Sunday, March 22, 2015

Declassified Information

Orville Stave made a good name for himself with his provocative looks at the culture and counter-culture of the 1960s. From the psychedelic tragedy of his biopic Groovy Soda Jerk about James Porter the lead singer of the band of the same name, to the bleak reality of his semi-biographical Principle IV about the horrors of being a conscientious objector. Stave's work was nothing if not eye-popping and darkly patriotic.
But no film better stands for his body of work like the 1991 classic Declassified Information, based on Stave's own private investigation behind the scenes of the Kennedy administration.
Declassified Information won four MODAs including a hotly controversial Best Picture and of course a Best Screenplay for Stave and his co-writer, former blacklister, Jessica Tdinen-Finornen.

Declassified Information
 
 
 
               INT. THE OVAL OFFICE - DAY
 
               SUPER: October
 
               Fists planted firmly on his desk, JFK gnaws on a cigar. He
               spits it on the floor - SPLAT - on the Presidential Seal.
 
                                   JFK
                         Gawd dammit! What the hell does
                         Khrushchev think he'll accomplish
                         with this shit?
 
                                   LBJ
                         He thinks you're weak, Jack.
 
                                   MCNAMARA
                         He wants West Berlin. He's
                         calling your bluff.
 
                                   JFK
                         Then give him what it's about.
 
                                   LBJ
                         Jack?
 
                                   JFK
                         Nuke Havana.
 
               Anxious eyes.
 
                                   LBJ
                         Are you serious?
 
                                   JFK
                         Damn rights.
 
                                   MCNAMARA
                         Perhaps we should consider-
 
                                   JFK
                         Bring me the damned football!
 
                                   MCNAMARA
                         If you are certain Sir.
 
               JFK hammers the desk.
 
                                   JFK
                         I'm the God damned President!
 
               Bobby hops to it. Picks up the phone - grunts into it.
 
                                   MCNAMARA
                         This is no way to treat the
                         Munroe Doctrine.
 
                                   LBJ
                         Khrushchev is shitting all over
                         it.
 
                                   JFK
                         So, while he's squatting down,
                         let's shove it back up his ass.
 
               An Air Force LIEUTENANT enters. An aluminum briefcase is
               shackled to his wrist.
 
               JFK dials a code into the lock and lifts the lid...
 
               Revealing a big-ass knife.
 
                                   JFK (CONT'D)
                         Is this some kind of joke?
 
                                   MCNAMARA
                         Not at all Mr. President.
 
                                   JFK
                         Where are the damned launch
                         codes?
 
                                   MCNAMARA
                         The codes are imprinted upon a
                         silicon wafer surgically inserted
                         behind the Lieutenant's heart.
 
               JFK aims a slow angry stare at McNamara.
 
                                   MCNAMARA (CONT'D)
                         You will have to extract them
                         from the Lieutenant.
 
                                   JFK
                         That is barbaric.
 
                                   MCNAMARA
                         Yes, Mr. President.
 
                                   JFK
                         Its murder.
 
                                   LBJ
                         I think that's the point, Jack.
 
                                   MCNAMARA
                         Think of it as a moral fail-safe.
 
               The President's eyes say 'give it to me plain.'
 
                                   MCNAMARA (CONT'D)
                         You can't kill millions of people
                         remotely if you won't kill one
                         with your own hand first.
 
                                   JFK
                         Diabolical sonsabitches.
 
               He throws the knife to the floor.
 
                                   JFK (CONT'D)
                         Then we find another way.
                         Everyone give Bobby and me five. I
                         want solutions.
 
               McNamara and LBJ head for the door. The Lieutenant reaches
               for the knife, Bobby picks it up for him.
 
                                   JFK (CONT'D)
                         Hold up a moment Lieutenant...
 
               The door closes, the three are alone.
 
                                   JFK (CONT'D)
                         What's your name, Son?
 
                                   LIEUTENANT OSWALD
                         Oswald, Sir.
 
                                   JFK
                         Crazy job you have.
 
                                   LIEUTENANT OSWALD
                         Yes, Sir.
 
                                   JFK
                         You enjoy it?
 
                                   LIEUTENANT OSWALD
                         Its a lot of waiting, Sir.
 
                                   JFK
                         What if I had...?
 
                                   LIEUTENANT OSWALD
                         I'd be spared the horror of an
                         Atomic war, Sir.
 
               JFK guffaws and punches the Lieutenant in the shoulder.
 
                                   JFK
                         So you would, Oswald, so you
                         would. Dismissed.
 
               JFK turns to his desk.
 
               Bobby steps toward the Lieutenant with the knife.
 
               The Lieutenant reaches for the knife, but Bobby plunges it
               into the surprised soldier's sternum.
 
               JFK whirls about as the Lieutenant slumps to the carpet.
 
                                   JFK (CONT'D)
                         Bobby! Jesus!
 
                                   BOBBY
                         I thought you...
 
                                   JFK
                         Well, if this ain't a pickle. A
                         big fucking pickle.
 
 
 
               
 
 


Baker Toghill won a MODA for his only movie role before his untimely death while making his second film for Orville Stave.

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