3 basements in
Ohio
2 apartments in
Ohio
1 studio in
Venice Beach, Cali
2 lofts in NY
And 322,000 dollars
later… welcome to my world…
THE
STRUGGLE OF THIS LIFE
(2001
VERSION - *In Word – Not Final Draft)
Based
on Real Events
WGA
Registered
TRACK 1: IN THE
NAME OF THE FATHER –BONO AND GAVIN FRIDAY
There is a
battle throughout the story between the Devil and God. The Devil sees the main character, Chris
Cooney’s world in color, while God sees his world in black & white.
FADE IN:
EXT. DARK SPACE
A white light blinks.
FADE OUT:
SOUND: Footprints trample through a forest. A human being breathes
heavy.
FADE IN:
INT. THEATER HALL (LONDON) - CIRCA 1600
Ceilings and walls are decayed along with a stage. Theater seats
are torn at the seams. A SHADOW, speaking its native tongue, engulfs the
theater.
SHADOW
(in Aramaic; subtitled)
Shakespeare.
FADE OUT:
SOUND:
Cracking weeds with wind. A human being breathes heavy.
FADE IN:
MONTAGE:
-- People wait in line at the Landmark Theater in LA.
-- A young boy, Chris, stares at actors inside a studio. A worker
looks at him and closes the door.
-- A hill showcasing the word Hollywood shines bright in the
sunlight.
-- The Shadow engulfs the sign.
SHADOW
Art?
FADE OUT:
SOUND: Twenty-three seconds of heavy breathing.
FADE IN:
YOUNG CHRIS (10) stands at the edge of a cliff. A snake-like
Shadow slithers towards him. The voice echoes.
SHADOW
The story he will write, will be legendary.
In five-hundred years,it will be understood.
FADE OUT:
SHADOW (V.O)
Are you ready? Cue the music.
MUSIC: The original beginning of ‘The Ninth,’ by Beethoven.
SHADOW (V.O)
His story begins now.
FADE IN:
EXT. DARK SPACE
The blinking white light explodes into a universe of stars.
CHRIS (V.O)
In my
dream, I saw the ending.
A HEARTBEAT crescendoing to an ear-shattering octave.
CHRIS (V.O)
CHRIS (V.O)
Or was it
just the beginning?
The earth appears. Continents become countries and then states. An idyllic rural town of forests and suburban houses
canvass the land behind a sign: “Welcome to Promised Land County, Ohio”.
EXT. MOVIE THEATER – EVENING
A marquee
reads:
CHRIS
COONEY
IN A ONE
NIGHT ONLY EVENT
PRESENTS:
“THE
STRUGGLE OF THIS LIFE”
INT. THEATER LOBBY - EVENING (COLOR)
Crystal chandeliers hang from a ceiling. Hostesses stroll through
a rich and elegant crowd with trays of wineglasses upon their shoulders.
Clean-cut bartenders serve mixed drinks at a bar.
TITLE CARD: “APRIL 22, 2000”
The hands on a mahogany clock are at 7:23. The anxious crowd
forms a line at the four entrances of the theater.
INT. THEATER HALL - (BLACK & WHITE)
Three humanoid shadows creep across a high arching ceiling, religious
painted walls and empty red seats. A stage curtain rises to reveal a living
room set.
CHRIS COONEY (24), a gaunt man with a spotty beard, sits at
a table with his back to the vacant theater.
Hands on a grandfather clock are at 7:23. A telephone sits
on an end table with twenty-three messages. A violin with strings dangling from
its base rests against a make-shift wall. A bible, shoe box, bottle of wine and
a rose in a vase crowd the living room table.
The living room curtain opens. Chris stares forward at glass
sliding doors then to an empty corridor to his left. Chris’ tobacco
stained-fingers page through an open notebook. The Shadows unify into one human
Shadow that lags onto stage.
SHADOW
(in
Aramaic; subtitled)
Christopher,
your time has come.
Chris looks back at the Shadow and attempts to respond.
SHADOW
(subtitled)
Shhh...
you have seen this world as
I have
seen it- in color. Glorious!
The
deceit of black and white is
just an
illusion. It’s not happiness.
The doors open. The audience files into the theater. A young
wife stares up at her dignified husband.
YOUNG
WIFE
Are we
late?
