THE WANDERER

(Watch the film on the "My Work" section of this site before reading. Script attached below.)

The idea for this script was originally brought to me by my good friend, Timothy B. Flood, an actor at John Paul The Great Catholic University. Tim and I had been formulating an idea for a western since we were both huge fans of the way "The Revenant" was shot. With inspiration from Iñárritu and Emmanuel Lubezki, I wrote a script that was small in scope, but could still be filmed with some of the same cinematic techniques as the ones in "The Revenant" (e.g. wide cinematic lenses, landscape shots, handheld sequences... etc.), and I ended up shooting the film for my Cinematography class' final project.

The script is pretty simple: Noah Daniels wants to leave his traumatic past behind and move away from his home town, but on one of his usual trails, he is accosted by bandits. The bandits, Robert and Westley, make Noah realize just how much of a coward he is. As Noah confronts his cowardice, he realizes that though tragedy may strike in the places we love, bravery is brought about by holding your ground.

In a quiet moment, as Noah waits to board the train that will take him away from everything he knows, he has an epiphany: tragedy is not a cruel trick, but a test of your strength. Running away is only a temporary fix. The real healing after tragedy will have to happen in the heart, with time. With the finality of the moment now realized, he rips up his ticket and leaves the train station, ready to face another day, ready to recover.

THE WANDERER (Final Screenplay).pdf

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