Saving Private Ryan Page #4

As the black car approaches, her breath comes hard. She

reaches out and steadies herself on the porch post.

The car pulls up to the house. She sees three men get out,

one wearing a clerical collar. The first of her tears come.

INT. GENERAL MARSHALL'S OFFICE - WAR DEPARTMENT - DAY

Another busy office filled with aides and secretaries.

GENERAL GEORGE MARSHALL, Army Chief of Staff, stands next to

his conference table, reading the Ryan brother' files. Half-

a-dozen subordinates, among them the one-armed Colonel and

the Young Captain, wait. General Marshall puts down the

file.

GENERAL MARSHALL

(softly)

Goddamn it.

One-armed colonel All four of them were in the same company

in the 29th Infantry but we split them up after the Sullivan

brothers died on the Juneau.

GENERAL MARSHALL

Any contact with the fourth brother,

James?

One-armed colonel No, sir. He was dropped about thirty miles

inland, near Ramelle. That's still deep behind German lines.

General Marshall hardens.

GENERAL MARSHALL

Well, if he's alive, we're going to

send someone to get him the hell out

of there. That's just what the

General's staff wanted to hear.

EXT. NORMANDY - CRATER FIELD - DAY

NEAR CONSTANT MORTAR EXPLOSIONS. HEAVY MACHINE GUN FIRE.

Miller's Ranger company is pinned down by a superior force

of German troops. The Americans hug the bottoms of the

craters, FIRING BACK as best they can. BIG GUNS THUNDER in

the distance.

SUPERIMPOSITION:

Normandy 1300 hours June 9

MILLER:

Trailed by a RADIOMAN, dashes through

the fire and dives into a sludge-

filled crater. He surfaces, sees

Sarge and Reiben, and reels from a

horrific smell. Their conversation

is repeatedly broken by FIRING And

DUCKING GERMAN FIRE.

MILLER:

Jesus Christ! What the hell are we

swimming in?

REIBEN:

Sh*t, sir.

SARGE:

Fertilizer, Captain, I think we're

in a cranberry bog.

REIBEN:

Out of the frying pan, into the

f***ing latrine.

MILLER:

Look at the bright side, the Krauts

sure as hell don't want to advance

and hold this cesspool.

Miller barks to his RADIOMAN.

MILLER:

Get Fire Control, we need some

artillery...

Radioman Trying, sir.

MORE EXPLOSIONS. They all duck. Reiben's worried.

REIBEN:

Sir, what if they send some other

company into Caen ahead of us while

we're pinned down here?

MILLER:

Don't worry, we're the only Rangers

this side of the continent, we've

got to be first into Caen.

SARGE:

Who cares?

REIBEN:

I care. Don't you know what Caen's

famous for, Sarge?

SARGE:

Frogs?

REIBEN:

Lingerie.

SARGE:

Yeah? So?

THE GERMAN FIRE diminishes for an instant. Miller, Sarge

and Reiben immediately rise and POUR FIRE at the German

positions. GERMAN MACHINE GUN FIRE RESPONDS and they duck

down again.

REIBEN:

So, you ever heard of employee

discounts? My uncle sells shoes,

gets twenty-five percent off

everything in the line, got a closet

filled with the best looking shoes

you ever seen.

MORE MORTAR EXPLOSIONS.

REIBEN:

Just picture some French number been

spending all day, every day, making

cream-colored, shear-body negligees

with gentle-lift silk cups and

gathered empire waists, what the

hell you think she wears at night?

MILLER:

Reiben, how the hell do you know so

much about lingerie?

REIBEN:

Lingerie is my life, sir. My mother's

got a shop in Brooklyn, I grew up in

it, from the time I could crawl, we

carry Caen lingerie, it's the best

there is, it's all I been thinking

about since the invasion.

Another pause in the German shelling. Reiben rises and BLASTS

HIS B.A.R, then ducks as the GERMANS RETURN FIRE.

MILLER:

There's a war on, good chance they're

not still making lingerie in Caen.

REIBEN:

Oh, Captain, they'll always make

lingerie, it's one of the three basic

needs of man -- food, shelter, silk

teddies. Miller Dream on, private.

REIBEN:

Happy to, sir.

Radioman Captain, I've got Command, they want you back at

H.Q., right away.

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