The husband stares at his Rolex then up at the architecture.
HUSBAND
No. This
is going to be something
different.
The Shadow stands tall on stage.
SHADOW
(announcing;
subtitled)
Tonight
is the night. This is not a
rehearsal.
This is it, a live performance.
(to
Chris; subtitled)
Are they
here to participate or
bear
witness?
(announcing;
subtitled)
It
doesn’t matter. Chris Cooney is
here to
show you his world.
The audience is quickly ushered to their seats. Two women move
towards their seats in the third row of the theater.
WOMAN 1
What’s on
stage... a shadow?
WOMAN 2
I think so.
What language is it speaking?
WOMAN 1
I’m not
sure. But every word make sense.
CHRIS AT THE TABLE
rubs his tired eyes. An image of a real-life Marlboro Man appears
and then disappears in the glass sliding doors. Chris shakes off the experience
and begins to write in a notebook. The theater speakers announce his thoughts
for the audience.
CHRIS
There
have been demons from the
beginning,
which I have fought and
will
continue to fight. My only
hope is
that in the end, I find-
The Shadow snaps its finger. The theater becomes black.
CUT TO:
INT. HOUSE - NIGHT (BLACK & WHITE)
A sanctuary of silence exists in a dark and empty living room.
TITLE CARD: “2009”
A candle rooted inside the mouth of a Grand Mariner bottle sits
at the center of a table.
A MAN’S HAND-
MAN(O.S)
I’m being
pessimistic, but bear
with me,
because I like you have
experienced
life.
(-strikes
a match; the
fire
burns out)
The road
I traveled did not lead to
where I
once thought, not even
close. I
guess a child’s dream can
never
live up to a man’s reality.
(-strikes
another match;
the fire
burns out)
I’ll
admit- for many years I was in
a sad
pathetic place where all I
wanted
was for it all to end.
(strikes
the final match
and lights
a candle)
God,
nothing is easy. The first
time I
wrote the story, I began
with the
ending. Now I choose to
start in
the middle, because up
until now
I was just the writer.
I know this
doesn’t make much sense.
But when
it happens in your life, it will.
CUT TO:
EXT. POND - AUTUMN - EVENING (BLACK & WHITE)
Trees and rock formations slant from a hill and reflect upon
still water. A beer cracks open. JOHN (21) and his Dan Marino resemblance, sips
a beer at the edge of a pier.
TITLE CARD: “1996”
CHRIS
(O.S)
How can
you start without me?
CHRIS (21), clean-shaven and built like a redwood, steps out
of a forest and onto the pier. John reaches into a cooler of ice and whips back
a beer. Chris makes a one handed catch.
JOHN
Chris can
catch.
CHRIS
John
learned to throw.
Chris chugs the beer, crushes the can and flings it in the
pond.
JOHN
Jesus
Christ, trying to set a record?
CHRIS
No, trying
to make sense of it all.
JOHN
Make
sense of what?
Chris stares at the sky: a horoscope of stars.
CHRIS
I don’t
know. I think I’m being watched.
JOHN
By who?
CHRIS
I’m not
sure.
JOHN
You’re
XXXXXX up.
CHRIS
Maybe I
am. Maybe I’m not. But I
know what
I need to do. Hear me
out, what
are your favorite movies?
JOHN
Um...
Field of Dreams... A Few Good
Men...
Shawshank... Rudy: I don’t
know
there’s so many, how about you?
Chris tosses another empty can in the pond.
CHRIS
Cool Hand
Luke.
That’s it?
Chris wanders the pier like an actor on stage.
CHRIS
Hear me
out. Thousands of movies
lead to a
climax. What makes a
great
movie?
JOHN
I don’t
know.
CHRIS
Think of
your favorite song.
The chorus
drew you in, right?
John nods in agreement.
CHRIS
A great
song is like a great movie.
It’s not
just the chorus or the
climax-
it’s all that’s inside.
Take
“Imagine” by Lennon. Yes, the
chorus is
incredible, but so is
every
line.
JOHN
What are
you saying?
Chris packs a tin of tobacco.
CHRIS
What am I
saying? Every word and
every
detail in every moment is
essential.
Just like every person
behind a
scene and in a scene is
necessary
to make a movie.
JOHN
And?
