Assassins Musical Soundtrack Lyrics
November 22, 1963
The sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. There is a clock on the
wall and, on a shelf, a radio, through
which is heard country-and-western music. Faint street noises from outside. Lee
Harvey Oswald sits on a carton of
books reading a note he has just written. Beside him are a lunch pail and a long
package.
RADIO ANNOUNCER
That was the Blue Ridge Boys and Heartache Serenade. And now we take you live to
KTEX --
(Oswald turns off the radio, re-reads the note, opens the lunch pail and pulls
out a pistol. As he puts it to his head, he
hears whistling. John Wilkes Booth appears.)
BOOTH
Oh! I'm sorry. I was just browsing. Please carry on with whatever you were --
(He notices the pistol; Oswald flushes and shoves it back in the pail. Booth
indicates the clock.)
Is that the right time? Yes? I don't know what's the matter with this watch.
Excuse me for a moment --
(He turns the radio on.)
RADIO ANNOUNCER
-- speaking to you from Love Field, where tthe President's plane has just
touched down and is taxiing toward us across the
tarmac. We understand the President plans to speak briefly --
(Oswald stalks over and snaps the radio off. Booth picks up the note.)
BOOTH
Dearest Marina. Today I end my life so that your life can begin. Last night --
(Oswald snatches the note.)
I'm sorry, was that your note?
OSWALD
Fuck you.
BOOTH
We seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot here. It's my fault. I shouldn't --
(Oswald grabs his lunch pail and heads for the door.)
You're not going are you? Come on, I didn't mean to -- Alik.
OSWALD
(stopping)
What did you call me?
BOOTH
Alik. You used to like that nickname. Back in Minsk. Marina said Lee sounded
Chinese, so she called you Alik. Of course I
don't have to call you Alik. I just thought --
OSWALD
How do you know what Marina called me?
BOOTH
I know lots about you, Lee. Let's see...Born, New Orleans, October 18, 1939.
Father, Robert, died before your birth. Crazy
mother, Marguerite. Dropped out of school at 17. Joined the Marines. Court-martialled
twice. Defected to the Soviet Union,
October 1959. Defected back, June 1962. Married, Marina Nikolaevna. Two
children, June and Rachel. Current employment,
stock boy, Texas School Book Depository, Dallas, Texas...Oh. And this morning,
depressed over your estrangement from a
wife who views you as a dismal and pathetic figure, you rose before dawn, kissed
your sleeping children, put your last hundred
dollars and your wedding ring into a demi-tasse cup which Marina's mother gave
you for a wedding present, and came here to
kill yourself...
OSWALD
Who are you?
BOOTH
I'm your friend, Lee.
OSWALD
I don't have any friends.
BOOTH
Yes, you do. You just haven't met them yet.
OSWALD
Show me your badge.
BOOTH
My what?
OSWALD
You bastards think you are so smart. I know my rights. You try to interrogate me
in my place of business I can sue you for
harassment.
BOOTH
Ah! You think I'm with the F.B.I.!
OSWALD
I have a right to see your badge.
BOOTH
Search me, Lee. You think I've got a badge. Come on, search me.
(Oswald starts to frisk him.)
The F.B.I. You really love those morons, don't you? Hell, why wouldn't you? No
one else cares if you live or die. Those guys
can't get enough of you. "How was your day, Lee? Sell any secrets to the
Soviets? Sabotage any defense plants? Kick off your
shoes and tell us all about it!"
OSWALD
(shoving him away)
Fuck you, whoever you are!
BOOTH
Lee. I'm sorry, Lee. It's just so sad. I mean, it's all you ever wanted, isn't
it? Someone who won't leave you alone. Someone
who wants to hear about your day. Someone, anyone -- your mother. Mother Russia.
The Marines. Your wife
Marina...Attention must be paid.
OSWALD
What's that mean?
BOOTH
It's from a play, Lee. About a salesman. A man very much like you, Lee.
Independent, proud, a decent man who tries and tries
but never gets a break. So he does something really dumb. When things go really
sour, when he realizes that his whole life has
been a failure built on lies, he kills himself. And when he's dead, his wife
stands at his grave and says attention must be paid.
She has to beg the world to pay attention to this poor, misguided nobody. I'll
tell you something, I'm an actor, Lee. And I'm a
good one. But Willy Loman is a part that I could never play. And I don't think
that you should play it either.
