Deconstruction: Act One

From here we pick up the action as previous described:

We are at Baltimore Friendship Airport, outside on the tarmac, a passenger jet is taxiing loudly. We are inside and see out the window towards the terminal, and also see one of the air hostesses (POV DERRIDA without yet seeing his face).

We are are outside on the rooftop of the concourse with FIRST COLLEAGUE smoking a cigarette, noticing the jet and the time, then trowing away his cigarette and bustling his way down to meet DERRIDA, whom we see exit the jet and go through the terminal. Add that we should see a big board of flights with the flip-over letters as was common in that era, and basically pay homage to this classic movie opening which was filmed at San Francisco International about a half year after the action of this story.

Then FIRST COLLEAGUE (who is a Francophone who is able to speak English) finds Derrida, who is introduced to the SECOND COLLEAGUE (who is American). They eat the airport diner with the cops in teh background, making the waitress laugh, and joking about "the raw and the cooked." DERRIDA gives the manuscript of his talk to FIRST COLLEAGUE, saying he wrote it in 10-11 days. Then EXITING THE GLASS DOORS to the taxi waiting era with Derrida's bag, with the pantomime of SECOND COLLEAGUE describing the action of the upcoming scenes (taxi ride to hotel then campus).

Then we have the cab ride, with DERRIDA looking out the window (the reflection montage) and making small talk to the driver about the Orioles' victory and Spiro Agnew while his FIRST COLLEAGUE reads the manuscript he was given in the diner, absorbed in it completely.

Derrida sees (during the detour) the dome of Baltimore City Hall. Add that he also sees an U.S. MARINES RECRUITING STATION.

Derrida, having seen the woman about to give birth at the hospital, is taken off into the remembrance of his own wife giving birth to their child. At the end of the ride, at Derrida's hotel, FIRST COLLEAGUE exclaims his amazement at what he has read, using his knowledge of American baseball.


The glass doors at SFO at the end here are classic. The are the same one we will see at the climax of Bullit (1968).

Deconstruction: Fantasia at Johns Hopkins

Let us see (either at this point, or perhaps earlier when we showed the JOHNS HOPKINS campus), the interior of the building we shall see later, and even the interior of the LECTURE HALL. Let us see the empty seats and the empty podium. The custodial staff preparing the room, maybe with brooms or mops. The motion of the brooms should be uncoordinated. They should be few in number but spread throughout the hall. (This should contrast with the placid motion of the men washing the ship with hoses as described previously).

Deconstruction: The MVP

Now let us be in the air, just above the helicopter we saw. Let us see that it is a news helicopter from a local television station. For now, let's make it WBAL. We down through the blades which look like a blender that is scrambling the cars on the freeway, at the same time we see the still emptiness of ancient nearby rail yards. We can see much of the skyline, perhaps the City Hall, which we will see in close-up later during the cab ride.

Traveling above the helicopter let's hear the radio station announcer voice, from WBAL radio.

"WBAL News coming up in one minute...traffic report on the hour for early birds...speaking of birds...Birds!...we'll have American League MVP Frank Robinson on the air LIVE at noon to talk about...where do the Orioles go from here, in the off season,  But are you tired yet of being the World Capital of Baseball? I don't we are, Baltimore!"

We see also the same small detached house as in previous scene, where the lights came on. Now let us see, while we hear the radio announcer continuation, a young man come out the front door, dressed in suit and tie, and carefully ushering her very pregnant young wife down the steps and the sidewalk towards their 1962 Dodge Dart which is in the driveway.

Deconstruction:Still Down at Waterline

While we down at water level let us see the hulk of a large metal vessel, motionless beside a pier, and anchored with an enormous chain. On another part of the ship, on the deck, let us see two men hosing off part of the deck.

Deconstruction: Water

Now let's Baltimore on the waterline. What would that have looked like on an October morning of 1966?

The harbor is where the Patapsco River enters Chespeake Bay ---the Algonquian pota-psk-ut, which translates to "backwater" or "tide covered with froth---where it enters the harbor.   It was centerpiece of Maryland's industrial revolution from the 1770s onward.

From this spot grew the first stream-powered railroad in the United States, in 1828. So let's see some awesomely rotting rail yards.

Let's see a shiny late model Lincoln Continental parked by itself on a wharf where the tides slurps at wooden piers. We cannot see much inside the windows, nor tell if someone is inside. Nearby is a placid shack, its windows and doors shuttered, showing no sign of life.

"The renewal of Baltimore's Inner Harbor area began with the adoption of the 33-acre (13 ha) Charles Center project by the City Council and Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro in March 1958. Between 1958 and 1965, Baltimore renewed the center of its business district by rebuilding Charles Center with office buildings, hotels, and retail shops."

Deconstruction: The City at Ground Level

Let us also see:

From the back of a station wagon a NEWSPAPER DELIVERY MAN drops a bundle of newspapers on the sidewalk in front of a newspaper vending machine in front of a bodega. He then bends over to cut the string of the bundle with a knife.

The CAMPUS OF JOHNS HOPKINS serene in the arriving light of day---its modern buildings glimmering with the fresh day, and its lawns tidily kept.

In the distance, we see a figure, busily scurrying across an otherwise empty sidewalk. Later we will see it is MACKSEY. Outside the lecture hall we visit later, a student is putting up posters for the day's event.

Deconstruction: Da Capo

In the very early light of morning from several thousand feet above we see the city, its downtown, its harbor, its freeways, its tall buildings, its transmission towers, and the neighborhoods beyond, visible and invisible through clouds. In the distance, at the same altitude as us, and moving away from us towards the city---a helicopter.

Down at ground level, in one of the close-in neighborhoods to downtown---the front of a brick church near to the street. A young priest in cassock is sweeping the front steps. A bell tolls. Nearby an ancient dive tavern, squeezed beside attached homes, is shuttered for the nightly respite it must take by law. In the window, an Orioles pennant. On the sidewalk an old man walks by.

In a residence nearby, through the bedroom window we see a television. Just as we see it the shot of flagpole with an American flag switches to showing the words "Mass for Shut-ins".

In another neighborhood, the tail lights of a police cruiser recede slowly down a narrow street.

Outside the entrance to a hospital, a resident walks up to the door to begin his shift.

In another neighborhood, with houses now detached a little bit, but still small ins size, a light goes on in a bedroom window.

Inside the hospital, in a small break room, we see the resident, now in his scrubs, sitting a table drinking a cup of coffee and talking with another doctor close-by.
On the wall, a calendar. October 1966