Chris places a healthy dip in his lip.
CHRIS
What do
you mean... and? I want to
be a
writer.
I want
actors and directors to
bring my
story to life. I don’t
care if
it’s the Silver Screen or a
Broadway
Stage.
JOHN
You
drunk? Or just dreaming?
CHRIS
It’s hard
to tell the difference.
Chris walks off the pier.
JOHN
Where are
you going?
Chris finds a path in the forest.
CHRIS
To home,
to church, to the bar. I
don’t
know- somewhere to find hope.
JOHN
(to
himself)
He’s
drunk.
John crushes his empty can and tosses it in the cooler. He CRACKS
open another beer.
INT. LIVING ROOM - MORNING (BLACK & WHITE)
Chris (21) appears to have gone the distance with the heavyweight champion of the world. He sits at a table with broken
glass on a hardwood floor surrounding his bare feet.
TITLE CARD: “NINE HOURS LATER”
The necklace with a crucifix he wears dangles over the back of
a wooden chair. His shaky hand picks up a pen.
CHRIS
XXXX God.
In anguish, Chris throws the pen against a mark on the wall.
The pen sticks. The mark morphs into the Shadow.
SHADOW
Christopher,
you are right...
nothing matters.
Chris nods and turns over a Bible. THUNDER VIBRATES the
room.
The Shadow disappears.
The scene turns to COLOR.
The Shadow disappears.
The scene turns to COLOR.
CUT TO:
EXT. CITY STREET - NIGHT (COLOR)
Neon flashes of light streak the skyline. SOUNDS of dynamite
echo the atmosphere. The street is littered with car accidents. The Shadow
moves along
the sidewalk.
TITLE CARD: “APRIL 23, 1975”
Police cars followed by an ambulance weave in and out of traffic.
People on the sidewalk take cover beneath building awnings from golf ball sized
hail.
LIGHTNING STRIKES a transformer. Buildings turn black as sparks
fall to the street. An emergency entrance at a Hospital is blocked by a two-car
accident. People surround the area as paramedics rush a pregnant woman from an
ambulance inside.
INT. MATERNITY WARD - EVENING (COLOR)
A stretcher barrels down a hallway. An inexperience receptionist holds up a phone.
RECEPTIONIST
What do I
do? There’s no dial tone.
The congested hallway switches from color to black &
white every time the lights flicker.
INT. DELIVERY ROOM 623 - EVENING (COLOR)
The paramedics enter and lift the pregnant women from the stretcher
to a hospital bed. A nurse, HOPE (21) with a little cap, dimples and long dark
hair, enters the room. She holds open the door and nods her head as the
paramedics exit.
CUT TO:
INT. MATERNITY WARD - EVENING (COLOR)
A skinny guy wearing glasses, MATTHEW (28) runs into an employee pushing a food cart. A tray of veal, yams and
asparagus CRASH to the floor. Matthew looks to assist, but can only help
himself up.
MATTHEW
Sorry, I
have to go.
Matthew sprints down the hallway, turns a corner and bulldozes a paramedic.
MATTHEW
God I’m
sorry. My wife’s in labor.
Do you
know where Helen Cooney is?
PARAMEDIC
Room 623.
INT. DELIVERY ROOM 623 - EVENING (COLOR)
An overhead TELEVISION BLARES static. LIGHTNING STRIKES a telephone
pole. A LIMB CRASHES through a window. An electrical surge shorts out the
power. Matthew barrels into the room.
MATTHEW
Helen!
A petite Irish girl, HELEN (25), is secured to a steel stirrup.
HELEN
Matthew,
thank god.
Matthew kneels beside her and brushes the wet hair from her face.
MATTHEW
You are
so beautiful.
HELEN
We’re
going to lose the baby!
Matthew kisses her forehead and holds her hand tight.
MATTHEW
Helen,
look at me.
(a beat)
Look at
me, Helen. God is with us.
The backup GENERATORS KICK on. Helen screams increase from the
magnitude of intense labor. A doctor, CHRISTIAN (30s) with fierce blue eyes,
jet-black hair and a Spartan body, SLAMS through the door.
CHRISTIAN
Hope, is
she ready?
Christian slaps on latex gloves. Hope moves towards the operating table.
HOPE
Christian,
this isn’t right.
