Renaissance Man Page #4

Jack. Youre not listening.

Screw my pride! Ill take anything.

Ill write papers for your children.

Do you hear this?

[ Shouting Continues ]

Its the sound of hell.

Seven... eight...

nine... ten...

eleven.

[ Troops Shouting ]

Go, Navy!

[ Grunts ]

[ Chattering ]

Eat your beans, Haywood.

-[ Chuckles ] Oh, why bother?

-Dont, no, no.

Pay him no mind, Tommy Lee.

-You took it all. Now eat it all!

-Eat, eat, eat, eat.

You got more than me.

I could kick his ass.

I could kick his ass.

I could definitely kick his ass.

Double-Ds. Dumb as dogshit.

-[ Girls Laughing ]

-Dumb, huh?

Well, let me tell you somethin.

Id rather be a double-D...

than a swinger

from the ugly tree, you fat pig.

[ Girls ] Oooh!

[ Laughing ]

Youre bad.

Nice goin, Myers.

-Swingin from the ugly tree? Damn.

-[ Laughs ]

[ Drill Sergeant ] Anything left

on your plate, well do extra push-ups.!

You know, Mel, cling peaches

were my daddys favorite.

Gimme a break, will ya, Junior?

My daddy this.

My daddy that. How many freakin times

do we have to hear about your daddy?

Eat! Eat! Eat!

Eat! Eat!

We eat now, we taste it later!

-Where did all this

freakin food come from?

-Eat! Eat it!

-[ Chattering ]

-All right, who wants to start?

Nobody?

[ Snorts ] I thought this was

the volunteer army.

You tryin to diss us? You cant do that.

Leroy, tell him he cant do that.

-Shut up, a**hole.

-Naw, man, hes dissin you.

Why you startin with me, inbred Jed?

Sit over there and shut up.

Montgomery, you finished? Is that

the end of the intelligent repartee?

All right. Why dont we begin

with Haywood?

How come I got to go first?

Because youre from

Wallahoochee, Georgia.

-[ Montgomery ] Get up there, boy.

-Willacoochee, Bill.

Willacoochee.

Theres these woods

behind our trailer park.

This old guy lives

in the woods there...

and everybody in town

swore he was crazy.

-""He showed me how to hunt...

-[ Yawning ]

how to be real quiet

and how to listen.

He said he had seen everything

in the world there was to see.

And thats why he never wanted

to leave those woods.

Me and my daddy got laid off

at the paper mill.

""Whilst I spent about five

months watchin TV with my brothers...

I kept thinkin

of what the old man said.

Finally, I decided that I did

want to see more of the world...

than what was behind that trailer park,

so I joined up.

I liked living with my Aunt Mavis

in Chicago the best.

But last summer, my mother Ruthie

came back, and we drove to Atlanta.

She said we dont have to stay long,

but then she met a man and take off.

""I waited around for a while

for her to come back...

but everybody keeps sayin

just go on home.

I dont know where that is.

""So I take the bus to Cleveland

and spend two days staring at

the poster behind the driver...

that said, Be All You Can Be.

""So I think about that for a week...

and then I think...

I gotta be somewhere, so here I am.

[ Montgomery ]

""In my crib...

there aint never been a time

when we eat, or sleep, or nothin.

You know, everybody just runs

around crazy. Half the time

I dont even know who they are.

[ Scoffs ]

I must be the only person

in the world to join the army...

so hed know exactly what time

he was eatin lunch.

I wanted to learn a new trade.

-Sergeant Cass.

-Afternoon, sir.

-[ Bill ] Brian Davis, Junior.

-Sir, yes, sir.

[ Clears Throat ]

Why I joined the army...

I wanted to be in the army

for as long as I can remember.

""I never really knew my dad cause he

died in Vietnam when I was a baby.

His name was Brian too.

My whole life my mama

showed me pictures of him...

and read me his letters

and told me how he was a hero.

-Bullshit, man. He wasnt no hero.

-He was so!

-How you gonna prove that?

You got no proof.

-Hey, hey, hey.

-[ Davis ] I dont need proof.

-Get it through your thick skull.

Your daddy was no hero.

-[ Myers ] Shut up.!

-Read my lips. Hes selling you a dream.

-Would you knock it off

and let him finish?

-[ Davis ] My mom told me.!

-[ Benitez ] Your mommy made it up.

-[ Haywood ] Cut it out.!

Go ahead.

She told me about how he was a hero.

He died for his country.

I think that if my daddy

was alive today...

hed want me

to be in the army too...

[ Crying ]

so I could learn to be brave.

Im sorry.

Thats okay. Its all right.

Take it easy.

[ Clears Throat ] So, um--

I guess the real reason

I, I joined the army...

was to get a better education

so I could get a better job.

And thats why. "

When I was a kid, I used to

love summers cause there was no school.

[ Montgomery Laughs ]

"I had to baby-sit my kid sister,

but I didnt mind too much.

I mean, wed fight a lot but, you know,

mostly we just used to kid around.

She wanted to be a dancer.

She was pretty good too.

One day a couple

of summers ago, I sent her up

to the store to buy some milk.

Now, the bullet was meant for the dude

comin out of the store...

""I still miss her a lot, but I always

miss her more in the summer.

After that I decided that being part of

a gang didnt seem like such a good idea.

So I joined this gang.

That good enough, Mr. Rago?

Yeah.

-[ Man ] How you doin, sir?

-Lets have a coin check.

[ Bill ] Can I have a Dewars, please,

with seven aspirin back?

-Seven aspirin? You okay?

-Catch you later.

Yeah. Oh, Jesus.

I mean, some of the stories these kids

have. I cant--I cant believe it.

Its really somethin, huh?

Everybodys got a story.

You wanna hear my story, Bill?

[ People Chattering ]

Not now, Tom. Some other time.

Well, you know what I think?

Whats that, Tom?

You see, after their families

let em down, they go to

whats left of their schools.

The teachers are underpaid.

Theyre scared, so they stop teaching.

But that doesnt stop em from

handing out high school diplomas

like they were toilet paper.

So that means we gotta take em.

Country better shape up soon, though.

Were going to hell in

a handcart. But thats strictly

between you and me, right?

Yeah. [ Knocking Bar]

Could I have my aspirin, please?

[ Drill Sergeant ]

Swing up and stand on--No.!

-Stand on the log! You ready to quit?

You ready to quit?

-No!

-No, Drill Sergeant!

-Get the hell back up there!

This is not that complicated.

Forty-one, Drill Sergeant.

No, Private, its not 41 .

Youre reading the wrong

numbers. Read the red numbers.

-One, two, three--

-[ Groans ]

-Youve got to be kiddin me.

-No, Drill Sergeant.

Three weeks, motor mouth.

Three weeks, you have yet

to show me a real push-up.

-I expect to get this one pretty good.

-Theyve all got to be good!

Two fingers. Thats what its supposed

to be, two fingers.

-Understand that, Private Myers?

-Yes, Drill Sergeant.

[ Drill Sergeant ] Keep movin, Benitez.

All the way to the end. Dont stop.!

Come on, get back to the line! Go back

to the start of the line! Hurry up!

Youre gonna make it, Benitez.

All right, times up.

Who wants to talk about

what they read?

-Benitez, come on up here.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes