THE HITCHHIKER
THE SCREEN IS BLACK. We hear a young man's voice in
casual conversation with friends.
No, this guy told me you can go
down across the border and buy a
girl and bring her back and that's
what I'm goin' to do, I'm gonna go
down there and buy one of them and
bring her back and marry her. I am.
An older woman's voice
Billy, are you completely crazy?
We hear the good-natured laughter of the woman, a man
and another friend as Billy's insistent voice rises through
saying:
BILLY
No, it's true. Really. This guy told
me. It's true. I'm really gonna do it.
The film changes to COLOR. A couple sit at a small table in
a simulated border town nightclub. It is a CLOSE shot,
reminding us possibly of Picasso's "Absinthe Drinkers." The
atmosphere is suggested by peripheral sounds such as bois-
terous young voices, curses in a foreign language, the tin-
kling of glasses and music from a small rock band. Perhaps a
dancer is visible in the background. Perhaps topless. An
anonymous waitress could enter the frame and leave, serving
drinks.
The HERO is drunk and he's trying to persuade an attractive
Mexican girl, a waitress in the bar, a whore, to cross the
border and marry him. The girl tolerates him. She is work-
ing, hustling drinks, and has to listen but also she likes him.
In some way, he interests her.
BILLY
I bet only reason you won't come
with me is because I ain't got any
money. Well, listen. I'm tellin' you.
I'm gonna go back up there and get
me some money, lots of it, maybe
even ten thousand. And then I'm
comin' back for you. I'm comin'
back.
He weaves offscreen, determined, drunk, camera hold on
girl, smiling wistfully and ironically after him. Then she
grabs another young American and pulls him down beside
her.
THE GIRL
Hey, man, you want to buy me a
drink?
TITLE
THE HITCHHIKER
(An American Pastoral)
Film changes to BLACK and WHITE. It is dawn on the
American desert; it's cold, and he stands hunched in his
jacket, by the side of the highway. The sun is rising. We
hold on him as a few cars go by at long intervals. We hear
the car coming, watch his eyes watching, he sticks his thumb
out. CUT TO profile shot, as a car swishes by. The third
car stops and he runs, not too energetically and get inside.
INTERIOR car. Middle-aged man in a business suit. He asks
the hitchhiker where he is going.
BILLY
(mumbling)
L.A.
He is obviously reluctant to do any talking.
THE DRIVER
I can take you as far as Amarillo and
then you'll have to go on from there.
BILLY
(No reply. No recognition.)
DRIVER
What are you going to do when you
get to L.A.? Have you got a job lined
up?
BILLY
(No answer. He is beginning to nod.)
The man drives on. We see glimpses of the American land-
scape out the window of the car. The man glances sideways
occasionally at Billy who is sleeping.
CLOSE UP of the man's right hand moving snake-like to-
wards the hiker's left leg. He hesitates and then touches it
above the knee. Immediately, a .38 revolver appears from
Billy jacket and points at the driver.
BILLY
Pull over.
Profile of car, left side, extremely long shot. We hear a shot.
The hitchhiker comes around the rear of the car, opens the
door, and pulls the driver toward camera, his corpse that is,
to the gully, and, after stripping his wallet of all the cash,
gets into the car and drives away.
The kid is standing beside the car with his thumb out. The
hood is raised. The engine has failed. A State Patrolman (we
learn th
