TODAY'S NUGGET: Ride the High Country (1962) - Revealing Motive at p. 75 & Raising the Stakes

[Quick Summary: Bank security gunslinger who is escorting mine gold and a woman back to town fends off mutiny and abductors.]

TWO THOUGHTS:

1) WRITERS. Until this interview, I didn't know Peckinpah appreciated writers:

Writing was what opened doors for you, wasn’t it?

Yeah, but it was hell, because I hate writing. I suffer the tortures of the damned. I can’t sleep and it feels like I’m going to die any minute. Eventually, I lock myself away somewhere, out of reach of a gun, and get it on in one big push. I’d always been around writers and had friends who were writers, but I’d never realized what a lot of goddamn anguish is involved. But it was a way to break in. I paid my dues in this business.

2) RAISING STAKES. We know Judd is very determined to escort mined gold to the bank. He hires his former partner Gil who only agrees in order to steal the gold.

I was surprised that we don't know WHY Judd is so determined until around p. 75. 

I was also intrigued that this late reveal of his motive is what sets us in a different direction for the last 1/3, i.e., raises the stakes since it sets Gil off.

EXT. HIGH SIERRA - MOVING SHOT - DAY

...NEW ANGLE

Gil listens in silence.

JUDD: Then one night Paul Staniford picked me up. --He was Sheriff of Madera County then--there had been a fight and I was drunk --sicker than a damn dog. Well sir, he dried me out in jail, then we went out back and he proceeded to kick the bitter hell right out of me.

GIL: That took some doin'..

JUDD: Not much. You see - he was right and I was wrong. That makes a difference.

GIL: Who says so?

JUDD: Why nobody...That's something you just know --. (then) By the time I was able to walk again I found I'd learned a lesson --the value of self-respect.

GIL (dully): What's the worth on the open market?

JUDD:Nothing to some people - but a great deal to me. But I lost it--. These last years the only work I could get was in the places like Kate's back there...bartender, stick man, bouncer, what have you...Not much to brag on.

They ride in silence, then:

JUDD: Now I've got a back a little respect for myself. I hope to keep it...with the help of you..and that boy up ahead.

They ride on, neither one looking at the other, absorbed in his own thoughts. Finally:

JUDD: Pretty country, Gil--

GIL (after a moment): Yeah. (then:) Partner, you know what's on a poor man's back when he dies? (as Judd looks at him) The clothes of pride--. And they're not a bit warmer to him dead than they were when he was alive. (after a moment) What do you want, Steve.

JUDD (finally): To enter my House justified.

Gil looks at him. Then wheels his horse, rides back toward Heck.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I would've never thought to have hold off on a motive reveal until p. 75, but it does raise the stakes.

Ride the High Country (1963)(10/3/61 draft)
by Sam Peckinpah and N.B. Stone

TODAY'S NUGGET: Planet of the Apes (1968) - What Sci-Fi Cloaked in Action Looks Like

[Quick Summary: When three astronauts land on a planet of apes, the only survivor must figure out how to escape his incarceration.]

I'd forgotten what an ACTION picture this is.

I like that the sci-fi element is largely secondary.  It sneaks in, stealth like behind the action, and ends up packing a wallop at the end.

In the scene below, note:

1) how the camera is very active, moving, showing us the astronauts' POV
2) you're so absorbed in trying to make sense of the environment that you don't realize it's a sci-fi

REVERSE ANGLE - FULL PANNING SHOT - THE ASTRONAUTS

Led by Taylor, they dive back into the pool and swim to the other bank. Emerging from the water, they look around in bewilderment. Taylor makes hand signals to indicate absolute silence and a reconnaissance. The three astronauts fan out and move cautiously into the jungle (or rain forest).

EXT. JUNGLE (OR RAIN FOREST)  - SEVERAL SHOTS - MOVING WITH THE ASTRONAUTS

Little sunlight penetrates this dense vegetation. These SHOTS are INTERCUT with:

WHAT THE ASTRONAUTS SEE:

fleeting forms as yet unidentified; trembling foliage; brown shadows against a green backdrop.

EXT. A SMALL CLEARING - FAVORING THE THREE ASTRONAUTS

who stop at the edge of the clearing, startled by

WHAT THEY SEE:

a number of primitive bipeds, male and female, scarcely visible behind the trees and bushes on the other side of the clearing --here a face, there a portion of a head and torso. Throughout this sequence, the primitives are never seen clearly or at close range.

BACK TO THE ASTRONAUTS

reacting.  They speak in whispers.

LANDON: My God...they look almost human.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: If folks are not buying the sci-fi element, try cloaking it as an action story first.

Planet of the Apes (1968)(5/5/67 shooting script)
by Michael Wilson
Based on the novel by Pierre Boulle

TODAY'S NUGGET: In the Mouth of Madness (1995) - Character's Motive Pulled Me In

[Quick Summary: Trent, an insurance detective, must track down Sutter Cane, a horror author who has mysteriously vanished after turning in half his new novel.]

