Notes on "A Few Good Men"

Just read the script for A Few Good Men. Here are some observations:

1. I think it was Robert Towne who said that a story is really about four or five moments between people. I call them the, “gimme the friggin’ remote, I need to see that again” scenes. MOST OF THE STORY EXISTS TO CREATE THOSE SCENES. In AFGW, we have:
a. “You can’t handle the truth.”
b. The scene where Captain Ross (Kevin Bacon) extracts from Private Downey that he couldn’t have been in his room at 4:20 because his transport broke down.
c. The scene where Corporal Dawson keeps his hands in his pockets rather than salute Kaffee (Tom Cruise). If you don’t remember it, watch the film again and tell me if you think it’s a great scene.
d. Etc.

2. A perfect storm of crises.
Plot point #2 (about p90 or ¾ of the way through through the film), is where the hero, despite his heroic efforts, is is far from his goal as he can possibly be. Think Charlie and Rosie hopelessly stuck in the mud in The African Queen. Or, Buffy catatonic in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 5 finale. Or Clarice Starling saying, “it’s over” when Hannibal escapes. Or Irv telling Popeye Doyle (The French Connection) that the car is clean. To create this emotion, you need a crisis. Even better if you have multiple crises, simultaneously converging on disaster. That is, a perfect storm of crises. In AFGM, at plot point #2, not only has Private Downey revealed that he wasn’t in his room when he said he was, but Colonel Markinson commits suicide. It’s hopeless, baby. Note: this pattern describes a dramatic comedy, such as AFGM. By contrast a dramatic tragedy has an exuberant, “If-only” scene at plot point #2.

3. Jo (Demo Moore) is a complex, contradictory and hence interesting character. She’s passionate but has no street smarts. She’s extremely tough, yet vulnerable. Hard working but incompetent. Tom Cruise gets the credit but, in some ways, she drives the story. For writers, this shows the value of good secondary characters. Check out her introduction:

CAPTAIN WEST
Joanne, why don't you get yourself a cup of coffee.

JO
Thank you, sir, I'm fine.

WEST
Joanne, I'd like you to leave the room so we can talk about you behind your back.

It’s a funny, concise, character-establishing scene.

4. There’s an old joke in the real estate biz. QUESTION: What are the three most important words in real estate? ANSWER: Location, location, location. Similarly, in a story, it’s important to choose a setting that provides conflict and coolness. For example, Jaws, where a shark attacks not just any town but a tourism-dependent town on the July 4th weekend protected by a police chief afraid of water. That brilliant setting provides the material for most of the conflict. In AFGM, the “incident” happens not at any old marine base, not Parris Island, not Camp Pendleton, but GITMO. Writers need to take their settings to the edge to provide conflict.

WGA - Great Place for Research

Last Friday, while everyone else in India celebrated Diwali, I checked out some of the great research tools at the WGA.

Ask the Expert lists a whole slew of organizations that are "willing to provide free information to writers." It's a huge list, including everything from government agencies (Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines), to medical experts (Alzheimer's Disease, Blindness, Pain Management) to religion to Psychological (Domestic Violence/Legal, Social Workers) to Miscellaneous (Chinese Culture, croquet). Contact information is provided, mostly phone numbers with a few emails and websites. NOTE: neither the WGA nor I endorse any of these organizations nor guarantee that the contact information is current. But, a priori, it seems like a great resource.

Technically Speaking is a monthly series of articles, each an interview with an expert in a subject frequently portrayed in film. For example, the most recent article interviewed David Molner, head of Screen Capital International, which specializes in “structuring and facilitating cross-border tax-advantaged financing for major motion picture producers.” Mr. Molner recently advised Oliver Stone regarding the film Wall Street: Money Never Sleep. Other interviewees include Todd Robbins (con games), Hugh Ambrose (WW II history) and Pat Brown (serial killers). The cool thing is that each article includes a list of research resources recommended by the expert.

Kudos to the WGA for providing these resources.

Cast Away - Script Notes

Cast Away. Directed by one of my favorite directors, Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future(s), Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump). Critically successful with numerous award nominations, mostly for Tom Hanks performance. Also commercially successful, raking in $430 mill .

Interesting points:
1. Product placement, most specifically of FedEx and Wilson, was a key element of this movie. Yet neither brand paid for placement. FedEx reportedly had a heart attack reaction over the crash of the FedEx plane in the story, although the overall portrayal of FedEx was seen as positive.

2. Wilson the Watson. I’ve previously used the term Watson to describe an archetypal story character who functions as a device for natural exposition. Usually a Watson is human. In CA (Cast Away), it’s a volleyball. Does anyone have plausibility issues? I don’t; it worked great for me.