MATTHEW
(to
Christian)
Is
everything all right?
Christian wipes the sweat from his forehead. The Shado appears, standing in the corner of the room. Hope knocks
over a tray of instruments. Helen grimaces, breathing furiously.
CHRISTIAN
The child
will be fine.
Matthew holds onto Helen’s hand. He brushes back her hair
and whispers: I Love You.
HOPE
No. He
won’t be.
CHRISTIAN
Hope,
what are you trying to do?
(to
patient)
Focus
Helen, now one last push.
Helen’s last contraction is complemented by the sheer volume
of her scream. The backup generator loses power; the delivery room is shrouded
in darkness. Chris Cooney enters the world in tears.
DISSOLVE TO:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The story
encompasses the entire life span of Chris Cooney.
SHADOW
How
strange, the nature of birth is
for a
child to leave the darkness
of his
mothers’ womb and enter the
light. So
why did Christopher have
to enter
this world in darkness?
Well God, do you have answer?DISSOLVE TO:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRACK 2: DISARM
– SMASHING PUMPKINS
EXCERPT:
INT. BEDROOM –
EVENING (BLACK & WHITE)
Full size
pictures of the 1980 U.S Hockey Team hangs on the wall along with a
crucifix. A clock on the night stand is
at 10:23.
TITLE CARD: “TEN
YEARS LATER”
A mirror
reflects Young Chris at the dresser. He
holds the crucifix of his father’s necklace in the palm of his hand.
CHRIS
Are you real or are you like Santa
Claus and the Easter Bunny?
Chris retires
the necklace to a dresser drawer.
SCENE TURNS TO
COLOR
He
grabs a notebook and lies on his bed. He opens it to the first page then stares
up at the crucifix on the wall.
CHRIS
I’m sorry, but I need proof.
An
outline of light pulsates behind the partially open bedroom door. The SOUND of
a pounding hammer echoes.
INT.
FAMILY ROOM - EVENING (BLACK & WHITE)
Matthew,
age 38, hammers in a nail and hangs a family photo. A flame crackles in a
fireplace. Family photos lie scattered on a carpeted floor. Matthew and Helen,
age 35, are in matching pajamas.
Helen
sits against a leather coach and places pictures in a photo album.
MATTHEW
Do you think he’ll be a doctor?
HELEN
No, he’s going to be a lawyer.
MATTHEW
How about a professional athlete?
HELEN
Only if he takes after me.
Matthew
sits beside her and tickles her. She laughs as she turns the page. The photo
album ends with a picture of Chris blowing out ten candles.
CUT TO:
INT.
THEATER HALL - EVENING - (BLACK & WHITE)
Chris
paces the stage for the sell-out crowd.
CHRIS
All I ever wanted was to create a
world and surround it with life. A
much better life then I know now.
Life events happen in mysterious ways. Most writers write from experience. Not always. So many scenes I wrote happened later in my life. For example, Christine (My second love) and I broke up and I lived alone in the apartment. One night I was with friends at Scorchers, a bar in North Royalton, where I was playing pool. Just like in the screenplay came a girl, out of the woodwork, that dressed and looked like Hope. Hope is the main female in the story. Anyways she whispered in my ear just like it happened in the story and gave me her number. One day you will see the movie and understand why I had to be extremely cautious.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRACK 3: CRIMSON
AND CLOVER –TOMMY JAMES & THE SHONDELLS
Life events happen in mysterious ways. Most writers write from experience. Not always. So many scenes I wrote happened later in my life. For example, Christine (My second love) and I broke up and I lived alone in the apartment. One night I was with friends at Scorchers, a bar in North Royalton, where I was playing pool. Just like in the screenplay came a girl, out of the woodwork, that dressed and looked like Hope. Hope is the main female in the story. Anyways she whispered in my ear just like it happened in the story and gave me her number. One day you will see the movie and understand why I had to be extremely cautious.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRACK 4: KARMA
POLICE –RADIOHEAD
John, Peter,
Paul and Chris Cooney are best friends.
Michael and Seth are the leaders of a bad society, named the “Creeps”. Very bad things are on the horizon.
EXCERPT:
EXT.