THE KEY REASON I BOUGHT INTO THIS SERIOUSLY WEIRD STORY:

1st thought:  I am a not a horror fan.

2nd thought: I generally avoid horror scripts because most are simply to shock or showcase special effects (blood, gore, gross out) vs. character (fear, dread, dismay).

3rd thought: Thirty pgs. in, I couldn't stop following Trent in a Seriously Weird case with plenty of fear/dread/dismay.  Why would I willingly go on this journey?

I believed his motive.  And it's not money.

Surprised? Me too, because my belief turns on the casual scene below. 

It's not a showy scene, but it's the one that convinced me Trent would go to the ends of the earth because he is driven by the hunt:

INT. ATLANTIC INSURANCE OFFICE - DAY

...A pair of rock-steady hands REACH IN and light the cigarette for him.

TRENT (O.S.): Nervous, Mr. Paul?

We REVEAL John Trent, leaning against the desk that Mr. Paul is sitting in front of. Another man, ROBINSON, sits behind it. Trent is clean, attractive, confident. Light years away from the man we know from cell number nine. He's doing what he likes doing best, catching people in a lie. [This last line in particular did it for me.]

...MR. PAUL (unsure): No...

TRENT: I'm glad you understand. I thought you would, that's why I knew you wouldn't mind if I checked your story out with your wife.

MR. PAUL (sees it coming): My wife?

TRENT: Yes, you see we had three nagging pictures of your wife tooling around town wearing articles which you claimed perished in the fire.

Trent throws a package of photos into Mr. Paul's lap.

TRENT (CONT'D): And you know what else? When I went to speak with her, she was more than eager to tell us what really went down. Especially after I showed her the pictures of Miss Rosa. Who seems to be wearing even more of the articles which you claimed perished in the fire.

MR. PAUL (dazed): Miss Rosa?

Trent throws another pile of photos into Mr. Paul's lap then leans in quite close.

TRENT: Two words of advice my friend. If you're going to pull a scam, don't make your wife your partner. And if you do, don't fuck around behind her back.

Trent smiles.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I liked the description "doing what he likes best" because it is Trent will seek to do, no matter the situation.

In the Mouth of Madness (1995))(2/21/92 draft w/revisions)
by Michael de Luca*

*Yes, that Michael de Luca.  I've only known him as a mega producer, but he can really write.

TODAY'S NUGGET: Mozart and the Whale (2005) - Showing a Mental Syndrome Like Asperger's

[Quick Summary: Two 20+ yr olds with Asperger's Syndrome have a rocky road to love because of their social difficulties.]

Q: How do you show that a character struggles with an internal, mental syndrome like Asperger's, where he/she does not reason like most do and has difficulty with social cues?

A: Set up him/her up in situations where it is evident in their choices and behavior.

For example, in the scene below:
- Donald and Isabelle have Asperger's. 
- His temp job is driving a taxi, which he does badly.
- He crashes the taxi --> His behavior is not how most people would react --> We realize something is not the expected norm in reasoning ability and social cues.

INT. CAB - DAY

....The Koreans BOLT out of the car, shrieking at Donald and the flower truck driver in rapid-fire Korean obscenities (we guess). Donald gets out slowly, telling Dundee...

DONALD: Stay.

Dundee FLIES out of the car to Donald's shoulder.  Donald look around, oblivious to his victims and the general chaos he has brought to Olympic Boulevard. Advises the cockatiel...

DONALD: It'll take the police, oh, eight, nine minutes.  [He can explain the consequences of his actions, i.e., he is high functioning.]

Instinct. And experience. The truck driver is talking to him, but Donald walks straight past him, bends carefully, and picks up a bunch of irises, brushes them off as he walks toward...

DONALD: An opportune moment. To ring Isabelle. You think?  [However, he has just crashed, people are hurt, and he is concerned with flowers and calling a girl? Something is wrong with the logic and priorities.]

...a public PHONE BOOTH. He is pulling out her neatly-folded information form, getting a little mayo on it that had come from his sandwich. Opens it...

DONALD: You know what's perfect about her phone number...?

He dumps an ENORMOUS handful of CHANGE, mostly pennies and nickels, onto the metal platform beneath the telephone. Gives Dundee the punch-line...

DONALD: ...she's really pretty.

He chuckles at the joke. We've never seen him excited before. He fumbles getting the nickels in. Punches up the number. Looks at the irises. They look all right.

DONALD: Blue is her color.

The phone RINGS, and RINGS, and suddenly...

ISABELLE (O.S.): Yeh, hello...?

And Donald. Freezes. The silence is deafening. Heart-breaking.  [His reaction is very human, but odd because of its timing in the wake of an accident that he caused and forgotten.]

WHAT I'VE LEARNED:  I think the key is to create a situation where most people would react by doing X --> Donald does Y,  unaware that his behavior is not the norm.

Also, we see why his reasoning is logical to him.

Mozart and the Whale (2005)(12/17/97 rev. 1st draft)
by Ronald Bass