TODAY'S NUGGET: Miami Vice (2006) - Growing Romance Between Characters

[Quick Summary: Crockett and Tubbs try to thwart a Central American drug deal.]

I find this quote from Michael Mann interesting:

I know the ambition behind it, but it didn’t fulfill that ambition for me because we couldn’t shoot the real ending. But whole parts of the film are very evocative to me still, especially when it comes to the romance. It was about how far somebody goes when they’re undercover, and what that really means because, ultimately, who you become is yourself on steroids, manifested out there in the real world. There’s an intensity to your living that’s incredible — the relationships in that world, the really heightened experience of it. And this is from speaking to some people who’ve done a lot of very dangerous, deep undercover over long periods. That’s what Crockett does.

First, I liked the ending of this first draft - it's quite romantic.

Second, I don't really associate "romantic" with Michael Mann, so the amount of romance in the story surprised me (somewhere between 40-50%).

It's a subtle trust thing that grows between Crockett and Isabella, as symbolized by her finally accepting sunglasses in the scene below:

EXT. OPEN OCEAN - "BORN TO WIN"

cuts and then leaps over swells. In seven seconds they're doing over 70 knots. And Crockett holds it there as...

ISABELLA

The wind whips her hair behind her, now. The two are small against the smooth 50' long hull.  Crockett hands her wraparound shades for her eyes. She doesn't want them...

CROCKETT (through headset): So where's the best place for mojitas?

ISABELLA: Bedeguita del Medio. It's the only place for mojitas...

CROCKETT: Where's that?

ISABELLA: Off a little alley with cobblestones. Hemingway went there...

CROCKETT: The Keys?

ISABELLA: Havana.

CROCKETT: Havana? Cubans don't like us or my business...

ISABELLA: Are you afraid? (smiles; Crockett shakes his head "no") Good. And you don't need a visa. Cause you're with me.

EXT. OPEN OCEAN - OVERHEAD "BORN TO WIN" - DAY

rockets from one swell to the next, getting airborne. Wind and salt electrify Isabella.  She turns to Crockett and smiles, putting on the glasses, now. Crockett gestures to her knees.  She should keep them bent. Crockett pushes it to 75 knots...

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: The dangerous situation + high stakes make falling in love an even higher tightrope...or addictive experience, depending on how you look at it.

Miami Vice (2006)(9/22/04, 1st draft)
by Michael Mann
Based on "Miami Vice" created by Anthony Yerkovich

TODAY'S NUGGET: Collateral (2004) - Action Gains Depth from Character

[Quick Summary: Max, an innocent L.A. taxi driver, is roped into assisting Vincent, an assassin who is picking off five victims in one night.]

THREE THOUGHTS:

1) "This is a rare thriller that's as much character study as sound and fury." Also, it's rare that a script 167 pgs. (yes, 167) reads half as long.

2) Action gains depth from character.

I was surprised that the script dared (dared!) break away from the 5 assassinations ...and make a pit stop to visit Max's mom in the hospital?  I loved it.

Mann is working in a genre with "Collateral," as he was in "Heat" (1995), but he deepens genre through the kind of specific detail that would grace a straight drama. Consider a scene where Vincent asks (or orders) Max to take him to the hospital where Max's mother is a patient. The mother is played by Irma P. Hall (the old lady in the Coens' "The Lady-Killers"), and she makes an instant impression, as a woman who looks at this man with her son, and intuits that everything might not be right, and keeps that to herself.

These scenes are so much more interesting than the standard approach of the shifty club owner or the comic-relief Big Mama. Mann allows dialogue into the kind of movie that many directors now approach as wall-to-wall action. Action gains a lot when it happens to convincing individuals, instead of to off-the-shelf action figures. - Roger Ebert (my emphasis)

3) Why does this hospital scene work here?

First, the more we learn about character, the higher the stakes.
- ex.  Max's mom has been bothering the dispatcher because Max has not shown up for his nightly visit.  Max is a dutiful, henpecked son. 
- ex. Vincent makes them go because he thinks changes in routine are suspicious.

Second, more stakes = more leverage, as Vincent learns below:

ex.  INT. HOSPITAL ROOM, LOWER FLOOR - MAX - NIGHT

MAX: Hey, mom. How many times do I have to ask you not to do that?

IDA: Do what?

MAX: Talk about me like...I'm...not...in the room, here.

IDA (to Vincent): What's he sayin'?

VINCENT: Ida, he says he's standing right here. In the room. Here.

IDA (to Max): Yesss, you are, honey. (back to Vincent) He's sensitive.

VINCENT: I know. But I'm sure you're proud of him.

IDA (directed at Max): Of course I'm proud. You know, he started with nothing. Look at him today. Here. Vegas. Reno...

Vincent looks at Max...squirming under the exposure.

MAX: Mom, Vincent's not interested. (to Vincent) Let's go.

