[Quick Summary: When Holnists terrorize a post-apocalyptic world, a loner, who calls himself the Postman, stirs up a Resistance by bringing mail to isolated towns.]
This is a well-written, engaging, earnest adaptation, but LONG.
However, the script lays out how to give meaning visually to a moment.
The script refers to the protagonist as "The Postman" from the start.
However, he is never referred to that by name, so the audience is unaware until this moment below.
Notice that the meaning is two-fold:
- He adopts The Postman's guise.
- He is also a dead man walking, as he is still being hunted by Holnists.
EXT. BOTTOM OF RAVINE - NIGHT
He comes to a stop in a forest, covered with undergrowth and dotted with saplings, nothing's been down here in years. He's lying on an unnaturally hard something. He pulls up -- takes stock. The thing is square. He cautiously pulls back a few branches.
An old, rusted Jeep with faded U.S. government markings. Its hood buried under the dirt of an old mud slide. The Postman stoops to look through the passenger side window, comes face-to-face with death. A skeleton sits inside, the skull grinning against the glass facing The Postman.
But The Postman doesn't jump back. He just stares. The two heads meet halfway as The Postman's face is reflected on the glass, superimposed over the skull. [emphasis mine]
A hypothermic shiver wracks his body. The Postman tries the door, but it won't budge. THe other side of the Jeep is buried. But seeing that the windshield is partly smashed, he clears away the debris, peels back the spider-webbed safety glass and climbs inside.
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I thought the superimposed reflection was a great way to explain what The Postman was thinking.
The Postman (1997)(1/28/97 shooting script w/revisions)
by Eric Roth and Brian Helgeland
Based on the novel by David Brin
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