The Manchurian Candidate Page #4

Now Ellie stares at him, mouth agape.

RAYMOND:

What.

ELLIE:

I’m sorry, for a second there I thought

it was your father speaking -- that

dreaded Shaw blood rising -- and the

stink of defeat made me nauseous.

RAYMOND:

Mother --

ELLIE:

And excuse me, when have I ever attacked

the honorable Mr. Jordan, despite the

shameful way his daughter misled you that

summer at the shore.

RAYMOND:

Mother, you chased her away --

ELLIE:

If that’s how you want to remember it.

RAYMOND:

-- you ruined everything.

8/18/03 17.

ELLIE:

Honey, you’re oversimplifying things

somewhat -- but, yes, okay -- I promise,

promise I will stay out of it. You have

my word.

Raymond stares at her.

ELLIE:

After all, you’re young and you have

plenty of party conventions ahead of you

in which to discover, as your father did,

that democracy is an elusive and

imperfect science, and the meek do not

happily inherit the earth, but simply get

eaten by the alpha dogs, chewed up,

digested and deposited on the carefully

mown parkways of American politics.

Raymond rolls his eyes.

into the bedroom.

She ruffles his hair again, heads

ELLIE (O.S.)

One day, you will, I’m sure, tearfully

memorialize me in your acceptance speech.

Don’t you have a different tie in here?

Your grandfather always let me pick his

ties.

Raymond smooths his hair back down.

RAYMOND:

I’m wearing the one I have on.

No response.

44 CLOSE - CONVENTION PODIUM - NIGHT (TELEVISED VIDEO) 44

Raymond is speaking. His tie is different. So is he: now

he exudes a telegenic warmth and vivacity, his manner

confident, easy, open.

TV44 RAYMOND

I’ve always said I am not a professional

politician, although I hold, and have

been held -- well, hugged -- in elected

office --

(a winning smile:)

-- you all know my mother, Senator

Eleanor Prentiss Shaw ...

TV44

A CHORUS of cheers, and appreciative laughter -- he’s won

them over already -

8/18/03 18.

45 INT. MARCO’S APARTMENT - NIGHT 45

Marco, on the sofa, stares hard at the televised Raymond

Shaw, as:

TV45 RAYMOND/T.V. TV45

... and some of you no doubt remember my

father ... the late Senator John Shaw.

(he seems to want to say

more, but doesn’t)

I’ve been honored to serve my two terms

in Congress. But I also grew up on the

Hill. I’ve seen how the game is played

by professionals -

Marco reaches for his steaming cup of coffee, his eyes never

leaving the screen -- he just doesn’t get this at all --

46 INT. CONVENTION HALL - BACK STAGE 46

Ellie in the f.g., intently watching a monitor while, in the

deep b.g., slightly out of focus, we can SEE Raymond

speaking, and his convention audience beyond ...

TV46 RAYMOND TV46

-- how deals are struck, committees

bullied, agendas bought and sold -- and,

with apologies to my mother, I wish to

remain an amateur. I believe democracy

is not negotiable. We need to secure

tomorrow, today.

Ellie shakes her head fondly, and begins to move away as

CROWD ROARS --

47 CONVENTION CENTER CORRIDOR, BACK STAGE - CONTINUOUS 47

TRACKING with Ellie and Gillespie and his two aides, and a

posse of three other FORMIDABLE-LOOKING POLITICIANS through

a hallway crowded with NETWORK CAMERA CREWS, STRAY

DELEGATES, HIGH SCHOOL MARCHING BAND members and a complete

DRILL TEAM in red-white-and-blue sequined leotards, as:

ELLIE:

Bluffing?

GILLESPIE:

That was the inference.

Raymond’s speech echoes incoherently through the corridor.

ELLIE:

They should be down on their fat white

knees thanking me for saving this party

from committing political seppuku.

8/18/03 19.

CONGRESSMAN HEALY

You gave them every opportunity to do the

right thing, Senator.

ELLIE:

(glances at him)

No. I gave them one opportunity. And

that was unusually generous of me.

She pushes through a door, and into --

48 INT. CONVENTION BACK ROOM - CONTINUOUS 48

Raymond’s speech plays, low, on a television, and half a

dozen DELEGATES and POWER PLAYERS with "Arthur For

President" buttons grimly watch Ellie breeze in. Party

Chairman VAUGHN UTLY anticipates her:

UTLY:

The decision is final, Senator. Tom

Jordan is on the ticket. We don’t need

your blessing, but we’d like it.

ELLIE:

(smiling:
)

Before we get started, I’m dying to know:

which genius here hatched the scheme of

pairing a Sound Bite from Nebraska with a

relic who thinks keeping suicide bombers

off our busses is unconstitutional?

UTLY:

All the research indicates that an Arthur-

Jordan ticket sits quite well with the

American public and --

ELLIE:

’Sits quite well’ translates into how

many votes?

SENATOR WELLS:

Your son is largely unknown outside of

New York. His public service, his

Congressional record, while commendable,

is --

ELLIE:

My son is a war hero.

CONGRESSMAN FLORES

(cheerful)

Governor Arthur has agreed to consider

Raymond for a cabinet post.

A cold silence. Ellie stands --

8/18/03 20.

ELLIE:

We didn’t come here to have a discussion.

UTLY ELLIE:

Senator -- (to her posse)

Did we come here to have a

discussion?

SENATOR WELLS:

Ellie, you don’t have the votes to block

this, or even push the nomination to a

second ballot.

ELLIE:

(ignores him)

Even running against this cut-and-fold

vice president, with his party’s record

of abysmal failure at home and abroad,

Arthur is still unelectable without help.

(cold, hard logic:)

Consider. The Governor is a corn-belt

candidate who -- scratch and sniff --

looks and smells alot like the kind of

liberal-labor-intellectual Dukakis was,

but without, thank God, the helmet.

(beat)

Assume our intrepid Arthur can carry the

Northeast, plus his home ground, and

California. We’re still dead in the

South, and Southwest, where they win by

landslides. The mid-central is a toss-

up. Tom Jordan actually becomes a

liability in Florida because of his

Castro-appeasement profile, and in the

Carolinas, where he fumbles the military

vote over his "terrorism isn’t a war it’s

a social disease" nonsense.

The room is surreally silent. Ellie spins and moves like a

televangelist, preaching to the frightened faithful.

ELLIE:

You know this. Your own polls and

surveys back me up.

(beat)

You’re counting on Jordan to help you get

the black vote, women, college kids -- my

gut instinct says he won’t -- and Arthur

holding the center -- where he’s soft at

best. And who’s to say the President

won’t throw troops into another third-

world skirmish, pushing his sidekick’s

approval ratings up into the eighties

again, and the campaign off the front

pages?

8/18/03 21.

UTLY:

We’re confident this is a winning ticket,

Ellie.

ELLIE:

What’s your margin of error? Five

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