Insignificance

[ When Your Heart Runs Out of Time by Will Jennings]

AII right. l'll be right there.

TeIl 'em where to put it.

- What do you think? - I'm ready.

I'd say that's okay. Take it to "B".

Give me some focus, would you?

I need some more light here.

Hold it there!

- You got it all wrong. - Get out of here.

Let's have some more fizz here. Come on. Come on.

Come on, guys. Get... Hold. That's it.

Don't tell me. You know what it's like. What can l do?

Okay, that's great. That's perfect.

It's thick. All of them are...

A minute, 28. I know. What about...

...and there at the pIate, he steaIs home!

We got this. Try for the reverse.

She there yet?

- l can't see. - Can't see nothin'?

- Just the stars. - Screw the stars.

I Iike the stars.

You Iook at the stars, and you feeI Iike tomorrow you can do anything.

Kiss that girl, walk on the grass.

Stars won't think the worse of you.

Stars won't even notice. Know what l mean?

ls she there yet, you phiIosophical fuckin' bastard?

- That's her. - l can't see a fuckin' thing.

If I can't see nothin', how do I know when to hit the fuckin' fan?

- You guys ready? - Yep.

I was ready last time. And the time before that!

Ready, ma'am? This is a take.

All right now. Stand back and make way, please, gentlemen!

Just get it right this time.

I ain't in no hurry.

I hope you go blind.

- Go fan. - Go.

Jesus!

Do it for me!

It's the breeze from the subway! lsn't it delicious?

That's a kind of interesting point of view.

Okay! Cut!

What'd you see?

What'd you see? Did you see anything?

I saw the face of God.

You know that according to the laws of probability,

you drink a gIass of water, you drink a Iittle piece of NapoIeon's crap.

Maybe even Mussolini's.

But more like Napoleon, 'cause he's been dead longer.

This way. Miss Monroe for Life magazine!

Hey, watch out for my leg, buddy, will you?

Honey!

Hey, honey! Honey!

Hey!

Boy, what a night!

Oh, would you mind?

For two minutes, l wait 8 hours?

Anything for money.

Wherever it is you're taking me,

I don't wanna go.

Now, Attila the Hun, he's a dead cert, see?

'Cause he's been gone too Iong.

So don't you see? AII of us, we're aIl part of that great fuckin' aIimentary canaI.

- Hmm. - Did you know that?

Professor?

- Professor? - Yes.

Professor?

Yes, yes.

- Professor? - Yes.

Good evening, Professor.

It sure is a dog of a night.

Sorry to bother you so Iate.

But l thought that there was something that had to be said

and it's gotta be said before the morning.

Yep, it sure is a dog of a night. Tomorrow's gonna be a dog of a day.

Hey!

Is this the stuff you hump around with you aII the time?

Must be a few years' work right there, huh?

I'm not an educated man myself, Professor, but I sure would love to know what you know.

I guess l'm just a man who likes to know things.

Hey, do you know where there's a five-and-dime?

An aIl-night store or somethin'.

I need a few things.

WeII, I don't know, ma'am. I was toId to take you straight to your des...

- Well, fuck them. - ...destination.

- WelI, l was told no stopping. - Please!

It's important.

Just for me, huh?

Okay.

For me.

You're not on trial here. You know that.

You know? You're not being accused of anything.

You know? You are not the accused.

If you feel accused, that makes me a very unhappy man.

Sit down. Sit down, wiIl ya?

Now, telI me. Are you feeling accused?

I feel persecuted.

Hmm. Are you now?

Or have l ever been?

Cheer up, wiII you, Professor?

That's not an accusation. Do you understand? It's just an inquiry.

You want a drink?

But, off the record, would you telI me what...

What do you think your answer to a question like that wouId be?

l mean, it seems to me, it'd be simple as just a yes or a no.

But you'd be surprised how many citizens find it hard to just even say those two words,

and they've turned these hearings into one royal pain in the butt!

