"John Wilkes Booth?" (SPOILERS)

So how about that scene between Brad Pitt and Bruce Dern as George Spahn.

Its very sad to think that Burt Reynolds had the role and died before he could shoot. Dern already had two QTs on his resume. And even as I watched Dern play the part -- very well in his "old guy" fashion -- I kept picturing Burt reading the lines.

The build-up to the scene is "Psycho" scary -- Pitt slowly going deeper and deeper into the house, seeing a male figure on the bed who MIGHT just be dead and then...the figure rises and its Dern.

What's expertly written here is an old man with memory problems:

"Who are you?"
"I'm Cliff Booth"
"John Wilkes Booth?"

...and Spahn can't remember or place Booth at all. And it gets circular.

For his part, Pitt laughs enough during the scene to suggest that in some way's Dern's cockeyed performance is making him laugh for REAL.

And we have the issue of a blind man who can't wait to watch "The FBI" on TV. Huh?

And an addled old man who is still smart enough to say: "I'm moved that you would take the time to see me...when you haven't seen me in eight years."

Its a scene of pauses , of slow pace...Tarantino-esque in that way he can be, sometimes.

Its a good, entertaining scene, some dark humor in the middle of immediate scariness and the darker frame of the Manson Family itself. (Interesting, how they let ol' George live.)