3. Choice of protag. Imagine the early brainstorming sessions for this script. Zemeckis, writer William Broyles Jr., etc. working on the story. Someone asks, “Who is this person that we strand on a desert island? What kind of person could physically and mentally survive the experience. What background would provide the conflict we want?” Perhaps they discussed him from the pov of theme, i.e., time, and said, ‘We want someone who’s life is dominated by time.” Saying it in a different way, imagine if the protag had been: A US Navy Seal, a bum being deported from Thailand, or Paris Hilton. How different would the story have been?

4. Killer role for an A-list actor.
Successful scripts include roles that actors will kill for. That’s part of the Hollywood dynamic: if an actor likes your script and is attached to it, it has far greater chance of success. Roles like:
- Meryl Streep in the Devil Wears Prada
- Sam Jackson in Pulp Fiction
- Susan Sarandon in Dead Man Walking
- Sandra Bullock in the Blind Side
- Kevin Spacey in American Beauty

So, how does a writer create said killer role? What are the traits of a role that actors will kill for?

Qualities:
- Strong
- Committed
- Unusual qualities
- Very bad or very good
- Make it a challenging role that calls for major emotional shifts
- PASSIONATE
- Shows qualities we all admire or hate
- Out of the boxness
- Supported by the rest of the story.

To be continued and explored.

5. Dramatic Scenes
There are some great ones in this film. My favorites are:
- The crash.
- The aborted escape from the island.
- The successful escape from the island.
- Rescue by tanker.
- Return to Kelly.
So, how do you create great dramatic scenes like these? The plane crash is purely an action scene. Note that most of the other great scenes occur late in the film. That means, they were set up by the earlier drama. I'd say the greatness of the scenes is directly proprtional to the audiences emotional involvement in the outcomes. For example, escape from the island is the climax to act 2 and resolves the act 2 tension, which is, "Will Chuck survive the island?"
So, can we conclude that great dramatic scenes often happen late in films, when the audience has had time to learn and become emotionally invested in the objectives? Are great dramatic scenes comprised of more parts subjective drama than objective drama?

Slumdog Millionarie - Script Analysis

Slumdog Millionaire. Nominated for ten Oscars. Won eight, including the top writing award. Won the WGA top prize. Over one hundred international awards. Also commercially successful.

Some reasons why it was successful:

1. It executed the basic principle of drama: somebody sympathetic wants something badly and is having trouble getting it. We have a very sympathetic character struggling against great odds to attain a great objective. The objective is love. The objective remains the same throughout the story. The chase morphs, i.e., the method of attaining the goal changes, but the goal is the same.

2. Expanded version of the principles of drama: protag, objective, antag, knockout climax.

a. A sympathetic protag. Amir is made sympathetic by the following:
- Chasing a great love is always sympathetic.
- Loses his mother.
- A poor kid trying to survive.
- He has joie de vivre.
- He fights Prem, an unsympathetic person, and gets in a few punches of his own.
- He resists torture, and gets in a few punches of his own.
- He’s a David and Goliath character.
- He doesn’t know when to quit. Fighting against all odds is sympathetic.

b. An objective.
Long term objectives:
- Get Latika.
- Win the mill.

Short term objectives:
- Escape the guard.
- Escape the rioting mob.
- Become a Taj guide.

c. An antagonist.
- Prem.
- Salim.

d. Knockout climax. Amir wins the money, gets the girl, Salim redeems himself.

3. Complex characters. Amir and Latika are great characters; Salim is complex.

Good:
- Saves Amir from blinding.
- Returns to Mumbai with Amir.
- Saves Amir and Latika with his gun.
- When Amir calls him from the call center, Salim is happy.
- Sacrifices all for Amir and Latika.

Bad:
- Wants to be a gangster.
- Threatens the baby.
- Kicks Amir out of the room after finding Latika.
- Cuts Latika and takes her away from Amir.
Which side he will end up on is in doubt until the end. A very strong character, arguably the most interesting, certainly the most complex. A great addition to the story.

4. Relationships: Writer Simon Beaufoy is a master of relationships. The Full Monty was packed with them, as is SDM. Screenwriting experts often talk about creating great characters; less frequently do they talk about creating great relationships. Relationships can substitute for characters. For example, in The Full Monty, there isn’t much character arc but there is huge relationship arc.

5. Escapism and Authenticity. A major reason audiences patronize films is escapism: to be transported for a few minutes to a better world, where better things happen. “In real life you never get justice. In film, you get it in two hours.” For westerners, SDM provides that magical transportation. For Indians, who see street kids, corrupt officials and dancing actors every day, there’s no exotic, explaining the “ho-hum” reaction of some Indians.

