What It's
Really All About - Part Two
"If there were only one
truth, you couldn't paint a hundred canvases on the same theme." - Pablo
Picasso
How about that? I share something in common
with Pablo Picasso! Who'd have thunk it?
If you read my previous column on the Master
Theme, you've already gathered that I, too am an advocate of theme, not as it
applies to painting, but as it applies to story telling.
Every story has a theme at it's core.
Sometimes, the theme is simple to identify, such as "love" in a
romantic comedy, or "survival" in a disaster film. Other times, in a
story of more complexity, it can be tricky to nail down. But, it's there, and
everything relies on it.
If a story is not relevant, in some way, to
the human condition, then there is no story. It's that simple.
However, the Master Theme, once identified,
is only the first piece in the theme puzzle. It's fine, to know what the
overall theme of our story is, but we now must determine what we're going to do
with that information.
That's where the Active Theme comes in. This
gets us down to the nitty-gritty of telling our story, because we now must take
a position, and reflect that position in the story we want to tell.
That is the subject of the following excerpt
from my book, "The Blue Collar Screenwriter and The Elements of
Screenplay." It is the second of three excerpts dealing with the
exploration and application of theme. Next time, we'll get into the
"Characters Take on the Theme," to demonstrate how our Active Theme
is reflected by the characters in our story.
The Active Theme
Once you've
determined your Master Theme, the human value that will be explored, you now
must decide what your story will say
about that value.
What is your story's
position on "love," for instance? Love is blind? Love conquers all?
Love makes the world go 'round?
Simple stuff, but it
can go much deeper. There is physical love, dysfunctional love, obsessive love,
family love, destructive love, love of self, love of home, love of country, love
of ideals, and on and on. So many ways to go. And, any of those variations can
provide your Active Theme.
Let's take a common
genre that does double-duty as a Master Theme: War.
Now, you might not
consider War to be a value, since it also doubles as a genre, but there is a
human value inherent to it, and that is conflict. Since the act of war is the
highest level of human conflict, it is rife with thematic possibilities.
Within the War theme
can be many common Active Themes. As we've seen in the examples of "Gone
With The Wind" and "Saving Private Ryan," Active Themes within
the Master Theme of War can be as varied as love and sacrifice.
Let's look at some
classic war films, and the thematic choices made by the writers and filmmakers.
Most war movies made
in the 40's and 50's were basically propaganda films. John Wayne, Audie Murphy
and stars of that ilk were always the "good guys" while the enemy, be
they Nazis, Japanese or whoever were not only "bad guys," but they
were portrayed as less than human. Evil for evils sake. Beyond redemption.
Unfortunately, this level of blatant bias reflected the morals and politics of
the time.
Our leads, the
"good guys," were always heroic, righteous and victorious in a just
cause. The message they sent was that War is noble. War brings honor.
War makes heroes of
men.
Now, enter the 70's,
when attitudes began to change, thanks in large part to that nasty Vietnam
conflict. Movies like "Apocalypse Now," "Platoon," and
later "Full Metal Jacket" delivered just the opposite message of the
earlier rah-rah war stories. They showed us the "dirty" side of war,
and what it does to those immersed in the conflict; how it hardens them and
brings out the worst in human nature. They told us that...
War makes monsters of
men.
Same Master Theme,
but completely different Active Themes.
Here's yet another
take. "Catch 22" and "MASH" told us that war is ironic,
even laughable; worthy of ridicule. Insanity forced upon the average man
against his will. In other words...
War is absurd.
Some genres have
obvious Master Themes, and a good example is Romantic Comedy. In this genre,
"love" is always the Master Theme, otherwise, it isn't a romantic
comedy. It isn't a romantic anything. The Active Theme, however, is more
flexible.
In "The Graduate,"
the story faithfully hit all of the required Rom Com beats: Boy meets girl, boy
loses girl, boy gets girl back. The ending, however, was a far cry from the
warm, fuzzy, "happily-ever-after" endings we had grown used to in the
earlier films of the genre, from the 40's and 50's.
The ending of
"The Graduate," in fact the entire film, was bittersweet; a struggle,
emotionally, physically and morally for our leads. The ending didn't tell us
that Ben and Elaine would live happily ever after in wedded bliss. It told us
they were taking a huge chance, throwing caution to the wind. Don't believe it?
Watch the film and look at the uncertainty creep over their faces as they ride
away on that bus.
Love is risky.
It was risky
throughout the entire story, and it was still risky at the end.
Now, take a look at
"There's Something About Mary." Everyone loved Mary in some warped,
dysfunctional way. Not your mother's romantic comedy. The Active Theme, here,
was...
Love is obsessive.
But, the Master Theme
is still love.
"Slasher"
films also embrace simple, basic Master Themes. In a slasher film, it's either
about survival or revenge, depending on who we're rooting for; the killer or
his victims. Therefore, the Active Theme isn't likely to vary much in this
genre, either.
Perhaps a character
learns that only by enlisting the help of others can she defeat a crazed
killer, telling us that...
Survival is achieved
through unity.
Another approach
might have our hero fighting back to stay alive, concluding that...
Survival is achieved
through conflict.
The messages remain
pretty simplistic and familiar in slasher films, but there is always a message.
Hollywood studio
pioneer Samuel Goldwyn once quipped:
"If you want to
send a message, call Western Union."
I suppose, today, it
would be "send a tweet." With all due respect to Mr. Goldwyn, every
story has a message, whether we intend it to, or not. It's part of the package.
Even Jerry Seinfeld's "show about nothing" was always about
something. The Active Theme, what your story has to say about your Master
Theme, is your message.
There is usually more
than one Active Theme being played out, within a story. "Rocky,"
while primarily a story of redemption, also contained a Love theme in the
subplot between Rocky and Adrian."The Wrestler" explored the same two
themes, Redemption and Love, except as a tragedy. In both films, our central
protagonist was attempting to overcome long odds to make a comeback, and in
both films, love was a sub-theme. In "Rocky," our hero succeeded in
achieving redemption and winning love. In "The Wrestler," Randy
"The Ram" failed at both.
Believe it or not,
the same two themes were explored in the classic 40's noir film
"Casablanca." In this case, Love was the dominant theme, while
Redemption the sub-theme. In "Casablanca," Rick won redemption, but
lost at love. Once you start playing with those combinations, you unlock a
Rubik's Cube of possibilities.
***
A professional screenwriter for more than thirty years, Robert Gosnell has produced credits in feature films, network television, syndicated television, basic cable and pay cable, and is a member of the Writers Guild of America, West and the Writers Guild of Canada.
Robert began his career writing situation comedy as a staff writer for the ABC series Baby Makes Five. As a freelance writer, he wrote episodes for Too Close for Comfort and the TBS comedies Safe at Home and Rocky Road. In cable, he has scripted numerous projects for the Disney Channel, including Just Perfect, a Disney Channel movie featuring Jennie Garth.
In 1998, he wrote the Showtime original movie, Escape from Wildcat Canyon, which starred Dennis Weaver and won the national "Parents Choice Award." Robert's feature credits include the Chuck Norris/Louis Gosset Jr. film Firewalker, an uncredited rewrite on the motion picture Number One With A Bullet starring Robert Carradine and Billy Dee Williams, and the sale of his original screenplay Kick And Kick Back to Cannon Films. Robert was also selected as a judge for the 1990 Cable Ace awards, in the Comedy Special category.
In 1990, Robert left Hollywood for Denver, where he became active in the local independent film community. His screenplay Tiger Street was produced by the Pagoda Group of Denver, and premiered on Showtime Extreme in August of 2003. In 1999, Denver’s Inferno Films produced the action film Dragon and the Hawk from his script. In 2001, Robert co-wrote the screenplay for the independent feature Siren for Las Vegas company Stage Left Productions. His feature script Juncture was produced by Front Range Films in March of 2006.
Robert is a principal member of the Denver production company "Conspiracy Films." He is frequently an invited speaker for local writers organizations, served on the faculty of the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Conference in 2002, and in 2007 was chosen to participate as a panelist for the Aspen Film Festival Short Screenplay Contest. Robert regularly presents his screenwriting class "The Elements of Screenplay," along with advanced classes and workshops, in the Denver area.
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