- 2 days ago
Category
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Short filmTranscript
00:00you're traveling through another dimension a dimension not only of sight and sound but of
00:08mind a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination that's
00:13the signpost up ahead your next stop the twilight zone
00:30in this corner of the universe a prizefighter named bully jackson 183 pounds in an hour and a
00:52half away from a comeback at st. nick's arena mr. bully jackson who by the standards of his
00:58profession as an aging over-the-hill relic of what was and who now sees a reflection of a man who's
01:04left too many pieces of his youth in too many stadiums for too many years before too many
01:10screaming people mr. bully jackson who might do well to look for some gentle magic in the hard
01:17surfaced glass that stares back at him
01:19so
01:25You're looking good, Bully.
01:40You're looking good, Bully.
01:41Take a tiger tonight, huh, Bully?
01:43Take a tiger.
01:44I'm going to take a tiger, Henry.
01:45I'll give him a left and a right and one to the stomach
01:48and then pick him up by the tail
01:49and throw him right up into the ninth row.
01:52You're looking good, Bully.
01:54You're looking sharp.
01:55You're going to watch?
01:57You fooling.
01:58I had you all so lied you'd hear me all the way to St. Nick.
02:07You know, a fighter don't need a scrapbook, Henry.
02:13And you want to know what he's done, where he's fought?
02:16You read it in his face.
02:19He's got the whole story cut into his flesh.
02:22St. Louis, 1949.
02:29A guy named Sailor Levitt.
02:31Real fast boy.
02:34Yeah, and this.
02:35Memorial Stadium.
02:38Syracuse, New York.
02:39Italian boy.
02:42Fought like Henry Armstrong.
02:43All hands and arms, just like a windmill all over you.
02:50First time I ever got my nose broke twice in one fight.
02:56And then moved south, Henry.
02:58Miami, Florida.
03:02Miami, Florida.
03:04The boy got me up against the ring post.
03:07He did this with his laces.
03:08Tired old man.
03:18Tired old man.
03:20Trying to catch a bus.
03:24And the bus is already gone.
03:27Left a couple of years ago.
03:28Arms heavy.
03:37Legs like rubber.
03:39Short of wind.
03:41One eye almost gone.
03:46There I go.
03:48Running down the street.
03:50Trying to catch that bus to glory.
03:52Bully, you are going to catch a tiger tonight.
04:07I'm going to make a wish.
04:09I'm going to make a big, tall wish.
04:12And you ain't going to get hurt none either.
04:14You hear, Bully?
04:16You've been hurt enough already.
04:18And you're my friend, Bully.
04:20You're my good and close friend.
04:21You're quite a boy there, Francis.
04:37You're quite a boy.
04:39Talks like a little old man, you know.
04:41I'm his good and close friend.
04:44That's what he tells me.
04:45Real, real intense.
04:46I'm his good and close friend.
04:49Well, you're good to him, Bully.
04:51Real good.
04:53Taking him to ball games all the time.
04:55Taking him for walks.
04:59Take care of yourself, Bully.
05:01Don't get hurt none.
05:03I'll work hard, trying not to.
05:05I'm going to make a wish, Bully.
05:16So don't you be afraid, Bully.
05:18I understand?
05:20Don't you be afraid.
05:21Go, go on.
05:25Bully, that boy's got you in a shrine.
05:27A scared old man who don't remember nothing except how to bleed.
05:34I don't fit no shrines, Francis.
05:37But you tell him, Francis.
05:39You tell him how much I'm obliged to him for his wish.
05:43He's all the time wishing.
05:46Why, just the other night he...
05:49What?
05:50Oh, I needed $15 for the rent.
05:55Henry said he was going to make the big, tall wish.
05:58That's the biggest wish.
05:59The big, tall wish.
06:01He don't waste that on just anything.
06:03That's what he calls the most important kind.
06:06That was last Friday.
06:08And a woman I did some nursing for on the island sent me a check.
06:11A check for $15.
06:17Little boys.
06:19Little boys with their heads full up with dreams.
06:25And when did they find out, Francis?
06:27When did they suddenly find out that there ain't any magic?
06:34When did somebody push their face down on the sidewalk and say to them,
06:39Hey, little boy.
06:41It's concrete.
06:43That's what the world is made out of.
06:45Concrete.
06:48When did they find out that you can wish your life away?
06:59Good luck tonight, Bully.
07:02Sure, sure, Francis.
07:03We'll be waiting for you.
07:04Tell him I'll see you later.
07:11Bully.
07:12Good luck, baby.
07:13You can take it.
07:15Take it for me.
07:19Best of luck, Bully.
07:20We'll be watching.
07:21Try it, Bully.
07:36Try it, Bully.
07:42Feels okay.
07:44Feels good, Joe.
07:44Thanks.
