THE PATRIOT
by
Robert Rodat
March 26, 1999
FADE IN:
EXT. THE SWAMPS OF SOUTH CAROLINA - NIGHT
Dark. Ominous. Kudzu hangs from the swamps maples. A
dark and forbidding place. A bird CRIES EERILY in the
darkness. Insects HUM ominously.
SUPERIMPOSITION:
FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR
A detachment of French soldiers with several wagons makes
its way along a muddy road cut through the swamp. The
soldiers are w
Note: Hows this for a change from the finished product?!? ... and NO mention of the powerful Opening Vistas! This is how the script begins ...
[FADE IN]
The screen is a microcosm of leaf, crystal drops of precipitation, a stone, emerald green moss. Its a landscape in miniature. We HEAR the forest. Some distant birds. Their sound seems to reverberate as if in a cavern. A piece of sunlight refracts
In black, we hear a chain-gang chant, many voices together, spaced around the unison strike of picks against rock. A title burns in:
O muse!
Sing in me, and through me tell the story
Of that man skilled in all the ways of contending...
A wanderer, harried for years on end...
On the sound of an impact we cut to:
A PICK
splitting a rock.
As the chant continues, wider angles show the chain-gang at w
Mephisto Script
lll give my heart just to one man
The greatest love since time began
Hell come my way and hell be strong
And he will sing me loves sweet song
- What happened Mr. H gen?
- What do you want?
l dont need you now!
Go to hell!
Were invited to a boring banquet.
Sorry, but we have to leave now.
Cant you sit with us, Dora?
No, wer e much too late.
Sorry, good evening.
l wanted to say you
A Chinese GONG SOUNDS and the glittering doors of an art Deco pa-poda slide open to reveal a mammoth silver stairway down which rows of beautiful women start descending.
BEGIN MAIN TITLES
The lovely ladies are a mix of races and they sing a strange, haunting melody - one might think them a heavenly choir, if it werent for their sexy, clinging lame gowns.
INT. CLUB ENTRANCE
From the ethereal beau