About SAMARITAN

WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU SAW SOMEONE IN TROUBLE? WOULD YOU HELP?

SAMARITAN (2008) - 7m:40s

Martin’s life is turned upside down one morning when he goes to the aid of a young woman being beaten by a man with a gun. In a matter of seconds, the shooter attacks Martin and murders another man also trying to help diffuse the situation. While recovering from the experience, Martin must deal with the enormity of the consequences arising from the incident and his feelings of guilt over the death of the other man trying to help.

Transcripts / Production Notes / Scripts

2nd draft, and shooting script for SAMARITAN by Ben Warner, March 2008.

FADE IN.

Black.

MARTIN
(V.O.)
It could’ve happened to any one. And it happened to me.

Gun shot.

Screams, becoming muffled...


SCENE 1. EXT. STREET. MORNING. 1.

A second gun shot – the flash of the gun firing engulfs the FRAME, revealing the face of the SHOOTER.

The SHOOTER appears frantic, yet his uncharacteristic clean-cut yet tough looking face shows no sign of remorse. The SHOOTER is well built, cleanly dressed in his late twenties, but there is a sinister edge to his look, as if something dark is lurking beneath the surface.

The SHOOTER runs away from the scene. He tucks the gun he is carrying underneath his shirt at the back of his pants.

ALISON
(V.O.)
Do you ask yourself why this happened to you?

Ambulance sirens emerge in the distance.

Fade to Black.

MARTIN
(V.O.)
Every day of my life.

TITLE: “SAMARITAN”.


SCENE 2. EXT. BEACH. SUNRISE. 2.

The sun rises over the ocean, revealing a peaceful, quiet beach, devoid of people. Sounds of the waves coming in to the beach, birds, and the soft wind.
MARTIN, mid-forties slightly dishevelled, walks along the beach, enjoying the morning sun.

MARTIN freezes in his place.

DAVID appears in front of MARTIN several metres away.

DAVID is early-thirties, well dressed but casual, and clean-cut.

DAVID observes MARTIN, not offering any sign of emotion.

ALISON
(V.O.)
Did you know them?

MARTIN
(V.O.)
No. None of them. But I know them all, now. Especially David. I see him all the time.


SCENE 3. INT. ALISON’S OFFICE. DAY. 3.

ALISON, mid-fifties, soft appearance, and long hair, sits forward in her seat.

MARTIN sits on a couch near ALISON’s seat.

ALISON
Why did you get involved?

MARTIN
I had to. What would you do if you saw someone in trouble who needed help?


SCENE 4. EXT. STREET. DAY. 4.

The SHOOTER pulls ISABEL’s hair, dragging her across the street towards a car.

ISABEL is early-twenties, and has an underground, arty look to her.

ISABEL struggles with the SHOOTER, trying to break free.

MARTIN appears further up the street, walking, lost in his own thoughts.

ISABEL screams.

MARTIN snaps to attention. He sees ISABEL.

ISABEL manages to hit the SHOOTER and briefly breaks free. The SHOOTER retaliates, punching her across the face. ISABEL hits the side of the car and collapses to the ground. The SHOOTER bends down to pick her up.

MARTIN races toward ISABEL.

DAVID appears from a nearby building. He sees what is happening and runs to assist.

MARTIN grabs the SHOOTER and they struggle. MARTIN gets punched in the head, and he is thrown backwards, dazed.

The SHOOTER reaches in to the back of his pants and pulls out his gun.

DAVID lunges at the SHOOTER and they struggle. The SHOOTER quickly hits DAVID in the head, knocking DAVID to the ground, hard.

MARTIN moves to get up. He sees the gun emerge.

The SHOOTER points the gun.

DAVID gets up.

The SHOOTER fires the gun. DAVID takes the impact of the bullet in his chest, knocking him violently to the ground.

MARTIN sits there, stunned.

The SHOOTER fires again.

MARTIN freezes in his place.

DAVID lies motionless on the ground.

The SHOOTER, now frantic and unsure what to do, hurriedly tucks the gun in to the back of his pants and runs away down the street.

ISABEL slowly regains consciousness, her eyes widening as she sees DAVID dead next to her.

MARTIN stares at DAVID, still motionless.


SCENE 5. INT. ALISON’S OFFICE. DAY. 5.

MARTIN stands up from the couch and walks over to the window. He shakes his head.

MARTIN
I froze.

ALISON
That’s a natural reaction.

MARTIN
And they wonder why people don’t help people any more.

ALISON
What do you mean?

MARTIN
I saw this story on TV last night.