07:45He's on, Randy.
07:55Well, butt it out, will you, Thomas?
07:57I want to breathe.
07:58Well, you hired me for the night, Bully, baby.
08:00It's a package deal.
08:01Me and the cigar.
08:03That's it.
08:04Butt it out.
08:04Feisty little old man.
08:23The older they get, the louder they talk, the more they want.
08:29And the less chance they got to get it.
08:31How'd I get you tonight?
08:32Oh, I'm a bargain, Bully.
08:36I'm an expert on has-beens.
08:41I've seen your boys.
08:44Catches, aren't they?
08:47Guarantee two rounds each.
08:50Shovel them in, shovel them out.
08:52Sew them together for the next time.
08:56Well, that's the only way to do it, champ.
08:59A month or so from now, maybe I'll sign you at the back door.
09:01Well, why not?
09:04You're long gone, Bully.
09:06You've had it.
09:08What'll after tonight?
09:10You'll want to get in the stable, too.
09:12All you have to do is guarantee two rounds.
09:16Two, three prelims every month.
09:19Why, you can do that standing on your head.
09:22Can't you?
09:26I thought the smell came with the cigar.
09:29You wear it all over you.
09:32You stink, Thomas.
09:35You tell him, champ.
09:39You tell him.
09:41Jackson, ten minutes.
09:45He'll be there.
09:46All right, what about tonight?
09:54What do I watch out for?
09:56I mean, I only seen this boy fight once.
09:58That was a couple of years ago.
10:01I ain't never seen him.
10:08You watched him fight.
10:09You see him fight six, seven times in the past year.
10:12You piece of garbage, you.
10:16You're betting on him, aren't you?
10:18All right, now hold it, champ.
10:19It ain't enough.
10:19He sells flesh by the pound.
10:21He comes in here for a dirty 20 bucks supposed to help me and then bets on the other guy.
10:25Well, I may be a bum upstairs in another ten minutes, but right now I'm going to fight a beautiful first round.
10:29Now, you touch me, Bully, and I'll have you up for ten years.
10:31I swear to you, Bully, I'll fix your wagon good.
10:34Now, you huddle, lay off him in your tummy.
10:35Let me look at that.
10:42Sit down.
10:53Wasn't enough spotting him all those years, Bully.
10:56It wasn't enough, huh?
10:57You got to go in the ring with four busted knuckles.
11:01Okay, Jackson, you're on.
11:03Well?
11:11Well, nothing less doing.
11:17Oh, poor little Henry Dungle.
11:24I've given him two strikes on all this magic.
11:28Two strikes.
11:30Who's nothing to do?
11:36Nothing.
11:40There ain't no such...
11:42Ain't no such thing as magic.
11:45No such thing as magic.
12:12There's another left, another right.
12:42That was a hard one. Jackson's knees are wobbly. He's hurt. Bully Jackson is definitely hurt.
13:01And Jackson is down. Jackson is down.
13:05Bully, Bully, Bully.
13:09One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.
13:39I don't know what you've seen in the museum.
13:43I hope to be beautiful.
13:47You're welcome.
13:51It's good to be beautiful.
13:56You're done dandy, Boley.
14:13Hey, Joe.
14:14You were wrong.
14:16Just bruised, I guess, huh?
14:19It hurt like anything that somebody said I got him with it.
14:22Could have been broken after all.
14:24Well, who said it was?
14:26You said.
14:28Jeez, it felt like it, too.
14:31You could feel the knuckles coming right up through the bandages.
14:36Could have sworn it was broke.
14:38And then when he knocked me down, I...
14:41When he what?
14:44When he knocked me down, Joe.
14:47When he knocked me down.
14:51I don't even remember getting up.
14:54The next thing I knew, there he was at my feet.
14:58We must have been in different arenas together.
15:02You didn't get knocked down, Boley.
15:04You was never off your feet.
15:07I wasn't?
15:08No.
15:10You carried this one all the way, baby.
15:14Joe.
15:16I wasn't off my feet.
15:18I didn't go down.
15:20Read about it in the papers.
15:23Good night, old timer.
15:24Well, I'm proud of you.
15:26I'm proud of you.
15:42Beautiful, Boley.
15:43Beautiful.
15:45You were just great, man.
15:46Just wonderful.
15:46You were great, Boley.
15:47We've seen you on television.
15:49You were real great.
15:49You clobbered him, baby.
15:51You clobbered him.
15:51That was a right.
15:52That was a real right.
16:03Hey.
16:04What do you say, Henry Temple?
16:06You are a tiger, Boley.
16:08You are a real tiger.
16:09Did it look okay?
16:10Just like a chap.
16:11Hey.
16:12You know something?
16:13That boy must have hit me so hard, it knocked all the hurt right out of me.
16:17I don't remember a doggone thing, Henry.
