A speaker mentioned a story at Muster that I think wish could be made into a movie:
Basically, two buddies went off to fight WWI promising each other that they would never leave the other alone in battle. One day, they were part of a large suicidal attack against the Germans. They were taking terrible losses, and were ordered to retreat. As these two buddies were running back, one was shot. The other buddy made it back to the trench, but turned around to see that his buddy was no longer with him. He asked his sergeant if he could go get his buddy, but the sergeant said no. He ignored him and ran out to him anyway. After a little while, the sergeant saw him running back alone. On the way back he got shot too, but was able to crawl his way back to the trench. The sergeant (all pissed off) said, "see what you did? Now you are going to die too! Was that worth it?" He replied, "Yes. Because before he died, he told me that he knew I would come."
I still remember that story, but after thinking about it, I came to realize that there was more to it. Obviously the buddy who ran back to the trench had to have felt a sense of guilt that he left his buddy alone, especially if his buddy were dead. But his injured buddy apparently fought to stay alive in order to spare him that guilt, since he died only a few minutes after they reunited. Imagine purposefully enduring all of that pain just to spare your buddy guilt. Imagine running through that enemy fire just to be with your buddy, because you made a promise.
I've been thinking about how one would stretch that story into a full feature movie. Obviously, the above should be at the end. Since both main characters would die, perhaps it should be from the point of view of the sergeant. Perhaps the sergeant would retell this story to his grand son who is himself on his way to war. One thing is certain, establishing the relationship between the two main characters is the key. The audience has to love these guys. I've even thought of having the story start out with the two meeting each other as Freshmen at A&M. The war starts, and they leave to enlist together. What I don't want is any political commentary on WWI or war in general. I don't want any bogus scenes of ridiculous karate fighting skill or unimaginable bravery. I would want this to be about the real reason soldiers fight.. for each other.. and that's it.
[This message has been edited by aTmAg (edited 7/19/2006 3:37p).]
