Scene One- the Class

(WORKING TITLE:)

TAKING POINT

formerly

GIRL'S NIGHT OUT

Written by

Tom McKenna

and

JoAnna Carle

November 5, 2002

SCENE ONE- THE CLASS

FADE IN ON:

A COLLEGE CAMPUS

Midday. A forest of semi-modern brick buildings surrounded

by a ring of stunted trees. Students walk with a purpose

between buildings while others lounge on the lawn.

The camera does a slow-pan between buildings and seems to

settle on one particular figure, an older, scruffy man who

doesn't seem to be in as much of a hurry as the rest. He

half-carries/ half-drags an O.D. green soft-sided briefcase.

He walks with a visible limp and the aid of an oversized cedar

cane. As he makes his way toward a series of glass doors he

stops, takes out a cigarette from a crushed pack in his pants

pocket and lights it from the one he currently has dangling out

of his mouth.

DOC (Thinking- V.O.)

How the fuck does the shit happen...and why

does it always happen to me?.....

Around him a steady stream of students pass as

they mutter ,"'Morning, Professor...", "Hey, Doc.." and

similar short greetings. He crumples the pack, looks around,

spies a convenient trashcan, and tosses the pack towards

it. It misses.

CUT TO 15 frames of public-domain chaotic Vietnam War

footage that includes a bomb landing near a group of American

soldiers. As it detonates, CUT BACK TO DOC at the trashcan.

He walks toward the pack and bends to

pick it up, dropping the briefcase as he does. It opens,

spilling a 5-inch thick stack of papers onto the ground.

DOC (V.O.)

A lifetime ago I had a lieutenant tell me I was a

'shit-magnet'. I told him in that case, he should stick with me.

CUT TO an INSERT of 15 Frames of chaotic aftermath.

CUT BACK TO DOC at the trashcan.

On the visible papers aren't conventional grades but in Red

sharpie-marker we see abbreviations like "W.T.F.I.T.S.?"

and "S.L.B.S.T.M.". He looks at the pack, then the pile, and

then the pack. He picks up the papers (leaving the cigarette

pack),and tosses them in the trashcan.

DOC (V.O.)

He did. He's dead now. Probably dead, anyway.

As an afterthought, he throws his cigarette butt in after them,

and enters the building. The lobby is filled to bursting with

students. About half of them are trying to catch his attention.

If he notices, he doesn't show it.

DOC (V.O.)

Last time I saw him he was in a hole in the ground

somewhere in Laos. Or maybe Cambodia. Hard to say.

It wasn't always like this. At least I'd like to

think it wasn't. If it was, I didn't notice. I was too

busy staying alive.

He enters another set of double-doors into an enormous lecture

hall. Behind him streams in a seemingly endless line of students

vying for the still-occupied seats. There is a class of 400

seated in semi-darkness. 4 projector screens are overhead with

diagrams of a flow-chart. An elderly man is standing at a

lectern discussing the diagram. It's as if the class wasn't

there. He walks up to the console and pushes a button; Harsh

fluorescent light fills the rooms. Students uniformly groan as

the elderly professor is startled out of lecture-mode.

PROFESSOR WIENER

Do You MIND? I'm trying to teach here...

DOC

As a matter of fact, I do. Your class ended 30

seconds ago. Get out.

PROFESSOR...

We're nearly through here...

DOC

You're not nearly anything. You ARE through here.

You've been through here for nearly a minute. This is

MY time. This is my classroom. And if you aren't out of

it in 30 seconds, that little girl over there in the

first row is going to run straight over to Admin and

tell everybody that'll listen that you touched her

‘inappropriately'. In fact, I expect she'll say

something like, "That dirty old Doctor Wiener grabbed my

ass and tried to stick his tongue down my throat...."

Won't ya', sweetheart?

The girl looks up from her notes. She nods affirmatively, disinterested, and goes back to her notebook without really paying much attention. She is small, bookish, young for college, and is surrounded by two backpacks full of books and notes. She has headphones on with the cord trailing out of a pocket of her backpack. We know her only as MOUSE.

PROFESSOR WIENER

My name is pronounced "Viner".

DOC

Not any more, baby. Congratulations. You're a

legend now. By the end of the day, those four hundred

students of yours will be tellin' their frat buddies you

were boinkin' a freshman in the john. And it MIGHT even

be a girl… [indicates the still-seated students]

Leave. Now.

The students don’t need to be told twice. They stream from the room like ants and are replaced with a different group who has been waiting outside.

PROFESSOR WIENER

You're an evil bastard, Masters...

DOC

Not evil, effective. And you're still in my

classroom. Now run along unless you want that legend of

yours to grow a bit.

PROFESSOR WIENER hastily gathers up his things and starts to exit.

PROFESSOR WIENER

The Dean's Office is going to hear of this!

