SULLIVAN

While I was in jail, I had an idea for a picture. This idea is the film that will define my career

(LeBrand is confused)

LEBRAND
An idea for a picture? What about O Brother Where Art Thou? Isn’t that why you went through
this whole situation in the first place?

SULLIVAN
That’s not the picture I want to make anymore.

LEBRAND
What do you mean, you don’t want to make it anymore?

SULLIVAN
O Brother Where Art Thou doesn’t capture the world I saw out there.
I wanted to make something with meaning, but the only meaning that book has is that the poor
are suffering. I know they’re suffering. You know they’re suffering. They know they’re
suffering.
I don’t want to merely tell people what they already know.

LEBRAND
You were the one who wanted to make a picture that’s real. One that’s honest.

SULLIVAN
There’s nothing honest in 90 minutes of abject misery.

JONES
With some sex

HADRIAN
And politics

SULLIVAN
You know what that novel doesn’t have?
(He turns to The Girl and puts his arm around her. She smiles and gazes up at him)
It doesn’t have a beautiful young woman who, after being kicked out of her room, takes what
little she has and buys a man breakfast.
(He turns back to the producers)
It doesn’t understand how, in the face of the brutality of a cruel guard and hard labor, a prisoner
can risk his safety to protect a new friend.
It doesn’t show a church filled with good-hearted people who welcomed a group of convicts to
share a film, a few laugh, and some music.

LEBRAND
 So… what are you saying?

SULLIVAN
I’m saying, I want to make a movie with heart, something personal. Something that addresses the
hardship of this time without wallowing in them, without reducing people’s lives to their misery.
I want to make a movie about this experience, my experiment.

LEBRAND
Do you think people will want to watch a movie about that?

HADRIAN
(Hesitantly)
With all the press attention about Sully, it seems like the public is interested in the story.

JONES
They advertised it for free. It sells itself!

SULLIVAN
Think about it: a frustrated but sheltered man goes out into the world to understand and
experience it. He sweeps the greatest girl in the world off her feet.

(The Girl laughs, halfway flattered, halfway amused by his mischaracterization)

GIRL
Off her feet, you say? When, exactly did that happen?

SULLIVAN
A girl who insists on following him

GIRL
(Interrupting Sullivan)
Because she has more real-world experience than him

SULLIVAN
Because she has more experience in the world than he does. Together, they experience hardships
and darkness, they witness despair and hopelessness. But they also see compassion, community,
and humanity. And there are some wild misadventures. They fall in love. (thoughtful pause)
Right?

(Sullivan looks to the Girl, confidently yet hopefully)

GIRL
They do fall in love.

(Sullivan smiles)
 SULLIVAN
A third act misunderstanding separates the lovers, but they reunite, he has grown as a person—

GIRL
And they live happily ever after. Once the divorce paperwork is signed

(Hadrian and Jones sold)

JONES
It has commentary on modern conditions… Realism…

SULLIVAN
A little bit of sex in it.

(The Girl playfully swats at Sullivan’s arm and gasps in mock offense)

LEBRAND
I could see this working! A comedy that speaks to modern times and still entertains.

SULLIVAN
Exactly!

HADRIAN
We could make it a musical! Get that Cole Porter fellow to write a few songs

LEBRAND
Is he the one who writes those clever musicals? Let’s see if we can get him under contract.

LeBrand, Hadrian, and Jones continue to discuss ideas for this new film as focus leaves them and
their audio blurs into background noise. The camera now focuses exclusively on Sullivan and the
girl. He smiles at her. She gazes at him. The pair kiss, as the camera fades to black.

In the darkness, a big band chord loudly strikes, cutting to a movie set, in split screen with the
credits. The scenes themselves are reduced to mumbled, ambient noise as an upbeat song in the
style of Cole Porter plays over the scene.

It’s a chaotic room. Chorus girls walk in front of the camera, giggling while holding their tap
shoes. The camera tilts upward and begins a slow pan right to show the action on set.
First is a set of the farm. Animal handlers frustratedly attempt to work with pigs and cows. Set
dressers adjust the hay, and two character-actress run lines.

Then there is the train. Extras practice an ensemble musical number, and an exasperated musical
director corrects them. There is a set of the film studio office, where lighting designers make
adjustments. Then the costume shop, with actors being measured. Then a set version the diner,
where fake food is being organized. The prison yard backdrop is being painted. All Hollywood
 versions of their previous incarnations, but still maintaining the earnest authenticity of the
previous incarnation.

The pan finally ends on Sullivan and The Girl, dressed similarly to when we first meet her, but in
film makeup. They are standing by the set for his backyard. By the on set pool are two actors.
One is a young, handsome brunet, a Cary Grant type, clearly playing Sullivan. The other actor is
older, dressed in a formal suit as the butler. The girl kisses Sullivan’s cheek before joining the
scene. Cameras are moved into place. The hectic action stops. The lights brighten on the set and
dim everywhere else. The music goes silent as the camera cuts to a closeup of Sullivan. He is
happy. More than that, he is fulfilled.

SULLIVAN
Action!

CUT TO BLACK.

Sullivan’s Travels is a love letter to comedy and the important escapism of film, as is

seen in its opening text card paying tribute to everyone who makes us laugh. It calls into question

the idea of what film can be deemed “important,” demonstrating that catharsis, distraction, and

happiness can be just as meaningful as heart-wrenching drama.

As such, I did not want to completely upend the film’s ending’s intent, in which Sullivan

discovered the value of his comedy films beyond simple entertainment. However, his final

decision only seemed to be in response to the final twenty minutes of the film, with the prison
movie night and dissolution of his marriage. I wanted to create an ending which addressed the

film and its themes in their totality.

Further, I was frustrated that the original ending appeared to buy into a strict dichotomy

between comedy and drama, when the distinctions are so malleable and complex. Sullivan’s

Travels, while clearly a comedy, has some serious dramatic elements, ironically demonstrating

that forcing a film into one genre is an oversimplification erasing films’ complex identities and

the various tones that can be employed to engage audiences.

For a comedy movie about the importance of comedy and the movies, Sullivan’s Travel

showed an impressive degree of self-awareness that is needed to keep ‘films about how

necessary Hollywood’ is from feeling self-congratulatory and out of touch. Part of what rescued

the film from such a characterization is the metatextual satirical edge which permeated the

Hollywood scenes. The characters all acknowledged their own sheltered, insulated lifestyles, and

how different their experiences were from those of regular, everyday Americans struggling in the

Great Depression. Once the film went on the road, the shallow artifice of Hollywood was even

more readily apparent. However, the original ending backtracks any of this self-reflection, opting

for a simplistic close reaffirming the power of the movies. To correct this tonal imbalance, I

repurposed dialogue from the opening scene as callbacks to demonstrate a thematic through line

and highlight character development.