[Quick Summary: In post-WWII, Sammy Fableman discovers filmmaking and a family secret.]
The screenplay form is a weird kind of writing,* which makes them hard to judge.
So when I read Oscar nominated scripts, I'm mostly looking for CRAFT. What is cutting edge, unusual, daring? Are the things I've never seen done before?
This brings me to today's script by Spielberg and Kushner. It is very well written, deeply felt...but is also the most traditional in this category.**
However, I did like the very Spielberg-ian method of conveying internal emotions by the use of external visuals.
In the scene below:
- This is Sammy's first movie, Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth.
- The sequence of visuals: train on screen --> Sammy's fright --> later in the car, Sammy still mute.
- Notice Sammy hasn't said a word...it is all in his reactions to what he's seen.
- Also note the economy of writing: Each sentence is a shot, and there is much more movement between Sammy and his environment than you think.
ON SCREEN
...The Engineer in the second train tries to slow down.
ENGINEER (ON SCREEN)(to his BRAKEMAN): Hang on!
ROBBER 2 (ON SCREEN): Angel! ANGEL!!!
But it's too late. the train hits the car and flips it over!
IN THE THEATER
Sammy's whole body goes rigid, pushing back into his seat, staring in shock at the catastrophe on the screen.
Cut between the crash as the moving train ploughs into the stalled train and Sammy's reactions, frozen stills of his sheer, visceral terror (cf 2001's star gate sequence). For Sammy this is real, not a movie. His eyes are huge, taking in danger on the screen: lions and tigers are escaping from the demolished train!
Above and behind him, the projector's beam's colors cross, dance in the thick, cigarette-smoke-filled air. The beam's colors blend and merge into...
INT/EXT - THE FABLEMAN CAR DRIVING THROUGH HADDON HEIGHTS, NEW JERSEY
...the colors of Christmas lights festooning every house on the street. Sammy's in the car's front seat between his parents, visibly stricken with fear.
MITZI: What was your favorite part?
Sammy's too scared to talk.
MITZI (CONT'D): Sammy! What do you want for Hanukkah?
Sammy doesn't answer. Mitzi looks at Burt.
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: On a second read, I am impressed how the writing is BOTH emotional and efficient.
It sounds too simple, but I think one of the keys is the choice of what the visual is and what comes before and after it.
That is your job as a writer: to find the RIGHT visual and sequence.
The Fablemans (2022)
by Steven Spielberg & Tony Kushner
* The purpose of a screenplay is to produce a film. This is similar to the purpose of a roast turkey recipe, which is to produce a roasted turkey. We judge by how the turkey tastes, not by how well the recipe is written.
**Perhaps the reason is, as a film critic that I admire said, this was a more factual story (vs. E.T., which was more allegorical), thus is essentially a home movie.
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