Midnight Cowboy Page #3

JOE:

Care to get out your yardstick,

gentlemen?

At the same moment, a recognizable variant of the "Big

Country" theme blares loud.

INTERCUT WESTERN FILM CLIP

Gary Cooper (or John Wayne) walks a frontier street.

EXT. BUS DEPOT - DAY

High angle of the departing bus, intercut "Big Country"

fashion, alternating high shots with close-ups of the bus

wheals.

EXT. FREEWAY CLOVERLEAF - DAY

Through the bus windshield -- a dizzying montage of traffic

lines, arrows and signs as the bus sweeps around and up onto

the freeway.

INT. BUS - DAY

Joe sits at the front, opposite the driver, cracking his gum

as he watches the huge billboards streaking by, promising him

power, happiness and beautiful women if he chooses the right

breakfast food, hair oil or automobile. Joe listens to the

humming tires, the roar of the engine, shaking his head.

JOE:

This is a powerful mothah, ain't

it?

Ignored by the driver, Joe rises and walks back to his empty

double seat, glancing around to see what impression he's made

on his immediate fellow travelers -- an OLD LADY in front of

him -- a hostile young sailor with acne behind him -- two

teeny-boppers flirting with Joe hysterically -- a PALE BLONDE

directly across the aisle, smiling at Joe weakly.

PALE BLONDE:

Do you have a stick of gum?

Joe leans across, snapping his gum as he offers her a stick.

He watches her nibble it daintily on her front teeth.

PALE BLONDE (CONT'D)

Thank you.

JOE:

Plenty more where that came from.

PALE BLONDE:

Thank you, no, it's just till the

Dramamine works. I get carsick.

JOE:

I only get carsick on boats.

(waits, then)

But seems to me that's more the

fish smell than the bouncing...

Joe realizes that her eyes are closed. Mildly depressed, he

stretches himself across both seats and turns on his radio,

finds only static and snaps it off. Further depressed, he

examines his reflection in the bus window, squeezes a black

head and runs the comb through his hair, picks a piece of

tobacco off his tooth and lights a cigarette, watching the

flame die in reflection, forgetting to discard the burnt-out

match as he stares out at a vast lonely prairie, a solitary

cowboy in the distance, a row of sharecropper shacks

apparently deserted, a barefoot little girl motionless at the

roadside, watching the bus pass. Through this, leading into

the next scene, Sally Buck sings softly "... if that mocking

bird don't sing, Grammaw gonna buy you a golden ring..."

INT. REMEMBERED BEAUTY SALON - ANOTHER TIME

Sally Buck, relaxing in the middle of a busy day, eyes closed

wearily, while little Joe massages her neck. Her song

continues over the noises of the busy beauty parlor "... if

that golden ring turns brass, Grammaw gonna buy you a looking

glass..."

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