"I won't be long!" "Hi." "You come back." "To see you." "I got your letter, your pictures." "I thought you finished in the army." "I was hoping you'd be a little bit pleased to see me." "Not good talking here." "You must go." "Is anyone inside?" "No!" "We can talk in there then." "No!" "No!" "My grandmother!" "You must go!" "I've come a long way." "I happy to see you." "Some things too difficult to explain." "You really mean that?" "Yes." "Too hard." "No, no, I mean about happy to see me." "Yes." "Happy." "Please." "Mm-hm." "You are a glutton for punishment, mate." "Bloody weird." "I'll check the area out." "And we'd better bring Phil up." "3 Section, deploy 200 metres back, just north of the swamp." "2 Section, clear 200 metres to the south, then prompt." "Phil, your section - continue to secure this area." "And what do we do about Charlie?" "Well, he's Vietcong, isn't he?" "He's dead." "We'll claim him." "Just cut him down." "Cut him down." "Arggh!" "Arggh!" "Skipper!" "1, roger out." "Medivac chopper's five minutes away." "What do we do about the dead nog?" "Give him a gong." "He won this contact." "The game's called Watch the Faces." "Hey, look... at that girl." "She's just a kid." "She's scared stiff." "Look like you're using it and turn to the camera when I signal, OK?" "Now, here we go." "OK." "Now." "My name's Private Tim Beetson." "I'm from Summer Hill, Sydney, New South Wales." "I'd like to say Merry Christmas to my mum and dad and to Lisa." "Um, I'm still in one piece, as you can see." "Sergeant Philip Goddard from Canberra." "Hi, Mum, Dad." "Uh, how are you?" "I 'II be thinking about you on Christmas Day." "How are you, Megan?" "You moved into the garage yet?" "Sorry about the lack of letters." "There'll be a definite improvement on that front soon." "Uh, so, um, take care." "I'm good." "Ow!" "Watch it!" "No, it's alright, I've got it." "We are not going through all this again." "Phil lived there." "You are not sleeping in the garage." "Megan, it leaks." "You'll freeze." "I've blocked it up." "Do you sleep in your garage, Ros?" "We haven't got one, Mrs Goddard." "Megan!" "Yes, Dad?" "I'll get it!" "Why would you want to live in a garage?" "It smells of oil." "Heaps of room." "Why do you need so much room?" "Great for dancing." "You won't even hear us if we're down the back." "She'll be alright, Mrs Goddard - we'll keep an eye on her." "It's for you, Dad." "Who is it?" "Dunno." "Sounded pretty urgent." "Jesus!" "No... no news at all?" "Are they searching?" "Yeah, of course." "I'll come in right away." "Bye." "It's Holt." "He's disappeared, swimming." "They think he's drowned." "He cared a great deal, you know." "Every time there were casualties." "After the Long Tan battle, he laid down the law." "There weren't to be any more heavy engagements." "And it wasn't just for political reasons." "He.. hurt." "And not a lot of people knew that." "Do you think it could have been the pressure?" "No." "No, there's no way he'd kill himself." "The strain was there, alright." "I think he was beginning to question it all." "The whole thing." "Vietnam." "Maybe it affected his judgment somehow." "Swimming out made him more reckless." "Another victim of the war." "Hey, it's me." "Laurie!" "Be just a minute, mate." "Righto." "Hey, did you hear Charlie's closing in around Khe Sanh?" "Couple of divisions, they reckon." "Yeah." "I heard." "And they're bombarding the shit out of them, apparently." "The Yanks have dug themselves in." "Hey, if they don't pull out soon, it's going to be another Dien Bien Phu." "Le's coming down for the Tet celebrations." "Wrangled duty on a truck going down to Vung Tau." "Thought I'd pick her up." "They got room for one more." "Sure." "Not going to give up on her, are you?" "I don't know." "You know, since I've been back, it's like what went on between us never happened." "I want to see you." "Well, here I am." "Not now." "For Tet celebrations." "I can say I go to my brother's." "You and me can meet in the fishing village." "You know?" "I'm supposed to be coming here for Tet." "A whole group of us are going to watch the celebrations." "It's going to be very hard for me to get away." "Maybe only chance I get to stay with you." "Yes." "You waiting for someone, man?" "Yeah." "Where you from?" "Australia." "Sydney?" "Melbourne?" "Canberra." "Uh-huh." "This buddy of mine, he caught some shit in his