Another in our bi-weekly series in which we analyze movies currently in release. Why? To quote the writing mantra I coined over 5 years ago: Watch movies. Read scripts. Write pages. You will note which one comes first. Here are my reflections from that post about the importance of watching movies:
To be a good screenwriter, you need to have a broad exposure to the world of film. Every movie you see is a potential reference point for your writing, everything from story concepts you generate to characters you develop to scenes you construct. Moreover people who work in the movie business constantly reference existing movies when discussing stories you write; it’s a shorthand way of getting across what they mean or envision.
But most importantly, you need to watch movies in order to ‘get’ how movie stories work. If you immerse yourself in the world of film, it’s like a Gestalt experience where you begin to grasp intuitively scene composition, story structure, character functions, dialogue and subtext, transitions and pacing, and so on.
Let me add this: It’s important to see movies as they get released so that you stay on top of the business. Decisions get made in Hollywood in large part depending upon how movies perform, so watching movies as they come out puts you in the same head space as reps, producers, execs, and buyers.
This week’s movie: The Big Short which won the 2016 Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay by Charles Randolph and Adam McKay, based on the book by Michael Lewis. You may download the script here.
Our schedule for discussion this week:
Monday: General Comments
Tuesday: Plot
Wednesday: Characters
Thursday: Themes
Friday: Dialogue
Saturday: Takeaways
For those of you who have not seen the movie, do not click MORE as we will be trafficking in major spoilers. If you have seen The Big Short, I invite you to join me in breaking down and analyzing the movie.
I’ve already suggested that a central theme of the story is the Biblical verse: “The love of money is the root of all evil.” In thinking about it further, something struck me: Do we ever see any actual money in The Big Short? I can’t remember a single dollar bill showing up on screen. Even if there are, there is hardly any tangible presence of what is at the center of every scene in the movie: Money.
Instead there are numbers. Percentages. Schemes. I don’t know if this was a conscious choice by McKay or not, but this tact makes the entire enterprise that much more heinous, and opens a window into a question which kept ringing in my head as I watched the movie: How could these people commit such blatant acts of greed against innocent human beings? Where is the empathy?
Part of the answer may lie in the difference between cash and numbers. Cash is tangible. In any transaction, you can literally see it transferred from one set of hands to another. There is a strong visual reference point that makes it a real experience.
However if you are just dealing with numbers, what is that, really? It’s just numbers. These digits slip from here to there. Poof!
So maybe that’s it. Maybe Wall Street greed-heads are able to hide behind the veneer of numbers and never once make a connection of what those numbers translate into in terms of actual human lives.
If so, it’s cognitive dissonance at a supreme level.
The movie has one tiny subplot which visualizes the impact of the economic disaster of 2008. It starts here in the script:
EXT. FRONT PORCH – YET ANOTHER RANCH HOUSE
Danny peers in a front window. This time, the door OPENS. A sleepy MAN WITH A TATTOOED NECK rubs his eyes.
DANNY: Oh. Hello. I’m surveying mortgage owners who are over 90 days delinquent. I’m looking for a… Harvey Humpsey?
TATTOOED NECK: You want my landlord’s dog?
DANNY: Your landlord filled out his mortgage using his dog’s name?
TATTOOED NECK: I guess so. Hold up, has that asshole not been paying his mortgage? Cause I’m paying my rent.
DANNY: He is 90 days late on his payments, yes.
TATTOOED NECK: Seriously, am I going to have to leave?There’s fear in his eyes, the last thing Danny expected. A CHILD now appears between the big man’s legs.
TATTOOED NECK: Cause my kid just got settled in the school.
DANNY: Um. I don’t know. You should talk to your landlord. Sorry. Have a good day!The man stays at the door as Danny hurries away.
This family has been dutifully paying rent each month to a landlord who has stopped his mortgage payments. In the Denouement, we see that family again. Here from the script:
The Man with the Tattooed Head comes out of the store and hurries to his CAR, carrying food. When he gets in, we see his child, wife and their stuff. They now live in the car.
Multiply the pain on their faces by tens of thousands and we get a hint of what the “love of money” brought to scores of American families.
What other themes did you see at work in The Big Short? Please head to comments to share your thoughts.