My Three Random Thoughts:
1) EASY READ. I liked, but didn't love, the script. Kudos for being a smooth read.
2) POLITICS. Ebert writes that "Guthrie's politics were central to his music, and yet in the film they seem almost superfluous; the politics could have emerged organically from the narrative, instead of being shoehorned in."
Hmmm...they were fine on the page. I wonder if it just didn't translate over to film?
3) SAYING GOODBYE. I liked that this script was rather objective about Guthrie.
It showed his warts and all: he was kind, but he had a temper. He loved his family, yet he cheated on his wife. He built a home, yet his wanderlust kept him away.
All of these contradictions are seen in the goodbye scene below.
NOTE:
- This is not just a goodbye to the family, but goodbye to his old life too.
- In an earlier scene, there's a song about "Them California waters taste like cherry wine." Now in this scene, cherry wine = going to California. (Setup --> Payoff)
- Observe the lovely economical writing that transitions us through the goodbye:
Guthrie's note --> Food for the road --> Saying goodbye to guitar --> Takes brushes to earn a living painting signs --> Leave $$ for family --> Say goodbye without using "goodbye" --> Long shot of him walking from old life toward new life
"INT. GUTHRIE HOUSE - DAY
Mary and the children can be HEARD in the back yard as Woody hurriedly tapes a note to the cooler door. As he opens it, we read,"Gone to California, will send for you all...Love Woody." He grabs a couple of pieces of bread and a chunk of cheese from the cooler and shuts the door. Woody goes to the couch, picks up his guitar, plucks it a couple of times, sets it back down and takes a harmonica from a table and puts it in his pocket. He goes to a corner of the living room, reaches into a cardboard box and pulls out three or four paint brushes and stuffs them into his pocket, at the same time taking out a dollar or two and laying it on the table. As he starts for the front door, Mary's VOICE calls:
MARY'S VOICE: Woody, you home?
Woody pauses by the door.
WOODY: Yeah, but I'm jus' leavin'...
MARY'S VOICE: Where you goin'?
WOODY (after a beat): Ta get some cherry wine...
MARY'S VOICE: When you comin' back?
WOODY: Don't know, fer sure...
He hesitates, then goes out the door.
EXT. GUTHRIE HOUSE - LONG SHOT - DAY
Woody exits the house and walks in opposite direction of the "Pampa Texas" sign."
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: Don't be afraid to give a character time for a goodbye scene, nor the following long shot scene, which finishes the sequence.
I tend to ax those kinds of long shots for length concerns, but am learning that this is a bad knee jerk reaction. This script is much better with that long shot.
Bound for Glory (1975)(dated 8/11/75)
by Robert Getchell
Based on the autobiography of Woody Guthrie
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