SCENE 6. INT. MARTIN’S FLAT. NIGHT. 6.

The 1-bedroom flat is comfortable and workable. A bedside lamp perched on a table gives the room a soft yellow glow.

MARTIN sits on the couch in front of his television. His feet are resting on the coffee table.

TELEVISION
(V.O.)
And with our hidden cameras, we’ll find out just how many people are going to help our producer when his car gets hit by our staged hit and run car.


SCENE 7. INT. ALISON’S OFFICE. DAY. 7.

MARTIN turns to face ALISON.

ALISON
What did they find?

MARTIN
What do you think?


SCENE 8. INT. MARTIN’S FLAT. NIGHT. 8.

A REPORTER’s face appears on the television screen. MARTIN watches the screen, fixated.

TELEVISION
(Reporter V.O.)
How does that make you feel knowing that all those people who saw our car get hit did nothing about it?
(pause)

(Bystander V.O.)
They just sat there. It’s terrible. It’s the decent thing to do. If something happens to someone and you can do something, you should. What’s happened to people?


SCENE 9. INT. ALISON’S OFFICE. DAY. 9.

MARTIN turns to face the window again. ALISON looks on, concerned.

MARTIN
I should have helped. I could have, but I froze. And I’m still alive.

ALISON
Do you regret that?

MARTIN
Of course people don’t help people; that’s why that news story was so ridiculous. You could end up dead by helping another person in today’s ‘civilised’ society.
ALISON
There was no way for you to know he had a gun.

MARTIN
Exactly. I couldn’t know. And how will any one ever know?

ALISON
You did what you thought you had to do. You were very courageous.

MARTIN
Courageous...


SCENE 10. EXT. STREET. DAY. 10.

MARTIN tilts his head to the side, observing DAVID’s motionless body.

Suddenly, DAVID’s head turns and he looks at Martin. DAVID’s eyes appear soulless.

MARTIN recoils, closing his eyes.


SCENE 11. EXT. BEACH. SUNRISE. 11.

MARTIN opens his eyes.

MARTIN remains still as he observes DAVID walking towards him. DAVID stops in front of MARTIN.


SCENE 12. INT. ALISON’S OFFICE. DAY. 12.

MARTIN sits down on the couch. ALISON adjusts herself in her seat to face him.

MARTIN
I’m sure there were a whole bunch of people who saw me on TV after the shooting, saw David lying dead in a pool of his own blood on the street... and decided then that they would keep to themselves from now on. And I don’t blame them. I showed them what can happen if you help someone!

ALISON
Do you feel angry?

MARTIN
Of course I feel angry! That man had a wife, a new kid who will grow up without him! A family! Why did he have to die?

ALISON
Do you feel guilty that it was him and not you?

MARTIN
I don’t have a family. I’m on my own. It would have made more sense.

ALISON
Martin, life doesn’t make sense. And nothing happens the way it should. And it still would have been as bad as it was if it was you and not him.


SCENE 13. EXT. BEACH. SUNRISE. 13.

MARTIN and DAVID stand in front of each other.

DAVID’s face breaks out in to a broad smile. DAVID takes MARTIN’s arm in his. MARTIN steps forward.

MARTIN and DAVID hug. MARTIN starts to cry softly.


SCENE 14. INT. ALISON’S OFFICE. DAY. 14.

MARTIN puts his head in his hands. ALISON stands up, walks over to the couch and sits down next to MARTIN. ALISON rubs his back and hugs him from the side.

MARTIN
It’s been a few years.


ALISON
There are no time limits on healing.

MARTIN
I just wish these bastards who do these horrible things actually realise how much they’re fucking up people’s lives. But that’s the whole point, they don’t.

ALISON
Don’t hold your life back because of what someone else did to you. You had no control over what happened. As you said before, it could have happened to any one.

MARTIN
It’s hard.

ALISON
I know. But if you do let it hold you back, it will be the same as if he shot you dead ten years ago.

MARTIN looks up at ALISON. He gathers himself, appearing focused.

MARTIN
Thank you.

ALISON smiles. MARTIN laughs for the first time.


SCENE 15. EXT. BEACH. SUNRISE. 15.

MARTIN stands alone on the beach, allowing the wind to blow across his face and through his hair. He smiles as he watches the sun rise over the horizon.


FADE OUT.

THE END.

Movie Details

Language: English

Year of production: 2008

Length: 7m:40s

Country: Australia

Original source

Filmmaker's Personal Web TV

Film Annex


  • Directors:
    Ben Warner
  • Producers:
    Jon Fabian
    Tiffany Murphy
    Ben Warner
  • Actors:
    Colin MacPherson
    Gail Beker
    Adam Pritchard
    Glen Hancox
    Paola Ly

Comments

  • Digicosm TV on 13 September at 16:20

    Thanks Robinson!

