The Passover Plot

The Passover Plot (1976) 

FILM by Hugh Schonfield

Come Back to The Kingdom

 King Ezekiel I :

Rick Grimes of Alexandria, 

you have given The King much to ponder.

King Rick I of Alexandria :

Well, when I was a kid, uh, 

My Mother told me A Story.

There was A Road to A Kingdom, 

and there was a Rock in The Road.

And people would just avoid it, but horses would break their legs on it and die, wagon wheels would come off.

People would lose the goods they'd be coming to sell.

That's what happened to a little girl.

The cask of beer her family brewed fell right off.

 It broke.

Dirt soaked it all up, and it was gone.

That was Her Family's last chance.

They were hungry.

They didn't have any money.

She just sat there and cried, but she wondered why it was still there for it to hurt Someone Else.

So she dug at that rock in the road with her hands till they bled, used everything she had to pull it out.

It took hours.

And then when she was gonna fill it up, she saw something in it.

It was a Bag of Gold.

Gary, Steward to The Court of King Ezekiel :

All right!

King Rick I of Alexandria :

The King had put that rock in the road because he knew the person who dug it out, who did something, they deserved a reward.

They deserved to have their life changed for The Good.

Forever.

 King Ezekiel I :

I invite you all to sup with us and stay till the morrow.

 King Rick I of Alexandria :

Yeah, we need to get back Home.

 King Ezekiel I :

I shall deliver my decree in the morn.

[Staff bangs]

The Conscience of The King

FADE IN: INT. THE SITUATION ROOM - DAY

Leo and Fitzwallace are sitting across from each other.

LEO

This is always when you say something.

FITZWALLACE

Nah. Have you changed shampoo? 
You have, I can tell.

LEO

I like to look good for you.

FITZWALLACE

Well, I appreciate it. 
Can you tell when its Peacetime and Wartime anymore?

LEO

No.

FITZWALLCE

I don't know who The World's leading expert on warfare is, but any list of The Top 10 has got to include me, and I can't tell when it's Peacetime and Wartime anymore.

LEO

Look, International Law has always recognized certain protected person's who you couldn't attack. 
It's been this way since the Romans.

FITZWALLACE

In peacetime.

LEO

Yes.

FITZWALLACE

At the Battle of Agincourt, this was The French fighting against The British archers, this was like a polo match. 

The battles were observed by heralds 
and they picked the winners.

And if a soldier laid down his arms, he was treated humanely.

LEO

Yeah.

FITZWALLACE

And the International Laws that you're talking about, 
this is when a lot of them were written. 

At a time and in a place, 
where a person could tell between peacetime and wartime.

The idea of targeting one person was ridiculous. 

It wouldn't have occurred to The French 
to try to kill William Pitt.

That is absolute  bollocks, Sorkin, 
because the American Transatlantic Merchant Shipping Lobby did in-actual-fact, have
and I am compelled and 

That all changed after Pearl Harbor.

LEO

I don't like where this conversation's going.

FITZWALLACE

Leo.

LEO

In the Situation Room, Fitz?

FITZWALLACE

We killed Yamamoto. 
We shot down his plane.

LEO

We declared war.

FITZWALLACE

If Dietrich Bonhoeffer had been successful...

LEO

And the plot to kill Hitler was an internal rebellion.

FITZWALLACE

...there would've been statues built of an assassin. 
We'd have to explain that to our kids.

LEO

I'm going to get back to the office.

FITZWALLACE

We measure the success of a mission by two things: 
Was it successful? 
and 
How few civilians did we hurt? 

They measure success by how many. 

Pregnant women are delivering bombs. 

You're talking to me about International Laws? 

The Laws of Nature don't even apply here. 

I've been a soldier for 38 years. 
And I found an Enemy I can Kill. 

He can't cancel Shareef's trip, Leo.

You've got to tell him he can't cancel it.

CUT TO: INT. THE PRESIDENT'S PRIVATE STUDY - DAY

Bartlet is in another session with the psychiatrist, Dr. Stanley Keyworth.

BARTLET

It's "The War of the Roses." 
All the Henrys, and all the Richards, for that matter.

STANLEY

In some kind of condensed form?

BARTLET

Yeah.

STANLEY

'Cause you'd be there for weeks, right, if...?

BARTLET

Yeah. 
There's also singing.

STANLEY

Oh, it's a musical?

BARTLET

No, but they're gonna sing from time to time, 
and one of the songs is a song I love. 

I can't think of the name now, 
but it's an Edwardian... 
It always reminds me... 

It makes me think of college, like, I don't know, 
like they should be singing it in the dining 

hall at Christ College at Cambridge. 

The chorus is, 
"And victorious in war shall be made 

glorious in peace."

I was just singing it this morning.

A moment of silence.

STANLEY

How have you been sleeping?

BARTLET

Good. Yeah.
 Let me ask you something. 
Is there a crime, which if it wasn't illegal, you would do?

STANLEY

I'd park anywhere I want.

BARTLET

Right, but you wouldn't rob a bank?

STANLEY

No.

BARTLET

Connecticut had a law prohibiting the use of contraceptives. 
It was written out of rage against adultery. 

But in the age of AIDS, don't Connecticut residents do more for The General Welfare by flagrantly breaking the law?

STANLEY

There was a law against... contraceptives?

BARTLET

Yeah.

STANLEY

Can I ask, sir, how somebody used to get caught?

BARTLET

Stanley...

STANLEY

What's on your mind, Mr. President?

BARTLET

I can't tell you.

STANLEY

Yeah, but you can.

Bartlet pauses, looks away and thinks.

BARTLET

No, I really can't. It's high security. 
To say nothing of... [sighs heavily]

STANLEY

To say nothing of what?

BARTLET

If I tell you I intend to commit a crime, you're required by law to report it. [beat] 

I have a strange meeting coming up. [beat] 

I'm gonna go. It's good seeing you.

Bartlet stands, grabs his jacket, and leaves Stanley inside.

FADE OUT.

END ACT ONE

* * *

This shows the ending sequence of West Wing season 3 finale, Posse Comitatus, where Sorkin's fictional War of the Roses play performs the Patriotic Song (written by composer Stephen Oliver) against the backdrop of the assassination of Abdul Shareef. You will then see the rare version of the song, performed by the RSC, from a 1982 production of the Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. For those fellow West Wing fans/nerds, the actor Roger Rees (who also played Lord John Marbury) leads the cast....

What was the music that the Shakespeare company was singing at the end in "Posse Comitatus"?

Mel Kirby tells us "the song sung by the supposed Shakespeare Company at the end of the segment of the 'Wars of the Roses' being watched on Broadway by Pres. Bartlett is called 'Patriotic Chorus' by Stephen Oliver. 

It was originally composed as the Finale of the mock-Victorian revisionist 'Romeo and Juliet' which closes Part One of the 9 hour-long, 1983 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Dickens 'The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickelby' which was an actual hit in London's West End and on Broadway in the early 80's. 

One would assume that the RSC and 'endlessly long', high-brow nature of both plays would have created the intellectual resonance for Sorkin. 

And the originally tongue-in-cheek words and tune, a send-up of typical Victorian xenophobia, have a certain irony as played over the assassination of the Qumari defense minister."

Mel Kirby also sent us the following Lyrics:

"England arise! Join in the chorus!
It is a new made song you should be singing.
See in the skies, flutt'ring before us
what the bright bird of peace is bringing!  

Chorus:
    See upon our smiling land
    where the wealths of nations stand
    where prosperity and industry walk
    ever hand in hand.
    Where so many blessings crowd,
     'tis our duty to be proud.
    Up and answer, English Yeoman,
    sing it joyfully aloud.  