VINCENT: No. I am interested.

IDA: What's your name, again?

VINCENT: Vincent...

MAX: I came to see you. I saw you. You look fine. Let's go.

He's kissed her and wants to get out of there.

IDA: Limousine companies.

VINCENT: Yeah?

IDA He drives famous people around, you know?

VINCENT: Limousine companies? What an achievement...

Max heads for the door...

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I really like the character stuff because stakes deepen layers, which is emotionally enriching (vs. non-stop wall-to-wall action that can be emotionally numbing).

Collateral (2004)(8/24/03 draft w/revisions)
by Stuart Beattie, with revisions by Frank Darabont, Michael Mann

TODAY'S NUGGET: The Insider (1999) - Subtext --> Actors --> Aha! Bridge

[Quick Summary: 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman fights his parent company (CBS) which shuts down his hot story about tobacco whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand.]

In an interview, writer/director Michael Mann stated that his focus was subtext:

INTERVIEWER: There seem to be five things going on in every scene.

MANN: I wanted to direct, I tried to direct the subtext.

He then mentions a particular scene (below):
(Note that:
- Wigand has been fired from working at B&W, a tobacco company.
- Wigand is bound by a confidentiality agreement to B& W, but wants to talk.
- Lowell is asking for Wigand's help on a case unrelated to B&W.)

 INT. A HOTEL ROOM, LOUISVILLE - EARLY EVENING

...WIGAND: Should I just take the documents now?

LOWELL: If you want to do it.

He turns to leave...Lowell gets the door for him...Wigand momentarily slows...

WIGAND: I worked as the head of Research and Development for Brown & Williamson Tobacco company. I was a Corporate Vice President. Mr. Bergman...

And he goes out the door... Lowell's still. Wigand's job title resonates. Lowell turns to the window, casually looking into the early evening...and he comes face to face with what Wigand was staring at, The Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company Headquarters Building, lit up right across the street...

Mann spoke about how the actors played the subtext to get us to the aha! moment:

Al Pacino just took over Lowell’s great reporter’s intuition to sit there and laser-scan Jeffrey with his eyes. You know, he looks at him, looks at him, and doesn’t move, until, after all the fidgeting and shuffling with the papers, Russell, as Jeffrey, gets to say his great line—”I was a corporate vice president”—with the attitude “Once upon a time, I was a very important person.” And that [Mann snaps his fingers] is when Lowell has it. Suddenly, here’s the significance of this meeting: “He’s the former head of research and development at Browne & Williamson Tobacco Company, and he wants to talk to me.” Without hitting anything on the head with exposition, without any of that awful dialogue, like “Boy, have I got a lead which may give us the newsbreak of the decade,” you know that Lowell knows he’s on the scent of a helluva story.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: This example shows what subtext is needed to be on the page for the actors to play that kind of subtext.

The Insider (1999)(11/5/99 draft)
by Eric Roth and Michael Mann

TODAY'S NUGGET: Last of the Mohicans (1992) - Describing What the Insult Feels Like

[Quick Summary: An Englishman, adopted as a boy by the Mohicans, fights off French soldiers and a Huron war party.]

SHORT VERSION: It's a fine script for the historical drama it is trying to convey.  However, I'm not sure why I wasn't as moved as I'd hoped.

MY FAVORITE LINE: I thought the descriptor of Cora (below) was very accurate in terms of how the men view her.

Also, it shows how Heyward, who wants to marry Cora, was a bad match. 

INT. MUNRO'S HEADQUARTERS - CORA - NIGHT

...WIDEN: Heyward, Munro, Cora. We've entered mid-argument. An adjutant comes and goes. Heyward and Munro are sensitive to appearances in front of the adjutant. Cora couldn't give a damn.

...HEYWARD: And who are these colonials to pass judgment on England's policies in her possessions? And come and go without so much as a "by your leave?"

CORA: They do not live their lives "by your leave." (beat) They hack it out of the wilderness with tehir own two hands, burying their dead along the way.

HEYWARD (distant): You are defending him because you've become infatuated with him.

Cora is having her intelligence written off as a hormone attack. [This perfectly describes what the insult feels like.] She contains her fury.

CORA: Duncan, you are a man with a few admirable qualities. But taken as a whole, I was wrong to have thought so highly of you.

Heyward's shot through the heart.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: Sometimes only a metaphor can describe a feeling.

The Last of the Mohicans (1992)(7/31/90 2nd draft, revised)
by Michael Mann
Adapted by Michael Mann and Christopher Crowe
Based on the novel by James Fenimore Cooper and the 1936 screenplay by Philip Dunne

TODAY'S NUGGET: Manhunter (1986) - What "Cinematic" Looks Like On the Page

[Quick Summary: Graham, a forensic specialist needs Dr. Lecter's help to track down the Red Dragon, a serial killer.]