guts." "Screamed for two days, man." "We didn't have no morphine left." "I lost all my tapes." "One mother left, I had." ""Come on, baby, light my fire."" "Two days, I played it, man." "Over and over." "To block out those screams." "Those choppers, they never did come to take him home." "Hang on!" "It's only crackers!" "Fireworks!" "Hope she turns up, man." "Come on, baby." "You want to light my fire?" "Hey!" "Shut up!" "It's a Violet Crumble." "Can you say it?" "Violet." "It's all the way from Australia." "That's where I come from, hey?" "There you go." "See you soon." "Come on, Laurie!" "Just get on board, you randy bastard." "Come on, Laurie, give it a rest." "Give it a rest, Laurie." "Bye!" "Martial law is in play tonight as Vietcong guerrillas continue their raids against Saigon and provincial capitals." "Air force jets were forced to bomb areas of Saigon during the afternoon in an attempt to dislodge the Vietcong units by Vietcong guerrillas." "The siege ended only when US soldiers mounted an assault on the embassy." "10 US troops were killed in the battle." "Tonight, heavy fighting is still raging within 300 yards of the headquarters of the US Commander in Vietnam, General William Westmoreland." "At Tan Son Nhat Airport, a Saigon..." "It very deceitfully has taken advantage of the Tet truce in order to create maximum consternation within South Vietnam, particularly in the populated areas." "Excuse me." "Excuse me." "Is this where Laurie Fellows is?" "Yes." "Well, can I see him?" "He's still groggy." "Is he alright?" "Are you a friend of his?" "Yeah, same unit." "He's my best mate." "He, um..." "The doctor hasn't told him yet." "He has some shrapnel lodged in his spine." "It doesn't look like he'll walk again." "Laurie." "First visitor, mate." "You're supposed to be flying high." "Morphine or something." "Well, it looks like we're the lucky ones." "It's alright." "I know what happened to the others." "It's just Ferret, you and me left, hey?" "Yeah." "They're holding back breaking the news to me." "How do you mean?" "I know all about it." "Oh, you'll be right." "Sure." "That's why they don't give me a pillow." "That's why my legs are in a bloody tent." "That's if they're still there at all." "Sorry, mate." "Tell you what, you certainly got your money's worth in the end with Lien." "If she hadn't lined that up, you..." "Yeah." "Phil." "They won't let me in." "Please, you speak to them." "I've been here all night." "He OK?" "Phil!" "Laurie OK?" "He's not OK." "Laurie not OK." "Lien gone." "And we warn viewers that some of these violent scenes may be disturbing." "Two weeks after the Tet offensive, peace has still not returned to the streets of Saigon, where shooting and violence has continued daily." "Casualties have been high and South Vietnamese police have performed at least one summary execution in an attempt to head off further disruption." "That's disgraceful - children are watching." "Yeah." "That's right." "It's fine that it happens." "Just disgraceful that people might see it." "I don't condone random acts of violence." "But you refuse to see what bastards are on your side." "It's a war." "Things get out of control." "I don't deny it." "But that doesn't affect the underlying moral and political issues." "He's the guy you're supporting." "You might as well be pulling the trigger yourself." "I'm not going to sit here and listen to an hysterical child who doesn't know what she's talking about." "Oh, go on, run away." "Kill a few more before bedtime." "Now, you listen to me, young lady." "I've had quite enough." "You are entitled to your point of view, but I will not have you shouting your slogans at me in this house." "Understood?" "I must say, Douglas I do think Megan has a point." "I do wonder about our wholehearted support for the people who do that." "At least the cameras are allowed on the streets of South Vietnam." "We don't even get a chance to see what happens in the North." "There isn't the level of corruption, for a start." "And where did you read that, darling, hey?" "Hmm?" "I would have thought that you would acknowledge the fact that I'd have a little bit more inside information than you get from reading the newspapers." "Oh, go on - put her down, that's right." "Get your big jackboot and grind her into that carpet." "Megan, that's enough." "Alright." "Do I put you down?" "You can be very