[Quick Summary: When a big oil company harasses a woman who owns a small oil field, her only allies are her estranged father and a stranger.]
Before he co-wrote (and won the Oscar for) Shakespeare in Love (1998), Marc Norman wrote this script with an unapologetic, ambitious female lead.*
It may sound trite, but I've read a lot of single-minded male characters, undistracted by ideas of balancing work and family, but not female ones.
What is interesting about Lena is her sheer force of will. This is her fight and she's willing to die for it.** Why do I believe that? Why am I curious to follow her?
I think it's because her stubbornness, the stuff of legends, leads her to wild places.
For example, in an early scene below:
- We see how hard bitten Lena has become.
- Her absentee dad Cleon comes to her plot of oil field. This is their first contact and he tries to offer help.
- Notice how her motive is all about survival. She doesn't even waste a syllable on him.
- Also note: There were no slug lines (INT./EXT.) in this script. Rather, it was broken into chapters. The one below is titled, "LENA'S FATHER SHOWS UP."
His eyes rove her -- land on her folded hands. He smiles faintly, and gingerly lays his hand on top of hers.
CLEON (CONT'D): Look...
Lena recoils, snatches up the rifle.
LENA: Stay back.
CLEON (CONT'D): Look at your hand. It's the same as mine.
He tries to get her to compare them.
CLEON (CONT'D): Look at it -- you got my hand. (desperate) Damn it, Lena -- I come to help you. LENA: Me and my oil land!
CLEON: No -- to help you. To help you hold out, if that's what you want.
Lena looks up at him and chuckles bitterly.
LENA: Can you use a rifle?
Cleon makes a sort-of gesture.
LENA (angry): Handle a derrick, maybe? Can you drill a hole?
CLEON: I can learn..!
LENA: Just get out of here!
CLEON: No!
LENA (shouting): What the hell good are you?
CLEON: I'm your pa, Lena!
LENA: So? You gonna read me nursery rhymes?
She stands, turns her back on him, and starts up the hill.
CLEON: Lena! You can't do it all by yourself.
She spins, raging.
LENA: Just fuck off
CLEON: Don't do this...
LENA: I mean it!
Cleon falls to his knees in prayer.
CLEON: I can't, Lena...
LENA (exploding): Get out of here, you...scumbag son-of a bitch!
Cleon's mouth drops open. Lena fires, wildly, from the hip -- hit hat flies off.
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I don't see female characters like this in more modern scripts. There's something refreshing about a character who is this focused on the present, and not worried with "having it all."
Oklahoma Crude (1973)
by Marc Norman
*It was played by actress Faye Dunaway (after Bonnie and Clyde, but before Chinatown).
**As an aside, she was not "likeable", and I was fine with it. I liked that this script took such a big swing on a female character.
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