0
Usenet Posted 20 years ago
Screenwriting
Now it isn't personal
I'm watching the old Korda version of "The Four Feathers" a great movie. A great spectacle, great performances.
For those of you who aren't familiar with it (and shame on you) it's the story of the sensitive young son of a British military family during the eighteen hundreds who, on the evening before his regiment is called up to go into battle in Egypt, resigns his commission. And his three friends in the service and his fiancee all give him white feathers the mark of the coward.
And even though he has all of these other reasons for having done it, ultimately he realizes that it's true and he goes through this prolonged odyssey in Egypt, rescues his various friends from danger, proves his courage, and makes everybody take back their feathers.
But underlying this whole story is the larger idea of duty. There's a scene between the hero and his fiancee after he's resigned his commission where he's trying to explain why he did it and she tells him, "Yes we've talked about all the things we might do if we weren't bound by duty but we are. We're part of a tradition that requires us to do certain things whether we like them or not."
And that notion of duty and honor and the requirements that that places on people (and that it was the failure to acknowledge that responsibility as much as anything that really marked the hero as a coward) runs through the entire movie.
And then we get to the recent remake, which I couldn't bring myself to see. Why? Because I saw the coming attractions and the coming attractions made it very clear. It wasn't for duty, or for honor, or to redeem the accusations of cowardice that he was going off to Egypt.
Oh, no. It was to "save his friends."
Now, it's true that, in the original, he does save his friends. But saving his friends isn't what the story is about. That's incidental.
The original is a story about honor and duty and how the requirments that those things place on us make us into greater people than we otherwise would be that theme is explored, in one way or another, in all of the various stories of the friends and the girl back home.
"Saving my friends" is a personal thing. It's a private matter. It's not a bad thing to do, but it resonates to no larger issue.
It also reminds me of Casablanca and it's interesting that the movie that we think of as one of the great love stories of all time is really a story about a man who has to decide what, after all, is more important than being with the woman he loves namely, the cause of fighting for freedom.
That is, the personal story the love story, gives was to the larger issues not what do we want, what do we need, but what does the world need, what does the world need of us.
Abraham loves his son, Isaac but God calls upon him to sacrifice his son in the desert, and he is obedient to the instruction of God because in the order of things, we must be willing to give up what we love personally for the sake of the greater good which, after all, is embodied in the word of God.
So why is it that so many stories have gone "personal" and it seems as if we've forgotten the power of those stories of personal sacrifice in favor of the greater good.
It's not like they don't work.
NMS
For those of you who aren't familiar with it (and shame on you) it's the story of the sensitive young son of a British military family during the eighteen hundreds who, on the evening before his regiment is called up to go into battle in Egypt, resigns his commission. And his three friends in the service and his fiancee all give him white feathers the mark of the coward.
And even though he has all of these other reasons for having done it, ultimately he realizes that it's true and he goes through this prolonged odyssey in Egypt, rescues his various friends from danger, proves his courage, and makes everybody take back their feathers.
But underlying this whole story is the larger idea of duty. There's a scene between the hero and his fiancee after he's resigned his commission where he's trying to explain why he did it and she tells him, "Yes we've talked about all the things we might do if we weren't bound by duty but we are. We're part of a tradition that requires us to do certain things whether we like them or not."
And that notion of duty and honor and the requirements that that places on people (and that it was the failure to acknowledge that responsibility as much as anything that really marked the hero as a coward) runs through the entire movie.
And then we get to the recent remake, which I couldn't bring myself to see. Why? Because I saw the coming attractions and the coming attractions made it very clear. It wasn't for duty, or for honor, or to redeem the accusations of cowardice that he was going off to Egypt.
Oh, no. It was to "save his friends."
Now, it's true that, in the original, he does save his friends. But saving his friends isn't what the story is about. That's incidental.
The original is a story about honor and duty and how the requirments that those things place on us make us into greater people than we otherwise would be that theme is explored, in one way or another, in all of the various stories of the friends and the girl back home.
"Saving my friends" is a personal thing. It's a private matter. It's not a bad thing to do, but it resonates to no larger issue.
It also reminds me of Casablanca and it's interesting that the movie that we think of as one of the great love stories of all time is really a story about a man who has to decide what, after all, is more important than being with the woman he loves namely, the cause of fighting for freedom.
That is, the personal story the love story, gives was to the larger issues not what do we want, what do we need, but what does the world need, what does the world need of us.
Abraham loves his son, Isaac but God calls upon him to sacrifice his son in the desert, and he is obedient to the instruction of God because in the order of things, we must be willing to give up what we love personally for the sake of the greater good which, after all, is embodied in the word of God.
So why is it that so many stories have gone "personal" and it seems as if we've forgotten the power of those stories of personal sacrifice in favor of the greater good.
It's not like they don't work.