DOC

I don’t think so. I can’t see you wanting to

explain to Her Majesty that the viscious rumor that you

like girls just isn’t so….Why are you still here?

DOC (V.O.)

After Nam I needed answers. Most of us did. What the

hell was all that about? Bad men live and good men die,

all so we can tell our children how brave and noble we

were back in the day…And some, well…officially, they

never existed at all…

WIENER EXITS. The students are laughing and talking amongst themselves excitedly, as if they were getting ready to watch a long-awaited movie

instead of sitting through a Contemporary American History class. The girl in the front row hasn't moved, merely changed notebooks. JACK MASTERS glances up from the podium and surveys the sea of expectant faces. The glance is enough to silence the room.

DOC

Tenure is a wonderful thing. Back when Lyndon

Johnson was running for a state office in Texas, he

spread a rumor that his opponent had a habit of

sleeping with one of his barnyard sows. One of his

aides got very indignant about this and told LBJ that

he couldn’t go around calling his opponent a pig-fucker

in public. “Your damn right I can’t…”, he said. “But I

can sure as hell make the sonofabitch deny it!” And

that, in a nutshell, is the Contemporary History of the

United States.

The students chuckle, murmur, and make various noises of approval.

DOC

All right, settle down. I have Doctor Caine’s notes

here. He won’t be joining us for the rest of the

semester. I’ve graded your midterms and filed them in

the appropriate place. My name is Masters. Don’t tell

me yours because I won’t remember it anyway.

If you want to talk to me, my office hours are from 6AM

to 7AM Fridays. Come talk to me if you must.

I’m fairly sure you won’t, and I’m equally sure that

I have nothing I’m inclined to say to you, but I’m

required to offer. Since we’re stuck with each other

for the remainder of the semester, let’s try to make a

little progress, shall we?

There is a murmur from the students.

DOC

There’s an ancient Chinese curse….”May you live in

interesting times…”. Well, we do live in interesting

times. This is supposed to be Contemporary American

History. What exactly does that mean?

DOC (V.O.)

Somehow we always leave out the part about losing….

(A very thin, pale girl w/ jet-black hair dressed in a black miniskirt w/ a fire-red half-shirt that says "BOYS LIE" interrupts DOC)

CASSANDRA

Where’s Professor Caine?

DOC

Irrelevant. Now you answer MY question. What

exactly do we mean by ‘Contemporary American History’?

(CASSANDRA doesn’t give an inch.)

CASSANDRA

When do we get our midterms back?

DOC

I’m feeling particularly benevolent today, so I’ll

ignore the fact that you’ve interrupted me twice.

You’ll get your midterms back when you dig them out of

the trashcan right outside that door. Now somebody

answer MY question.

There is no response from the students other than confused murmurs.

DOC

That was a question. It requires an answer.

A few hands go up, Cassandra’s among them.

` DOC

You. No, not you, YOU— with the green hair.

STUDENT

Me? I didn’t have my hand up!

DOC

The question wasn’t “Who had their hand up?” The

question was, “What does Contemporary American History

refer to?”. Now answer it.

STUDENT

Um…Well...The book says…

DOC

Again, the question wasn’t “What does the book

say?” What do YOU say?

STUDENT

American History since 1945?

DOC

Wrong. I said contemporary. Were you around in

’45? If the answer’s no, then it isn’t contemporary.

Anybody here know what ‘Triage’ means?

A few pre-meds raise their hands.

DOC

In a field hospital, triage is when the doctor

has a look at all the patients, decides who has a

chance to live and who doesn’t, and works on the ones

he can save. There are 500 of you. I can effectively

‘treat’ about a hundred. Thus, we’re going to do a

bit of triage here….

(One of the pre-meds raises their hand.)

DOC

Yes?

STUDENT

That’s not what ‘triage’ means. ‘Triage’ is

the process…

DOC

Wrong. Triage in a shiny white hospital might have a kinder, gentler meaning. In the field and in this class it means what I say it means. Allow me to demonstrate. Used in a sentence, “The process of triage can best be illustrated by the concept of the weakest link, whose ultimate goal is the elimination of said link to keep the rest of the chain intact. In this particular instance, You are the weakest link. Goodbye.

STUDENT

What?

DOC

Good…Bye. Exit. Leave. Go away. Any other

smartasses want to correct me? No? Moving on….Write

this down because it may be the last time anybody

tells you the truth in your college career. The

United State of America hasn’t had a legitimately-

elected Government since November, 1963. Our national

motto should be changed from 'E Pluribus Unum' to

"A lie can run around the world before the truth

can get its boots on…."Everything

you know about your government and its history since

that time is a lie, a polite fiction designed to keep

the power in the hands of the money. Your entire

generation is little more than the cattle on which

your government feeds. And that, in a nutshell, is

this course. Having said that, we can begin to talk

about more important things……

There is now absolute silence in the room.