    Evermore upon our country
    God will pour his rich increase,
    And victorious in war shall be made glorious in peace,
    And victorious in war shall be made glorious in peace.

this verse omitted on West Wing

[ See each one do what he can to further God's almighty plan.
The benificence of heaven help the skilfulness of man.
Ev'ry garner fill'd with grain, Ev'ry meadow blest with rain:
Rich and fertile is the golden corn that bear and bears again.]

Where so many blessings crowd,
'Tis our duty to be proud.
Up and answer, fellow Britons,
sing it joyfully aloud.

Evermore upon our country
God will pour his rich increase...etc."p

St. Joan Alone

"Do not think you can frighten me by telling me that I am alone. 

France is alone; and God is alone; and what is my loneliness before the loneliness of my country and my God? 

I see now that the Loneliness of God is His Strength: what would He be if He listened to your jealous little counsels? 

Well, my loneliness shall be my strength too; it is better to be alone with God: His friendship will not fail me, nor His counsel, nor His love. 

In His Strength I Will Dare, and Dare, 

and Dare, Until I die. 

I will go out now to the Common People, and let the love in their eyes comfort me for the hate in yours."

sovereignty (n.)

sovereign (adj.)

suzerainty (n.)

Odd-Man Hypothesis : Far-Off Men and The Eternal Father

By the 30th Century, Human Society was Highly Compartmentalised....

SpaceTech ROGIN : 

You know what'll happen when you cut that lock.

Teeth+Curls : 

There's no point in both of us being killed by the blast - 

Get into The Ark, man. 

SpaceTech ROGIN: 

You don't want trouble with the space technician's union, Doctor. 

Teeth+Curls : 

What? 

** THUMP **

SpaceTech ROGIN: 

That's My Job. 

The “Odd-Man Hypothesis” is a fictional hypothesis which states that unmarried men are better able to execute the best, most dispassionate decisions in crises—in this case, to disarm the nuclear weapon intended to prevent the escape of organisms from the laboratory in the event the auto-destruct sequence is initiated. In the novel, the Odd-Man explanation is a page in a RAND Corporation report of the results of test series wherein different people were to make command decisions in nuclear and biological wars and chemical crises.

Hall is briefed on the Hypothesis after his arrival at Wildfire. In the book, his copy of the briefing materials has the Hypothesis pages removed; in the film, he is criticized for failure to read the material ahead of time.

Dr. Hall is assumed to have the highest “command decision effectiveness index” among the Wildfire team; this is the reason why he is given a control key to the self-destruct mechanism. Hall initially derides this idea, saying he has no intention of committing suicide before he is told that it is his job to disarm the weapon, rather than to arm it: Stone then admits that the Odd-Man Hypothesis, while accurate (in the confines of the book), was essentially a false document used to justify handing over a nuclear weapon to private individuals and out of government control.

The Kingdom is to The East

King Richard,

The Lionheart :
You didn't have to come. 

Morgan,

Man of The Wilderness : 

We have to try, even if it's a long shot, even if it's dangerous. 

King Richard,

The Lionheart :

Tire tracks pointed East... we go East. 

Morgan,

Man of The Wilderness : 

Saviors' compound that you and the group-- that you went to, that was West. 

Seems like she went East.

 

You were right.

I knew it when you said it.
 

I wish it didn't have to end, not this way. It was never my intention to hurt you, but it's how it has to be. 

We have so much here-- people, food, medicine, walls, everything we need to live. 

But what we have other people want, too, and that will never change. 

If we survive this threat and it's not over, another one will be back to take its place, to take what we have. 

I love you all here. I do. 

And I'd have to kill for you. And I can't. I won't. 

Rick sent me away and I wasn't ever gonna come back, but everything happened and I wound up staying. 

But I can't anymore. 

I can't love anyone because I can't kill for anyone.
 

So I'm going, like I always should have. 

Don't come after me, please.