I've always known that screenwriting was difficult, but I didn't know WHY.

So far, I've realized:
1) It requires a certain kind of skill set.  Some have it, others don't.
2) NO ONE has been able to explain it well.
3) Reading scripts for gems is the only way I've been able to figure it out.

For example, you'll see the phrase "cinematic" thrown around a lot.  A script should be "cinematic." Do you know what that is?  I couldn't figure it out (see #2 above).

Luckily, there's a great example in today's script.

In the scene below:
- Graham (protagonist) has asked for Price to do further tests.
- They are getting results from Price over a speaker phone.
-  I think it's cinematic and lands well because its visuals rely on: a) the non-reaction of Graham AND b) the reaction of Springfield.
- I will also note that this is a skill only born from a lot of writing experience and the confidence from having written a great deal.*

INT. ATLANTA DETECTIVE BUREAU - SQUAD ROOM

...CRAWFORD: Jimmie, it's me, Jack Crawford, and you got Will Graham here.

JIMMIE PRICE (V.O.): I got a partial print with a tented arch that's probably a thumb and a fragment of a palm off the nail of Mrs. Leeds' left big toe. (beat) Thumbprint came off the oldest kid's left eye. It stood out against an eight-ball hemorrhage from the gunshot wound.

CRAWFORD: Can you make an identification off it?

JIMMIE PRICE (V.O.): Maybe. If he's ever been printed and in my Index.  It want to work these up in my own darkroom. I'll fax the prints down to you this afternoon.

Hangs up.

SPRINGFIELD

thought Graham was ridiculous about the eyes and the killer touching Mrs. Leeds. Now Springfield's expression is very changed.

GRAHAM'S

face is blank as he leaves. The gratification is all in Crawford's look to Springfield. Springfield watches Graham all the way to the door, then follows him out.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: Though it was visual, I really felt Graham get his due from Springfield. To me, that's what is cinematic: Seeing what the characters feel.**

Manhunter (1986)(8/12/85 draft)
by Michael Mann
Based on the novel, "Red Dragon," by Thomas Harris

*Why do I say this? Because the writer is ending a scene in a very cinematic, visual manner and it works.  Because only someone who has written a lot and knows what works does not care that every screenwriting book will say it is "incorrect" because it should "show, don't tell."

**Or as actor Toby Jones put it: "...the thing about screen acting is that you can read people's thoughts. You are trying to register something inside and usually the eyes in cinema are where you will register that."

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

TODAY'S NUGGET: Snow Falling on Cedars (1999) - Increased Stakes = Often Unpleasant Consequences

[Quick Summary: In 1954, a news man reports on the case of a Japanese fisherman accused of killing another fisherman off the waters of San Piedro Island, WA.]

TWO THOUGHTS:

1) I was impressed by this adaptation because of its balance - tone, depth, conflict, layered, past, present. It is like a well constructed sandwich.

2) INCREASED STAKES.  I don't remember being taught much about the Japanese internment camps in the US.

Even if I was, would I have paid close attention? Probably not.

However, this script did that by making the internment the reason the protagonist and his first love are separated.

Suddenly, there are STAKES and CONSEQUENCES, especially emotional ones.

In the scene below:
- As children, Ishmael (protagonist), fell for Hatsue, who was sent to an interment camp.  She wrote him a letter breaking it off, but he never let go.
- Two decades later, he's a journalist and her husband is the accused.
- In flashback, we go back to when they meet again after the war (24 y.o.):

EXT. FLETCHER'S BAY - MORNING

ISHMAEL: Look, I want to forget you, I do. I think if you hold me, just this once, I can walk away and never speak to you again.

She just keeps looking at him. There is a bravery to her steady gaze. Her calm resolve.

ISHMAEL: Please? As one human being to another, just because I'm miserable and don't know where to turn. I need to be in your arms. If it's just for thirty seconds.

His pleading look holds her for a moment. In the silence...

HATSUE: I hurt for you. Whether you'll ever believe that or not.

Feeling behind her eyes. First time she lets it show.

HATSUE: I feel sick sometimes, with the guilt of what I've done to you. And I can't make it right.

She rises slowly. Brushes the sand from her skirt.

HATSUE: To hold you would be wrong and deceitful. You're going to have to live without holding me, that is the truth of the way things are.

She takes one step back.

HATSUE: Things end. They do. Get on with your life.

And turns away. She gathers her baby in her arms. Takes her blanket, her umbrella, her rake and her pail. He watches, never moving, as she gathers her things. Gathers them as if he wasn't there. And with her back turned...

HATSUE: Get on with your life.

She walks slowly away. Her baby cries.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: Allow the characters to live with unpleasant consequences.  It raises the stakes, adds reality and depth.

Snow Falling on Cedars (1999)(3/3/97 1st draft)
by Ronald Bass
Based on the novel by David Guterson