OSWALD
I don't know what you're talking about.
BOOTH
What do you want, Lee?
OSWALD
You know so much, why don't you tell me?
BOOTH
You want what everybody wants. To be appreciated. To be valued. To be in other
people's thoughts. For them to think of you
and smile. You want someone to love you, Lee. Right?...Isn't that it?...Lee?
OSWALD
Yes.
BOOTH
Forget it.
OSWALD
What?
BOOTH
It's never gonna happen. It's a fantasy. You've got to give it up.
OSWALD
I'm going to kill myself! Don't you think I've given up?!
BOOTH
No, I think you're going to kill yourself because you think that's how to get
it. "When I'm dead, then they'll be sorry! When I'm
dead, they'll know how much they loved me!" When you close your eyes you
probably see the funeral, don't you, Lee? A
gentle rain is falling. Everybody has umbrellas --
OSWALD
Shut up!
BOOTH
There's Marina, weeping quietly. Your sobbing children clutching at her skirt.
Your mom, your dad. Every boss who ever fired
you --
OSWALD
Shut the fuck up!
BOOTH
Sorry, Lee. It's just so childish. It's so dumb --
OSWALD
You think it's dumb?! If I shouldn't kill myself what should I do?! Go home?!
Beg her to take me back?! Plead with her?! Beat
her up?!
BOOTH
You tried all that. It doesn't work.
OSWALD
I know it doesn't work! So tell me what I should do!
BOOTH
You should kill the President of the United States.
OSWALD
What?
BOOTH
His plane landed at the airport fifteen minutes ago. He's coming into town to
make a speech. His motorcade is going to go right
past this window. When it does, you shoot him.
OSWALD
You're nuts.
BOOTH
Maybe I am, so what?
OSWALD
I didn't come here to shoot the president.
BOOTH
He didn't come here to get shot...All your life you've been a victim, Lee. A
victim of indifference and neglect. Of your mother's
scorn, you're wife's contempt, of Soviet stupidity, American injustice. You've
finally had enough, so how're you planning to get
even? By becoming your own victim.
OSWALD
I am not a murderer.
BOOTH
Who said you were?
OSWALD
You just said I should kill the President.
BOOTH
Lee, when you kill a president, it isn't murder. Murder is a tawdry little
crime; it's born of greed, or lust, or liquor. Adulterers
and shopkeepers get murdered. But when a president gets killed, when Julius
Caesar got killed -- he was assassinated. And the
man who did it...
OSWALD
Brutus.
BOOTH
Ah! You know his name. Brutus assassinated Caesar -- what? -- two thousand years
ago, and here's a high school drop-out
with a dollar twenty-five an hour job in Dallas, Texas, who knows who he was.
And they say fame is fleeting...
OSWALD
This is stupid. Up here on the sixth floor, what would I do? Throw school books
at him?
BOOTH
What's in the package?
OSWALD
What package?
BOOTH
The package that you brought to work. What's in it?
OSWALD
Curtain rods.
BOOTH
You sure?
OSWALD
Sure I'm sure. Marina wanted me to take them to the --
(Booth tosses the package to Oswald, who opens it, revealing a high-powered
rifle.)
BOOTH
That's a Mannlicher-Carcano. 6.5 millimer. Stopping range 900 yards. The sight's
already been adjusted.
OSWALD
Who are you?
BOOTH
My name is John Wilkes Booth, Lee.
OSWALD
John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln.
BOOTH
Attention has been paid...All your life you've wanted to be part of something,
Lee. You're finally going to get your wish.
(Booth gestures. The other Assassins appear.)
OSWALD
What is this?
BOOTH
The past you never had, the future you'd abandoned -- it's called history, Lee.
GUITEAU
My name is Charles Guiteau. I assassinated President James Garfield.
CZOLGOSZ
Leon Czolgosz. William McKinley.
BYCK
Sam Byck. I'm going to try to kill Dick Nixon.
HINCKLEY
John Hinckley. Ronald Reagan.
FROMME
Lynette Fromme --
MOORE
Sara Jane Moore --
FROMME, MOORE
Gerald Ford.
ZANGARA
Zangara. F.D.R.
OSWALD
I don't get this --
MOORE
It's simple, Lee.
CZOLGOSZ
(indicating pre-Oswald Assassins)
You're going to bring us back.
