Carine McCandless:
[voice-over] The year Chris graduated high school, he bought the Datsun used and drove it cross-country. He stayed away most of the summer. As soon as I heard he was home, I ran into his room to talk to him. In California, he'd looked up some old family friends. He discovered that our parents' stories of how they fell in love and got married were calculated lies masking an ugly truth. When they met, Dad was already married. And even after Chris was born, Dad had had another son with his first wife, Marcia, to whom he was still legally married. This fact suddenly redefined Chris and me as bastard children. Dad's arrogance made him conveniently oblivious to the pain he caused. And Mom, in the shame and embarassment of a young mistress, became his accomplice in deceit. The fragility of crystal is not a weakness but a fineness. My parents understood that a fine crystal glass had to be cared for or it may be shattered. But when it came to my brother, they did not seem to know or care that their course of secret action brought the kind of devastation that could cut them. Their fraudulent marriage and our father's denial of his other son was, for Chris, a murder of every day's truth. He felt his whole life turn, like a river suddenly reversing the direction of its flow, suddenly running uphill. These revelations struck at the core of Chris' sense of identity. They made his entire childhood seem like fiction. Chris never told them he knew and made me promise silence, as well.
Therefore was I created with a stubborn outside, with an aspect of iron, that when I come to woo ladies, I fright them. But, in faith, Kate, the elder I wax, the better I shall appear. My comfort is that old age, that ill layer-up of beauty, can do no more spoil upon my face. Thou hast me, if thou hast me, at the worst, and thou shalt wear me, if thou wear me, better and better.
Frankie Lymon:
Do you love him?
Zola Taylor:
I told you, Frankie. He's a nice, good man...
Frankie Lymon:
I didn't ask that! I asked you do you love him?
Zola Taylor:
YES! I love him, okay?
Frankie Lymon:
Oh, no, no... You said that marriage would tie you down. You just didn't want to be tied down to me.
Zola Taylor:
No, I never said that Frankie.
Frankie Lymon:
Oh, yeah, that's what you said. Now, let me tell you something. You gonna always be tied down to me. Whether you like it ot not. We're like magnets... [forcefully kisses Zola]
Zola Taylor:
[pushes Frankie away] Mm-mmm. Don't do this to me, Frankie.
Frankie Lymon:
Don't leave me right now, Zola.
Zola Taylor:
[flashes ring] I'm married.
Frankie Lymon:
No, that was a mistake! That was a mistake!
Zola Taylor:
NO! I got a life, baby, and it ain't gonna include you. Now you got to go. GET OUT!
John Holt:
Caleb, if I had to ask you why you're so frustrated with Catherine, what would you say?
Caleb Holt:
She's stubborn. She makes everything difficult for me. She's ungrateful. She's constantly griping about something.
John Holt:
Has she thanked you for anything you've done in the last 20 days?
Caleb Holt:
No! And you'd think after I washed the car, changed the oil, do the dishes, washed the house, that she would try to show me a little bit of gratitude, but she doesn't. In fact, when I come home, she makes me feel like I'm an enemy! I'm not even welcome in my own home, dad! That is what really ticks me off! Dad, for the last three weeks I have bent over backwards for her! I have tried to demonstrate that I still care about this relationship. I bought her flowers, which she threw away. I have taken her insults and her sarcasm, but last night was it. I made dinner for her. I did everything I could to demonstrate that I care about her, to show value for her, and she spat in my face! She does not deserve this, dad! I am not doing it anymore! How am I supposed to show love to somebody over and over and over, who constantly rejects me?
John Holt:
[John Holt strokes the wooden cross, and turns to Caleb] That's a good question.
Caleb Holt:
Dad, that is not what I'm doing.
John Holt:
Is it?
Caleb Holt:
No. Dad, that is not what this is about.
John Holt:
Son, you just asked me: how can someone show love over and over again when they're constantly rejected? Caleb, the answer is: you can't love her, because you can't give her what you don't have. I couldn't truly love your mother until I understood what love truly was. It's not because I get some reward out of it. I've now made a decision to love your mother whether she deserves it or not. Son, God loves you, even though you don't deserve it. Even though you've rejected Him. Spat in His face. God sent Jesus to die on the cross for your sin, because He loves you. The cross was offensive to me, until I came to it. But when I did, Jesus Christ changed my life. That's when I truly began to love your mom. Son, I can't settle this for you. This is between you and the Lord. But I love you too much not to tell you the truth. Can't you see that you need Him? Can't you see that you need His forgiveness?
