Unbroken Page #12

There is much talent in Omori camp.

We have an opera singer. Who is the

opera singer?

Tinker raises his hand.

THE BIRD (CONT’D)

We have a cook from the Plaza

Hotel, New York.

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THE BIRD (CONT’D)

And we have an Olympic athlete. Who

is the Olympic athlete?

He looks at Louie. He already knows.

THE BIRD (CONT’D)

Who is the Olympic athlete?

Louie’s hand goes up. The Bird smiles.

156

EXT. OMORI - DAY 156

The Guards have selected one amongst them to race against

Louie:

Louie - emaciated and weak - is hauled over by two Guards and

placed beside the Running Guard.

Fitzgerald, Tinker, Harris, Miller and the POWs watch from

the side as a Guard fires his PISTOL and the race begins.

The Japanese Guard takes off. Louie runs well at first. The

POWs hopes rise. They watch as he runs. But soon he begins to

fall back.

He tries to keep up, but he is too sick, his legs too weak.

The Bird studies him. Louie falls. He fights to stand. Fists

clenched in anger.

The Japanese runner wins the race. The Guards cheer.

The Bird, eyes on Louie, doesn’t smile. He sees Louie

continue to push himself toward the finish line.

Fitzgerald, Tinker and the POWs watch in silent resignation,

almost embarrassed for Louie. The Bird sees something else.

He sees Louie’s fighting spirit. It bothers him.

Louie crosses the finish line. He lays down looking up at the

sky. Relieved. A shadow appears over him.

THE BIRD (O.C.)

You fail. You are nothing.

Smack. The Birds stick cracks across his face.

157

INT. OFFICER’S BARRACKS - NIGHT 157

A body passes by on its way to Fitzgerald in the next bunk.

It is one of the Scots, who hands something to Fitzgerald,

who in turn hands something to Harris.

Harris then pulls some supplies out from a slat in the wall

and crouches in the corner of the room tracing a map from a

newspaper.

LOUIE:

What’s he doin?

FITZGERALD:

He’s tracing so we can return it

before the Japs find out. He has

most of the war mapped out.

Fitzgerald checks in with Harris who shows him something.

FITZGERALD (CONT’D)

(to Louie)

Americans have taken Saipan. Allies

are gaining ground.

Louie watches Harris hide the copies in a slat in the wall.

Blackie takes the newspaper to return it.

INT. OMORI BARRACKS - DAY

Fitzgerald listens in on Guards speaking privately in

Japanese.

160

EXT. OMORI - DAY 160

Blackie, the Scots and Louie use four foot hollow bamboo

reeds with sharpened edges to steal sugar by leaning against

the sugar sacks, piercing them and letting the sugar run into

their socks and tied pant legs.

B161

EXT. OMORI - DAY B161

Louie helps steal a newspaper for information.

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162

EXT. BENJOS - OMORI POW CAMP - DAY 162

Open-air; it consists of regularly spaced holes dug in the

ground.

Whipping wind.

Louie has a large ladle and two heavy buckets. He is slowly,

painfully, dipping out the first hole.

TINKER:

You know I have to say...

LOUIE:

Please don’t.

TINKER:

For a bunch of guys that don’t eat

anything we sure can sh*t a lot.

(beat)

I think that one’s mine.

They all laugh. Miller vomits.

163

EXT. YARD 163

Later in the day. Louie and Fitzgerald are carrying two

buckets slowly across the yard. The Bird and the other Guards

are in deep discussion (in Japanese). Fitzgerald listens in

as he slowly walks past. The Bird notices. He then looks at

Louie who nods and smiles as if carrying sh*t is his favorite

thing in the world. The Bird just stares.

164

OMITTED 164

165

EXT. SHORE 165

We are on the ocean-side of the man-made island that is the

camp.

A rock with some elevation is the dumping point for the

sewage. It is slick with spattered sewage of previous days.

Louie and Fitzgerald empty buckets off the edge.

Louie pauses. He looks out, into the wind.

Ocean. Lots of ocean.

The pounding of waves.

166

INT. BARRACKS - DAWN 166

Smash cut to a Japanese guard yelling.

Lead by The Bird, the Guards go through the men’s things.

They find Louie’s picture and toss it on the floor. Not what

they’re looking for. They turn over the beds and rip up the

planks.

One guard signals to The Bird. He has found something.

Harris’s maps. The Bird studies them. He glances at

Fitzgerald. His rage grows.

Harris is ripped from his bed.

GUARD:

(to the POWs)

Stay where you are!

The men continue but their eyes are on Harris whose maps are

thrown down in front of him.

Louie can see the Bird approach Harris and whisper something

in his ear.

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Then The Bird takes of his belt and pounds it into Harris.

Over and over. The floor and scattered maps stain with blood.

Louie notices KANO, a sympathetic Japanese guard, watching

with a look of concern.

Louie doesn’t know what to do. He knows to move will only

make it worse.

Close on Louie watching. The sound of the beating continues.

The Bird looks at Louie after the beating, challenging him.

188

EXT. OMORI BARRACKS - LATE DAY 188

Louie looks at the POW’S as one drops to his knees. The man

crying, pleading for his life. Broken.

189

INT. OMORI BARRACKS - LATE DAY 189

Louie turns away from the slit in the bamboo. He lies on his

bunk, weakened by beatings and hunger.

LOUIE:

I’m gonna kill him.

FITZGERALD:

Then they shoot you.

LOUIE:

I don’t give a damn. Let’em shoot

me.

FITZGERALD:

That’s not how we beat the bastard.

We beat him by making it to the end

of the war alive. That’s how we do

it. That’s our revenge.

LOUIE:

(considers)

If we can take it we can make it.

FITZGERALD:

Precisely.

LOUIE:

My brother Pete used to say that.

He thought I could do anything.

Thought I was better than I am.

FITZGERALD:

Who says you’re not?

Louie’s face in the shadows. Covered by darkness.

169

EXT. ROCKS AT THE SHORE - LATE DAY 169

They have just emptied the bucket when Louie’s eye is caught

by something.

Out over the sea: in the distance a battle rages in the skies

over Tokyo.

170

EXT. THE BIRDS OFFICE - LATE DAY 170

The Bird is at his porch rail, his look out in the distance,

same as Louie’s, his expression unreadable.

90A

171 INT. OMORI BARRACKS - NIGHT 171

The POWs are asleep when the GUARDS ENTER:

OMORI GUARDS:

Keirei!

The POW’s scramble out of their bunks. Louie automatically

heads for the back of the barrack to be hidden.

The Bird enters. Everyone is at attention. He expects to see

Louie, but can’t find him. He then crosses straight down the

line until he is face to face with Louie. He stares. Louie

won’t meet his eyes.

THE BIRD:

Why are you last at attention!!

LOUIE:

I... what?

The Bird unbuckles and pulls off his webbed belt. The buckle

is several inches square, made of heavy brass. The Bird

grasps one end with both hands.

The Bird swings the belt backward, with the buckle on the

loose end, then whips it around himself and forward, as if

performing a hammer throw. The buckle rams into Louie's left

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