DOC

A couple of concepts I want to run by you… All of

Human action can be divided into one of these two

camps. The first is the Way of the Samurai. Japanese,

15th century. In essence, the Bushido code says that

the correct path will ALWAYS be the direct path,

despite the obstacles. The second is from a Chinese

philosopher called Sun Tzu. He wrote this book

called "The Art of War", which, by the way, has

nothing to do with the movie buy the same name. He

wrote this book in times very much like our own to

teach survival in a world where the Tao is dying. Now

this particular book says that art of war is the art

of deceit, and that one should only choose the direct

route if one is absolutely sure that the enemy is

looking on the other road. SO you have two schools of

thought that seem to be in opposition to each

other…But they're not. Each has much to recommend it.

Bushido offers an honorable death. Sun Tzu offers

survival.

We all get to make the choice… Which will it be?

DOC (V.O.)

Honor. Survival. Pretty basic stuff. But not for

these kids. They don't know the meaning of either

because their parents couldn't teach what they don't

understand…Hell, I didn't understand it either… Took

sharing a hole in the ground for seven months with the

smartest S.O.B. I ever knew to teach me.

DOC

Now what was I saying? Oh yes…Triage. Let me put an offer on the table. Anybody who leaves this class right now and doesn’t come back passes with a ‘B’. No homework, no final, no strings.

The students stare back with semi-glazed eyes and confused expressions.

DOC

So it is my understanding that all of you would like to stay? You are all Bushido? All Samurai?

(DOC chuckles out loud.)

STUDENT 2

Are you serious? We can actually leave?

DOC

Why not? If you don’t want to be here, you’ll just be wasting my time. Never let your classes interfere with your college education. I’ll say it one last time. If you don’t want, for any reason, to be here in this class right now… LEAVE.

Roughly 300 students get up and walk out the door. This leaves about 100. Cassandra and Mouse are among those that remain.

DOC

That was a practical application of Sun Tzu. Okay

then. Now that the garbage has been taken out, we can

really get started.

There are random comments floating around the classroom creating a refreshing feel to the students. DOC walks over to his briefcase and takes out a few books. They’re very obscure and somewhat strange for this type of class, but all together fitting for the professor and his purpose. Titles like, "Rush to Judgement: The Murder of JFK" and "The Secret History of the VietNam War" stand out…..

DOC

These books will be the required reading. Don’t try

to get them from the bookstore. They’ve been out of

print for 15 years. Through the miracle of modern

technology, you can all make a copy from my originals

which will be on reserve in the library.

CASSANDRA has her hand raised condescendingly in the air.

DOC

You’re not going to tell me about copyright law, are you?

CASSANDRA

This is all really interesting and stuff, but what

happened to Professor Caine? We’re way past all this

bullshit, and we already have our books.

DOC purses his lips in consideration of the girl’s attitude and less so of her question.

DOC

Caine, much like yourself, has become irrelevant.

As for being past all this bullshit, we’ll see, won’t we.

The girl leans back in the chair. She has a dark feeling that is expressed more from her attitude than her dress.

Once more DOC lets the question evaporate into the air and continues. At this response the students begin to murmur again. DOC glances at MOUSE and sighs.

DOC

I am sorry for the disturbance in your worlds, but it

can’t be helped. Let’s just leave it at that. Now, back

to the concept of Contemporary American History. Having

listened and hopefully comprehended in some vague way

what I have just said, who here would like to elaborate on

this?

A boy raises his hand.

DOC

Well? What do you think?

STUDENT 4

I think that America isn’t really America any more.

We are so far out of the ballpark from the concept we

started with…

DOC

What concept would that be? What America?

STUDENT 4

The concept that “All men are..

DOC

Stop right there. We all know about traditional

American history, and we all know that we aren’t anywhere

near where we started, and further still from where we

wanted to go. However, what elaboration can be

made on my statement “Your entire generation is little

more than the cattle on which your government feeds.”?

The room is quiet.

DOC

Okay. Let’s back up a second here. Why did I call

your generation cattle?

STUDENT 5

Public Propaganda controls the media by

controlling the money. The media controls what we see and

hear, and what we see and hear controls what we believe…..

DOC

Congratulations, son, that was almost a complete

thought. Propaganda is a good start, but I didn’t say

public, I said government. Can anyone go a step further?

There is a quiet pause. The students being allowed to think on their own without a text seems to be throwing them for a loop.

DOC

Fine. Here is your homework assignment. I want a 10

page, double-spaced, typed paper on “The Irrelevance of

the Constitution in Modern America”. It is due on

Wednesday at the beginning of class.

STUDENT

That’s in two days!

DOC

It’s nice to know that our math requirement is

working out for ya….

There are audible groans from the class a whole. Someone shouts, “That’s not fair!”. Others complain loudly along the lines of “He can’t do that!” and the like.

DOC

What? Are we unhappy about the assignment? Here, let

me make it easy for you. I’ll give each and every one of