The War of Now
The narrator, Greg, begins: "I had always been a coward, since the first time I let my best friend take the blame for me for stealing, for I feared the punishment that would sweep me up. I guess things never really change, for I would always stick the dark side on someone else."

Starring Tom Hanks as Greg and Cameron Diaz as Ari, "The War Of Now" centers around the life of a close family of a father, mother, and child. One day as the family enjoys a night at their summer beach home, five madmen raid Greg's house and take all three of the family members hostage. As a former congressperson, one who told the people to impossibly chose between much needed tax cuts or they would have to cut down the local police #'s in half , the madmen decide to give Greg a choice of his own.

The leader of the captors tells Greg, "you have a choice to make, one choice. Once you make that choice, your family will be free of us." The leader of the men kicks Ari into the wall, and pushes Greg and his son, Sam, over into the corner of the room. The leader hands Greg a gun, and tells Greg, "you have a choice to make, and your wife will watch you as you do this. Take the gun, and either shoot yourself in the head, or shoot your son in the head. If you shoot at any of us, I will kill all three of you in an instant. Make the choice." Greg lifts the gun in the air, and he aims the gun first at his head, and then he points it at his son's head, and pulls the trigger. Ari lets out a scream, and the son falls dead. "You sick bastard," exclaims the leader, "let's get the hell out of here."

The movie goes on to chronicle the life of this devastated couple. Ari cannot forgive Greg for his disgusting act, but she still loves Greg and cannot let him go. Greg and Ari's lives go through turmoil and torture until they are old. Greg says the last line of the movie when he says, "I may be a coward, but I thought that I was still fighting a war of the past, trying to survive the fact that I shot my own son to death. But it isn't a war of the past, it is the war of now, something that I am still trying to conquer, because Sam never left me that day. And until the light in the sky comes to an end, this war will continue, as will my everlasting regrets for what I had done...And the sad thing is, I would do it again if I had been given the same choice now...I don't think I will ever change, and so the war has defeated me, and I will live on in shame, rather than not live at all..."

-- Script Pitch III Host Commentary --

Lee's Analysis: