phoney shots.

Is that Damien Parer?

Creative treatment of actuality,

perhaps?

Yeah, too bloody creative.

What are the men gonna think?

Well done.

Well done, Damien.

Well done, mate!

Yeah, thank you.

Congratulations.

Thank you, thank you.

Very good. Very good.

Absolutely loved it.

Thank you.

Well done, sir.

Well done, Mr Parer.

I'm afraid we really must get

going. Thank you, Mr Parer.

Ken's perfidy aside, old man,

it does seem to be concentrating

their minds.

We didn't have those pictures,

Damien,

and we needed something

of our men in action.

It's not the truth, Ken.

Commandos were nowhere near Kokoda.

The shots don't belong in this film.

Well, they do when the story coming

out of MacArthur's headquarters

is that our boys

don't have the guts for a fight.

Is that the go now? What sort of

dimwits are running this show?

Not all of them, apparently.

There's a General Eichelberger

who's been looking for you.

He's seen the film.

He wants to have a chat

to you about camouflage.

What, for the Americans?

It would seem

we've gingered things up a little.

Damien, if you could paint

a bit of a picture

of the Pacific theatre of war...

There is the very real

potential that men will be killed.

I understand the risks, Colonel.

The integrity of my office

has been compromised

by the involvement

of the Minister...

Hey, what's going on?

Military censor.

There's quite a stink about

the release of that shot

from the lookout.

Well, Hawes can't piss him off,

can he?

God, man! Of course the minister's

had to be involved!

And that's not all.

The FBI raided our New York office

and confiscated the lookout footage

for the duration of the war.

Hell's bells, they don't

muck around, do they?

You.

You just keep that powder dry,

Damey boy.

I think we know

who to thank for this.

You do not take matters like this

into your own hands, Mr Parer.

It is an act of gross disloyalty

to myself and this department.

I've tried to be loyal to my country,

Mr Hawes.

This department represents

your country to you, Mr Parer.

You'd be very unwise

to forget that.

I haven't finished.

If I decide you're not fit

for this job, you will be finished.

There'll be no future

left for you here.

You'll be put straight in the Army.

I doubt that suits your ambitions,

Mr Parer.

And there'll be no more

giving interviews to the press

without departmental approval.

Don't load the gun for him.

Oh, Ronnie, he threatened me

with the Man-Power Act.

To put me in the Army, as though

that's the lowest form of human life

doing the lowest job

he could imagine.

That's what he thinks

of our soldiers.

He's just a silly, ignorant clot,

who only wonders which end

of the camera the bullet comes out.

Stay out of it, Ronnie.

He'll go after you too.

Oh, good. You made

a special effort for tonight.

Well, come on, you're not gonna

talk me out of it again.

I told Chester we'd meet him

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes