1
Let's remember the energy.
America had won the war.
The depression was over.
Sacrifice was over.
The upsurge of
life was contagious.
We celebrated a moment
of collective inebriation
that we would never know again.
Nothing like it in all
the years that followed
from our childhood
until tonight,
the 45th reunion of
our high school class.
At 30 or 40, a gathering
of my old classmates
would have been
exactly the kind of thing
I'd have kept my nose out of.
But at 62,
I found myself drawn to it
as if in the crowd
of half-remembered faces
I'd be closer to the mystery
at the heart of things,
a magic trick
that turned time past
into time present.
The Swede.
Swede Levov.
During the war years, this was a
magical name in our neighborhood.
Of the few
fair-complexioned students
in our predominantly
Jewish public school
none possessed the viking mask
of this blue-eyed
hero, the Swede,
big brother of my
best friend, Jerry,
born into our tribe as
Seymour Irving Levov,
the greatest high school athlete
New Jersey had ever seen.
Watching the Swede,
people could forget
the way things actually were.
We could forget the war.
The Swede went off
to the marines in '44
just missing
the end of the fighting
and came home to Dawn Dwyer,
a plumber's daughter
from Elizabeth
who made it all the way
to the miss America pageant
in Atlantic city.
A shiksa.
The Swede had done it.
But before he could marry Dawn,
she had one great test to pass.
She had to meet the old man,
the Swede's father,
Lou Levov, founder and owner
of Newark maid gloves.
He just wants to ask you a
couple of things, that's all.
"That's all"?
Can't you answer for me?
He wants to get to
know you and he's not
an easy guy, but if
you stand your ground...
Oh, Swede.
He'll respect that.
He'll respect you for it.
I'll be right there.
Dawn, let's get
down to brass tacks.
What do you people say
about Jews?
My family doesn't
talk much about Jews.
I don't mean that as an excuse.
We don't talk much
about anything.
But marrying a Jew
isn't a big deal.
Until the issue of
what to raise the kids as.
I would want our child
to be baptized, yes.
Baptized? No.
That's a no.
But...
Baptism, it washes away
original sin.
Without it, if they die,
they go to limbo.
Limbo, I don't know about,
but baptism, I can't allow.
It's important to me,
Mr. Levov.
All of the sacraments
are important.
Like communion, the Eucharist.
What is that?
Well, everybody kneels
and you eat the body of Christ.
I cannot go that far.
I'm sorry.
I have the highest respect, but my
grandchild is not going to eat Jesus.
- I can give you Christmas.
- What about Easter?
Easter?
She wants Easter, Seymour.
What about catechism?
No. Whatever that is.
Now, both of you, we have to
talk about the bar Mitzvah.
Why can't we
just let him decide?
A child cannot decide.
But I don't want a bar Mitzvah.
Then I don't think
we can reach an agreement.
- Dad. -She wants the
child to decide?
A child cannot decide.
Then we won't have a child.
We can marry,
but we won't have children.
Miss Dwyer, you are
as pretty as a picture.
I congratulate you
on how far you've come.
Your parents must be proud.
But I think we should
just shake hands
and everybody go their own way.
I'm not leaving.
I'm not going to go.
And I'm not a picture,
Mr. Levov, I'm myself.
I'm Mary Dawn Dwyer
and I love your son.
I love him.
That's why I'm here.
So, please...
Let's go on.
So, the old man was won over.
In a few years, the Swede took over
the glove factory, built it up.
He commuted from the home
he and Dawn had made together
30 miles west of Newark,
out past the suburbs
in wealthy old Rimrock
where they were raising the child
they had, a daughter, merry.
Count! Where are you?
Count!
I hear him.
Count! We're here!
Count!
Come on, count.
Penny, Russ, how are you doing?
- How's the family, Mr. Levov?
- Real good, thanks.
You two have
a good rest of your day.
You, too, Mr. Levov.
Something was
smiling down on him.
This is the way I thought
it would always be.
Daddy!
Life would open its arms and
he would carry all before him.
He was the Swede, after all.
- Hey.
- Hey.
Jerry Levov.
God, Nathan.
I didn't expect to see you here.
Well, I didn't expect
to see you either.
I was sure you'd find all this
sentimentality repellent.
Yeah, I do.
This nostalgia.
It's bullshit.
Do you want to find a spot?
Sure.
So, why did you come?
Well, of all the forms
of bullshit available
this was the most likely
to have unsettling surprises.
And you like
unsettling surprises?
I suppose I do.
Hey, did you see that display
they have for your brother?
Like I said, I'm not
one for nostalgia.
We were, I don't know,
we were probably 10
and we went to watch
one of his practices.
He ran the ball
and his teammates
took him down and they piled on.
And we were worried
for a second, you and I.
Worried about the Swede?
No, never.
No, we were. Because
they took him down hard.
But he popped up
and dusted himself off.
And as he trotted by,
he turned, uh...
He turned to me,
his brother's friend.
I mean, I was a nobody
and he said...
"Basketball was
never like this, skip."
Yeah. Yeah, that's right.
He called me skip.
My brother's dead.
That's why I came up from
Florida, for his funeral.
Not for this reunion thing.
The Swede is...
Just a sweetheart whose fate
was to get himself fucked
over by some real crazies.
My brother, the best you're
going to get in this country
got caught in a war
he didn't start.
Jerry...
I have no idea what
you're talking about.
No? You don't know? Were
you alive during the '60s?
Well, I wasn't here.
I was, you know...
I was out of country
for most of the '60s.
Oh, I guess you're
the last person to hear, huh?
The famous writer, the last
one to hear the big story.
What is it, then,
this big story?
Well, you know he
and Dawn had a kid.
You wrote to me
after she was born.
Adorable when she was little.
So she had a stutter.
That was nothing.
To hell with that.
But then merry got older
and when she did...
I told him. I told him,
"let her go.
"Otherwise it will rot your
gut and take your life, too."
But he couldn't.
And now I'm burying my brother.
She was a good kid.
Jerry was correct.
Here I was, the famous writer,
the last one to know the story.
But now I wanted all of it.
I wanted to hear what had
become of the young man
from whom we had
expected everything.
Our hero.
Our Kennedy.
Grandpa.
Grandpa.
Yes, merry, what?
Lady Jane's going to
have a calf, grandpa.
I hope it's a heifer.
What's a heifer, sweetheart?
You're talking to
a guy from Newark.
It's a girl, grandpa.
Oh, a girl.
I bet it's going to
look just like count.
That's who mounted her.
"Mounted"?
Is that a way
for a young girl to talk?
That's what it's called, dad.
Yeah, what's she
supposed to say?
- "Make love"? It's a cow.
And what does
my son need with cows?
Why do they need to live
this far from civilization?
No offense to the locals,
Mr. Orcutt,
Mrs. Orcutt,
but let's be candid.
This is all rock-ribbed
republican out here.
That's true. That's so.
Lou, don't start.
What did I say?
We're out in the middle of nowhere.
This is Ku Klux Klan country.
Dad, will you stop?
I don't see why my brother
wants to live here either
but a couple of cows
doesn't make it Mississippi.
This is Morris county.
Grandpa!
Jerry's right, dad.
No one thinks like you anymore.
We can live where we want.
This is America.
Newark is in America.
Grandpa!
Yes, darling.
What? Yes, sweetheart.
Come to the barn to see count.
Wait till you meet him.
He's so...
I adore merry.
I think she's very special.
- Thank you.
- We all do.
She likes coming here.
She told us that.
Yeah, very much.
Sometimes when
she's here, I ask her,
"merry, what terrible thing
do you think would happen
"if you stopped stuttering?
"How do you think your father or your
mother would feel if you stopped?"
But she can't stop.
I think merry's stuttering
is a strategy.
A strategy for what?
For avoiding competition
with the beautiful mother,
the beautiful
miss New Jersey mother
for winning the handsome father.
This is about our looks?
- Doctor...
- "Sheila."
Sheila, stuttering isn't
something that merry chooses.
It makes her suffer.
Maybe the benefits
outweigh the suffering.
But it's killing us to see her.
It's killing merry's mother.
Maybe that's one
of the benefits.
Have you thought about how
difficult it must be for merry
growing up the daughter of someone
who's had so much attention
for something as
trivial as beauty?
Maybe the reason merry stutters
is to stop people
from asking her
"do you want to be miss New
Jersey just like your mommy?"
But who asks her that?
Nobody asks her that.
I'm not miss New Jersey,
for god's sake.
I'm her mother.
It's just that in
a highly-pressured
perfectionist family, you...
Who says we're a
highly-perfectionist family?
We're an ordinary family.
What about the physiological
basis for her stuttering?
I read an article where...
I can give you organic theories
if that's what you want
but it's not the way I've found
I can be most effective.
Ouch. Ouch.
I told you to wear your shoes.
You didn't tell me
about how sharp
the rocks would be.
No!
Dad!
Do I look like Audrey Hepburn?
Better. You look like
Meredith Levov.
Do you
miss mother?
Sure I do.
Me, too.
She wanted to come.
She couldn't.
I know.
Lady Jane's going to have
her calf any day now.
Mom had to be there.
Yes, dad. I know.
She'll come next time.
Have you had a nice time here?
With you?
- Terrible.
Hold these for your mother.
Daddy...
Kiss me.
No,
really, really kiss me.
Kiss me the way you kiss mother.
No!
And fix your dress.
Oh, I'm sorry, cookie.
Oh, I deserve it.
It's the same at school
with my friends.
I get started with
something and I go...
too far and I get carried...
There's nothing wrong
with that little girl.
Her mind goes too fast for her tongue.
That's all.
There, I just saved you the money you
were going to give to the shrink
because that's
all there is to it.
We just want to help her, dad.
"Help"? That girl? Just give
her a little bit of time.
Let her tongue
catch up to that brain.
The rest will follow from that.
Freddy, is something up
with this machine?
Every now and then, she kicks.
No, no, no. You'll be
throwing stitches soon.
Send it down to the shop.
See my son, Vick?
He picks out the bad machine from 100.
He's got the ear.
He gets it from you, Lou.
How are you feeling, dad?
You don't have to
come in every day.
Who comes in every day?
I don't.
- Besides, where else
am I supposed to go?
Time cards, gentleman.
Thank you, Vicky.
Vicky, my son is trying to tell me
never to come around here anymore.
I didn't say "anymore,"
I said "not every day."
But, Lou, you built this place.
You made a home for all of us.
Where else do you belong?
Exactly my point.
- Here you go.
- Oh, thank you.
You finish your stuttering book?
Mmm-hmm.
Have you written down all the
words that stopped you today?
Do you want to check?
Not if you say you finished.
My teacher in school never
believes me unless she checks.
Well, your teacher says that
you have a stubborn streak.
Merry, why does she say that?
Because of the homework.
The class had to write an
answer to the question
"why are we here?"
And merry wrote...
Merry can tell me herself.
Sorry.
"Why are apes here?"
That's it?
She made her rewrite it.
So I wrote
"why are
"kangaroos here?"
And then last week, the teacher
asked them, "what is life?"
This is what they ask in school?
"What is life?"
What did you answer?
I don't
remember.
Yes, you do.
"Life is just
a short space of time
"in which you are alive."
Daddy,
do you understand?
Yes, I think I do.
He assumed the lotus posture and
another priest stepped forward
and poured gasoline over him.
A very frail, old man
in his 70s, Quang Duc.
Oh, my god.
What is this?
This monk burned himself
and he sat there.
Oh, merry shouldn't
be seeing this.
No.
And then suddenly a towering
flame and the smell of gasoline
and of burning flesh in the air.
For 10 minutes.
And the priests and the nuns
in the audience
moaned and prostrated them...
Why did that poor...
Why did that poor man
have to burn himself?
Hey.
That gentle man and
those gentle people.
It's far away, baby.
It's far away.
Doesn't anybody care?
Of course people care.
Doesn't anybody...
Doesn't anybody
have a conscience?
Yes, you have a conscience.
Cookie.
Don't cry.
Do they look good, daddy?
You've got the touch.
If you don't end up
senator for New Jersey,
you'll make a great
short-order cook.
I'd rather cook any day.
Mmm. Great.
This makes you the first Levov in
history who can prepare edible food.
As long as it's hamburgers.
What's wrong with hamburgers?
It's an American classic.
I came here to speak
to you about Vietnam.
Talk about an American classic.
There's an American
classic asshole.
We abhor the political murder
of any state by another.
Fucking liar.
He's better than the guy
he ran against.
Barry Goldwater
would have buried us all.
Fucking mad man.
Lyndon Baines
"baby burner" Johnson.
What's going on?
Johnson's press conference.
We don't disagree, Mer. We're all
against the war in this family.
You heartless, miserable prick.
Merry, stop. Please.
What do you care about the war?
You're just contented,
middle-class people.
Some people would
be very happy to have
contented, middle-class
people for parents.
Well, I'm not brainwashed
enough to be one of them.
Merry.
- Dawn. -What? Don't tell me.
Tell her.
Tell her to behave
like a civilized person.
Don't tell me what to do.
I'm your mother.
I can and I will
tell you what to do.
I'm turning this off.
Sure, turn it off.
The Democratic Republic of Hanoi
could just burn down
and mom would just go on
worrying about her cows.
- Don't touch me, dad.
- Merry...
I can't stand this.
You're not anti-war,
you're anti-everything.
And you're pro...
cow.
I don't know why
she's turned against me.
Is it her stuttering?
Is she angry because she
can't make friends?
She's made friends, all right, the
one's she's made in New York.
Who is she?
I thought she was smart.
She's becoming stupid, Seymour.
No. She's just a kid with a
strong will, a strong idea.
It's not very well worked out...
You're defending her.
She hates me.
Dawn.
She talks to me like...
I don't know what.
With no respect.
And if I ever spoke
to my mother like that,
do you know what my father
would have done?
He would have turned you
over his knee.
You think it's funny?
I have to pick her up
from the train.
I can't believe we
let her go to New York.
She's 16, Seymour.
We don't even know
who she's with.
We don't know who
her friends are.
Well, she likes them,
they like her.
That's what's important.
I don't like those
pamphlets they give her.
What pamphlets?
In her room, Seymour.
Police and fire departments
are on the alert
as negro demonstrators
take to the streets of Newark
after the arrest and alleged beating
of cab driver John w. Smith.
You were supposed
to be on the 8:00.
You were involved in something
there, something political.
Everything is political.
Brushing your teeth
is political.
People who are against the war.
Is that who you see?
They're just people who
don't believe in the war.
I don't believe
in the war myself.
Then what's your problem?
I don't want you
getting mixed up in things
that could hurt your
chances for college.
My friends have been to college.
They had to leave because of the
way they treat student protestors.
Is that who they are? College
kids who have gotten thrown out?
They're just my friends.
Can't you believe that I have friends?
Don't you believe that?
Of course I believe
you have friends.
They wanted me
to stay the night.
No. That's...
You can never even
think about staying
over with people
that we don't know
or you'll never be
allowed to go again.
What do you believe in, daddy?
This is not about politics.
My responsibility is
to you, not the war.
Oh, I know.
That's why I have
to go to New York
because people there
do feel responsible,
responsible for blowing up
Vietnamese villages,
blowing up little babies.
But you don't care.
And neither does mother.
No one in our family or in our
fucking little town does.
Sir, could you go
to your vehicle?
You need to get off the street.
There's a curfew in effect.
"Curfew"?
- What kind of fascist
bullshit is that? -Merry.
We've got enough
trouble tonight.
The curfew's to protect people.
From what?
They should riot.
I'm sorry, officer.
We're both sorry.
I am not fucking sorry.
She's 16.
If you got any at home,
you'll understand.
I don't.
Right.
Hundreds of protestors have
gathered in the 4th precinct
where cab driver
John w. Smith is being held
after allegedly
being beaten by police,
who are calling this
an isolated incident.
Yet some local residents are
urging violent retaliation.
More news as it comes in. And now,
back to our regular programming.
Get on out of here!
- Streets to the people.
- Power to the people!
Get the fuck back home now!
Black power! Black power!
Black power!
Get out of here!
Jesus, merry.
Your father called from Florida.
He wants to know if they've
come near the factory.
I'll see in the morning.
You're not going to work tomorrow,
not with the riot going on.
It's not a riot.
It's a revolution.
People standing up
for their rights.
If you're going to defend them,
maybe you should just join them.
That's a good idea.
The governor called
the national guard in.
Of course. I mean,
what else can he do?
He can treat black people like
human beings, that's what.
No blacks on the city council,
the poverty, the unemployment.
We have 80% Negroes working at the plant.
We're proud of that.
Oh, I forgot.
You're a hero.
- Hello?
- Seymour.
- Vicky.
- It's bad.
What is it?
I ain't never seen
anything this bad.
They're beating them and dragging them.
Oh, my god.
Sniper!
- Vicky.
- People are shooting.
Police are shooting
and soldiers.
People have lost their minds.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir.
Going to war, huh?
It's what it is.
No. It isn't, either.
These are just troublemakers,
so think.
What we're saying is you're
here to keep the peace, son.
That means protecting the people
and the property
of this neighborhood.
What I'm saying is to think.
Think before you start
shooting at somebody's window.
- Vicky. -These aren't snipers.
These are people.
Good people who
live around here.
People just like your own
mothers and fathers.
That's who lives up there.
Now, this is their home.
And they've got to live here
long after you're gone.
This is their home.
Not yours.
All right. Well done.
I'm just telling them
how it is. That's all.
But tonight is going to be bad.
Do you hear me?
So, go home. Take everybody
who came to work and go home.
You're staying, though.
There ain't no telling
how bad it's going get.
It won't be safe for
anybody, and not you.
The place will be safer
with someone inside.
Then I'll stay, too.
- I've got that.
- No, I'll put it.
- Vicky.
- They're shooting outside.
I've got it.
Are you talking to me?
I told you not to move!
Keep your people back!
What do you want?
Turn it down.
All dressed up
for your stupid...
award that they gave you?
Do you expect me to
congratulate you, too?
What was the award for anyway?
We didn't shut down
after the riots.
The people who worked there,
who have always worked there
were welcomed back
to their jobs.
The mayor thought that
that was good,
that other businesses
should have done the same.
There was a ceremony
in his office.
Congratulations,
Swede.
And I would have liked it
if you had come.
I would have
fucking hated it.
Have you thought about
what I asked you?
Going away to private school?
If you don't like
living here with us.
I just want to be able to go to
New York again on the weekends.
No. You didn't come home last time.
You knew the rules.
I never thought my own father
would keep me prisoner.
Merry.
I have an idea for you.
I've been thinking
and I have an idea.
You want to protest the war.
Protest it right here
in old Rimrock.
What am I going to do,
march around the post office?
"Bring the war home."
Isn't that the slogan?
Look, they gave me this award.
It's just a stupid plaque,
but it means one thing.
If you take a stand,
people notice.
If you oppose the war right here
with all your strength...
This is part of America,
too, you know.
Read Marx.
Revolutions don't begin
in the countryside.
We're not talking
about revolution.
You're not talking
about revolution.
You think about what I'm saying.
I'm sure she's just with
her friends in New York.
Should we call the police?
No, let's give her
some more time.
Swede...
Do you think...
The post office...
- Do you think merry...
- No.
It's not possible.
You told her to
bring the war home.
Well, that was just talk.
I hope so.
A warrant. How many lies
did you tell to get that?
We have an informant
that confirms that
your daughter and
another young woman
placed a bomb in
the post office.
An informant?
Who is this informant?
Does your daughter know Russ
Hamlin, the storekeeper?
We all know Russ, penny.
Do you know Russ Hamlin is dead?
I know it because it was on the radio.
It has nothing to do with...
Hey, hey, hey.
Open that up.
What does my daughter
know about dynamite?
- Mrs. Levov.
- This is a girl.
This is a high school girl.
She didn't make a bomb. She
doesn't even know what a bomb is.
How could you even think
that she could make a bomb
or kill somebody?
Where is she, Mrs. Levov?
I don't know.
- She's been tricked.
- Mmm-hmm.
She's been tricked.
Why does everybody say that she did
it when she couldn't have done it?
She's been tricked and abducted.
Somebody is brainwashing her
right now.
We need to find her, Mrs...
She doesn't have
anything to do with it.
My daughter could not have had
anything to do with this!
Then why did she run off?
Maybe she doesn't even know
you're looking for her.
You know that they've probably taken
her underground already, right?
- Seymour. -It's all right, Dawnie.
Who's "they"?
You said she has political
friends in New York.
"We are against everything
decent in America.
"We will loot and burn."
And on and on and on.
All right,
that's written on a wall.
That's probably written
on a lot of kids' walls.
Not in old Rimrock,
it's not. Not in...
"Our fucking little town."
What is that?
What are you reading?
Your daughter stutters?
Oh, my god. What does that
have to do with anything?
A police officer in Newark made
a note about it two months ago.
You were present, sir.
Oh, for Christ's sake. That?
Yeah, that.
That and a couple questions
raised by her teachers.
Come on. Swede.
We're the family,
that's who we are.
They have a right to be here.
They're my family.
- Seymour.
- Mom.
Our beautiful little girl.
I know. Dad.
How could this be? Would you
tell me how this thing could be?
Lou.
Make them stop.
They keep saying that merry did this.
Make them stop saying it.
Not merry.
Nobody knows if she did it.
That's right.
Nobody knows.
Let them talk.
You're the mother.
She's just a little girl.
Maybe not so little anymore.
- Tell them, Lou.
- I will. I will.
It'll be all right.
It's going to be fine.
Are you going to be all right?
We said we'd do this.
Let's do it.
Penny...
We got the news like
everyone else, like you.
We're sorry.
Dawn and I, we're sorry for you,
your son, your children,
sorry for this terrible thing,
this terrible, awful...
Whatever happened...
Whatever merry did
or did not do,
all I'm saying is,
I blame myself.
Mrs. Hamlin...
Penny.
I don't know if you can
understand, because merry...
Well,
this is hard to say,
but if merry did this,
and I understand that's the way it
seems then it's myself I blame.
Because I did
what I thought is right.
I raised her the way
I thought best.
I mean, you're a parent, penny.
My god, you know how hard it is,
and then, things
come up with kids.
From inside them,
someplace inside.
How can you know what to do?
You try.
You love them.
And I still love my daughter.
Maybe I shouldn't
be saying this,
but I love her right
now more than ever.
I hurt for her more now...
I don't blame you,
Mr. Levov.
I don't blame either one of you.
You didn't go out and buy the
dynamite and make the bomb.
You didn't plant the bomb.
I feel badly for you both.
The two of you
are as much victims
of this tragedy as we are.
I lost a husband.
My kids lost a father.
But the difference
is that for us
we will survive as a family,
a loving family.
We will survive
with our memories intact
and our memories to sustain us.
We are the same family we
were when Russ was here
and we will survive.
That's the difference.
Police have widened their search
for the missing teenager,
Meredith Levov,
for her involvement in the
bombing of a post office.
Where is she?
Swede.
Dawnie.
I want her to come home now.
Right now.
Now.
Now.
- Now. Now.
- Precious.
Now.
There were three blasts. The
townhouse is totally destroyed.
If there was
anybody else in there...
But the two women who escaped,
they're young, they're white.
"Is one of them merry?"
Why not?
Why couldn't it be?
Mr. Levov, it's been
over a year.
Look, the bombs they were
building in the townhouse,
they were pipes
filled with dynamite.
Well, the bomb that blew up
Hamlins, that's what it was.
It was a pipe
filled with dynamite.
One of the missing women,
we know who she is.
Her parents own the building.
They're down in the
Caribbean growing a tan
while their rich-fuck daughter's
making bombs to blow people up with.
But the other girl,
you don't know the identity
of the other girl.
And therefore it's merry?
Go home, Mr. Levov.
This is my daughter.
We'll tell you.
All right, Mr. Levov?
No, you won't. You're not
telling us anything.
And for Christ's sake,
stop tapping our phone.
There's nothing.
All right? There's one thing.
It was nothing.
What?
Someone said they saw her
at the train station.
- Here in Newark?
- It didn't make any sense.
We thought she'd be
halfway across the country.
We worked it.
It went nowhere.
This was months ago.
Arriving from New York, the
5:30 express on track two,
5:30 express from New York
arriving on track two.
"Rita Cohen."
From the Wharton
school of business.
I'm doing my thesis on the leather
glove industry here in Newark.
I'd be grateful for anything
you could teach me.
Mmm-hmm.
Go ahead, feel it.
It's sheepskin.
Cabretta.
It's lovely.
They've been shipped from
the same ports in Africa
for hundreds of years.
You want to learn about gloves?
We'll make you up a pair.
Here? Now?
Here.
I'm guessing you're a four.
Let me see what
kind of guesser I am.
Four it is.
That's as small as ladies' come.
Any smaller is a child's.
Harry, make up a four for
this young lady, British tan.
You're witnessing a dying
business, miss Cohen.
Am I? I'm sorry,
I didn't realize.
Oh, not us.
Knock wood.
No, we've still got the big
accounts, Bendel's, Macy's.
No, I meant the whole industry.
Everyone's moving to
Hong Kong, Puerto Rico.
To cut labor costs.
Exactly. Precisely.
Everybody's hurting.
It used to be that a woman
owned 10, 12 pairs of gloves.
Imagine that.
These are for you, miss.
Slowly.
Always slowly the first time.
Feel how it expands
when you make a fist.
Thank you.
She wants her
Audrey Hepburn scrapbook.
- Talk to me.
- Not near the house.
Swede, what is it?
Somebody came to me from merry.
She's all right?
Where is she?
I don't know. I don't know
where she is, but this person,
this little person, she
looked younger than merry,
she wants to meet me tomorrow.
- Merry?
- No, this Rita person.
She wants me to meet her
in a parking lot downtown.
She gave me all
these instructions.
"Drive through the park. Make
sure you're not followed."
Agents. Are you
going to tell the agents?
I don't know. I don't
know what to do, Dawn.
She knew about
the Audrey Hepburn pictures.
She knew about
the stuttering books,
the ballet classes, the cows.
This girl, she could
lead us to merry.
Where are the cows?
- What? -The cows,
where are they?
I sold them.
I'm selling them.
Why would you sell your cows?
You can't tell the agents,
Swede.
This girl,
just do whatever she says.
Please.
Why are you
wearing merry's coat?
She gave it to me.
Surely, you can...
Surely, you can now tell
me something about merry.
I surely cannot.
I would like to speak with her.
Well, she wouldn't
like to speak with you.
She hates you.
Does she?
Thinks you ought to be shot.
Yes? That, too?
Swede Levov.
How much do you pay the workers
in your factory in Puerto Rico?
I don't have a factory in Puerto Rico.
I stayed right here.
How much do you pay
the women going blind
stitching gloves for the
ladies at Bendel's and Macy's?
You've seen how unhappy
my employees are.
That's why they've worked
for me for 40 years,
because they're so exploited.
Who are you? You don't even
know what you're talking about.
You own your people.
You own them, you use them,
you sleep with them,
and then when you're done...
Please, Rita. I haven't two
minutes' interest in your cliches.
I want you to tell me
where my daughter is.
That's all I want
to hear from you.
Your daughter never
wants to see you again.
Or that mother.
You don't know anything
about her mother.
Lady Dawn?
Lady Dawn of the manor?
I know all there is to know
about lady fucking Dawn.
So ashamed of her class origins,
she had to become lady
of the fucking manor
and turn her daughter
into a debutante.
"A debutante"? Merry shoveled
cow shit since the age of six.
She rode tractors,
she's 4-h.
Fake. All fake.
The daughter of the beauty queen
and the captain of
the football team?
What kind of nightmare is
that for a girl with a soul?
Dawn is not a beauty queen.
She works a farm all day.
Fake, fake.
She works a farm
like a fucking
upper-class landowner.
"Upper class"?
Her father was a plumber!
Her grandfather was
an Irish milk farmer!
This is crazy!
Where's my daughter?
Somebody is dead. My daughter
is accused of murder!
You're really hung up
on that, aren't you?
Do you know how many Vietnamese have died
in the time we've been talking here?
You give her back to me.
She's not a possession.
You don't own her anymore.
The way you own your factory and
your Buick fucking Electra.
Where is she, miss Cohen?
So, where is she?
The girl's our link,
our only one.
You let her go? Why?
Why did you let her go?
Well, she's just a kid. I know I can
work around her to get to merry.
That's nonsense.
That's crazy.
You go to the cops.
You go to the FBI.
- You tell them everything.
- No.
No? Did you get the infant's
phone number, at least?
That's not the plan.
She makes contact with me.
If she feels like it. If she feels like it.
You've got nothing.
- Dr. Levov?
- What? I don't need you.
- But, doctor... -Just go jump
in a lake, nurse, please.
I've got to do this, Jerry.
You should see Dawn these days.
I'm worried about Dawn.
This has to work.
Rita has to take us to merry.
This Rita and the others.
What others?
The ones that have her.
They're controlling her.
If she did this,
if she blew up Hamlins
then these are the people that
made her do it. Don't you see?
"If"? If she blew up Hamlins?
That's what you're asking yourself?
What kind of man are you?
You go to the FBI.
Do you hear me?
No.
And you can't tell
anyone what I told you.
Promise me.
All right.
Good morning, boy.
Do come in.
Make yourself at home.
I brought the money, miss Cohen.
I brought the $10,000 in small bills.
Now, where's my daughter?
Come off it, Swede.
You came here to fuck me.
What?
Please, miss,
if you have any feeling
for what everyone
is going through...
Ask anybody.
Why does
a middle-aged capitalist
come to a hotel room
to meet a young piece of ass?
Say it.
Just say it, Swede.
"I came here to fuck you."
Will you stop all this?
I'm 22.
I do everything.
I do it all.
You're not scared, are you?
A big guy like you can't have
met your match in little me.
Pillar.
Pillar of the fucking
community, Swede Levov.
Come on, let's see the pillar.
What is the aim of all this?
To introduce you to reality.
And it ain't going to
be no picnic, Jocko.
I'll tell you
where your daughter is.
First we fuck
and then I'll zip up your little
fly and take you to where she is.
My daughter has no part in this.
You're not fit to
wipe my daughter's shoes.
She has nothing to do
with you or the bombing.
There.
Put it right there.
Do you know what size it is?
Let's see what kind
of guesser you are.
I'm guessing it's a four.
In ladies', that's as small
as they come.
Stick it in.
But slowly,
always slowly the first time.
This has nothing
to do with anything.
You great, big boy scout.
Do you want to know what this has
to do with what's happening?
Taste it.
Taste it and you'll know.
Do you want to know
how it tastes?
It tastes like your daughter.
Get out of the street, clown.
What the fuck are you doing?
When you add it up,
your daughter's a minor,
she's seen a psychologist
for years.
That's evidence
of mental stress.
That bomb, she plainly
had no intent to kill,
not at that hour in the morning.
Protecting her from us
is not intelligent.
It's pretty unintelligent
if you think about it.
What is it you want from me?
Nothing.
The description that you gave
of this girl, Rita Cohen,
if that's her real name,
that's fine.
All right? You can go.
Mrs. Levov know
what happened here today?
Yeah, I just called her. She's
disappointed, naturally.
This was our only hope.
You should have called us in
on this, Mr. Levov.
You've done everything wrong
you possibly could have.
Since when?
Excuse me?
I've done everything
wrong since when?
That's a question you're going to have
to answer for yourself, Mr. Levov.
Seymour.
How long ago did she get here?
I don't know.
I didn't see her come in.
She won't let me
near her, poor thing,
and I didn't want to scare her.
Excuse me.
Excuse me.
Well.
Dawn.
Baby, come on.
- All right, all right,
all right.
All right. Stop it.
Stop, stop, stop.
All right.
Don't.
I'm afraid.
I'm frightened.
I'm frightened. I'm
frightened all the time.
It's not time for your medicine.
Dawn. Dawn.
Think of the most pleasant
place you've ever been.
Hmm?
At the shore, in Avon.
It's my uncle's house and
I'm a girl.
Come on, lie down.
Come on.
And...
The lifeguards are all
catholic boys from Fordham
and holy cross.
They'd come down for summer.
And they were all
in love with you.
I should have
married one of them.
See you again tomorrow,
Mr. Levov.
Good night.
- At one minute before
- 1:00 this morning,
the switchboard at the U.S.
capitol received a phone call.
A man's voice said a bomb would go
off in the building in half an hour.
At 1:30 in the morning,
it did
in a small, unmarked restroom on the
ground floor of the senate side
next to a barbershop and
near several small offices,
including one
committee hearing room.
For a report on
the first serious damage
to the nation's
foremost structure
since the British
burned it in 1814,
here is
congressional correspondent
Lawrence Lawson.
There was alarm for a time
that other bombs
might still be hidden
inside the capitol.
They're forced to be
outlaws by the way
this society is run
and we think they're great.
Across the nation,
between January of last year
and April of this year
a total of 4,330 bombings
have been reported.
We're going to remake this
country in the streets.
We've got to build
a strong base and someday
we've got to knock those motherfuckers who
control this thing right on their ass.
Seymour.
Yeah?
The first time
I was in Princeton,
I was at the governor's mansion.
That's right,
just after the contest.
Twenty one,
scared to death.
And his chauffeur drove me
from Elizabeth in my crown.
I danced in my crown with
the governor of New Jersey,
and I ended up here.
How?
How did I end up here?
You.
You.
You wouldn't leave me alone.
Had to marry me.
I just wanted to teach music.
That's what I wanted.
To teach kids music
in the school system
and be left alone by boys.
That's it.
I never wanted to
be miss union county,
miss crazy New Jersey,
miss America.
I wanted a scholarship.
I wanted a degree,
a job.
But then you arrived.
You.
Those hands.
You wouldn't let me breathe!
Every time I looked up
there's my boyfriend
gaga because I was some
ridiculous beauty queen.
You were like a child.
And you made me a Princess.
Look where I wound up.
In a madhouse.
Your Princess.
In a madhouse.
Thank you very much.
- Take care.
- Goodbye.
She read a magazine article
about a doctor in Geneva.
What kind of doctor?
A plastic surgeon.
That's all she's talked about
since she came home.
I see her looking in the mirror.
She thinks somehow that
by having a face-lift,
even though she's only 43...
She thinks that it will help her
to start over, and why not?
Imagine all that
Dawn's been through.
I don't have to imagine.
I've seen this before.
Women in trauma,
women who have been ill,
it can help them
to become a new woman.
But I want the old Dawn.
I want my wife and I want merry.
We're not talking about merry.
But as for Dawn
what if you were to
go along with her,
support her in this,
in the trip to Switzerland,
the operation?
It could help the both of you
to put the past behind you.
I don't want to
put the past behind.
The past is merry. There's no
way I want to put that behind.
But Dawn does.
What is it?
Can you help me out?
Lou, keep your voice down.
This is the way
your friend paints?
You know it is, dad. You've seen
the one in our living room.
The one you paid
an arm and a leg for.
I don't care what you say, she
looks like a million dollars.
Yeah, all right, dad.
She looks great.
"Great"?
The girl's herself again.
Getting rid of those cows was the
smartest thing she ever did.
I never liked them.
But getting that face-lift... I
was against it, but I was wrong.
Darling, a million dollars.
Thank you, Lou.
I'm serious, Dawn.
The best money ever spent.
You seem better.
Lou, Sylvia, you know
bill and Jesse Orcutt.
You'll see them at our
house for the barbecue.
I hear you're the artist.
And bill is helping us on the
design for our new house.
An artist and an architect.
Architect's my day job.
Can't make a living just
being an abstract painter.
No, I should think not.
A glove, everybody understands.
These, you might be
the only one.
I think they're divine, bill.
Thanks, Dawn.
Still, I've got to hand it to
anybody who's got the guts
to wear that shirt
and those pants.
What? What did I say?
- Lou. Every time.
- What?
Well, I for one had enough
pretentious art talk for one night.
But you enjoyed yourself.
You had a good time.
All right, I did.
I'm glad you're
doing so well, Dawn.
I am doing well, aren't I?
I haven't seen you
this happy in a long time.
Thank you, dear.
- You drive them home.
- What do you mean?
- You drive them home.
- Seymour.
Don't argue.
I want my daughter.
If you turn me in, she'll die.
She'll have no one.
What?
What are you talking about?
All right, all right. If you let
me go, I'll tell you where she is.
You take me. Where is she?
Is she here?
You take me there.
No. I don't want
to see her.
What?
I can't take it anymore.
You can't take it?
You can't take it?
Wait a minute.
She's in Newark?
That's the building.
Get out of the Van.
- Out.
- All right. All right.
There's a dog and cat hospital on the
second floor. She's got a job there.
But don't go in.
Wait for her.
If you go in, you'll make a scene.
She'll be discovered.
She couldn't handle that.
She'd never survive the FBI.
Take care of her,
Mr. Levov.
Daddy?
I'm lonesome.
Where do you even
get a word like that?
I like it when you hold me.
Then I'll never let you go.
Ever?
Not ever.
Merry?
Daddy.
You're not stuttering.
No, I'm not.
I've become a Jain, daddy.
"A Jain"?
We're a small Indian sect.
I wear the veil to do no harm to the
organisms that dwell in the air.
Merry, this is awful.
Do you walk this
way every night?
Nor do we bathe,
to do no harm to the water.
We step carefully for fear of
crushing some living object.
There are souls imprisoned in
even the lowest form of life.
Forgive me, merry, but...
How can you stand this?
It's okay, daddy.
Really, I'm okay.
You always had
things over your bed.
It used to be pictures
of Audrey Hepburn.
Those are the five vows.
"I renounce all
killing of living beings
"whether subtle or gross,
moveable or immovable."
"I renounce all vices of lying
speech arising from anger.
"I renounce all sexual pleasure
with either gods or men,
"all taking of
anything not given."
I think you're terrified
of what you've done.
I'm not going to ask
what you've done.
I made up my mind. I'm not going
to ask you anything like that.
But I think that rather
than evade punishment
you've taken it
into your own hands.
It's all right, daddy.
I can believe that
you can't understand.
I don't believe it's a difficult
conclusion to reach, honey.
I don't think I'm the only
person who, seeing you here,
would come up with that idea.
You want to do penance,
but this is not penance.
Not even the state
would punish you like this.
- Daddy.
- No.
Look at what
you've done to yourself.
You could die if
you keep this up.
But only to be reborn.
Will you at least
take off that mask
while we're talking
so I can see you?
See me stutter, do you mean?
My stutter was only my way of
doing no violence to the air.
Well, maybe you would
have been better off
with your stutter if
you had to go this far.
Where have you been?
Did you come to Newark
to help me find you?
I got a ride and
here I was, you see?
Coincidence? That's all?
The world is not
a place on which
I have any influence
or wish to have any.
As to what constitutes a
coincidence, you and I, daddy.
Where have you been
all these years?
After Hamlins,
I went to Sheila's.
Sheila Smith, your therapist?
She kept me for a few days
and then she sent me on to
people in the underground.
She sent you to them?
Sheila?
Yes.
They took care of me.
But it wasn't safe
to stay anywhere.
In two months, I had 15 aliases
and moved every
four or five days.
I took a name from
a tombstone in a cemetery.
Merry.
One morning,
I received a phone call
that I was to go to
the greyhound station.
They gave me a ticket
to Chicago.
I would stay there for two
days and then travel to Oregon
where there would be sanctuary.
I was raped the night
I arrived in Chicago.
Oh, my god.
Held captive and
raped and robbed.
Come home with me, merry.
You go, daddy.
Leave you? You think
I could leave you?
After everything I've...
You must.
That's exactly what you must do.
Please go.
No. You're asking me
to do something impossible.
I've looked for you for so long.
I can't.
Come home.
Come home, merry.
Please go now, daddy.
Please go.
What's wrong, Swede?
You never told me.
You've seen her.
You've seen merry.
She came to your house.
Why did you let her go?
Answer me!
You knew.
It was on the news.
She blew up a building and
you hid her in your house?
When I heard,
I couldn't believe it.
