The First 15 Minutes Project #5: Shortcuts to Sympathy

As I continue to examine the first 15 minutes of various movies and figure out why we fall in love with certain characters, I’ll start breaking out my results. Let’s look at some of the recurring elements of our first four movies:Lessons learned:

1. Have your character high-five a black person (who may never be seen in the movie again). This was utterly fascinating to me. Even The French Connection, where Doyle’s racism is a major plot point, begins with him being friendly to a group of black kids! What is this shorthand for? First of all “not racist”, obviously, (though in the case of TFC we find out soon enough that we’ve been lied to) but also “cool”, “laid-back”, “friendly”. I think this partly falls into the “what do their friends see in them” category. Given that most white Americans feel a combo of guilt and fear when they encounter a black person, then we assume that a white person who has a laid-back friendship with a black person must have tapped into some hidden something that makes them an alright person.
2. Show your characters physically exerting themselves right away. This was no surprise to me. Lots of jogging, bicycling, and swimming laps in the first scenes of movies.
3. Remember Rodney Dangerfield in Back to School? His character runs a big and tall store whose motto is “If you wanna look thin, hang around fat people!” Well it’s beginning to sink in that movies use this trick all the time. If you want to make your hero sympathetic, rather than force them to do actively sympathetic stuff (like cat-saving), simply surround them with exaggerated people who lack the trait you want to highlight. In The 40 Year Old Virgin, they don’t have to make Andy over-the-top nice, they just have to make him nicer than his incredibly profane co-workers (even his older co-worker sagely advises him that “Life isn’t all about butthole pleasures.”)

More to come…

Storyteller’s Rulebook #99: Speak Their Language (And Your Own)

Back to the project tomorrow, but in the meantime...I heartily recommend this article in which various well-known figures give universally applicable advice to students who are returning to school this week. The best of the bunch is Joss Whedon, which is only fitting since there’s not likely to ever be a better saga of the American high school student than “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”.

His rule #1: is “Don’t Be Like Them” and his rule #2 is “Be Like Them”, but I’ll paraphrase his overall point this way: Speak their language fluently, but speak your own just as well, and never get the two confused. As Joss points out, this is good general life advice, but it’s also applies to both writing itself and a writing career.

In writing: The story itself has to have something to say, but you shouldn’t necessarily have any of your characters come out and say it. The characters must have a spectrum of opposing and equally valid points of view, but you also have your own point of view that the story itself demonstrates. The trick is to let the theme arise from the irony of the turn of events, not from what the characters say. Your characters will stay true to their own points of view if you learn to speak their language as well as you speak your own.

In a writing career: Producers demands that you speak their language like a native, but they also demand that you have something of your own to say. Most film schools teach you to do only one or the other, please Hollywood or please yourself, but that’s useless because every writer has to be able to do both. Producers don’t want you to shatter their mold and they don’t want you to stamp-out soulless duplicates of what they already have, either. They want you to subtly twist their mold into a new shape. They want you to use their idiom to tell your story.

After screenwriters realize how brutally competitive this business is, the temptation is to get bent over so far backwards that you simply ask what they want and try to give it to them, but this never succeeds. No one’s going to tell you to be original and bold, because nobody but you is invested in your success, but they go crazy for it if you do it right.

Underrated Movie #131: Ride Lonesome

After praising the Boetticher-Scott westerns last week, I couldn’t resist the urge to re-watch one, which turned out to eerily appropriate for today...

Title: Ride Lonesome
Year: 1959
Director: Budd Boetticher
Writer: Burt Kennedy
Stars: Randolph Scott, Karen Steele, Pernell Roberts, James Best, Lee Van Cleef, James Coburn

The Story: A stoic bounty hunter transports a fugitive whose vengeful brother is coming after him. Along the way, he takes on two more bandits and a station master’s wife. Each has hidden hurts and secret agendas which will put them all on a collision course. 

How it Came to be Underrated: Boetticher’s movies were hidden in plain sight in America, disguised as “B-westerns”, which allowed him to have the creative freedom he wanted, at the expense of critical recognition. They were beloved in Europe but largely forgotten over here, so they were never available on VHS, but they’ve been rediscovered over the last 15 years and finally have excellent DVDs. 

