The Purple Heart Page #5

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when he saw defence was useless.

That is clever.

You insist on protecting the carrier

from which you came,

when it no longer needs your protection.

That is stupid.

General MacArthur had his orders.

We have ours.

I'm sure he found his orders

as difficult to obey as we find ours.

As you wish. Remove the prisoners.

(speaks Japanese)

(shouting and cheering)

Twice within an hour

I narrowly escaped with my life.

The Japanese treat me as if I am an enemy.

Portugal and Russia are neutral enemies.

England and America, belligerent enemies,

Germany and her satellites are friendly

enemies. They draw a very fine distinction.

Good afternoon, comrades.

Why aren't you celebrating the victory?

You both know Mr Keppel

of the Swiss Red Cross.

How are you, Mr Keppel?

Why aren't you celebrating the victory?

I have turned in my credentials.

I have resigned my position.

I am thoroughly ashamed.

- Won't you gentlemen join us?

- Thank you. Thank you.

Mr Keppel has a favour to ask.

I will let him tell his own story.

He needs help desperately.

The thing is, I'm trying

to get a message to Washington.

- What do you think?

- He's the same.

He'll always be the same, I guess.

What about Vincent? What about Canelli?

- (Ross) Take it easy, Stoner.

- Yes, but it's night and they're not back yet.

Whatever's happened to them,

at least we know they haven't talked.

(speaks Japanese)

(door opens)

You and you, take him in.

What did you do to him? Just let me out...

- He's alive. That's about all.

- (door opens)

- (Greenie) What did they do to you?

- (Canelli) What you see.

I intended to continue studying art

if I came through this war.

The way things look,

I guess I'll have to change my plans.

I don't mind so much,

but it's sure gonna be tough on my folks.

From the first moment

I drew a three-legged cow with a crayon,

my father dreamed of a second Michelangelo.

Together with my mother, he saved every

penny for years to send me to Italy to study.

When the day came for me to go,

Italy was in the war and on the wrong side.

I couldn't go and I couldn't stay.

I'd said goodbye to too many people.

You know how it is.

So I went to New York.

"There are fine schools there,"

I told my parents.

Instead I enlisted. I wanted to fight

the thing that had spoiled my father's dream.

As far as he knows, I'm still in New York

painting beautiful pictures.

I'm glad.

- How's Vincent?

- He's still out.

- You know what he said before passing out?

- Hold it, Angelo.

We don't know which one of us will be next,

or how soon.

(music plays)

What's that?

- What's what?

- That music.

- I don't hear anything.

- That's funny. I can hear it, plain as anything.

That was my old man's favourite.

"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways."

- What?

- Oh.

That's what Anne had inscribed

on the wristwatch she gave me.

Oh.

"How do I love thee?"

"Let me count the ways."

"I love thee to the depth

and breadth and height

My soul can reach,

when feeling out of sight

For the ends of being and ideal grace."

(woman) "I love thee to the level

of every day's most quiet need,

by sun and candle-light."

- (Stoner) Anne.

- Hello, Martin.

(Stoner) Hello.

(Anne) "I love thee freely,

as men strive for right."

"I love thee purely, as they turn from praise."

"I love thee with the passion put to use

In my old griefs,

and with my childhood's faith."

"I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints."

"I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life;

and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death."

"...and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death."

(# traditional American folk music)

You too, Clint?

I guess I was pretty far away.

Personally, I'll settle for a nice, juicy steak.

But I got the kind of thoughts

that don't cooperate.

The kind that insist on

sticking to the trouble at hand.

The kind that keep saying:

"Who do you think

you're kidding, Greenbaum?"

My thoughts played a trick on me too.

One time when I was a little boy, I got lost.

I stopped a policeman

and asked him how to find my home.

When I told him who I was,

he offered to take me there.

"Please don't," I said. "Just tell me

where I live. I want to find it myself."

He laughed and said he understood,

and told me how to find my home.

I asked him his name.

"The boys down at the station house

call me Joe," he said.

Until I joined the army,

he was the only person I ever knew

who let me do anything for myself.

It was Joe my thoughts took me to just now.

I don't know why.

Not your girl,

not your old man,

not your mama.

A cop named Joe.

Rich people.

Sergeant Clinton, you come.

Howard!

Don't worry, Greenie.

It's the second time in my life

I've had a chance to find my own way home.

I think I can make it.

- Not a scratch!

- Never even touched you. Nice score.

All our worry for nothing.

- What's the idea of being AWOL?

- Just in time for breakfast.

What did you do? Scare Mitsubi?

What did he have to say to you?

Wait a minute. I know

what you're thinking, but it's not true.

Go on. Tell 'em it's not true.

Tell 'em you didn't talk.

Say something, Howard. Talk! Talk!

You can talk, can't you?

- They did torture him.

- They must have choked him.

Is that it? Is that what they did?

(speaks Japanese)

Please try.

It's tea, Clint. It'll be good for you.

(sobs)

Stoner.

Yes, sir.

I was just figuring up. Today is my birthday.

- Happy birthday, Captain.

- Happy birthday, Captain.

Aren't you going to drink with me, Stoner?

In a cup of General Somebody's stinkingly

bitter tea... I drink your very good health, sir.

Thank you, gentlemen.

How old are you today, sir?

I'm 30. I'm getting to be an old man.

"HAS there any old fellow

got mixed with the boys?"

"If there has, throw him out,

without making a noise."

Carry on, Stoner.

You're making me feel younger.

I don't know whether I remember it.

"Hang the Catalogue's cheat

and the Almanac's spite!"

"Old Time is a liar!"

"We're twenty to-night!"

"We're twenty! We're twenty!"

"Who says we are more?"

"He's tipsy... young jackanapes!...

show him the door!"

"We've a trick, we young fellows,

you may have been told,

Of talking (in public) as if we were old:

That boy we call "Doctor,"

this we call "Judge;"

It's a neat little fiction...

of course it's all fudge."

"Yes, we're boys,

- always playing with sword or with pen...

And I sometimes have asked...

Shall we ever be men?"

"Shall we always be youthful,

and laughing, and gay,

Till the last dear companion

drops smiling away?"

"Then here's to our boyhood,

its gold and its gray!"

"The stars of its winter, the dews of its May!"

(door opens)

Lieutenant Bayforth.

"When we have done

with our life-lasting toys,

Dear Father,

take care of thy children, THE BOYS!"

- Harvey! Harvey!

- What is it?

It's Clinton.

He says if they do to Bayforth what they did

to him and the others, he's gonna talk.

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