Half Nelson

Synopsis: Young Caucasian Dan Dunne teaches history and coaches the girls basketball team at a Brooklyn high school populated primarily by black and Hispanic students. To the chagrin of his superiors, Dan bucks the outlined curriculum of historical facts in favor of the philosophy of historical events, generally discussing the concept of dialectics. As such, he captures the imagination of his students, at least in the classroom. Outside of the classroom, Dan's life is in shambles. He has a distant but cordial relationship with his family. He uses illicit drugs rampantly. Although his former girlfriend Rachel was able to clean up her drug habit, Dan believes that rehab will not work for him. Due to a combination of these issues, he treats women poorly. Thirteen year old Drey is a student in his class and a player on his basketball team. Drey has her own problems. Her parents are divorced, with her father a virtually non-existent figure in her life and her EMT mother generally absent as she is alw
Genre: Drama
Director(s): Ryan Fleck
Production: ThinkFilm
  Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 29 wins & 47 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.2
Metacritic:
85
Rotten Tomatoes:
90%
R
Year:
2006
106 min
$2,591,047
Website
1,270 Views


One, two, three,

four, five, six

Seven, eight, nine,

ten, eleven, twelve

Okay.

--auditions for Miss Jackson

step rehearsals.

Step rehearsals will meet

in room 326 after school today.

Aww.

What is history?

Opposites.

You can read the board.

I'm so happy to hear that.

No, what is it?

What does it mean?

Stace?

Change?

Thank you, Stacey.

I'm glad to hear

someone's paying attention.

History is the study

Of change over time.

and what's change?

It's this.

It's opposites.

It's two things that

push against each other

in opposite directions.

So the civil rights movement,

okay, it's essentially,

It's two opposing mentalities.

In the south,

the majority believes

All men are not created equal,

and there's a minority

Who believes that they are,

so that minority struggles

and it fights and it pushes

till eventually

It becomes the majority.

Am I boring you?

Huh?

Let's give you some examples,

okay, of opposing forces,

Like I'm going to go

night and day.

What else?

Big and little.

Good.

Anything else?

Left and right.

Left and right, very good.

Stace?

Me and you.

You and I.

Teacher, student.

Anything else?

Mr. Dunn?

Yeah.

Just wondering if you

could count me and Gina's

baldheaded sister as opposites.

Oh, insult.

Gina come on, tell me you're not

going to take that?

You got a bald sister?

Is your sister bald?

Give me something.

May 17, 1954.

Oh.

and I expect some thought

from you.

I don't want

just dates and facts.

I want to know why.

I want to know consequences.

I want to know what it means.

All right.

Now, back to the bald sister.

What's going on with that?

Right.

Left.

Back.

Forward.

I'm shooting.

You got your girl open

over here.

She's sending out smoke signals

over here.

She's got the fire.

She's going I got it over here

and you're like--

Come on, get open.

Oh, yeah.

Drey?

You going to put that down

and come play or what?

I ain't done yet, Coach.

All right, top of the key,

three passes, here we go.

Thursday, 11:
16 a.m.

Hello, this is Taylor calling

from Consolidated Credit.

This is an urgent message

For Mr. Daniel Dunn

Regarding your

outstanding balance.

Please call me back as soon--

Thursday, 5:
25 p.m.

Hey, Dan, it's Rachel.

I'm in town for a while.

You know, my Mom, anyway,

I know it's been forever,

But I'd really like to see you.

I don't know.

I'll be at my parents

so give me a call, okay?

Bye.

Thursday, 5:
25 p.m.

Hey, Dan, it's Rachel.

I like Oprah.

I love Oprah.

But the thing is I was just

f***ing things up just

to f*** them up.

Right, right.

No.

You know what I mean?

Right.

But I was a writer.

I hate words.

Yeah.

Right, because everything

that is worth--

Right, just forget it.

so you're a teacher?

I'm a teacher.

and what am I supposed

To teach them, you know

what I mean?

What am I supposed

to teach them?

Right.

That's the point,

you know what I mean?

Yeah.

If you can help one student.

Yeah.

No, if you can change

One person, right?

If you can change one person--

Then you can change them all.

No, that's not the point.

