Art and Life

I will make a confession right now. I felt a distinct twinge of empathy for Stanley White, the hero of the wonderful 1985 movie, The Year of the Dragon. He's a New York police captain who is transferred to Chinatown and given blanket authority after a surge in killings makes the politicians desperate to restore order. But instead of just going after low-level thugs, he takes on the Chinese mafia organization. And he's no pussyfooter. (It's a movie, after all.) One scene has him lecturing 50 officers as they stand at attention: "I want you all to go ape-shit."

Unfortunately, the mafia leaders contribute to political campaigns and charities and are politically connected. Before long, everyone is upset, everyone demands he desist. His superior on the force, a longtime friend, referring to protection rackets, tells him: "That's the way it's always been done. Everyone's always accepted it."

White, played by Mickey Rourke, answers in a soft voice: "What about the ones who don't want to pay?"

One of the mafia chieftains, a smoothie, tries to trip up his convictions by explaining that Chinese history and traditions are very complicated and are thousands of years old. He is not befuddled.

"Well let me tell you, " he says. "You're in the U.S. of A. now. We're 200 years old and what we've got here is the rule of law."

In another scene, as he is castigated for his determination to bring down the mafia, his friend tells him: "That's the trouble with you, Stan -- you care too much."

The expression on the embattled White's face is misty, ingenuous, wondering, as he watches an American flag fluttering outside a window and asks simply: "How can you care too much?"

At another point, as he's being dressed down in the deputy mayor's office, he makes an outrageous threat to harm the city administration politically if he is obstructed in his fight. His longtime friend, dumbfounded by his brazenness, asks him: "Do you ever think about your pension, Stan?"

White tells him: "That's what's wrong with this country. Everyone's worried about their goddamn pension."

That is just so true.

Along just these lines, a longtime supporter expresses anxiety about my recent soul-barings concerning Corporate America:

Do you know what you do with this kind of email? You don't convince anybody, since it is one sided, even if you are right. What you do is to scare off any future employer and probably many other people too. There was a guy at Enron who told them that they were wrong. He quit and nobody listened. That's the way of the world. In a few years he might send emails telling his story...

Let them be scared. I have some true stories that I feel like telling. What is freedom if you can't tell your own stories? I am going to act like a free man.

But ... will the truth make me seem delusional?

Again, here is a theme from my very own life which seems to be more colorfully captured on celluloid, as criminal psychologist Dr. Silberman interviews prisoner Kyle Reese at the police station:

SILBERMAN
So. You're a soldier. Fighting for whom?

REESE
With the One Thirty Second under Perry, from '21 to '27 -

SILBERMAN
(interrupting)
The year 2027?

REESE
That's right. Then I was assigned Recon / Security, last two years, under John Connor.

SILBERMAN
And who was the enemy?

REESE
SKYNET. A computer defense system built for SAC-NORAD by Cyber Dynamics. A modified Series 4800.

SILBERMAN
(gravely)
I see. And this... computer, thinks it can win by killing the mother of its enemy, killing him, in effect, before he is even conceived? A sort of retroactive abortion?

REESE
Yes. It had no choice. The defensive grid was smashed. We'd taken the mainframes... We'd won. Taking out Connor then would make no difference. Skynet had to wipe out his entire existence. We captured the lab complex. Found the... whatever it was called... the time-displacement equipment. The Terminator had already gone through. They sent two of us to intercept, then zeroed the whole place. Sumner didn't make it.

SILBERMAN
Then how are you supposed to get back?

REESE
Can't. Nobody goes home. Nobody else comes through. It's just him and me.

CUT TO:

INT. HOTEL ROOM -- NIGHT

EXTREME CLOSEUP -- TERMINATOR, in profile, showing his lacerated eye.

He is close to a mirror, practically touching it, staring intently.

MACRO -- X-ACTO KNIFE

Lying on the dresser. Terminator's fingers lift it. CAMERA TILTS TO FOLLOW as it rises to his face, holds TIGHT ON left eye.

With a smooth motion the knife point enters the eyeball and cuts away the ruined sclera and cornea, as well as part of the damaged eyelids.

He wipes with a rag to clear the electronic eye's vision. Revealing the faintly glowing lens mechanism, suspended in a chrome socket by tiny servos. The eye whirs quietly as it tracks.

SEQUENCE OF SHOTS

Showing various repairs.

Terminator's right hand, its wrist SUTURED crudely, holds a needle and sewing thread and starts to work on abdominal wound out of frame below.

He slips a glove over the damaged hand. A motoring cap over the blistered scalp.

A fresh shirt to hide his body wounds. This is followed by a new overcoat.

CLOSEUP -- TERMINATOR

Contemplating his reflection in the mirror. With the hat pulled down, the collar pulled up, and favoring his right profile he looks unhurt... though a bit gaunt and pale.

A turn of his head brings the balefully glowing left eye in its metal socket into view.

He slips on a pair of tight, wrap-around sunglasses.

FULL SHOT

As he goes to the bed and flips up the stained mattress. He picks up the Remington 12 gauge, the AR-180 and the .38 off the springs and leaves by the fire escape.

CUT TO:

INT. VUKOVICH'S OFFICE -- NIGHT

TIGHT ON VIDEO MONITOR showing Reese in the Interrogation Room.

REESE
(recorded)
... It's just him and me.

CUT WIDE

Revealing Sarah, Silberman, Vukovich and Traxler watching a monitor sitting amid incredible paperwork clutter on a desk top.

SILBERMAN
(recorded)
Why didn't you bring any weapons? Something more advanced. Don't you have ray guns?

Traxler, standing in the back, grins and nudges Silberman, who nods appreciatively.

TIGHT ON REESE'S RECORDED IMAGE

He glares at Silberman.

ON SARAH

As Silberman's voice is heard.

SILBERMAN
(recorded)
Show me a piece of future technology.

REESE
(recorded / controlling his hostility)
You go naked. Something about the field generated by a living organism. Nothing dead will go.

SILBERMAN
(recorded)
Why?

REESE
(recorded)
I didn't build the fucking thing.

SILBERMAN
(recorded)
Okay. Okay. But this... (consults his notes)
... cyborg... if it's metal...

REESE
(recorded)
Surrounded by living tissue.

SILBERMAN
(recorded)
Of course.

The real Silberman put the tape on "PAUSE".

SILBERMAN
(excited)
This is great stuff. I could make a career out of this guy. You see how clever this part is... how it doesn't require a shred of proof. Most paranoid delusions are intricate... but this is brilliant.