A Place on Earth (Sample)

                                                                      1

                  SOUND FIRST:
                  The WHICK-WHICK-WHICK of sickles slashing at cornstalks...

                                          LEN (V.O.)
                            In Revelations, it reads:  'Thrust
                            in thy sickle and reap: the time
                            is come for thee to reap; for the
                            harvest of the earth is ripe.'

                  FADE IN:

                  EXT. PIPER'S RUN, OHIO - DAY

                  The Midwestern countryside burns with beauty ...
                  Sheep grazing in the pastures, sumacs triumphantly scarlet,
                  farmhouses, barns and granaries weathered silvery-gray...

                                          LEN (V.O.)
                            Revelations is my favorite book in
                            the Bible.  It tells you stuff you're
                            not really supposed to know...

                  IN THE FIELD

                  sickle blades flash in the hot sun as bearded MENNONITE
                  FARMERS slice through rows of cornstalks, sweating beneath
                  the wide brims of their traditional flat-crowned hats.

                                          LEN (V.O.)
                            Like God's letting you in on
                            secret things...

                  BEYOND THE CORN FIELD

                  A young man shucks ears of corn in the scant shade offered
                  by an unhitched wagon.

                  This is LEN COLTER, 17.  A handsome kid -- wiry, well-
                  proportioned -- with sharply-etched features and brooding
                  eyes.  His long hair is cut off square above the eyes, in
                  the Mennonite custom.  He wears a coarse-loomed cotton
                  shirt with no collar, homespun trousers, and hand-pegged
                  boots.

                                          LEN (V.O.)
                            Before he died, Pa used to say
                            Harvest was the best time of
                            year...  'When a man got to taste
                            the fruits of his labors'...
                                   (beat)
                            This was the first Harvest he
                            wouldn't be tastin' any fruits of...

                  Len fans himself with his hat a moment, mops his brow and
                  resumes his work.