But I was her therapist.
I couldn't betray her.
You did betray her!
You sent her to people, the
worst people in the world,
the ones who got her
to do what she did.
That's not true. Merry
believed in what she did.
No! A man died!
A good man. I'll never believe
that that's what she wanted.
They manipulated her.
They used her for their
crazy, fucking politics.
You used her.
You're trying to make
this my responsibility.
You and your radical friends.
They don't believe in peace or
war or the Vietnamese people.
They just wanted to blow
a hole in the world.
The biggest hole they could
and everything that was good!
They don't care if
people get killed!
And you sent her right to them!
I sent her to where she'd be safe.
She couldn't stay here.
She was a troubled girl. Going
to prison was not what she...
You think she was troubled then?
Oh, my god, Sheila,
you haven't seen her now!
How she lives! Where she's been!
She was raped!
No, don't say that.
Listen, I'm telling you something!
Did you hear me?
- Stop it.
- She's been raped!
My daughter!
She's sick in her body,
sick in her mind!
Dawn says to get
the steaks going, Swede.
Right. Okay.
She wants me inside,
helping with the corn.
And it's going to be close,
and he is out at home plate.
He's out. It's a double play
with a tag from ray Fosse.
And here comes Mets manager, yogi
Berra, to argue with the ump.
Ah, I don't believe it.
God damn this team.
- I thought bill told you to put the...
I can't.
I need to talk to you.
I hope this is important.
Leaving the Orcutts
to your parents like this...
Look, have you seen where
bill and I moved the sunroom?
He was so wrong
about the western light.
It's about merry.
What about merry?
All this time, we've had
no idea where she is.
And we aren't going to.
If she'd wanted us to find her,
she would have told us how.
She hasn't wanted to.
We've had to accept that.
- Dawn... -We've had to
accept that and we have.
But just suppose...
Suppose what?
What?
Suppose that we knew
where she was.
Go on. What is it now?
Do you have a new lead?
Some hunch?
- Some information?
- More than that.
Why? Did someone call?
Some nut who saw her
at an airport in Phoenix
or at a fucking hare Krishna meeting?
Is that what it is, Swede?
Will you listen?
I'm telling you something.
When are you going
to give up on her?
I can't.
I tried so hard, but I can't.
Our old life is gone, Swede.
It's dead.
This.
This is our only future.
Excuse me, we have guests.
Nixon.
Watergate. It's all I hear.
Day and night, he goes on...
Von Ehrlichman,
Von Haldeman, Von Nixon.
They're all mamzers.
I agree with you, Mr. Levov.
They should all go to jail.
And I'm a republican.
Good for you, Mrs. Orcutt.
Are you okay, son?
Sure I am, mom.
Oh, my boy.
Who could want a better son?
Jesse, don't you think
you've had enough, dear?
Can I get you something, dad?
No. Rest.
You don't look so great.
I'll get you another drink.
Not now.
Not now.
Seymour?
Don't say anything.
- Swede.
- No.
Why are apes here?
Why are kangaroos here?
Life is just
a short space of time
in which you are alive.
Merry.
I have to ask you something.
I have to ask you something
I promised I wouldn't ask,
but I must.
You can ask me anything.
Did you do it?
Do what, daddy?
Plant the bomb
in the post office.
Yes.
Who made you do it?
Lyndon Johnson.
No, who talked you into it?
How strongly you still crave the
idea of your innocent child.
Was it Rita?
Who's Rita?
Rita, the girl you sent, the
one who came to my office.
I never sent you anyone.
Was this just some kind of game you
were playing with me, the two of you?
I relinquish all cruelty,
I relinquish all control,
all influence over the world.
Do you? Do you?
Well, you have
influence over me, merry.
I renounce all attachments
whether little or much,
small or great,
living or lifeless.
Were there others?
Did others die?
Were you involved
in other bombings?
Two.
You built the bombs.
I built and planted the bombs.
Was anyone killed?
Yes.
Who?
People.
How many people?
Three.
I'm going in now.
Don't go away from me.
Don't go anywhere.
Daddy, how much
suffering do you want?
Who are you?
Where is my daughter?
My daughter did not
kill four people.
Say it isn't you.
Say it isn't you!
Look.
Merry.
Your ballet shoes,
your riding ribbons,
all your things.
My stuttering book.
Why have you
brought these things?
Does it mean that
you aren't coming back?
Because if it does,
maybe that's best.
Merry,
I'm your father.
I made you
and I found you.
And there's no way I can ever lose
you or you can ever lose me again.
Let me take you home.
I can't leave you here.
You've seen me.
Please go now.
If you love me,
you'll let me be.
That was to be the last
time he ever saw her.
He never got over merry.
He never got over her,
and never gave up on her.
It was good to see you.
Will you excuse me?
Are you taking off?
Oh, there you are. Uh...
Yeah. These days I'm asleep
on my feet after 9:00.
Yeah, me too.
Uh, well, it was good
to see you. Really.
Well, night.
Jerry.
The Swede's funeral tomorrow,
do you mind if I come?
No. No, not at all.
I'd be happy to see you.
You remember.
You were there.
He called you "skip."
As we prepare to recite
the mourner's kaddish,
we remember the Swede
one last time.
A football hero,
a baseball hero,
an officer in the marines.
What merry blew up
with that bomb of hers
was nothing less than his life.
He never got past
the Rimrock bomber,
a girl who perhaps didn't
deserve anything from him,
who wasn't on the same playing
field as him or anybody else.
At this time, please rise
for the mourner's kaddish.
You come at people
with an open mind
and yet you never fail
to get them wrong.
You get them wrong
while you're with them
or you tell someone about them
and get them wrong again.
That's how we know we're alive.
We are wrong...
about the Swede,
how life was going to
open its arms
and shower blessings upon him.
I was never more wrong
about anyone in my life.
Thank you. It's nice to see you.
Thanks for coming today.