MONDAY'S SCRIPT TIP:
THEME & ENTERTAINMENT
Theme is the point of the story - the
reason why telling this story is important. So without it, your
spec has no purpose. A reader may not be able to point to "no
theme" as the reason why the script seems to be bland, but that
will probably be the reason...
But any story with an emotional decision for the protagonist
also has a theme. It's there somewhere, even if you don't
consciously know it.
What is the emotional decision your protagonist must make?
WHAT the protagonist decides will show you your theme.
The reason why RUSH HOUR 2 seemed like an Abbott & Costello
movie - entertaining, but empty calories - is because it didn't
have a theme, a point, anything that gives the story weight.
Though most of the scenes were entertaining, they didn't seem to
add up to anything... leaving no memories even as the out-takes
were playing at the end. Even though RUSH HOUR 2 is just summer
entertainment, it should still have strong powerful scenes that
remain in our memory days - even years - later. That will insure
the film has a long life on video, DVD, video-on-demand, holovid,
direct-plug-movies, and whatever other movie delivery systems
they come up with in the future. The way to make entertainment
memorable is to give each scene a strong emotional impact tied to
theme. Even if you were to give each scene a strong emotional
core, if there isn't a connection between the scenes - if they
aren't part of an overall point or single emotional issue you are
exploring - you're are giving the audience a bunch of scattered,
unrelated information. Details that don't add up to anything.
Did RUSH HOUR 3 correct this? Nope - it managed to have evn less of a point and
purpose than RUSH HOUR 2... and only a couple of good Jackie Chan fight
scenes to make up for it.
RUSH HOUR 2 had two chances to establish a theme. One is Lee
(Jackie Chan) avenging his father's murder. Carter (Chris
Tucker)'s father was also a cop who was killed in the line of
duty. They might have explored father/son relationships and
vengeance. Scenes and supporting characters could have been
created to explore this. The story could have been centered
around fathers and sons... or sons who have lost their fathers
through violence... or sons who are trying to live up to their
father's high standards for them. Every character may have been
dealing with the ghost of their father in a different (emotional)
way. Because father/son issues are important to men, even a silly
summer action film would have emotional resonance. The audience
would laugh at the jokes, be amazed at the stunts, and think
about their father issues days later.
But a better possible theme pops up later in the script: The
villain says that good partners are hard to find - you just can't
trust them. Here's the fertile ground for theme in a buddy cop
movie! Plus, we already have two sets of partners - Carter & Lee
and Reign & Ricky Tan. Imagine how strong each scene might have
been if
each explored trust between partners? If the action scenes were
designed so that one partner had to trust the other? If the arc
for each of our protagonists was to learn to be completely honest
with the other? Hey - there were hints of this in the beginning
with Lee lying to Carter about going undercover in the night club
and massage parlor!
But the TRUST between the two was never the
focus of the story. It was never built scene-after-scene then
finally put to a test. We never had a scene where Lee must put
his trust entirely in Carter, nor a scene where Carter must take
himself out of the decision making process and trust Lee. Imagine
the reversal when Ricky Tan reveals that Reign isn't his partner,
Chinese bomshell (and bomb thrower) Ziyi Zhang is!
Or the big dramatic scene where Lee asks Roselyn Sanchez which
side she's on -
who is she REALLY partnered with? Now we're creating big
emotional scenes that an audience will remember - plus adding an
emotional component to all of those great action scenes where
Chan and Tucker must trust each other and work together in order
to avoid getting the crap beat out of them. This would have made
RUSH HOUR 2 not only an entertaining movie, but an entertaining
movie that could stand the test of time.
In THE MATRIX Morpheus believes that Neo is the Chosen One,
but Neo doesn't believe in destiny at all... let alone believing
that he's here to save the world. Neo must wrestle with his
emotions and decide that he IS the Chosen One before he is
powerful enough to take on The Matrix and win. Act Two of THE
MATRIX is all about that emotional conflict (the scene with the
Oracle, etc). Once Neo believes in himself, he has the power. So,
the theme is: you have to believe in yourself - even if
everything around you is a lie.
Without that theme, THE MATRIX would just be about incidents. The
theme is what creates the bond between audience and story. It s
what the audience remembers long after the tail credits have
rolled and the house lights have gone up...
Your theme the most important element of your screenplay. It's
what the audience takes with them from the theater after the
funny out takes have been shown and the audience has left the
theater. What is the emotional decision your protagonist must
make in order to resolve the plot problem? That's where you'll
find the theme.
MY BLOG!
SCRIPT SECRETS STORE - time to monkey around!
Do you wish they had made THE INFORMANT! in 3D?
Wonder what food product wasn't used in CHANCE OF MEATBALLS that will end up the title of the sequel?
Did you think LOVE HAPPENS should have been titled...
Be heard:
Movie Discussion!
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