Blackthorne--Scene 44

image borrowed from skip tucker.blogspot.com

Blackthorne

Cinemagenic Forty-Four

Patriarch.

“The power of patriarchy has been to make men feel that its

better to be feared than to be loved.”--Bell Hooks.

1(three-shot) Lisa touched her wet puckered lips with a forefinger,

then placed it on Johnny’s cheek. She rose gracefully, floating off

his lap & away from the table, melting into the thick shadows.

2(two-shot) angle on Buck, his intense eyes locked on the Indian’s

face--Tell me, old Caballo, what’s the story here?

2(reverse shot) angle on the eagle:--Nothing. I am your man. There 

can be no one else.

4(medium close-up) Buck: A few weeks ago I didn’t know I was coming

back here--yet somehow many people in this town seemed to expect

me--just how in hell does that cinch up?

5(two-shot) angle on Johnny: Because your father loved you.

6(sound cue) harmonica & piano.

7(flashback) A young Rod Buck standing in a crowded smoky saloon. 

Bill Buck sat among others at the bar, his back to the boy. 

8(hold the wide shot/sound cues) thirty voices, glasses clinking, coughing.

9(medium two-shot) Bill Buck, at another’s urging, turned around & saw

his son standing there.

--Bill: What? WHAT?

The boy said nothing, hands in his pockets, staring up at his father, a single

tear running down his cheek.

--Bill: Get out of here! What the fuck’s wrong with you? What do you want

from me?

The boy did not respond.

--Bill: God damn it, Roddy--get back to the ranch. Quit following me around

like a whipped pup (pointing to the swinging doors) So get the fuck out of

here! Tell the squaw your problems--she’ll take care of you.

10(two-shot, the present) angle on Buck: My father was a falling down

drunk.

11(sound cue) guitar chords

12(medium close-up) Johnny: Your father is dead, but you are here, very

much alive--& now you are the Buck. That’s all there is; simple. 

13(medium close-up) Buck: I’m sorry--but I still don’t savvy

14(two-shot) angle on Johnny: --You wrote letters to your father?

15(sound cues) bull bison bellowing, train whistle in the distance, several .50

caliber rifle shots, & pounding hooves.

16(medium  close-up) Buck nodded Yes.

17(flashback) Young Buck at a small campfire at twilight, writing a letter on an

overturned wooden bucket.

18(close-up) Johnny: He read them to everyone.

19(medium close-up) Buck, after a moment, a beat: 

--He became a damn fool.

20(two-shot) angle on Johnny: Yes, he was a drunk, & he died alone,

but he was not a fool.

--Buck: After Ma died, he was never the same. I could not stay here &

watch him kill himself.

--Johnny: No one judges you.

21(angle on Buck) Not even him?

22(medium close up) Johnny: Especially him.

23(sound cues) clarinet, coronet, & banjo.

24(medium close-up) Buck: Wallace, Salina, you, Mateo, probably even

Bronson knew I was coming; damn.

22(two shot) over Buck’s shoulder:

--Johnny: True, big Ciervo, many did know that you would come, but there

was no “when” on their lips. A man comes home. 

25(reverse shot) angle on Buck: Just feel bone-busted tired. It is hard to

recognize things, because everything I ever knew is dead, turned to blow

sand ghosts & scorpions in my boots.

26(sound cue) trumpet & harmonica.

27(flashback) sunrise over the foothills above the Buck ranch, two black

collies chasing a squirrel near the barn, dark smoke rising from a stately

rock chimney, with the lovely smell of bannocks, bacon, & strong coffee

on the breeze.

28(two shot) the Present, angle on the Eagle: You know, your father

always had a dream?

29(reverse shot) angle on Buck: When I last saw him, he had no dreams

left.

30(medium shot, flashback) on a truck crane, dollying in to the open hay

loft doors, with a large snowy owl on the end of the red pully-bar, staring

with its large yellow unblinking eyes into the camera.

31(sound cue) the owl’s soft Whooo, Whoo shifting hard into the Who’s

rock guitar chords, singing WHO ARE YOU?

Glenn Buttkus

Posted over at dVerse Poets Pub OLN