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Cuttlefish -> RE: Small Ship, Big War (9/3/2008 12:21:36 AM)
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July 3, 1944
Location: Tokyo
Course: None
Attached to: TF 23
Mission: Air combat
System Damage: 1
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 475
Orders: Await further orders
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Hollywood, California, 1972:
Ernest L. Pressinger, head of Lucky Pictures, sits behind his massive oak desk. Behind him the brilliant Southern California sunshine, tinged ochre by the smog, streams in past the drawn-aside plum-colored curtains. It outlines the fringe of white hair on Pressinger’s head, giving him the appearance of have a halo. This appearance is somewhat deceiving.
Across the room a door opens and a tall, thin man pokes his head in the door. “Are you next?” snaps Pressinger. The man’s Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows and he nods his head. “Well, come on in then,” says Pressinger. “I haven’t got all day.”
Pressinger is holding ‘pitch meetings’, meetings where he gives writers one minute to pitch their ideas. He is looking for Lucky Picture’s next big blockbuster. One or two lucky writers will have their scripts purchased. The rest will endure Pressinger’s scorn and go home to face yet another rejection.
The skinny young man advances across the deep pile carpet, clutching a sheet of paper. He tries to look confident as he approaches Pressinger’s desk but does not entirely succeed.
“What’s your name, son?” barks Pressinger. “Speak up!”
“H…hello, sir,” says the young man. “I’m Walter Herman.”
“Well, Herman, spit it out,” says Pressinger. “And for god’s sake keep it short.”
“Yes sir,” says Herman. “My script is called Japanese Destroyer Attack! It’s adapted from a book of the same title. It’s the action-packed story of one of Japan’s destroyers in World War II.”
“Japs?” says Pressinger. “War flicks are still big, but folks in this country want pictures about Americans. Red white and blue, mom and apple pie kind of Americans who laugh at death and then blow away the enemy!”
“Yes sir,” says Herman, “but remember Tora Tora Tora a couple of years ago. That was half from the Japanese point of view.”
“Yeah,” growls Pressinger, “but did it make money?”
“Yes, it did, thanks to overseas profits,” says Herman.
Pressinger pushes a button on his desk. “Francine!” he says, barking into a speaker. “Get me the profit and loss figures for Tora Tora Tora. I want ‘em five minutes ago! Move!” He looks up at Herman. “Go on,” he says.
“Well, sir,” says Herman, his words tumbling over one another, “I see Toshiro Mifune as the hard driving captain, a man who knows his cause is doomed but is determined to do his duty. One of Chief Petty Officers is a man of great strength with a violent and mysterious past. There’s a love story too, with a crewman who used to be a smuggler trying to go straight and win the love of the Chief’s beautiful daughter. The ship was in a lot of the big battles of the war, so there would be lots of combat scenes. Think of a cross between From Here to Eternity and The Caine Mutiny.”
“Hm,” says Pressinger. “I don’t hate it.”
“It would be a gripping war epic,” says Herman, waxing on when he sees this tack seems to be working, “personal stories against a backdrop of history, like The Longest Day or Battle of the Bulge!”
“Battle of the Bulge!” bellows Pressinger. He heaves his large frame up out of his chair. “I was a sergeant with the Seventh Armored at the Bulge, son, and let me tell you, that movie was a crock!” Herman recoils, aghast at this sudden change in attitude. “Forget the historical errors, which were horrible, that film tried to pretend that M47s were Tiger IIs! And they thought that no one would notice or care that M24s were being used as Shermans! What a joke! And you have the gall to come into my office and talk to me about that movie? Get out, I tell you. GET OUT!”
Herman turns and flees, nearly sobbing. The heavy oak door closes behind him with a thunk. Pressinger sits down and mops his face with a handkerchief. After a moment he leans forward and presses the intercom button.
“Send in the next one, Francine” he says.
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