  • Robinson kumary on 13 September at 06:40

    i like your video very much. its very entertaining

  • Ben Warner on 07 July at 03:44

    On 18th June 2007 in the city of Melbourne (Australia), a tragic event occurred that shocked everyone in the nation. A bikie gang member dragged his girlfriend out by her hair from a nightclub at around 8.20am; two men standing nearby rushed to help. The bikie pulled out a gun and shot all three, wounding two and fatally shooting one of the men.

    The attack on these two good samaritans and the girl involved sent a shockwave through the hearts and minds of the Australian public, and led to an outcry to capture this bikie gang member and bring him to justice. As it turned out, he cowardly turned himself in to police out of fear of further retribution from the bikie gang he was a part of for bringing police attention to the gang. In May 2008, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

    My personal connection to this incident was just how close I came to being in the vicinity of the shooting that morning. The day before, I had decided to start work at 8.30am the next day. It usually takes me fifteen minutes to walk to work. The place where the shooting occurred was on my walking route to work. If I had left at 8.15am as intended, I would have walked through this area at the time of the shooting. As it turned out, I woke up earlier than expected and decided to leave for work a half hour earlier and missed the whole thing. I learned of the incident when I arrived at work.

    One of the immediate questions that sprung in to my mind was, “you could have been in that situation, what would you have done?” It is easy to say you would rush to help, but you never know what you will do, especially if your own life is in danger as a result; to be honest, I still do not have a definitive answer to that question. I would like to think I would have done something.

    What came afterwards was a media frenzy that disturbingly sensationalised the incident. In one particular news program, the news producers staged an incident, in this case smashing in to another person’s car in a car park, and waited to see who in the area would do anything about it. To their surprise, hardly any one did anything. The news program tried to make the point that we live in a heartless society where no one helps each other. Upon watching this, I came to a different conclusion; the reason why people do not help each other is because they could end up facing devastating consequences for themselves, as highlighted by the Melbourne CBD shootings. When I realised this, I knew there was a film to be made from it. I wanted to get this message out that had somehow been lost in all the media hype and sensation. I also wanted to highlight the effects of such an incident on the victims, and how they would live with this experience for the rest of their lives while everyone else, particularly the media, would move on.

    Having had a good half year to think about all these issues, the script was very easy to write (I completed it in an afternoon). “Samaritan” took a little longer to get in to production as I had submitted it to Film Victoria for funding consideration. Unfortunately, they turned it down, and I had to re-write the script for a much smaller budget. I lost a couple of things that I really wanted in the film, mainly in terms of scale and CBD location shooting, but that is the reality of filmmaking.

    The cast assembled for the film were top notch. I had worked with Colin MacPherson numerous times in the past, and his performance in the film is spot on for a character that is haunted by his actions. His reactions in the shooting scene were very real and human. Gail Beker had the daunting task of balancing her performance between being realistically clinical, yet dramatically empathetic for the purposes of the film. Glen Hancox was brilliantly brutal as the shooter, while Adam Pritchard and Paola Ly were excellent as the victims.

    Without a doubt, the scene that consumed the most time for me in terms of how I would approach it was the shooting scene. This scene had to be brutal, and you had to “feel” the event as you watched it. I laboured long and hard over the types of shots I needed, we did a number of rehearsals with the actors, and I must have re-edited that scene at least fifty times until I got exactly the right timings of each cut (sometimes to the frame) so that it would flow seamlessly and look one hundred percent real. You have to remember that thanks to budget restrictions, no gun was fired on set, not even a blank. It’s all performance, editing and sound.

    I am proud of the film. It was the first production made under the Small Wave Films banner, and the first I shot in high definition. Judging by the comments I have received, its themes and messages seem to resonate quite strongly by those who watch it. I would have liked the budget from Film Victoria as there were a few scenes that I felt suffered in terms of scale, but overall, it was an amazing experience, a great cast and a good result.

  • Digicosm TV on 05 April at 00:26

    SAMARITAN was made as a response to the violence I saw in my home city, and it was not hard to see how prevalent that violence is all over the world. It would be great if we lived in a world where this didn't happen, and maybe together as a society, we can make a difference.

    We'd love to hear what you think of this film. Your feedback/discussions will assist our team in delivering new films for DIGICOSM TV.

    Regards, Ben Warner. DIGICOSM TV.