Caleb Holt:
Yes.
John Holt:
Will you trust Him with your life? [Caleb nods; yes]
Nino Brown:
You cut a side deal with that motherfucker. [G-Money opens his mouth, but Nino interrupts him]
Nino Brown:
Yes, you did. Yes, you did, Gee. Fucking Cain. My brother's keeper. Was it this... [takes crack pipe from him]
Nino Brown:
... glass dick you've been sucking on? Was that it? Now I see how you let that motherfucker infiltrate. He used you, Gee. What ever happened to, "Am I my brother's keeper?"
G-Money:
[Sullenly] You know what happened to it. "The world is mine." Remember that? "Everything is mine. Everything!" Even my woman.
Nino Brown:
Is that what this is about? [about Uniqua]
Nino Brown:
That fucking skeezer? You think I give a fuck about her? Fuck that ho bitch! I don't give a fuck about her!
G-Money:
It ain't about her! It's about us. I love you, man. [Nino turns his back on G-Money, making him angrier and angrier]
G-Money:
You embarrassed me, man! In front of all them people, you treated me like I was soft. You treated me like I was spineless! We built this shit! You didn't do this shit by yourself! You forgot about me, man, your brother.
Nino Brown:
What has this done to us? Keisha... dead. The Duh Duh Man... dead.
G-Money:
Let's just make it like it was. Let's be a family. Let's make it like it was. Fuck them cars and them bitches and all that shit. Fuck that shit! Let's do us, me and you. Let's be a family again. [Nino, in tears, hugs G-Money]
Nino Brown:
I'm on the run. It can never go back the way it was. [Nino kisses G-Money on the cheek]
Nino Brown:
But I'll tell you how we can make it right. [Nino shoves G-Money away and pulls out his gun; G-Money falls to his knees]
G-Money:
CMB. CMB! We all we got! [Nino grips his wrist in order to steady the gun he is holding]
G-Money:
Am I my brother's keeper.
Nino Brown:
[Grits his teeth] Yes I am! [Nino shoots G-Money dead and for a brief moment turns the gun towards his own head, but stops himself]
This life is what you make it. Not matter what, you're going to mess up sometimes, it's a universal truth. But the good part is you get to decide how you're going to mess it up. Girls will be your friends - they'll act like it anyway. But just remember, some come, somg go. The ones that stay with you through everything - they're your true best friends. Don't let go of them. Also remember, sisters make the best friends in the world. As for lovers, well, they'll come and go too. And babve, I hate to say it, most of them - actually pretty much all of them are going to break your heart, but you can't give up becuase if you give up, you'll never find your soul mate. You'll never find that half who makes you whole and that goes for everything. Just because you fail once, doesn't mean you're gonna fail at everything. Keep trying, hold on, and always, always, always believe in yourself, because if you don't, then who will, sweetie? So keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most importantly, keep smiling, because life's a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about.
[We see Homer writing to Dr. Larch and hear the words in his voice as we are shown variously relevant scenes]
Homer:
Dear Dr. Larch. Thank you for your doctor's bag, although it seems that I will not have the occasion to use it, barring some emergency, of course. I am not a doctor. With all due respect to your profession, I'm enjoying my life here. I'm enjoying being a lobsterman and orchardman. In fact, I've never enjoyed myself as much. The truth is, I want to stay here. I believe I'm being of some use. [We hear the words Dr. Larch writes back to Homer in response]
Dr. Wilbur Larch:
My Dear Homer: I thought you were over you adolescence - the first time in our lives when we imagine we have something terrible to hide from those who love us. Do you think it's not obvious to us what's happened to you? You've fallen in love, haven't you? By the way, whatever you're up to can't be too good for your heart. Then again, it's the sort of condition that could be made worse by worrying about it, so don't worry about it. [the back and forth correspondence continues interwoven with scenes from Homer's life at the time]
Homer:
Dear Dr. Larch, What I'm learning her may not be as important as what I learned from you, but everything is new to me. Yesterday, I learned how to poison mice. Field mice girdle an apple tree; pine mice kill the roots. You use poison oats and poison corn. I know what you have to do. You have to play God. Well, killing mice is as close as I want to come to playing God.
