The Deer Hunter Page #4

JOHN bangs out from behind the bar with a tray of beer. At

the same moment SAL comes in with NICK, MERLE, ALBERT and

VINCE. JOHN, who is a great bear of a youth, puts down his

tray, wraps his arms around SAL and begins jumping him around

the floor, grinning ear to ear. The STEELWORKERS turn, desert

their places and swarm around SAL, joking and shouting

congratulations.

INT. LINDA'S HOUSE - KITCHEN - DAY

LINDA is thin -- a skinny slip of a thing with a hauntingly

lovely face. Wearing her bridesmaid's dress she stands alone

in the kitchen, staring at the ceiling. Thumping noises are

coming from the room above. The thumping gets louder.

There is a crash, then another crash, as if furniture were

being thrown around. A MAN'S VOICE begins cursing and there

is more thumping and crashing. Suddenly there is a thud...

and then silence.

LINDA bites her lip. She crosses to the stove, ladles stew

into a bowl, butters bread, pours a cup of tea and puts it

all on a tray.

INT. LINDA'S HOUSE - FATHER'S BEDROOM - DAY

The room is a wreck of broken furniture. Chairs are turned

over, lamps are smashed and the pictures hang cockeyed on the

wall. In the middle of the room, face down on the floor, is

LINDA'S FATHER. His coat is torn, one shoe is missing and he

holds a half-empty bottle in his hand. Behind him, through

the open window, snow is blowing in.

LINDA comes in with the tray. She stands for a moment

expressionless, looking down at her father. Then she sets the

tray on the bureau and kneels beside him.

LINDA:

Daddy?

FATHER:

(mumbles)

Go... f***ing hell!

LINDA reaches down, takes her FATHER by the shoulder and

rolls him over. It takes some effort and the face that comes

up is gray, unshaven and implacably bitter. Saliva dribbles

from his mouth, there is a cut with the stitches still in it

seaming his forehead and as LINDA looks at him he begins

cursing again.

FATHER (CONT'D)

F***ing sh*t... all around, like a

sea! Like an ocean!

LINDA gets up and closes the window. She comes back, gets

down on the floor beside her father and pushes him toward the

bed. Then, hiking up her bridesmaid's dress, she takes him by

the shoulders again and heaves him onto the coverlet. The

effort is almost too much for her. Tears begin to burn in her

eyes, but when he slips back she tries again. The father

groans, begins to mumble, and then, when she almost has him

on the bed, he suddenly lifts his hand, catches her full in

the face and pushes her violently across the room.

LINDA crashes backwards over a fallen chair and smashes into

the wall. As she gets to her feet her father advances on her.

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