Yellow Ribbon

By Lovinder Gill

FADE IN:

INT. STUDIO-NIGHT

A hand grabs a long thin paint brush. The brush dabs a little yellow oil paint and then some orange paint. It mixes the two together. It dabs a little more yellow paint and mixes them until it gets just the right shade of yellow.

The hand paints a curved yellow line across a canvas.

MATCH CUT TO:

TITLE CARD:

The brush disappears and the yellow line continues to form a ribbon.

PULL BACK to reveal the title: A Support the Troops type of Yellow Ribbon.

MATCH CUT TO:

EXT. MIXON HOUSE – DAY

A yellow ribbon on the back of a pick up truck. We follow a body that wipes the screen to see MO MIXON [65] standing a few steps above. Mo smiles and opens his arms to his grandson, JOEY MIXON [18].

MO: C’mere, boy.

JOEY: Hey, Grandad.

They hug. Mo kisses his grandson’s head.

FADE TO BLACK.

MO: So, what you gonna do?

FADE IN:

INT. APARTMENT – NIGHT

A hand splashed with an assortment of colors picks up a cup of coffee and takes it to the lips of a young MO MIXON [24]. He waits for an answer.

LUCUS JONES [23], a handsome black man with a high and tight cut, contemplates an answer.

SUPER: 1967

LUCAS: I don’t know. (He takes a sip of coffee.)

LUCAS: I mean, I guess I’ll do what I have to.

The room is a tiny dump that is littered with paintings of all shapes and sizes. This is Mo’s home and he looks so much a part of it that it feels like if he moved, we would be left with an empty white silhouette of where he was. Lucas, on the other hand, looks strangely out of place. His perfectly ironed Army uniform is in glowing contrast to the chaos around it.

LUCAS: I just... I just don’t know if I can kill someone. Lucas looks off into space. A tear rolls down his face and falls off his cheek.

MATCH CUT TO:

EXT. FOREST - DAY SILENCE.

A red drop of blood falls onto a green military uniform. A wide-eyed Lucas looks down and sees it. He touches it with his finger. He looks around and sees nothing but thick brush.

He looks up and sees a dead Vietnamese SOLDIER hanging over a branch above him.

A WHISTLE. And then the sounds of gunfire, jets and screams EXPLODE all around.

Lucas slams his back against a tree. He looks right then left and then right again. Chaos surrounds him. He sees something.

CUT TO:

INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT

Mo looks right at Lucas.

MO: Just keep your head down, man.

EXT. FOREST – CONTINUOUS

Lucas leans his head against the tree. He sees something out of the corner of his eye and looks. Some bushes rustle about twenty feet away.

Lucas looks up to the sky for help. His answer is another drop of blood onto his cheek. He flinches. He takes a deep breath and tries to keep it together.

He pulls his rifle close to his chest. He looks to his right at the bushes again. They move ever so slightly.

INJURED SOLDIER (O.S.) (pain): HELP ME! I’m hit! I’m HIT!

The Voice came from Lucas’ left. He sees bushes move where the INJURED SOLDIER is laying. A bloody hand reaches up for help. He looks to his right and sees a VIETNAMESE SOLDIER stand up and run toward the injured soldier. They’re about fifty feet apart.

Lucas doesn’t think. He reacts. His training takes over. He jumps up and pulls his rifle to his shoulder.

He has a clear shot. The Vietnamese Soldier is in his sights. His finger tightens around the trigger. He grits his teeth. His eyes squint...

His mouth and eyes open. He can’t do it.

Lucas tosses his rifle down and takes off after the Vietnamese Soldier.

The Vietnamese Soldier SCREAMS as he runs. He raises his knife over his head to strike down with. He reaches the Injured Soldier and stops.

The Injured Soldier is close to death. He’s accepted it. He looks up into the Vietnamese Soldier’s eyes.

They share a look for a second. The Vietnamese Soldier puts down his arms. He can’t kill this man. The Injured Soldier smiles, relieved.

The Vietnamese Soldier smiles. He’s suddenly tackled by Lucas.

They fall to the side and wrestle. Lucas rolls on top of him and grabs the hand with the knife, pinning it back with his hands.

A GUN SHOT.

INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT

Mo shivers as if he hears the shot. He stands and looks out the window. The huge window frames his fragile silhouette like a painting.

INT. MIXON HOUSE - DAY

The older Mo turns from the window and looks at Joey.

MO: Well?

SUPER: Present

Joey pulls old paintings out of a room that is now used for storage

JOEY: I can’t remember.

