The Last Samurai Page #4

GANT:

...Saw your little melodrama today.

Very inspiring...

ALGREN:

Given up soldiering to become a

critic?

Gant smiles and shakes his head.

GANT:

Got a job for you, unless you're

running for office...

ALGREN:

I have I job.

GANT:

I mean a real job. Back in uniform.

ALGREN:

I' m retired.

GANT:

I don't mean a U.S. uniform.

Algren looks at him. Curious despite himself.

INT. RESTAURANT - NIGHT

Gant leads Algren into a lush San Francisco restaurant.

Flickering gaslight and trays of lobster. COLONEL BENJAMIN

BAGLEY (whom we saw in flashback) sits with the three Japanese

men. Bagley's hair has greyed. He has his eye on a political

future.

BAGLEY:

Nathan, good to see you.

ALGREN:

(stunned)

Colonel Bagley...

BAGLEY:

Sit down. This is Mr. Omura, from

Japan, and his two associates who,

so far as I can tell, don't have

names...

OMURA 40, is a handsome and intelligent man. He watches Algren

closely as Algren pours a glass or whiskey from a decanter.

BAGLEY:

They're looking to hire real American

soldiers to create the first Japanese

Imperial Army.

Algren looks at him.

BAGLEY:

Japan's got it in mind to become a

civilized country and they're willing

to spend what it takes to hire white

experts to do the job right.

Algren takes a slow lip of whiskey.

BAGLEY:

Sergeant Gant has already agreed to

serve. You would be my second-in-

command.

ALGREN:

With approval from Washington, of

course.

BAGLEY:

Both governments prefer to consider

our mission unofficial. We'd be there

as non-combatants only, advisors to

the Japanese officers. Help them

with training, ordinance and the

like.

GANT:

You ought to think about it, Captain.

Unless you intend to take up a career

in the theater.

ALGREN:

I have an agreement with the

Winchester Corporation -- I'm sure

these people have some concept of

what an agreement is.

Omura suddenly speaks. His English is flawless.

OMURA:

You are paid seven dollars for each

performance. You do, on average,

fourteen performances a year. We

will pay you 400 dollars.

ALGREN:

A year?

OMURA:

A month.

Algren looks at him. The figure, in 1876, is staggering.

EXT. SHIP - OCEAN - DAY

A steamship chums its way across the great Pacific. Algren

leans on the ship's rail and looks out into an endless

procession of waves.

ALGREN (V.O.)

June 23, 1876. It is impossible,

standing here, not to appreciate

one's, own insignificance.

A dolphin crests the surface, arcing into the air.

ALGREN (V.O.)

Here there is neither past, nor

future. Only an oblivion of water.

In his tiny cabin, Algren finishes writing in his journal

and takes out a daguerreotype of a HAUNTINGLY BEAUTIFUL BLOND

WOMAN.

ALGREN (V.O.)

And yet I ask myself, will the dead

follow me across the ocean to this

strange new land?

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