PURGATORY ALLEY — NIGHT (BLACK & WHITE)
The
dark and desolate horror zone lies between the bar and a church. The guys rush
in to sewer rats, bums lying against brick walls with cheap bottles of booze
and torn up blankets covering prostitutes.
The
Creeps beat down an old man.
PETER
You guys ain’t XXXXXXX tough!
-Peter
sucker PUNCHES a Creep—Paul takes off his shirt.
-Fists
fly, blood scatters.
-Paul
gets punched in the nose—wrestles the punk to the ground, chokes him.
-Michael
SLAMS John’s head into a brick wall.
-Peter
reacts—SHATTERS a beer bottle across Michael’s face.
-Chris
kneels over Seth—BREAKS his face with his fist.
The
creeps give up the fight and scamper away. The old man struggles to move on the
pavement.
OLD MAN
They would have killed me, would of
killed me. Stabbed me to death.
Thank you boys… thank you.
Chris
backs into the brick building. He slides to the ground.
CHRIS
There is no life here, just
shattered dreams.
(a beat)
Where is my faith?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRACK
5: POR UNA CABEZA
This
scene takes place after a vicious arrest.
EXCERPT:
(Tom an outrageous hillbilly cop –Kevin James
perfect for the role.)
Chris
looks up to see Hope, in the distance.
CHRIS
It’s her. She is real. It wasn’t a
dream.
TOM
Whatcha talking ‘bout boy? You
wanna dream, dream in here.
Tom
tosses Chris in the back seat like garbage. Chris bounces from the seat and
onto the floor.
INT.
POLICE CAR - NIGHT (COLOR)
Tom
enters the car and calls back to the station.
TOM
Jerry, you read me?
JERRY
(from radio)
Go ahead Tom.
TOM
I gots me a drunken male. 6’2, 195
pounds. Damn boy’s a pistol,
bringin him home. Out.
CHRIS
(to himself)
This is crazy. Not again.
The
cop car makes an illegal U-turn.
CHRIS
STARES OUT THE WINDOW
The
Shadow waits on the sidewalk, looking down. Hope climbs the cathedral steps and
stops at the church door. She turns for a fleeting glimpse.
SHADOW (V.O)
Is she or is she not, what you
asked for?
Hope and the Shadow become smaller. The
Shadow slowly looks up at him.
SHADOW (V.O)
She came to you- at that bar. She
came to you- as a child. Her
innocence- revealed her truth. Her
smile- allowed you to see.
Christopher, you have lost
more than just freedom.
CHRIS
struggles to keep Hope in his sight.
SHADOW (V.O)
I’m sorry, but where is God now?
CUT TO:
INT.
THEATER HALL - EVENING (BLACK & WHITE)
Dark
space dissolves the image of Hope into ocean waves. We PULL BACK to reveal the
ocean waves becoming the glass sliding doors. Chris writes.
CHRIS
(announcing)
The ocean is as vast and unknown as
our dreams. Nothing is or ever was the
way it seemed.
(to the Holy Bible)
I see it happening. Everything I am
fading
away.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRACK 6: AVE
MARIE –SCHUBERT
EXCERPT:
Chris
leans back in his chair to search the ceiling for heaven but instead is blinded
by the bright lights of the Interrogation Room.
FADE TO WHITE:
INT.
CHURCH - EVENING (BLACK & WHITE)
Young
Chris stands skeptically at a wooden statue of Jesus dying for mankind on the
cross. Rosary beads are wrapped around his hands.
TITLE
CARD: “1985”
Various
people occupy the pews, some penitent, some entrenched by the altar.
Hope
dressed in white, stares from the balcony.
“Ave
Marie,” by Connie Francis echoes the Cathedral.
Hope
walks down the spiral staircase and enters through the open doors. She slowly
walks down the center aisle towards him. She reaches to grab his shoulder-
CUT BACK TO:
INT.
INTERROGATION ROOM - EVENING (COLOR)
Chris
leans back down and opens his eyes. He picks up a pen and signs his name. Tom grabs
a dirty mag and kicks his feet up on the desk.
TOM
Damn boy ain’t that dumb after all.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRACK 7: HURT
–NINE INCH NAILS
One reader
opened a bottle of Red Wine, lit a candle, sat on the floor in the corner of a
room and read. He told me it was
strange, during the jail scenes he felt a presence in the room. It was as if the shadows in the story were
moving along the ceiling and the walls of his apartment. He said he was paranoid as if he was doing
drugs. He then gave me an amazing
description of how it made him feel: MAN - IT FELT LIKE A RAZOR BLADE GOING
DOWN MY SPINE.
