Hey folks, Harry here... Ya know that guy that's supposed to be reading all of your scripts... well, from time to time... Disturbed has to take a break and read a sure thing... and sure thing scripts are few and far between... but whenever you see bracketed pieces of paper with the name Joel and Ethan Coen on it... You are in for a great read. Now I read the David Webb Peoples draft of this script some time ago... that script was really really really wonderful, so I'm curious what fine flavorful morsels they've added... Tonight, at the Alamo, I saw the trailer for MILLER'S CROSSING... my personal favorite Coen Brother film... and when watching that trailer... all I could think about was this movie... TO THE WHITE SEA isn't a funny film or even a tongue in cheek film... it's brutal... much like MILLER'S CROSSING... while of course being totally different. I can not wait. Here's Disturbed and his look...
Here ya go, Harry:
Joel and Ethan Coen are consistently some of the best, most innovative and arresting filmmakers around. Running the gamut from the over-the-top RAISING ARIZONA, to the low-key BIG LEBOWSKI, to the pitch-black FARGO, to the abstruse BARTON FINK, the Coens' films are always at once something new, and something familiar. Each of them is different, but they're all unmistakably the work of the Coen brothers. Is this script the same in that respect? Yes and no.
TO THE WHITE SEA is based on the acclaimed novel of the same name by James Dickey, probably best known to film buffs as the author of DELIVERANCE. DELIVERANCE is not a particularly pleasant story, and neither is this one.
The film, set in WWII, opens with a rather chilling speech about an upcoming firebombing on Japan. The Colonel waxes verbose about the fire. "...We're going to put it in his eyes and up his asshole, in his wife's twat and in his baby's diaper. We're going to put it in his pockets where he can't get rid of it. White phosphorous that will hold on...We're going to put it in his dreams. Whatever heaven he's hoping for, we're fixing to make a hell out of it. Soon, good buddies." This scene, the colonel lecturing geometric rows of soldiers is described in such a way that you can picture every last frame. If you're familiar with the Coens at all you know how it's going to look. It's terrific.
The story follows a man called Muldrow. He's a Gunner. He's the best. He's the sort of guy who, when you meet him, will make you think "What an arrogant asshole," until you realize...he really is as good as he thinks he is. After a rather exhilarating sequence, though, his plane goes down. He rips from the wall the parachute he taped there, and jumps. He's now on his own in frozen Japan. He has his knife, his gun, two clips for the pistol, some fish hooks, some twine, a tin of C-rations, two flints, a compass, and a map of Japan. That is all. He tells us, in voiceover, that he loves the cold. He even likes the cold weather birds better than those in the jungle. Good thing for him.
And yes, what you've heard is true. After this point there are, I think, two lines spoken in English until the very end. And one of them is said to a dog. I don't focus on this, though, because it doesn't seem forced. Some people, if all alone, would talk to themselves. Muldrow wouldn't.
What follows the crash is his journey, but this is not what I'd call your basic journey/survival movie. Sure, it starts out that way, but by the end you begin to realize that Muldrow isn't the Captain America you might assume. He goes from killing when necessary to just killing, and it's absolutely chilling. He's a serial killer with an excuse: War. The story is as cold, if not colder than the landscape it takes place in.
So how is this identifiably a Coen Bros. movie? It sounds a lot darker than anything they've done in the past, right? Well, yes. But there ARE a few things that are very funny. More than that, though, it LOOKS like a Coen film. The way shots are described are very familiar. For example, do you remember those gorgeous shots in FARGO...the ones that were solid colors that became recognizable...or the shots that, while on color film, looked black and white? The opening shot is one of them. The Coens seem to have a fascination with things like that, and it shows in this script. The script opens like this:
"FADE IN
Cobalt blue.
A dark speck is just visible in the center of the screen. It resolves itself into a sea bird, flying toward us."
So from all we've heard O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? is in the vein of RAISING ARIZONA. The Barber Film is supposed to be noirish (in black and white!), but there are also rumors of UFO/Alien stuff, so we'll see. But TO THE WHITE SEA will be a return to where FARGO came from. That darker place. Only more brutal, less funny. In FARGO you sympathize with Jerry Lundegaard. You feel bad for him. You don't sympathize with Muldrow. He's not a good guy. I think Brad Pitt could do very well in this role, and I hope he gets it. His current trend of working with great directors is a good thing. This film will be every bit as brutal as DELIVERANCE. It'll give you frostbite. I can't wait.
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Don't worry, I'm reading you guys' scripts too. Keep sending them in.