MO: Describe it.

JOEY: It’s an abstract. I’ve only seen it once but I’ve always remembered it.

MO: Flattery will get you nowhere.

Joey smiles as he pulls out a huge, beautiful painting of an uprooted tree. He pauses and looks at it.

JOEY: What’s this called?

Mo looks over.

MO: Uprooted.

JOEY: That’s it? An uprooted tree and you call it uprooted?

Mo points to the canvas. There are tiny figures of refugees in the background.

MO: It’s about refugees who have been uprooted from their lives.

Joey’s eyes widen. He nods.

JOEY: Very cool.

Mo pulls the painting down.

MO: Not cool. Pain. These people lost everything much like the tree.

Joey pauses. He turns back to other paintings.

Mo turns back to the window and looks outside at...

EXT. STREET - DAY [1967]

Lucas, full of excitement, talks to Mo.

LUCAS: I’d get to see the world.

MO: The crappy parts of the world.

LUCAS: Only sometimes.

Mo stops.

MO: You don’t even support the war.

LUCAS: It’s the right thing to do.

MO: Dying is not the right thing to do.

LUCAS: I’ll be a college graduate, they probably won’t even send me to the battlefields.

MO: Are you out of your mind? They’re running out of bodies. They’ll send anyone they can. Lucas turns and walks away.

LUCAS: You don’t understand.

Mo grabs him.

MO: Make me understand.

LUCAS: A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do.

SLOW FADE TO WHITE: The words “A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do” dissolve onto the screen. They’re written with a paint brush filling up the screen.

MATCH CUT TO:

INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT

The words fill up a canvas. Young Mo looks at them angrily.

SERIES OF SHOTS:

Mo’s eyes are bloodshot.

The paintbrush rapidly mixes colors.

The brush slams paint over the words in all different colors. Mo’s arms flail about as he paints.

The brush flashes across the canvas.

Mo paints with brushes in both hands. They throw paint about the canvas with no rhyme or reason.

Mo pauses and looks at the canvas. The words are completely covered now. The painting is a jumbled mess.

Mo drops the brushes and grabs the paint with his hands. He slaps it on the painting and rubs it around with his hands.

Hands grab more paint. More is slammed on the canvas. A gun shot.

Mo shivers as if he feels it.

EXT. FOREST - DAY

Lucas freezes. His eyes widen. He falls over. The Vietnamese soldier is in shock. He trembles as Lucas falls on him. He pushes Lucas off.

His hand trembles with the gun in it.

He looks over at the injured Soldier. He’s dead, too.

The Vietnamese Soldier is devastated. He gets to his knees and looks at Lucas’ dead body.

The Vietnamese Soldier turns and vomits. Tears fill his eyes and mix with dirt as they crawl down his face.

IN SLOW MOTION:

The Vietnamese Soldier slowly stands. He pauses and looks down on what he has done. He grabs his rifle and uses it to hold himself up.

FREEZE on that shot.

DISSOLVE TO: An abstract painting of the soldier standing.

INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT

Mo stands back and looks at the painting. Paint is all over Mo. It covers his hands, arms, torso, and face. It’s as if he and the abstract painting of the soldier are reflections of each other. Mo picks up a glass of whiskey in a trembling hand. He forces it down as he looks at his work. Mo throws the whiskey across the room.

FLASH CUT TO:

INT. MIXON HOUSE - DAY

Joey pulls out a painting.

JOEY: This is it. He pulls out the painting of the soldier.

Mo is confused.

MO: What?

JOEY: Can I have it?

MO: What? Why?

JOEY: I don’t know. I’ve always felt drawn to it.

Joey admires it.

Mo smiles.

JOEY: It’s powerful.

JOEY: I’d like to take it with me.

MO: Where?

Joey pauses and puts the painting to his side. He stands up straight.

JOEY: To Iraq, Grandad. I enlisted this morning.

The smile falls. Mo is in shock.

MO: What? Why would you do that?

Joey pauses.

JOEY: A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do, Grandad.

Mo’s eyes widen.

EXT. MIXON HOUSE - DAY

Joey admires the painting as he walks to his truck. He puts it in the bed of the truck.

Joey pauses and looks at Mo.

JOEY: Thanks, Grandad.

He waves. Mo raises his hand, still in shock. Joey gets in the truck.

CLOSE on the painting. The truck pulls away and we see the yellow ribbon again.

FREEZE on the yellow ribbon.

FADE TO BLACK.

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