EXCERPT:
INT. CELL BLOCK
23 – EVENING (COLOR)
Chris rots in
the disarray of his cell. He is focused
on the fog outside the cell window.
TITLE CARD: “DAY
THIRTEEN”
CHRIS
A spider inside my head won’t stop
spinning its web. A spider
inside my head won’t stop spinning
its web. A spider
inside my
head won’t stop spinning its web-
The Short Guard
HAMMERS a cell bar with a nightstick.
SCENE WASHES TO BLACK & WHITE
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRACK 8: LOVE TO
BE LOVED –PETER GABRIEL
[It speaks for
itself]
EXCERPT 1:
Chris'
hands shake as he turns off the faucet. He lies on the cot feeling his chest.
The sound of a HEARTBEAT on cocaine thunders in his ear. The Shadow enters the
cell.
SHADOW
There is no God- like you said.
Just you alone, in a dark and
deserted cell. Christopher let go.
Accept this reality. You and I are
the same.
Chris
labors for oxygen.
CHRIS
It’s coming out of my chest. I
can’t get it under control. I don’t
want to die- not like this.
(a beat)
Relax breathe- one-one thousand,
two-one thousand, three-one
thousand.
Chris
breathes in and out. The HEARTBEAT is under control. He lays his head on the
pillow and starts peeling at the paint on the cement wall.
CHRIS
Mother, I never meant to fail.
Father, I never meant to
disappoint you.
EXCERPT
2:
INT. CELL BLOCK
23 – EVENING (COLOR)
Chris stands aimlessly
at the mirror, drifting.
CHRIS
I don’t even know who you are. I
don’t even know where you’ve been.
Am I losing my mind?
How do I
escape- these thoughts?
Chris falls
against the wall, sliding to the cement floor.
CHRIS
Can words make you shiver? Can a
story I write- make sense of our lives?
I don’t even know who I am.
Hope appears
inside his cell, like flesh and blood.
She kneels beside him, brushing his hair from his face.
HOPE
Christopher… I know who you are.
The Warden and
Tom watch from outside the cell. No one
is there. Chris is talking out loud,
touching air.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRACK 9: NOBODY
HOME –PINK FLOYD
Jail scene…
period.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRACK 10: WHO
WANTS TO LIVE FOREVER --QUEEN
I don’t want to
give away this scene. I’ll just tell you
know that every Youth Football Player dreams of playing for a
championship.
QUICK EXCERPT:
A fence sign:
“1993 STATE CHAMPIONSHIP”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRACK 11: ON THE
TURNING AWAY –PINK FLOYD
Here is another
moment, where I wrote a scene and it happened months later. I forgot my jacket at a bar (imagine that)
late at night. I walked in the freezing
cold to my vacant apartment. Of course I
did not have my keys. It was either
freeze or break down the side door. In
doing so I almost slashed my wrist against the Plexiglass and the frame of the
door. I had the marks on my wrist for a
month or so. I can only imagine what the
Judge Mentalist where whispering.
EXCERPT:
EXT. SUBURBAN
YARD – MORNING (B&W) – 1996
Chris (21)
awakes to hundreds of crows perched on rooftops and telephone wires. He stumbles to the locked front door. Chris leans his head against the door, checks
his pockets then feels for his coat.
CHRIS
My jacket!
Chris uses the
house for balance and checks the side door.
The dead bolt is locked, Chris exhales a cold breath.
CHRIS
Think.
Chris KICKS the
door until it opens. He falls into his
HOUSE
He staggers
throughout and into a
BATHROOM
He turns on the
light and manages to pull off his shirt, shoes and socks. A mirror reveals a body covered with deep
bruises and lacerations.
Chris throws the
crucifix on his necklace over his shoulder.
The crucifix now dangles down his back.
CHRIS
Can you hear me?
There is no God.
Chris shuts off
the light and enters the
KITCHEN
He opens the
refrigerator and grabs a bottle of whiskey.