condescending towards me." "The way you treat her makes me throw up." "Get to your room!" "Alright, when was I condescending?" "Douglas!" "There's no point going through a list." "Oh, fine. "He hit me, Your Honour, but I can't remember when."" "You very rarely acknowledge that I have any intelligence at all." "I'm just the kids' mum, as far as you're concerned." "Not this bloody nonsense - not again!" "It's not nonsense." "You're cruel to her." "I told you to go to your room." "Yes, Megan." "Go." "So everything is my fault?" "No examples, no reasons, it just is?" "Oh, stop twisting everything." "Oh, calm down." "Oh, that's right." "Bring it back to logic." "You can't cope with emotion." "Let's keep it on your terms." "It's not just my terms." "It's the terms of the human race." "It's not my fault you're out of touch with the human race." "Don't tell me I'm inhuman." "I'm just asking you to be reasonable." "Nothing is achieved by flying off the handle." "I would have thought you'd have learned that by now." "Hey, Serge." "Megsy." "Hi." "Now, I know I'm surprising you again, but I only want a place to stay for the night." "I don't want to put you out in any way or cause you any trouble." "I just..." "Megsy." "What about school?" "You can't just pack it in." "What about uni?" "It's everything, Serge." "Home, school." "Canberra's a dump." "I'll take the consequences." "How's Theresa?" "Oh, that's finished." "She's still living here on and off." "But, uh, not with me, if you know what I mean." "It's great to see you, Megs." "You're looking fantastic." "You've really, uh..." "Grown?" "Matured." "You've..." "Can I sleep on the couch?" "You've come of age, so to speak." "Because I don't want to fall into something with you without thinking about it, you know?" "Sure." "It doesn't have to mean marriage if you sleep in my bed." "Just for the company." "Look, I've just left home." "I've got to find a place to live." "I've got to find a job." "And I would be really grateful if I could just sleep on your couch tonight so I can sort myself out." "You're a really lovely guy, Serge, and we have a special understanding..." "OK, OK." "I'll get you some blankets for the couch." "Hey." "I'm really glad to see you too." "Look, um, if you hear any noises in the night, we've just got a few mice." "Oh, no wonder." "Look at the mess." "They've, uh, set up house in the stuffing in the couch." "Sort of large mice." "She's taken all her best clothes." "Her good books." "She's even taken the posters off the walls." "And she had to pick the day you leave." "Can't you delay it for a couple of days?" ""Oh, sorry, Prime Minister."" ""The daughter moved out." "Uh, I missed the plane."" "Look, I don't know what you're so worried about." "She's a big girl now." "Oh, if you measured maturity in inches, she'd be more adult than the two of us put together." "She's not ready for this." "And, as usual, you're not around and I'm left to pick up the pieces." "Stop fearing the worst." "I'm only in Saigon for two weeks." "Anything could happen!" "She has obviously made her decision." "She is either going to get a job or she's going to come back." "And if she does come back, it will be with cap in hand and she'll have to live by our rules." "Oh, God, there's my car." "Oh, what a very convenient way of looking at it." "Your daughter runs away from home but you won't even for a minute stop to think about the dangers involved or the consequences of her dropping out of school or even what action a responsible parent should take because it might mean disrupting your work." "The world can't be kept waiting for Douglas Goddard so his daughter will have to wait." "I'm sorry, Evelyn, I don't have time for these games." "The inevitable has happened, that's all." "It's not going to make a jot of difference whether I'm here or not." "Not to you, it's not." "You'll cope, if you pull yourself together." "Just concentrate on that." "Kiss." "Oh, now, come on." "Kiss will make it better." "Hmm?" "Just go." "Now, look, Megan will be fine." "You phone the school, and tell them that she's sick." "We'll sort it all out when I come back." "Look, she'll phone in a day or two." "Ah!" "Right on time." "Good morning for it." "Going to be a stinker, they reckon." "Just this one." "Think of today as the first day of your freedom." "Oh, you've married a block of ice." "Freedom for what?" "!"