Authenticity is a big part of escapism. The audience has to be truly convinced they are in a different world. Otherwise they won't suspend their disbelief. SDM hits the mark with authenticity: the language, the cinematography, the characters were all spot on accurate.

6. Sophisticated story telling.
Last weekend in Delhi, I saw an auto rickshaw driver. He was racing through Delhi traffic, driving with his knees, talking into two mobile phones AND cursing anyone who crossed his path, my taxi for one. Moral: we live in a multitasking world. In film, you can’t give an audience a single protag with a single linear plotline and expect them to be interested.

A Russian friend told me she used to work in Moscow, in film theaters, doing real time translation. After a while, she had to leave the job, from boredom, because the stories all became the same, predictable. John August’s blog recently made the point how in cinema, the audience and the story teller are involved in a kind of cognitive "arms race". The story teller deploys a technique - say, three act structure - which works for a while. Then the audience develops a counter weapon, boredom, “we’ve seen this before”. The story teller develops a new story telling weapon: the audience responds positively for a while, then counters with “ho-hum.” Moral: we live in a world of rapid innovation, cognitive as well as material. Writers can't trot out the same techniques and expect to dazzle audiences.

SDM uses flashbacks, simultaneous and non-linear story lines, multiple subplots, multiple objectives, multiple antagonists, multiple allies, ... and it does it elegantly. There’s a lot of technique in this script, perhaps even enough to keep a Delhi auto-rickshaw driver interested.

7. THE Basic Storytelling technique. Early in the story, say by the end of act 1, create a compelling question that the audience wants to be answered. In The Searchers, it's "Where's Debby?" In SDM, it's "Will Amir get Lathika?" If the question is compelling enough, the audience will stay to the end, perhaps even tolerating a few weaknesses in the film.

Bull Durham - Script Review

Bull Durham. Great film, great script. Oscar-nominated for Best Original Script, losing to Rain Man, but beat Rain Man for the WGA top prize. 1989 was a great year for films: Rain Man, Dangerous Liaisons, The Accidental Tourist, Mississippi Burning and, not least, Bull Durham. Bull Durham is ranked as one of the best sports films of all time AND was commercially successful.

The film may have a limited appeal to non-American audiences because primarily it's about baseball. Nevertheless ...

You can find the script here.

Here are some points about the script:

1. Dueling protagonists. Like many great films, e.g., The African Queen, Titanic, Shawshank Redemption, Thelma and Louise, BD has two major roles. either of which could arguably be the protag. Why is this important?
a. Selling a script is greatly helped by writing great roles that appeal to actors. The role of Annie is awesome; I imagine any actress would drool to get it.
b. Gives the writer more to work with. Multiple plot lines and subplots. Makes the story more interesting than a single plotline. For example, have you ever seen a Tom Clancy book that had only one major protag?

2. Excellent opening:
a. Sets the genre and tone from the get go.
b. Establishes Annie as a major character and shows her in her natural element. First impressions of a character are most important.

3. VO Narration:
a. Used throughout the film, by multiple characters. Annie, Crash and Nuke all do it, or something like it, such as their thoughts aloud. A lot of amateur scripts use VO as a crutch and fail; Bull Durham is a good example of how to do it well.

4. Authenticity:
a. Max Patkin.
b. The audience can’t help but feel there is authenticity to this story.

5. Writing tips:
a. In the same way that major characters and major locations can (should!) be introduced with a quick description that creates a visual image in the READERS mind, ditto for relationships. For example, when Milly first joins Annie, the description says, “The younger woman looks up to Annie for wisdom and insight.” That quick statement clearly identifies the relationship and is a great help to the reader.
TELL A STORY IN YOUR SCRIPT.

6. The intro scene for each major character clearly establishes either their character or their objective/struggle or both:
- Annie's opening establishes a complex, unique and interesting character.
- Nuke's opening, screwing Milly, describes his character. His first pitch describes his objective.
- Crash’s opening shows that he loves the game, even to put up with indignity, but he has no talent.

7. The firing of Bobby foreshadows the much later firing of Crash. In the script (as opposed to the film) the scene is written differently and perhaps more strongly. Bobby gets fired just as his baby is taking his first step. That would be a good example of preparation by contrast.

8. Supporting characters:
a. The scriptshark grid says that supporting characters should be unique and add value to the story. Milly, Jimmy, Skip, Larry, Jose (cursed glove) all add value to the story.

9. Central Conflict and Subplots:
a. The central conflict? Will Crash and Annie get together?
b. Subplot: Milly’s search for love culminating in Jimmy.
c. Subplot: Crash’s quest for the minor league record.
d. Subplot: The Bulls season.
e. Subplot: Annie and Nuke.
f. Subplot: Nuke’s career.

