TODAY'S NUGGET: Batman (1989) - Tension While Batman & Joker Fall in the Air

[Quick Summary: Bruce Wayne (Batman) defends Gotham against a brand new criminal, Jack Napier (Joker).]

Dark and extreme superhero movies are common today.

But in 1989, Tim Burton was breaking new ground with the colors and visuals.

This isn't the most emotionally compelling script that I've read, but I give it some slack as there were a lot of bumps on the way (writers' strike, studio fears, etc.)

However, I liked the following scene for keeping tensions high while in mid-air:

EXT. CATHEDRAL TOWER - NIGHT

Two bodies fall in pad de deux. Joker SCREAMS. SOUND OF WIND RUSHING BY.

EXT. FALLING POV - NIGHT

CAMERA FALLS DOWNWARD. Lights float lazily up AT us from the onrushing street below.

EXT. FALLING - NIGHT - TIGHT

BATMAN FIRES a hook and a line back up at the roof.

ON HOOK

It lands on roof and skitters along looking for a crevice to hook on.

ON JOKER

He stares back at Batman as he drifts away. JOKER'S LAUGHING ALL THE WAY DOWN.

ON HOOK

SKITTERING.

ON BATMAN

He spreads his cape, slowing down a bit.

ON GARGOYLE

Hook skitters to it and seizes on its grimacing jaws.

ON JOKER (SLOW MOTION)

He plummets to earth CRASHING ON CATHEDRAL STEPS. LAUGHTER STOPS!

ON BATMAN (SLOW MOTION)

HE FALLS, TURNS UPSIDE-DOWN AND STOPS in mid-air. Coming to the end of a long tether from the top of the tower. He bounces a bit and hangs upside-down. Like a bat. A SCREAM fills the air.

EXT. CHURCH STEPS - OVERHEAD ANGLE

We're looking DOWN AT the Joker, whose body lies splayed and broken o n the steps. We DRIFT DOWNWARD, CLOSER, until his FACE FILLS THE SCREEN, his chilling grin still intact.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I liked that the writers didn't try to tug at our sympathies by making the Joker have regrets at the end.  This kept up the tension in the fall.

Batman (1989)(5th draft w/revisions)
by Sam Hamm and Warren Skaaren
Based on the character created by Bob Kane

TODAY'S NUGGET: JFK (1991) - The Emotional Ride of Obsession

[Quick Summary: The hunt for a murderer after President John F. Kennedy is shot in Dallas, TX on Nov. 22, 1963.]

THREE THINGS I LEARNED FROM ROGER EBERT'S REVIEW:

1) FACT vs. FICTION IN FILMS.

This is not a film about the facts of the assassination, but about the feelings. “JFK” accurately reflects our national state of mind since Nov. 22, 1963. ...I believe films are the wrong medium for fact. Fact belongs in print. Films are about emotions.*

2) SO WHAT IS OLIVER STONE'S FILM ABOUT?

His film is not about the case assembled by his hero, New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner). It is about Garrison's obsession. The film's thrust is not toward truth, but toward frustration and anger.

3) WHY IS THE SCRIPT WORTH READING? It is not a pretty to look at (156 pgs. long, single spaced), however it is unusually nimble for the amount of detail.

Oliver Stone was born to make this movie. He is a filmmaker of feverish energy and limitless technical skills, able to assemble a bewildering array of facts and fancies and compose them into a film without getting bogged down. His secret is that he doesn't intend us to remember all his pieces and fit them together and arrive at logical conclusions.

I liked that the script kept focus on the emotional ride of obsession by showing what it costs.  It's the small things that are so devastating.

INT. GARRISON HOME - NIGHT (1967)

After dinner, toys scattered around the living room. Phone ringing as VIRGINIA, 6, answers it, playing with her doll. In background SCOOTER is chasing ELIZABETH around.

VIRGINIA: Hello.

MALE VOICE: Hello is this Jim Garrison's daughter?

VIRGINIA: Yes?

MALE VOICE: Virginia or Elizabeth?

VIRGINIA: Virginia.

MALE VOICE: Virginia, you're a lucky girl. Your daddy has entered you in a beauty contest. Would you like to be in a beauty contest?

VIRGINIA: That sounds fun.

MALE VOICE: I need some information from you then. How old are you?

VIRGINIA: Six.

MALE VOICE: And how tall are you?

In the STUDY, JIM watches the NEWS in horror. [News reports the death of Martin Luther King, Jr.]

MALE VOICE: And you get off from school at 3 every day?

VIRGINIA: Yes.

MALE VOICE: Do you walk home?

VIRGINIA: Uh huh.

LIZ comes to the phone, a look on her face.

LIZ (taking the phone): Who you talking to?

MALE VOICE: Okay Virginia, that's all I need to know. I'll call you again when it's time for the beauty contest.

LIZ: Who's this?...Hello?...Hello?

Pause. The man at the other end listening to Liz...He hangs up. Liz turns to Virginia.

VIRGINIA (excited): Mama I'm going to be in a beauty contest! Daddy.

LIZ: What did he ask you!

VIRGINIA:Well, he asked me everything. He asked me...          

Liz freaking.           

                                                                                INTERCUT TO:

LIZ marches into Jim's study.

LIZ: Did you enter Virginia into a beauty contest?

JIM (absorbed in the TV): What?

