TODAY'S NUGGET: The 25th Hour (2002) - Writing a Good Character

[Quick Summary:  On the last day before a 7 year federal incarceration, drug dealer Monty Brogan takes two childhood friends to one last goodbye party.]

The wonder of the rich screenplay is that it contains all of this material about Monty, and yet informs us so fully about the others. There could be a separate movie about Jacob, a pudgy and phlegmatic high school English teacher who is fascinated by a tattoo on the bare midriff of one of his students, and by the girl Mary (Anna Paquin) who wears it. But any move in that direction would be wrong, and he knows it. - Rogert Ebert

This quote reminds me that a good script = good characters.

How to write a good character?  I get less and less articulate as I learn more.

I have noticed is that a good character is one that the audience can easily identify with or recognize on some level, i.e., "Oh, I know who that person is." 

In the scene below, it is the day before Monty is about to go to federal prison.  He wants to know if the most important person in his life has ratted him out.

The audience recognizes why Monty's priorities are so clear, even if we have not been in his shoes. 

ex. "INT. BROGAN'S BAR

Monty returns to the table, sits, drinks some Guinness..

MONTY: Let me ask you a question.

MR. BROGAN: Okay.

MONTY: What do you think of Naturelle?

MR. BROGAN: She's a good girl. Your mother would have liked her.

MONTY: Do you trust her?

MR. BROGAN: Do I trust her? Why do I have to trust her?

MONTY: Do you think I can trust her?

MR. BROGAN: Where you going with this?

MONTY: I've been hearing weird things. (beat) Some people are saying she dimed me out.

MR. BROGAN (incredulous): Why would she do that?

MONTY: I don't know. Maybe the Feds got to her somehow. Blackmailed her.

MR. BROGAN:The girl loves you, Monty. I can't believe she would betray you.

MONTY: Everything's gotten so strange, Dad. I wake up some mornings and it takes me a minute to remember who I am, you know? Where I'm going.

Mr. Brogan looks down at his plate and nods.

MONTY (CONT'D): Most of the people I'm with, I look at them and I think, these are my friends? (beat) The only ones I trust these days are you and the guys I grew up with -- Frank, Jake.

MR. BROGAN: I miss those boys.

MONTY: And Naturelle...Jesus. I can't get it out of my head.

MR. BROGAN: It doesn't really matter now, does it?

Monty stares at his father, blue eyes unblinking.

MONTY: It matters to me."

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: For me, "getting character on the page" has started to become more "getting a feeling of recognition on the page."

The 25th Hour (2002)(4/30/01 draft)
by David Benioff
Based on his novel