HINCKLEY
(indicating post-Owald Assassins)
And make us possible.
GUITEAU
We're in you're debt, old boy.
BYCK
This Bud's for you, babe.
GUITEAU
Bravo!
(The Assassins applaud. They crowd in around Oswald, patting him on the back,
reaching for his hand. He shoves
them back, throws down the rifle and grabs his lunch pail.)
HINCKLEY
What's he doing?
OSWALD
Getting out of here.
GUITEAU
You mean you're not going to do it?
OSWALD
| Goddamn right.
|
|(The Assassins turn to Booth.)
|
|GUITEAU
|He's not going to do it!
|
|FROMME
|You said he would!
|
|HINCKLEY
|You promised!
|
|BOOTH
|O.K., O.K., shhh...
Lee, I'm sorry. I know things are happening kind of fast here. But you can't
leave now.
OSWALD
No? Watch me --
(He heads for the door.)
BOOTH
You have a responsibility here, Lee.
OSWALD
To who? To you?
(a chorus of "yes"s from the Assassins)
I'm responsible to me and no one else!
BOOTH
Not anymore, Lee. Fifty years from now, they'll still be arguing about the
grassy knoll, the Mafia, some Cuban crouched behind
a stockade fence, but this -- right here, right now -- this is the real
conspiracy. And you're a part of it.
OSWALD
Get out of my way.
BOOTH
Listen to me, Lee. You have to do this. Now. You won't get another chance.
OSWALD
So what? So I'll do something else. I'll shoot my wife. I'll shoot my kids. I
won't shoot anyone! Who cares?!
BOOTH
He wants to know who cares...I care, you stupid fool! We all care! Haven't you
been listening, for Christ's sake?! Are you
such a vapid, vacuous nonentity --
(The Assassins make a quiet "shushing" sound.)
Sorry. I'm sorry...John --
HINCKLEY
Yes, sir?
BOOTH
John, when Lee was 8 he had a dog. What was its name?
HINCKLEY
Tex.
BOOTH
The Marines sent him to radar school. Where?
HINCKLEY
The Naval Air Station, Jacksonville, Florida.
BOOTH
The K.G.B. official who de-briefed him in the Kremlin -- what was his name and
rank?
HINCKLEY
Lieutenant-Colonel Boris Kutzov.
BOOTH
Lee. Eighteen years form now, when John tries to assassinate President Reagan,
they're going to search his room, and do you
know what they're going to find? Every book about you ever written.
HINCKLEY
(to Oswald)
Can I have your autograph?
BOOTH
(opening the window)
Take a look, Lee. You know what that is, outside that window? That's America.
The Land Where Any Kid Can Grow Up To
Be President. The Shining City, Lee. It shines so bright you have to shade your
eyes. But in here, this is America, too. "The mass of men lead lives of quiet
desperation." An American said that. And he was right. But there are no lives of
quiet desperation here. Desperation, yes. But quiet? I don't think so. Not
today. Today we're going to make a joyful noise. This is the big one. You're the
big one. You're the one that's going to sum it all up and blow it all wide open.
Why, after you...
GUITEAU
Tell him.
BOOTH
Should I tell him?
ASSASSINS
(variously)
Go on!...Tell him!...Go ahead!
BOOTH
What the hell...Is Artie Bremer here tonight? Where's Artie Bremer?!
BREMER'S VOICE
(from somewhere in the audience)
It was a bum rap! My penis made me do it!
BOOTH
Who's next?! Who else is out there?!
ANOTHER VOICE
Death to the enemies of Palestine!
BOOTH
Of course, of course! Sirhan Sirhan!
(A rebel yell is heard.)
BOOTH
And James Earl Ray!
(The Assassins give a rebel yell.)
Why do these rednecks always have three names? James Earl Ray. John Wilkes Booth
--
OSWALD
Lee Harvey Oswald!
BOOTH
I have seen the future, Lee. And you are in it.
(He snaps his fingers -- the radio comes on.)
RADIO ANNOUNCER
-- and now the motorcade is turning onto Ellm Street. There's someone holding up
a banner. "All the Way with JFK." The
President is smiling and waving as his car heads for Dealy Plaza where it will
swing past the Texas Book Depository and --
(Booth snaps his fingers -- the radio goes off. He holds out the gun.)