Dr. Wilbur Larch:
Homer, here in St. Cloud's, I have been given the opportunity of playing God or leaving practically everything up to chance. Men and women of conscience should sieze those moments when it's possible to play God. There won't be many. Do I interfere when absolutely helpless women tell me they simply can't have an abortion - that they simply must go through with having another and yet another orphan? I do not. I do not even recommend. I just give them what they want. You are my work of art, Homer. Everything else has been just a job. I don't know if you have a work of art in you, but I know what your job is: you're a doctor.
Homer:
I'm not a doctor.
Dr. Wilbur Larch:
You're going to replace me, Homer. The board of trustees is looking for my replacement.
Homer:
I can't replace you. I'm sorry.
Dr. Wilbur Larch:
"Sorry"? I'm not sorry. Not for anything I've done. I'm not even sorry that I love you. [Cut to scene of Dr. Larch sitting on a hospital bed reading Homer's letter. He is crest-fallen and one of his nurses sits down to console him]
Dr. Wilbur Larch:
[Speaking to the nurse] I think we may have lost him to the world.
Michael Simmons:
40 days? Does Catherine know?
Caleb Holt:
I'm not gonna tell her. If she wants to go ahead and file, it's up to her.
Michael Simmons:
Divorce is a hard thing, man.
Caleb Holt:
Well, if it brings peace...
Michael Simmons:
But Caleb, you want the right kind of peace.
Caleb Holt:
What do you mean by that?
Michael Simmons:
You know what that ring on your finger means?
Caleb Holt:
It means I'm married.
Michael Simmons:
Yeah, well, it also means you made a lifelong covenant. You putting on that ring, by saying your vows. The sad part about it is when most people promise for better or for worse, they really only mean for the better.
Caleb Holt:
Catherine and I were in love when we got married. Today, we're two very different people. All right? It's just not working out anymore.
Michael Simmons:
Caleb, salt and pepper are completely different. Their makeup is different; their taste and their color. But you always see 'em together. And when you... Hang on a second. [Michael glues a salt and pepper shaker together]
Caleb Holt:
What are you doing? Michael, what did you do that for?
Michael Simmons:
Caleb, when two people get married; it's for better or for worse, for richer or for poor, in sickness and in health.
Caleb Holt:
I know that. But marriages aren't fireproof. Sometimes you get burned.
Michael Simmons:
Fireproof doesn't mean a fire will never come, but that when it comes you'll be able to withstand it.
Caleb Holt:
You didn't have to glue them together. [Caleb picks up the shakers and starts trying to force them apart]
Michael Simmons:
Don't do it, Caleb. If you pull them apart now, you'll break either one or both of them.
Caleb Holt:
I am not a perfect person, but better than most. And if my marriage is failing, it is not all my fault.
Michael Simmons:
But Caleb, man, I've seen you run into a burning building to save people you don't even know. But you're gonna let your own marriage just burn to the ground.
Caleb Holt:
Michael, you are my friend. And I have allowed you to speak freely to me on this job. Don't abuse it.
[after reading a letter sent by his mother]
Alexander:
It's a high ransom she charges for nine months lodging in the womb.
Hephaistion:
Bring her to Babylon, Alexander. It'll give her such joy.
Alexander:
Joy! I am the cracked mirror of her dreams... Stay with me tonight Hephaistion.
Hephaistion:
What bothers you?
Alexander:
I see in her everything I fear. Yet I have no idea what it is; this fear. She was always so sure I was born of Zeus. Why, Hephaistion?
Hephaistion:
I think there are things beyond our imagining. Like the lightening. Tales of strange conceptions. I don't doubt it.
Alexander:
What is being told me? What destiny do I have?
Hephaistion:
Well, if I'm Patroclus, I die first. Then you, Achilles. The generals are upset. They question your obsession with Darius. They say it was never meant for you to be king of Asia.
Alexander:
Naturally. They want only to return to their homes rich with gold, but I have seen the future, Hephaistion! I've seen it now a thousand times, on a thousand faces. These people want, need, change. Aristotle was wrong about them.
Hephaistion:
How so?
Alexander:
Look at those we've conquered. They leave their dead unburied, they smash their enemies skulls and drink them as dust, they mate in public! How can they think, or sing, or write when none can read? But as Alexander's army they could go where they never thought possible. They can soldier, or work in the cities. From the Alexandrias, from Egypt to the outer ocean. We could connect these lands, Hephaistion. And the people.