The point is, if you change one.

I want to dance.

Then you can teach them--

Do you want to dance?

--the rest of the village,

The-- what is it?

I want to dance.

Let's dance.

What's going on, bro?

What's the word?

What's that?

What, this right here?

Mm-hmm.

Some new street sh*t.

Go ahead, man, check it out.

You got to feel that sh*t.

What you think about that?

Yeah, it's not bad.

It's the street sh*t?

That's the street sh*t.

So what you need, teach,

another eighth?

I only got 30.

Word.

It's been a long week.

You want that other thing?

On may 17, 1954,

The supreme court ruled

On the case of Brown

Versus Board of Education,

Making it illegal for states

to segregate public schools.

This was a major step forward

in the struggle

For racial justice

and helped begin

A flurry of bold

and heroic actions

Known as

the Civil Rights Movement.

Get on her.

Sally, get on her.

It's all right, Sally.

Come on.

Come on.

Ballgame, ladies.

Ballgame.

Okay.

Good job.

I like our chances

Against Saint Joseph.

The thing is if we could just

Figure out a way to put the ball

In the hoop it would be fine.

Stace, good job tonight.

Thank you.

You did a great job.

Is there anyone else in there?

No, that's it.

Thanks for tonight.

All right.

Bye, Mr. Dunn.

What are you doing here?

Came to check out

Some basketball.

I heard this was the place.

We need a little work,

But we're having fun so, yeah.

How are you?

Same old, same old.

I'm happy to see you.

It's good to see you too.

You look good.

Come on, I got fat.

Oh, I know, but it looks great.

You look healthy.

Do you want to go get some--

I can't.

I got to--

Just like a quick coffee.

I just want to--

To get some coffee?

Yeah.

I can't tonight.

Do you want to do it

Another night?

Okay.

Hey, how's your Mom?

Did you get my messages?

Hello?

I'm coming in.

Anyone?

Somebody in there?

Oh, sorry.

That's okay.

It's okay.

I'm fine.

I'm sorry.

Are you okay?

Can you help me up?

Are you okay?

Yeah.

Okay, good.

It's gonna be fine.

Some water?

I'm sorry, but I'm fine.

Just don't go, okay,

Just for a minute?

Just for a minute?

See you tomorrow?

Hey, kiddo.

How's Darrel's leg healing?

I don't know.

You didn't go to the hospital?

No.

Did your father pick you up

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes

Ryan Fleck

All Ryan Fleck scripts | Ryan Fleck Scripts

0 fans

Submitted on August 05, 2018

Discuss this script with the community:

0 Comments

    Translation

    Translate and read this script in other languages:

    Select another language:

    • - Select -
    • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
    • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
    • Español (Spanish)
    • Esperanto (Esperanto)
    • 日本語 (Japanese)
    • Português (Portuguese)
    • Deutsch (German)
    • العربية (Arabic)
    • Français (French)
    • Русский (Russian)
    • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
    • 한국어 (Korean)
    • עברית (Hebrew)
    • Gaeilge (Irish)
    • Українська (Ukrainian)
    • اردو (Urdu)
    • Magyar (Hungarian)
    • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
    • Indonesia (Indonesian)
    • Italiano (Italian)
    • தமிழ் (Tamil)
    • Türkçe (Turkish)
    • తెలుగు (Telugu)
    • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
    • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
    • Čeština (Czech)
    • Polski (Polish)
    • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
    • Românește (Romanian)
    • Nederlands (Dutch)
    • Ελληνικά (Greek)
    • Latinum (Latin)
    • Svenska (Swedish)
    • Dansk (Danish)
    • Suomi (Finnish)
    • فارسی (Persian)
    • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
    • հայերեն (Armenian)
    • Norsk (Norwegian)
    • English (English)

    Citation

    Use the citation below to add this screenplay to your bibliography:

    Style:MLAChicagoAPA

    "Half Nelson" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/half_nelson_9491>.

    We need you!

    Help us build the largest writers community and scripts collection on the web!

    Watch the movie trailer

    Half Nelson

    Browse Scripts.com

    The Studio:

    ScreenWriting Tool

    Write your screenplay and focus on the story with many helpful features.