NMS
Top answer
G. Wells' The Man Who Could Work Miracles, to star Richard Pryor as a man who gains godlike powers. As I recall, it played out essentially like Bruce Almighty, with him spending the first part of the story doing wacky things, then realizing what good he could do for the world and getting serious.
- G.
- Wells' The Man Who Could Work Miracles, to star Richard Pryor as a man who gains godlike powers.
- As I recall, it played out essentially like Bruce Almighty, with him spending the first part of the story doing wacky things, then realizing what good he could do for the world and getting serious.
- But at the end, he had figured out pretty much all the world's problems, helping all mankind forever, but for some reason it meant the death of his son.
- So he wished it all undone, and his powers went away, and the world was restored to its pre-movie condition.
Get the Weekly English Kit 📬
New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.
31 Answers
0
I remember years ago reading a script for what was going to be Columbia's big-budget comedy science fiction spectacular, a version of H.G. Wells' The Man Who Could Work Miracles, to star Richard Pryor as a man who gains godlike powers. As I recall, it played out essentially like Bruce Almighty, with him spending the first part of the story doing wacky things, then realizing what good he could do f
00
[nq:1]I'm watching the old Korda version of "The Four Feathers" a great movie. A great spectacle, great performances. For ... power of those stories of personal sacrifice in favor of the greater good. It's not like they don't work. NMS[/nq]
It's because we don't have to sacrifice personally in the West. The need to sacrifice is not presented to us much in our daily lives.
At least, to
It's because we don't have to sacrifice personally in the West. The need to sacrifice is not presented to us much in our daily lives.
At least, to
00
[nq:1]So why is it that so many stories have gone "personal" and it seems as if we've forgotten the power of those stories of personal sacrifice in favor of the greater good.[/nq]
I see two forces at work. In the micro sense, the way screenwriters approach their craft. The paradigm is "Your hero has a goal" the emphasis is on one person's desires. Though of course the hero's goal could be some
I see two forces at work. In the micro sense, the way screenwriters approach their craft. The paradigm is "Your hero has a goal" the emphasis is on one person's desires. Though of course the hero's goal could be some
00
It's interesting to note the difference between American stage plays and those from England, Ireland, and other European countries. As many people have noted (and decried) for years, American plays tend to be about one person's particular problems way too many family dramas, secrets from the past, coming out of the closet, finding love. European plays tend to be about problems facing society as a
00
[nq:1]I'm watching the old Korda version of "The Four Feathers" a great movie. A great spectacle, great performances.[/nq]
Full agreement. Do British colour films from that era look great, or what?
( synopsis deleted; "for King and country and all that, my good fellow" )
[nq:1]And then we get to the recent remake, which I couldn't bring myself to see. Why? Because I saw the ... re
Full agreement. Do British colour films from that era look great, or what?
( synopsis deleted; "for King and country and all that, my good fellow" )
[nq:1]And then we get to the recent remake, which I couldn't bring myself to see. Why? Because I saw the ... re
00
[nq:1]I sacrifice every day, giving advice to hundreds of writers on my group,[/nq]
Care to elaborate on this?
What would Borat do?
Care to elaborate on this?
What would Borat do?
00
[nq:1]I'm watching the old Korda version of "The Four Feathers" a great movie. A great spectacle, great performances. For ... after all, is more important than being with the woman he loves namely, the cause of fighting for freedom.[/nq]
I'm surprised you don't see Kong in those terms. Isn't it possible to view him as an epic hero?
I'm surprised you don't see Kong in those terms. Isn't it possible to view him as an epic hero?
00
[nq:1]It's interesting to note the difference between American stage plays and those from England, Ireland, and other European countries. As ... past, coming out of the closet, finding love. European plays tend to be about problems facing society as a whole.[/nq]
As kind of a side-issue, I find that kids in American movies are usually portrayed as glib, fast-talking, smart-***, mini-grownups,
As kind of a side-issue, I find that kids in American movies are usually portrayed as glib, fast-talking, smart-***, mini-grownups,
00
Interesting post - and shame on me for not having seen it. It's a sad characteristic of many or most remakes that the remakers 'don't get it'. They may use essentially the same script, but re-interpret the premise, which results is a shift in the emphasis of direction. Using the same script doesn't necessarily result in the same story - if the actors are given a different purpose to the behavious,
00
[nq:1]I sacrifice every day, giving advice to hundreds of writers on my group, to writers with no money in Russia, coping with the mental illness (not mine) that destroyed my family, and helping recently someone who is on the ground fighting in Afghanistan.[/nq]
ROTFLMAO! It's extraordinary how use of the word 'sacrifice' in one context - NMS's - can be so different from its meaning in another
ROTFLMAO! It's extraordinary how use of the word 'sacrifice' in one context - NMS's - can be so different from its meaning in another
0
Related Questions