Different people learned different things from different art …
“Imagine getting away with the life of a bad man all your life,” six-year-old Grayson whispered to his nine-year-old brother George, “and then they send a police officer who doesn't even need a handcuff because he has a stone grip.”
“I mean, gee, I know that Papa isn't actually hurting Sgt. Trent and he's not even touching Lt. Truss, but Lt. Truss is making it look like his whole wrist is being crushed,” George said.
“That's what I said,” Grayson said. “It hurts even to imagine it.”
George sighed.
“This is what Andrew has been trying to tell us,” he said. “If Papa didn't keep his grip on us now, this could be us.”
“It hurts to even think about it,” Grayson said.
But then, the two brothers were surprised.
“Wait – he let him go!” Grayson said.
“Yeah, but, look at what is happening on the screen behind Lt. Truss – uh oh!” George said.
“I can't look even though I know is isn't real,” Grayson said. “How do you get let go and it gets worse?”
“Well … let's ask Andrew.”
Andrew, their ten-year-old elder brother, looked grim.
“It's like this,” he said. “What would it be like if Papa just gave up on us?”
“I can't deal with the thought,” George said. “That's my worst nightmare – being abandoned again.”
“Okay, so imagine what happens if God gives up on you.”
“It burns!” Grayson said. “It literally burns! I feel bad for Lt. Truss and I'm not even over there on the screen!”
“This is going to be terrifying when people can't see this is actually a beautiful sunny day,” Andrew said, “and did y'all catch how the sun went down over the ridge just when Papa let go and hit that note?”
The grandfather of these philosophical little boys was having a series of memories that related to this, a series of memories that connected to their uncle, Robert Edward Ludlow Jr. The boys' actual mother, Anne, always said the right things in her father's presence … she craved his approval even though she would choose to die rather than to do right just like her elder brother.
But Robert Jr. … he hated his father and loved his addiction and had no intention of coming out of it and threw that in his father's face near the end.
The thing was, Robert Jr. miscalculated, having no understanding of how 30-year soldiers think. Capt. Ludlow had already steeled himself to the possibility of his children not making it, but that their children could if only their parents would get out of their grandfather's way. Robert Jr. had no idea that he had that outburst on the very day Capt. Ludlow had decided to cut his losses, and he was not prepared for his father's cold, calm answer.
“All right then. Go directly to hell, since you want to be there.”
The father had turned on his heel in a perfect about-face, and walked out, and within a week, the son had, for once in his adult life, obeyed...
“Because see, that's what happens when you don't listen to the only person that wants to save you,” grandson Andrew said.
And on that day, having come to the moment of acting it out, Capt. Ludlow physically let go as he had mentally let go, of his own lost son, and did that same about-face for the camera, although …
Producer and director Capt. Maynor drew Pvt. Bynum's attention to a detail as Capt. Ludlow did the Commendatore's even, statuesque march up to the green sceen that portrayed the Commendatore's stairway back to heaven... although his turn and his march were perfect, the hand that had reached out to the lost man was shaking before it closed into a perfect, stable stone fist.
“How did you capture that grief!” Capt. Maynor cried to Capt. Ludlow later. “I mean, I know that it is not God's will that any should perish, so of course His messenger would feel that sorrow, but, wow!”
Capt. Ludlow just looked at his friend until Capt. Maynor struck his hand to his forehead.
“I'm sorry,” Capt. Maynor said. “I got carried away because I forgot … you never had to act this role.”
Meanwhile, Lt. Truss, having not even touched Capt. Ludlow, was shaken to the bottom of his soul, having seen and heard what Robert Edward Ludlow Jr. had turned away from, and having seen the father's resolute but deep grief.