10. The garters as a symbol. Nuke resists wearing them but starts winning when he does. The intersection between male and female? It’s a prime theme of the film.

11. Act 2 ends when:
a. Nuke’s winning streak ends.
b. Crash gets thrown from the game.
c. Milly gets married to Jimmy.
d. Nukes Dad visits.
e. Nuke gets called to the show.
In other words, multiple subplots reach their climax simultaneously. THIS IS A GREAT TECHNIQUE to create a great plotpoint 2 or climax: instead of having one big climax, you can have multiples.

Principle: start with crises (transition points? points of character instability?) develop them in act 2, then bring them to a crisis and then complete them. In "The Art of Dramatic Writing," Lajos Egri writes about the point of attack, the point in the extended story where the film story beings. This should be a point of crises. For example, The Doll's House begins when Nora gets the letter. Example: The Matrix begins not when Morpheus is born but when Morpheus AND Agent Smith find Neo. Example: Little Miss Sunshine begins not when the Nine Steps are conceived but when they are in crisis AND Frank attempts suicide AND the marriage is teetering AND Grandpa is snorting heroin, etc. Bull Durham starts with crises: Nuke joins the club, Crash is shanghaied to help Nuke, Crash meets Annie, Milly's life is unstable. These substories are introduced in act 1, developed in act 2 and come to a climax near or in act 3.

11. There are some great, subtle scenes that reveal character:
a. Crash knows that the rose goes in front.
b. Bobby begs for Jose to tap his bat with the chicken bone cross. Crash just takes it.
c. Crash knows how to unhook a garter; Nuke is clueless.
These are all subtle VISUAL scenes. The subtext is visual, not in the dialog.

The Fugitive vs. Minority Report

Funnily enough, these two films have a lot in common:

1. Both have a sympathetic protagonist who's been wrongly accused of a murder he didn't commit.

2. Both stories spend the bulk of their time following the protagonist as he tries to prove his innocence.

3. Both stories go out of their way to make their protagonists UNUSUALLY sympathetic. In The Fugitive, Kimble risks his life to save the wounded guard in the bus AND risks his freedom by helping the kid with the crushed chest. In Minority Report, Anderton is one of the most sympathetic protags ever created due to the kidnapping of his son.

4. Both protags are pursued by an apparent antagonist who is highly competent. In the Fugitive, Gerard's competence is shown several times: he knows which judge will approve his warrant, he's a strong leader leading a strong team, he determines that Kimble is in Chicago and not St. Louis. In Minority Report, Witwer finds the drugs in Anderton's apt., realizes that Agatha is in the murder room and is coming to get her, finds Rufus, etc.

5. Both protags are opposed by a REAL antagonist who poses as a close friend but betrays them.

6. Both protags get in trouble because they pursue a secret, the implications of which are far greater than they knew.

7. Both films use timelocks as story devices. In The Fugitive, timelocks include: Kimble escaping from the bus before the train hits and printing the list of amputees before he's discovered. In Minority Report, timelocks include: the opening sequence (i.e., stopping the husband from scissor murdering his wife), having to wait 12 hours for his eyes to heal and the deadline for killing Leo Crowe.

8. Both films have weak third acts and weak climaxes. In the Fugitive, the tainted drug twist was way too complicated, the connection to betrayer Dr. Nichols was too tenuous and the actual climax was run of the mill, although redeemed slightly by Gerard's completion of his character arc, revealed by his removing the handcuffs from Kimble. Minority Report was equally disappointing with the "Anne Lively trying to get her pre-cog daughter back" subplot failing to impress.

9. Both films user parallel plotlines, one for the protag and one for the antag. Note that the existence of a strong antagonist does not necessarily presume parallel plotlines; Kramer vs Kramer, Butch Cassidy and Chinatown all have strong antagonists but single plotlines.

10. Both have some great action sequences. The Fugitive has the train wreck and Peter Pan from the dam. Minority Report has several but the best is Anderton and Agatha's pre-cogging their way through the mall.

11. Both films are primarily chases with the film level chase broken into sequence-level subchases.

Wuts a Watson?

Watson (def:): an archetypal story character who functions as a device for natural exposition.

Examples:

In "The Matrix," Neo is a Watson. His ignorance allows Morpheus to explain the history of the Matrix to the audience w/out appearing forced.

In "Minority Report," in the opening sequence, Danny Witwer is a Watson, allowing Chief Anderton to explain the process of pre-crime.

A Watson can be a friend (The Matrix) or an enemy (Minority Report).

Moral: If you need to do some serious exposition and naturally want it to seem natural, think about using a Watson.