Why It’s Great:

1. American are having bitter thoughts today about the downward spiral of revenge that has consumed our last ten years. In Boetticher and Kennedy’s world, there is no good or evil, just an endless ledger of old grievances to be settled, or not: The only choice they’re allowed to make is between vengeance and forgiveness. Neither is fully satisfying, but only one allows you to have any kind of future.
2. Most movies from ‘55-’65 suffer from the same curse: ultra-widescreen cinematography. Like 3-D today, the novelty of the gimmick caught on like crazy with the public, but it was a fundamentally misconceived idea. Boetticher was one of the few who knew how to maximize the value of the expanded real estate. Look at the way this composition allows the foreground elements to interact with the far distant background, turning hundreds of miles of landscape into one tense interaction.
3. Boetticher’s eye for talent was amazing. Not only did he perceive hidden depths in old standbys like Scott, but he was among the first to spot the flinty-eyed power of Van Cleef, Coburn, Roberts, Lee Marvin, Richard Boone and many other names who would soon go on to be big stars. Boetticher’s “get ‘em before they’re famous” approach allowed him to have A-list casts for C-list budgets.
4. Boetticher and Kennedy pack a lot of story into 73 taut minutes. He does this through startlingly iconic imagery that says it all (We find out that Mescaleros are on the warpath when an out of control wagon train arrives with everybody aboard dead. Later, a lone, dead hanging tree symbolizes both the plot and the theme), and simple but densely-packed dialogue. (Scott meets Roberts: “Fancy running into you in all this empty. You’re a long way from home.” “No more than you.” “I can go back.” Then they exchange sly looks that tell us everything we need to know about who each one is.)

If You Like This, You Should Also Check Out: All seven Boetticher-Scott westerns are excellent. Especially great are Seven Men From Now, Comanche Station and The Tall T (the first Elmore Leonard adaptation!) 

How Available Is It?: The gorgeous DVD has an introductory video essay by Martin Scorsese (who also praises this movie in his Personal Journey Through American Cinema) and a lively, in-depth commentary by Boetticher expert Jeremy Arnold. 

Today’s Post Was Brought To You By: Meat and Potato Man!

The First 15 Minutes Project #4: Mickey Ward

Okay, we’ve done a thriller, a comedy, and an action movie, so let’s move on to a drama. Like Andy (the 40 year-old virgin), Mickey in The Fighter is a fairly passive protagonist, so much so that his brother (half antagonist / half co-protagonist) almost takes over the movie. But I’d still say that Mickey’s the hero…

Mickey Ward in The Fighter:

