[Quick Summary: When his family leave for Paris without him, seven year old Kevin defends his home against robbers and realizes that Christmas is lonely by oneself.]
MY TWO THOUGHTS:
1) UNIFIED vs. EPISODIC. I never quite realized how many simultaneous stories there are in this film:
- Kevin overcoming fears of being home, alone
- Kevin vs. Mr. Murphy
- Kevin vs. robbers
- Kevin's mom trying to get home
- Robbers in the neighborhood
All these stories revolve around one theme or linchpin: Kevin, his growing up, his need for connection and family.
I think that this is the reason that the stories are more unified (like spokes on the wheel around Kevin) than episodic (series of unrelated stories).
2) EXPRESSING INTERNAL FEELINGS. I noticed this scene below because:
a) I keenly felt Kevin's internal feelings, yet....
b) There is no defined protagonist on the outside.
How is it done? I think it's the cuts that help the audience compare and contrast the visible vs. the implied.
ex. "EXT. STREET - LATER - NIGHT
Kevin's walking home. It's dark. The street lights are on. Kevin is walking slowly. He's looking at the houses. [We see slow walking. This seems to imply Kevin is thinking, thoughtful.]
HIS POV - MOVING - NIGHT
A house with lights around the door, lights burning in big windows. People inside celebrating. Kids running around, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. It seems as if their excitement and joy was made int he extreme to emphasize Kevin's sorrow. [We unconsciously compare that there is one of Kevin vs. a group.]
CLOSE-UP KEVIN
Shuffling down the sidewalk, eyes on the house he's passing. He looks forward and stops suddenly. [Compare/contrast: Kevin is in the lonely dark. Family in the bright light.]
HIS POV
A young MAN and WOMAN, she carrying a baby, he loaded with gifts, walking from their car which is parked far down in a crowded driveway to the sidewalk of the house Kevin's watching. [Compare/contrast: Bonded family vs. solo Kevin. Imply loneliness.]
EXT. HOUSE - NIGHT
The young family continues up the walk to the house. Kevin stands at the foot of the walk, watching. CHURCH BELLS RING in the distance. [Compare/contrast: belonging vs. alone.]
CLOSE UP: KEVIN
Kevin's eyes are brimming with tears. As strong as he wants to be, it's too much for him. A tear falls. He wipes it away, only causing more to fall. [The previous scenes lead up to this moment. We see his sadness spill out.]
INT. HOUSE - NIGHT
Kevin's framed in the door of the holiday house and the young family passes off the baby and the gifts and takes off their coats. Great warmth and cheer. Christmas music is playing. Children are running wild, old men are laughing, grannies, are yakking. It's everything Kevin wants. He stands like a sobbing statue at the end of the walk, lit by a coach light, wiping tears from his cheeks with the back of his cold, bare hands. The door closes on him." [Because we see how he responds to external scenes, we are able experience his internal emotions of missing his own family.]
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I think I was clued in more by Kevin's response to what he's seeing rather than what he is actually seeing.
Home Alone (1990)(1/17/90 shooting draft, with revisions)
by John Hughes
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