CHRIS
If God existed, he would’ve
shown his face by now.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRACK 12: TIME
TO SAY GOODBYE –BOCELLI & BRIGHTMAN
Not sure if this
is the actual version. Still life is
crazy. I came across this song at Oak Brook Gardens in N. Royalton, Ohio. I
spent 6 years of my life at this apartment with a girl named Christine.
(Brightman–Phantom
of the Opera–Christine - Yeah, I’m well aware of God’s humor.)
She and I went
to the Library often. One day I found myself in the Opera section where I stumbled
upon ‘A Night in Tuscany’ I have no clue why.
Well I kind of
do, I have always been drawn to a story within music.
That night
Chapter 4, Title 23 or Chapter 23, Title 4
‘Time to Say
Goodbye’ began playing.
Christine was in
bed. I was blown away in the living
room.
I could not
sleep. I played it over and over and
over.
Many years later
Ohio State lost two National Championships and both times they ended the
broadcast with… Time to Say Goodbye.
NO EXCERPT:
(Can’t give it away.)
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TRACK 13: NO MORE AUCTION BLOCK –BOB DYLAN
I am so proud of
this scene. It is too powerful to reveal
at this time.
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TRACK 14: FIGHT FIRE WITH FIRE - METALLICA
EXCERPT: (Not
giving away this character’s name. - calling him MAN)
EXT. BARREN CITY
– TIME UNKNOWN (COLOR)
The city is
dreary. Trash drifts across the
street. The house of Chris Cooney is
guarded by yellow tape.
MAN tosses the
notebook in a trash can. He strolls the
center of the street as if he is the only life that exists. His eyes wander to Violas Garden Cemetery.
Hundreds of
crows fly from the tombstones. The grass
has over grown while the surrounding chain-link fence has rusted away. The statue of Jesus is missing an arm and
part of its leg.
He turns toward
the Church. The solid brick walls of
faith are covered with satanic messages.
Stained glass windows of redemption are broken with hatred. A five-foot cross above an oak door hangs
upside down.
The Man walks
on.
He stops and turns
toward the hospital. This empty and
desolate place has no indication of life.
Man exhales a smile. The
neighborhood police station and courthouse are immaculate.
MAN
Who has won?
He turns toward
the elementary school. The American flag
on the rooftop appears to have gone through every American War. The swing on the playground dangles from one
side of the chain.
MAN
How sad. The
hopes and dreams of
one child fails the world.
Dark clouds and
fog dissipate as Chris and Hope walk from the horizon of the dead-end
street.
MAN
It’s time for our hero
to rise from purgatory.
The atmosphere
is stifling; a blistering sun scorches the earth: Chris wipes the sweat from
his forehead, examining the city in disbelief.
A dove loses its
ability to fly and SPLATTERS on the sidewalk.
Trees CRUMBLE in the cemetery; flowers welt and disintegrate: the heat
is unbearable.
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TRACK 15: THE
LORD’S PRAYER –ANDREA BOCELLI
The passion God
gave us humans.
(Unbelievable.)
Bocelli –
Hindered by being blind, so gifted with a voice.
Beethoven – Beat
as a child to the point where he had to struggle to hear.
At concerts, he
would literally lay with an ear to the floor.
He could tell if
the orchestra was on key through vibrations.
As an Old Man,
he would get beat-up in the streets.
His nephew
thought he was insane.
He would walk
around the house humming-
Ode to Joy, The
Ninth Symphony.
Over and Over.
When I was 16, I
spent many nights listening to the Ninth Symphony.
I wrote,
‘Fraternity of Mankind’ (PG. 68 – in the book) to that piece.
NO EXCERPT:
(This scene is a major turning point.)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRACK 16: SERIES
OF DREAMS –BOB DYLAN
EXCERPT:
SCENE WASHES TO
BLACK AND WHITE
Chris’ face in
the rear view mirror reveals the bout he lost in the bathroom bar. Chris smiles.
CHRIS
It’s okay. I
understand.
Chris reaches
into the back of his shirt and pulls out the crucifix. He rearranges the necklace so the crucifix
dangles over his heart.
He rolls down
the window and turns up the RADIO. A
“Series of Dreams,” by Bob Dylan ECHOES in the night.
The winding
drive leads beneath bridges, over hills and to a
VACANT LOT
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRACK 17 - WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD
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