1. Begin on Mickey’s brother Dickey, drugged out, talking to a movie crew, talking himself up...
2. We see old super 8 footage on the two brothers. Dickey is picking on Mickey.
3. Halfway through the interview, Mickey comes and sits down next to Dickey, looking very embarrassed. Dickey says he’s the better fighter, compares their fighting styles: “Mickey takes punishment. I don’t know why he does it. Mickey gets on the inside, I stay on the outside.”
4. Working for the city on a street maintenance crew, Mickey rakes gravel. Dickey shadowboxes him with his own rake on the ground. Finally Dickey gets Mickey to pretend to spar with him. We see that Dickey still has his film crew with him, supposedly making a movie about his comeback.
5. Over music-filled opening credits, they walk through the streets. Everybody in town knows them and adores them as fighters. Dickey reaches out to everybody, Mickey hangs back. They take photos with people. They also run into a kid who seems mentally challenged, Dickey ignores him, but Mickey hugs him.
6. Fifteen minutes into their scheduled practice at the boxing gym, Mickey is waiting for his “trainer” Dickey. He explains to Dickey’s film crew that Dickey will show up soon.
7. A cop comes in to spar with Mickey instead, chiding him that he knows full well where his brother is. Mickey and Dickey’s mom comes in, orders the cop out of the ring, saying that that’s Dickey’s job. She’s dressed up fancy and wants the crew to get another shot of her entrance. She encourages the crew to interview the many sisters who are there to cheer the brothers on.
8. She says to Mickey about Dickey, “He taught you everything, right honey?” Mickey smiles but won’t confirm that.
9. We see Dickey smoking crack across town. He suddenly realizes he’s late.
10. Dickey finally shows up at the gym. Dickey kids around with the cop, making Mickey laugh. Mickey and Dickey spar.
11. At a bar afterwards celebrating, the family tries to explain the complicated mixed family situation to the film crew. Mickey laughs, but hangs off to the side and looks around the bar….
12. Mickey sees a bartender named Charlene (Amy Adams) working the bar and taking shots with the guys, looking hot. She rings a bell every time she gets a tip.
13. His stepdad sidles over to Mickey says to go talk to her. Mickey says, “I don’t want to talk to her if she’s gonna say no.” The stepdad says, “Get outta the corner. Come on.”
14. Mickey approaches her but she blurts out, “Are you just gonna stand there and stare at my ass? Your father stares at my ass, but he talks to me. Thinks you’re the greatest. He didn’t tell me you were you.”
15. She gets a tip and says it’s shitty, “You know what the bell says about this tip? (thumps bell lightly) Cheap bastard. Cheap fucker.” Then back to Mickey: “You pave streets, right?”
16. He responds, “Yeah, I do. And I’m a fighter.” She retorts “Oh yeah, I heard you were a stepping stone.” He says, “I’m no stepping stone.” “Well, you’re the guy they use against the other fighters to move the fighters up.” “Oh, I had a few tough fights, but that’s not who I am. The next fight’s gonna show who I am.”
17. Another guy orders a drink and insults Mickey and Charlene. Wahlberg starts to beat the guy up but he flees.
18. Dickey stops by and talks Mickey up to Charlene. Mickey starts to talk up Dickey, too, but Charlene stops him and asks him more about himself instead.
19. Mickey explains that he’s tired of mindless brawling. He wants to out-box his next opponent, not just pummel him. He explains his plan and arranges her body to demonstrate.
20. He finally asks her out. She asks if he’s married, like most guys who ask her out. He says he’s not but he has a daughter from an old relationship who he sees every weekend. She is wary but says yes.

The First 15 Minutes Project #3: Popeye Doyle

Okay, we’re going strong. Let’s move on to an action movie. “Popeye” Doyle is more “compelling” than “sympathetic”…

Popeye Doyle in The French Connection:

1. We begin in Marseilles, on the waterfront. A French undercover cop spies on a dapper drug dealer named Charnier (Fernando Rey). Charner notices. Later, Charnier’s hitman kills the cop on his way home.
2. Cut to the streets of Brooklyn, an NYPD undercover cop named Russo (Roy Scheider) is on street selling hotdogs outside a bar. His partner Doyle (Gene Hackman), dressed as Santa Claus, is asking little black kids what they want for Christmas.
3. Russo sees somebody enter the bar, drops his disguise and follow him in.
4. Inisde, he arrests one guy, but another guy runs out, Russo chases after him.
5. The guy runs out onto the street with Russo chasing after, Doyle joins in the chase. The guy is cornered but pulls a knife and cuts Russo, then gets by them.
6. There’s a high energy chase down street.
7. They chase him into empty lot, he trips, they start kicking the crap out of him.
8. They drag him to another empty lot. Doyle says he wants to bust him, Russo tells Doyle to cool down, Doyle tells the guy, “You’ve got a friend there.” They ask him about a dealer named Joe the barber, but he doesn’t seem to know much.
9. Suddenly, Doyle starts angrily interrogating him about picking his feet in Poughkeepsie, which baffles and confuses him. Scared of Doyle, he finally asks Russo to take him in.
10. Back in Marseilles, Charnier arranges a trip to America.
11. Back at the precinct, Doyle and Russo clock out at the end of the day. Doyle looks pretty working-class-stylish in his brown suit and porkpie hat. Russo comes in with bandaged arm. Doyle mocks him: “You dumb guinea” Russo asks, “How was I supposed to know he had a knife?” Doyle says, “Never trust a nigger” Mildly offended, Russo points out, “He coulda been white,” so Doyle says, “Never trust anybody.”
12. Doyle insists on taking Russo out to a mob-run club after work, Russo is suspicious of Doyle’s motives and tries to refuse, but Doyle bullies him into it.
13. Doyle seems to enjoy the black soul singer at the nightclub. Doyle comfortably says hi to his favorite waitresses, then he spots a free-spending guy named Boca talking to gangsters. Doyle narrows his eyes and turns to Russo, “I make at least two junk connections over at that far corner” “I thought we came here to buy me a drink,” Russo complains. Doyle points to person talking to Boca: “Who is that clown?” “It’s a policy guy from queens.” Doyle squints at Boca and his friends: “That table is definitely wrong. What about the last of the big time spenders (Boca), you make him?” “No, you?” “He’s spreading it around like the Russians are in Jersey. What do you say we stick around and give him a tail? C’mon, just for fun.” “Give who a tail?” Doyle points at Boca: “The Greaser with the blondes” “What for, you want to play hide the salami with his old lady?” Doyle checks out Boca’s date and laughs, “Yeah!” Russo rolls his eyes but comes along.
14. Hours later, Russo sleeps in the passenger seat of Doyle’s car. Doyle is out on the street, spying on a building. A prostitute in white go-go boots walks by. Doyle hassles her: “Miss, could I ask you about those boots?” He laughs as she walks by. Boca comes out of the building. Doyle wakes up Russo. Boca is kissing his mob buddies on the cheek as he says goodbye. “Kissy devil isn’t he? You know they’re all cousins. Odds are he takes us to dago-town.” Russo shakes his head and smiles, “Won’t take ‘em, Popeye.”
15. They follow him until dawn. Russo wants to go home. Doyle laughs, “Relax, you’re having fun ain’t ya?” They see Boca make a mysterious pick-up. Doyle smiles.
16. They take the lead to the their captain, who doesn’t want to let them follow up. He reminds Doyle that his instincts have been wrong before and people died as a result. Doyle demands the right to follow up. The captain reluctantly agrees...