Hephaistion:
Some say these Alexandrias have become extensions of Alexander himself. They draw people into the cities so as to make slaves.
Alexander:
But we've freed them, Hephaistion, from the Persias, where everyone lived as slaves! To free the people of the world! Such would be beyond the glory of Achilles. Beyond Heracles! A feat to rival Prometheus, who was always a friend to man.
Hephaistion:
Remember the fates of these heroes. They suffered, greatly.
Alexander:
We all suffer. Your father, mine. They all came to the end of their time and in the end, when it's over, all that matters is what you've done.
Hephaistion:
You once said the fear of death drives all men. Are there no other forces? Is there not love in your life, Alexander? What would you do if you ever reached the end of the world? I wonder sometimes, if it's not your mother you run from, so many years, so many miles between you, what is it you fear?
Alexander:
Who knows these things? When I was a child my mother thought me divine; my father, weak. Which am I, Hephaistion? Weak or divine? All I know is I trust only you in this world. I've missed you. I need you. It is you I love, Hephaistion. No other.
Hephaistion:
You still hold you head cocked like that.
Alexander:
[laughing] I have to stop that.
Hephaistion:
No, like a dear listening in the wind you strike me still, Alexander. You have eyes like no other. I sound as stupid as a school boy, but you're everything I care for. And by the sweet breath of Aphrodite I'm so jealous of losing you to this world you want so badly.
Alexander:
You'll never lose me, Hephaistion. I'll be with you always. 'Til the end.
Tatyana Larina:
[writing letter] Dearest Evgeny, I write to you, it is all I can do. And now I know it is in your power to punish my presuming heart. Yet if you have one drop of pity, you'll not abandon me to my unhappy fate. I am in love with you and I must tell you this or my heart, my heart which belongs to you, will surely break. I would never have revealed my shame to you, if just once a week I might see you. Exchange a word or two and then think day and night of one thing alone til our next meeting. But you're unsociable, they say, that the country bores you. Is it true? Does the country bore you? Sometimes I wonder that you ever visited us. Why, I'd never have known you or known this agony and fever. I know that all my life's been leading me to this union with you. I recognised you at first sight and knew with certainty. I said to myself, It's him, he has come. Help me, resolve my doubts. Perhaps all this is nonsence, emptiness, a delusion and quite another fate awaits me. Imagine it, I'm here alone half out of my mind. I dread to read this over, my secret longing. I know that I can trust your honour, though I feel faint from shame and fear, Tatyana
George Carlin:
Jim, Jim, calm down, calm down. You began a sentence a little while ago with 'It shouldn't be a surprise'. It shouldn't be a surprise that rich, white men don't care about poor, black people, period. So they're not high on the list.
Jim Glassman:
George, I love you, George, but that's nonsense.
George Carlin:
I don't care if you love me or not. They're not high on the conscious or the subconscious list of those people how are in charge of things in this country, the owners. Forget these foolish elections. The owners of this country don't care about the poor, in general.
Jim Glassman:
The owners of this country? What is this, Karl Marx talking to me? The owners of this country are the voters of this country.
George Carlin:
No, you're wrong about that, my friend. You're absolutely wrong.
Jim Glassman:
Aren't the owners of this country are the voters of this country who elected George Bush?
George Carlin:
No, no, they're not. Listen, these elections are a charade, they're a charade...
Jim Glassman:
[sarcastically] Oh, okay.
George Carlin:
I'll tell you, listen, just listen for a minute and learn a little something! Elections and politicians are in place in order to give Americans the ILLUSION that they have freedom of choice. You don't really have choice in this country.
Selby:
I just wanna live, Lee. I just want a normal happy life. I don't know why you did this.
Aileen:
Because I love you. Because I love you and I never wanna to loose you and that's all. I love you from my heart, my soul, my mind. And I never let you down. All right? Because it was me. It was only me. And I'll tell them that, ok. It's over for me now. And I never gonna see you again.
Selby:
Yeah, I know.
Aileen:
I wish there was a way that people can forgive you for something about this, you know. But they can't. They can't, man. So I gonna die, Sel... Hey Sel, I'll never forget you. Good bye, baby. Bye baby.
Selby:
Good bye, Lee.