16:20And I must have really been punchy there for a second, because I thought he had me on my back.
16:25And there I was.
16:27Lying there, looking up at the ref, waving his arm down on me.
16:31Staring at the light, blinking my eyes.
16:35But that must have been some kind of a dream or something, because...
16:39Henry.
16:48Henry, I never went down.
16:51I was never off my feet.
16:56Henry, I never went down.
17:03Henry, was I?
17:05Was I on my back and on my way out?
17:07Nobody remembers it.
17:21Nobody at all, except me.
17:24I thought it happened, but it didn't.
17:26I thought I was lying there on my back, being counted out, and everybody tells me that...
17:36Boley, I made the big wish then.
17:40I wish it was never knocked down.
17:42I just shut my eyes, and I wish real hard.
17:46It was magic, Boley.
17:47We had to have magic then.
17:50Had to, Boley.
17:52Nothing left for us then.
17:54There ain't no magic, there ain't no magic, a wishing, or nothing like that.
17:58You're too big to have nutsy thoughts like that.
18:00You're too big to believe in fairy tales.
18:02If you wish hard enough, Boley, it'll come true.
18:05If you wish hard enough, and then believe.
18:07Somebody's got to knock it out of you, don't they?
18:08Somebody's got to take you by the hair, and rub your face into the world,
18:12till you get the taste and feel of the way things are, don't they?
18:19Listen, kid, I've been wishing all my life.
18:23You understand, Henry?
18:24I got a gut ache from wishing, and all I got to show for it is a face full of scars,
18:29and a head full of memories of all the hurt and misery I've had to live with
18:36and sleep with all my miserable life.
18:38You crazy kid, are you trying to tell me you wished me into a knockout?
18:45You're trying to tell me it was magic that made me get up off my back?
18:50You're a little cool kid, Henry.
18:51That's what you want.
18:54How'd I ever get mixed up with you anyway?
18:56I ain't got enough trouble.
18:57I got to get mixed up with some dopey kid who thinks...
18:59If you don't believe, Boley, it won't be true.
19:03That's the way magic works.
19:05Listen.
19:06Listen, boy.
19:07Ain't no magic, no magic, Henry.
19:10I had that fight coming and going.
19:12I had it in my pocket.
19:13I was the number one out there, and it was me who'd done it.
19:16Me, Boley Jackson.
19:18Hitting and slugging and winning.
19:21Winning.
19:26Henry.
19:27I can't believe.
19:30I'm too old.
19:33And I'm too hurt to believe.
19:36I can't, boy.
19:37Just can't.
19:38Now, Henry, there ain't no such thing as magic.
19:41God help us both.
19:43I wish there were.
19:44Boley, you've got to believe.
19:46I can't.
19:47You've got to believe, boy.
19:49I can't.
19:50I can't.
19:51I can't.
19:52Please.
19:52Please.
19:52I can't.
19:53Please.
19:54I can't.
19:56You've got to believe, boy.
19:57I can't.
19:58THE END
20:28You should have stood in bed. How come you didn't use your right?
20:58You should have stood in bed.
21:05You should have stood in bed.
21:07You should have stood in bed.
21:12You should have stood in bed.
21:20He's in bed, Boley.
21:22Can I see him?
21:24Sure.
21:25I expect he's waiting for you.
21:30Boley, I'm real sorry.
21:34I pulled a rock, Henry.
21:51I threw a punch before I should have hit a wall.
21:56Busted my knuckles.
21:58I went in with half my artillery gone.
22:00You look like a tiger even so.
22:03You look like a real tiger.
22:05I was proud of you, Boley.
22:07I was real proud.
22:18Boley?
22:20I didn't go to sleep.
22:22Tomorrow we'll go to a hockey game.
22:24And we'll get some hot dogs in the park, me and you.
22:27Sure thing, Boley.
22:29That'd be nice.
22:30Boley?
22:33I ain't gonna make no more wishes, Boley.
22:36I'm too old for wishes.
22:38And there ain't no such thing as magic.
22:41Is there?
22:46I guess not, Henry.
22:49Or maybe...
22:52Maybe there is magic.
22:53Maybe there's wishes, too.
22:56I guess the trouble is...
22:59I guess the trouble is there's not enough people around to believe.
23:05Good night, boy.
23:08Good night, Boley.
23:11Mr. Boley Jackson.
23:14183 pounds.
23:16Who left a second chance lying in a heap
23:19on a rosin-spattered canvas at St. Nick's Arena.
23:23Mr. Boley Jackson, who shares the most common ailment of all men.
23:28The strange and perverse disinclination to believe in a miracle.
23:33The kind of miracle to come from the mind of a little boy.
23:36Perhaps only to be found in the Twilight Zone.
23:40lights on.
Recommended
23:40
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