Elijah Wood

Performer for Our Time

THE WAR
(1994)

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Synopsis - The War

by Edward C. Patterson

Set in the small 1970’s town of Juliette, MS, The War opens on a shot of a rather old, knotty tree, which spreads over a clearing. In the tree sits Stu Simmons. His sister, Lidia arrives and informs him glibly, "He’s back." In a voice over, we learn that this will be the tale of Stu Simmons as told by his sister. They drive across the dirt-poor landscape to an old chimney, the ruin of their house, where Stu greets his father, Stephen Simmons.

In a dismal shack by the railroad tracks surrounded by nosey neighbors and crying babies, the Simmons have breakfast—burned by their mother, Lois Simmons. We learn, after Stu tries to wake his father and his father impulsively attacks him, that Stephen has been away, suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome after his service in Vietnam.

At the local drug store, Stu is attacked by Lester Lucket; and after he gets licked, his father starts to tell him how important it is to control your anger and how feeble war can be. In a flashback to Vietnam, we learn that Stephen was in a night attack with his buddy Dodge and they were badly beaten.

Lidia, meanwhile, with her two African-American friends, Elvadine and Amber, gather junk from Mr. Lipnicki’s junkyard to start building a fort in the Old Tree. At a nearby quarry, Stu and his friends, Marsh and Chet have a run in with the white-trashy Lipnicki children. Stu gets whooped. When he goes to start building the fort, he finds that his sister has beat him to the punch. He races her for dibs on building rights and loses. Stephen referees and moderates a solution where the children will share the fort. He also extracts a promise from Stu that he will try to make things smooth with the Lipnicki’s.

Efforts to build the fort together fail and the boys lose their rights to it when the girls win a dare to gather an unusual assortment of junk. Stu plays a prank at the quarry on the older Lipnicki boys turning them into enemies as opposed to making amends.

Stephen, who was employed by the state as a janitor, loses that job. Despite this, he has a dream to buy an old dilapidated house. He manages to get a mining job, which pays more. The house goes on the auction block and Stephen and Stu go to the county fair to bid on it. On their way, they have a confrontation with Mr. Lipnicki, who is as trashy and as ornery as his children. Stephen manages to keep things barely under control trying to teach Stu that anger doesn’t pay; only peace does. At the fair, Stephen places a silent sealed bid on the house. While he’s getting some cotton candy for Lidia and Lois, Stu is surrounded and whooped by the Lipnickis. Stephen breaks it up and, a short time later, he gives the cotton candy away to two of the Lipnicki brood. Stu does not quite accept this act of contrition.

At the fort, Stephen tells the rest of his Vietnam tale to Stu. In a flashback we see how he had to choose to stay with his wounded buddy or save himself. Ultimately he saved himself. Stu promises to work things out with the Lipnickis. Meanwhile, Lidia stands up to her teacher when she discriminates against Elvadine and spends some time in the principal’s office.

There’s a cave in at the mine and Stephen saves his co-worker, Moe’s, life. Stephen is hospitalized in a critical condition. Stu remains hopeful, but becomes foreboding. He reminisces through his father’s footlocker, using its lock for the fort. Meanwhile, the Lipnickis have found the fort and attacked it. Lidia tells Stu that she took most of the materials from the Lipnicki’s junkyard. They try to keep possession of the fort through a dare—Stu and Leo Lipnicki will climb the Water Tower and swim across the whirlpool inside as it drains. Leo backs out, but Stu completes the dare.

Stephen dies. When Lois tells Stu that his father is dead, he will not believe it and becomes incredibly angry, then incredibly sullen. After witnessing the Lipnickis shooting fireworks in the fort, Stu prepares for WAR. They drive the Lipnickis out with a live beehive and smoke bombs. However, the Lipnickis counter with fire and fists; and things get pretty ugly before Stu realizes his father was right about war. Billy Lipnicki, who throughout the story is the youngest, sheltered and dimmest Lipnicki, climbs the Water Tower during the battle to retrieve the key to the footlocker’s lock. He falls into the whirlpool. Stu and Leo jump in to save him. Stu, after a frantic try, resuscitates him. Stu now comes to grips with his father’s death.

A few weeks later, the auction bid comes through and is accepted. The Simmons get their run down house—but it’s home. Stephen’s hopes become reality and Lidia voices over lessons learned.