TODAY'S NUGGET: American Buffalo (1996) - The Mamet Voice; Unusual Dialogue Format

[Quick Summary:  After Don, a junk shop owner with a shady side business, agrees to steal a valuable buffalo nickel with Teach, his protegee Bob brings bad news.]

Some Mamet plays translate to film, but this one does not for me.

I think it is still worth a read. Here are a few thoughts why:

1) The distinctive Mamet voice

- Like many Mamet original scripts,* this one follows a winding path.  It takes a little while before we know what the story is, but I like how it winds out and then back.

- The dialogue has a staccato tempo that meanders too, i.e., like real conversations.   

- It is more interested in the space between two people than plot (sorry, plot junkies).

2) The unusual use of parentheses in dialogue

This is the first time that I've seen the frequent use of parentheses like this.

There's no further instruction or description on what the parentheses mean, so I assume the dialogue is meant to be spoken in a low or soft voice.

Also, I noticed that as I saw more parentheses, they became a visual cue = "low voice" = automatically caused me to read between the lines a little more. 

In the scene below, Teach tries to persuade Don not to bring young Bob on board.  Notice how much is unspoken yet understood between the two old comrades.

ex.  "INT. JUNK SHOP - DAY
...Don crosses to his desk.

TEACH: It's hard to make up the rules about this stuff.

DON: (You'll be in there under lots of pressure.)

TEACH: (Not so much.)

DON: (Come on, a little, anyway.)

TEACH: (That's only natural.)

DON: (Yeah.)

TEACH: (It wouldn't be unnatural I wasn't tense. A guy who isn't tense, I don't want him  on my side.)

DON: (No.)

TEACH: (You know why?)

DON: (Yeah.)

TEACH: (Okay, then.) It's good to talk this stuff out.

DON: Yeah."

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I'm not sure that I'd recommend frequent use of parentheses, but it works here.  It's nice to see something that I had not seen before.

American Buffalo (1996)(shooting script w/revisions, dated May-June, 1995)
by David Mamet
Adaptation from his play

*By "original," I mean scripts based on his original work or his plays.  I do not mean adaptations that he has written for others.