LIZ (hysterical): A man just called. He asked her everything! Her height, her weight, when she came home from school. 

JIM: Honey, some crackpot! Martin Luther King was just killed in Memphis!

LIZ (screaming): I don't give a damn about Martin Luther King! Your daughter's life was just threatened!

JIM: Just a crank making phone calls. Happens a dozen times a day at the office.

LIZ: Our home Jim!  A kidnapper, a murderer!

JIM (consoling): Only cowards make crank calls, egghead, nothing is going to happen (puts his arms around her).

LIZ (beats on him): How do you know? How do you know!

JIM: Get a hold of yourself.

LIZ: I'm leaving. I'm taking the kids and I'm leaving! I can't stand it anymore...

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: After reading this script, I don't remember much about it, except the emotional toll.  Which might be the point in the end.

JFK (1991)(Jan. 1991 draft)
by Oliver Stone

* "I have no doubt Cronkite was correct, from his point of view. But I am a film critic and my assignment is different than his. He wants facts. I want moods, tones, fears, imaginings, whims, speculations, nightmares. As a general principle, I believe films are the wrong medium for fact. Fact belongs in print. Films are about emotions. My notion is that “JFK” is no more, or less, factual than Stone's “Nixon” or “Gandhi,” “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Gladiator,” “Amistad,” “Out of Africa,” “My Dog Skip” or any other movie based on “real life.” All we can reasonably ask is that it be skillfully made and seem to approach some kind of emotional truth. Given that standard, “JFK” is a masterpiece."

TODAY'S NUGGET: Frankenstein (1931) - Dwarf on the Roof, Frankenstein Below

[Quick Summary: Dr. Frankenstein creates a Monster that runs amok.]

Screenwriting still baffles me. It's unlike any other kind of writing.

I have learned a few things though:

1) The closest analogy is still that it's a recipe or a blueprint of ideas.

2) Good writing is like a shot of aged whiskey, i.e., a complete, exciting idea in one gulp.  Harder than it sounds to stuff action, geography, emotion into a sentence.

I like how the writers show geography and height in the example below.  

Can you see the Dwarf looking through the roof and Frankenstein looking up? 

Also, note that the action (Dwarf climbing down) shows us the roof is high without telling us.

INT. LABORATORY - REVERSE SHOT

The head and shoulders of Frank-
enstein in fore, this time, shooting
up to the large opening in the roof
to where the Dwarf kneels, peering
down in. From somewhere beneath the
opening two shining steel rods, placed
about four feet apart, rise into the
air from a momentarily unseen fixture
on floor of laboratory, connecting
with the two high frequency wires,
that drop down from above.

                                             FRANKENSTEIN (sharply)
                                                      Come down, then! Help with
                                                      these attachments. We've no
                                                      time to lose.

His manner is peremptory,
indicating a high state of
nervous tension. The Dwarf,
grasping a rope, which trails
loosely from the roof, lowers
himself with quick agility to
the laboratory level. CAMERA
FOLLOWS HIS PROGRESS DOWN,
MOVING BACK to assume floor
level focus, and we get a
general view of the interior
of the laboratory.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: Sometimes it helps to set the geography for the reader first (guy above on roof) so the following action makes more sense (guy climbs down).

Frankenstein (1931)(8/12/31 draft)
by Garrett Fort and Francis Edwards Faragoh
Adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel (1818)

TODAY'S NUGGET: The Matrix (1999) - Understanding When to Add the Grand Spectacle

[Quick Summary: When a hacker learns that his life in the Matrix is a sham, he joins the resistance against the evil artificial intelligence.]

We all know that you can't build a cake on top of frosting.  You make the cake first, and the frosting is the finish.

It's the same way with the grand spectacle.  Build a solid story first, then go wild with spectacle. 

I liked this film because it did just that.  

First, the writers had something philosophical to say about fighting to believe.  

Then they added some grand spectacle on top, such as this unforgettable moment:

EXT. ROOF - DAY

...Just as she drops the final Marine, Trinity sees what's coming. Neo sees her, the fear in her face, and he knows what is behind him.

Screaming, he whirls, guns filling his hands with thought-speed.

Fingers pumping, shells ejecting, dancing up and away, we look THROUGH the sights and gun smoke AT the Agent blurred with motion --

Until the hammers click against the empty metal.

NEO: Trinity!

Agent Jones charges.

NEO: ...Help.

His GUN BOOMS as we ENTER the liquid space of --

-- BULLET -TIME.

The AIR SIZZLES with wads of lead like angry flies as Neo twists, bends, ducks just between them.

Agent Jones, still running, narrows the gap, the bullets coming faster until Neo, bent impossibly back, one hand on the ground as a spiraling gray ball shears open his shoulder.

He starts to scream as another digs a red groove across his thigh He has only time to look up, to see Agent Jones standing over him, raising his gun a final time.

AGENT JONES: Only human...

Suddenly Agent Jones stops He hears a sharp metal click.

Immediately, he whirls around and turns straight into the muzzle of Trinity's .45 --

--jammed tight to his head.

TRINITY: Dodge this!

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I like the economy of this "bullet-time" on the page. It's good frosting (but only because of the previous foundation of 'cake.')

The Matrix (1999)(shooting draft, 3/29/98)
by The Wachowski Brothers