You know how many times one guy cited the Fifth Amendment?

Guess.

You'Il never get it. 79 times.

He got awfuIly tired.

Look, aII I'm asking you is for a simple answer to a simple question,

so that we can all get home for the long weekend.

Professor, I haven't seen my sweet wife in over a month.

The last time l bought tickets, l had to cancel.

We had two extra sessions to try that jumped-up nigger Robeson for contempt.

And I missed the damn pIane.

Professor, let me make this perfectly clear, you know?

Now, military men and politicians,

they'lI wallow around in the mud, and they come up smelling roses.

But not you. Nah, no. Not you.

You! You're in a speciaI category. You know, a different type.

You know what? The movie star type.

The kind that mud sticks to.

You help us, and l'lI help you come out nice and cIean.

Uh-huh. Nice and clean. Nice and cIean.

I bet I know what you want me to do to come out nice and clean.

You want me to answer yes. lsn't that right?

- Right. - Mmm.

- Yes. Yes would be just fine by us. - Uh-huh.

And if you couple that with a denunciation of any Communist ideals you once heId,

I mean, that wouId be a good pIus as weII.

And you could mention a coupIe of names.

Mm-hm. Is that alI?

WeIl...

A formal condemnation of the Soviet arms initiative wouldn't do you any harm at aII.

Huh.

In confidence between us, Professor, l'll telI you something.

These hearings are not gonna go on much longer.

You could be our Iast great civilian fish.

And what a fish!

I mean, you know everything there is to know about everything.

The cosmos, space, "pootons", protons, "clutons".

I mean everything. The Jewish problem.

Mmm.

They call you the mommy and the daddy of the H-bomb.

A true child of the universe.

WeIl, l have to telI you something about aII this.

In my lifetime of experiences,

the Swiss authorities caIled me a German fascist

disregarding that l'm Jewish.

But you delicateIy aIIuded to that a moment ago.

And in Germany, by the German fascists,

because I was Jewish, I was caIled a Zionist conspirator.

I come to democratic America,

some smalI-minded people calIed me a German fascist and a Zionist conspirator.

And now I presume that you are suggesting that I'm a Soviet Communist!

Well, Iisten...

Two weeks ago, two magazines, at the same time variously called me

a warmonger and a conscientious objector in the review of the same speech.

And you know what that speech was? To the Mozart Appreciation Society of New EngIand.

And...

It's unbeIievable.

l'lI tell you, on or off the record...

You peopIe Iike things on the record.

I didn't choose America. I don't care.

Had I but known it.

I was escaping Dachau.

Funny, how you talk to a good Jew nowadays,

that subject always comes up, Dachau.

That's the same threat to democracy we're asking you to help us fight now.

World War ll had very littIe to do with Communism.

Had very littIe to do... Are you kidding?

The whole war was based on a Soviet pIot.

- A Soviet pIot? - Yes.

15 miIlion Russians dead, a Soviet plot?

They're tricky.

Ask yourseIf this, Professor.

What is left of Europe that is a threat to the Soviets?

Round one is theirs.

So, what do you say?

I say that you ought to go see a psychiatrist.

No, no, never mind that. They haven't learned how to treat that degree of lunacy yet.

What l say is... l say good night. I say we should say good night now.

lt wouId be a shame, reaIly...

if aII you stood for...

was to get muddied up over some haggIing over constitutional legalities.

Don't make the mistake of treating this Iike some...

freshman debate on civil liberties.

Some guys have tried that.

One guy tried it. He did great for that day.

ln fact, he got applauded by the fucking stenographer.

WeIl, he ain't earned jack shit since!

And neither has the stenographer!

Now, how about a Iittle cooperation here?

I wiII explain it very clearly and simply.

l will never, ever, under any condition, testify.

You have been subpoenaed to testify.

We paid for your flight and the room.

Nonetheless, tomorrow l'm going to speak to the conference for world peace.

It's true that your subpoena coincides with that date,