Okay, so now we’ve got our first flat-out scummy hero. Is he still compelling? Absolutely. Sympathetic? That’s a harder call. Andy was passive, but admirable. Doyle is somewhat loathsome, but he’s very, very active. Perhaps we can live without one as long as we have the other. Also interesting: Popeye has no hidden private self. Everybody can tell what’s going on inside him. Interesting. Need more data…

The First 15 Minutes Project #2: The 40 Year Old Virgin

It’s no surprise, since I derived a lot of my criteria for what makes a good movie from Silence of the Lambs, that Clarice Starling was pretty much the ultimate example of my definition of a good hero. But now let’s try some other genres and some other heroes who are less sterling than Starling. Today, we’ll tackle…

Andy in The 40 Year Old Virgin

1. Andy lies in bed, bored, waiting for morning alarm to ring. His house is filled with sci-fi posters and action figures. The alarm finally goes off.
2. He tries to take a leak, but he’s hampered by a seemingly permanent erection. Credits roll.
3. He works out while looking at a picture of Doug Henning.
4. As he leaves his apartment with his bike, the retired black couple on their porch upstairs teases that he should get a car. Andy teases them back. They agree to watch Survivor together on Thursday. After Andy pedals away, the retired husband turns to his wife and says, “That guy needs to get laid.” Wife chuckles and says, “Tell me something I don’t know!”
5. As Andy enters his Circuit City type workplace, a blonde hottie asks him a question but he awkwardly points out that he’s says he’s not a salesman. Jay (Romany Malco) takes the sale.
6. Andy takes up his postion at the help desk. Cal (Seth Rogen) comes in, apologizes for running late, says he had a crazy weekend, saw a show in Tiajuana where a woman had sex with a horse, asks about Andy’s weekend. Andy tells a story about spending the weekend making an egg salad sandwich (and he calls the ingredients “the accoutrement”). After Andy turns away, Cal is aghast as how boring Andy is.
7. The other employees bicker amongst themselves about various things.
8. Cal, David and Jay debate asking Andy to their poker game. Cal fears Andy’s a serial killer, but he’s overruled.
9. They ask him to play poker that night in the back of the store. Andy asks if that’s allowed, then says flatly that he’ll turn them in. They believe him, but he’s kidding. They relax. After he leaves, they say that they almost feel guilty about taking this rube’s money...
10. But Andy plays a lot of online poker and cleans up at the poker game. The get comfortable with him and lapse into “guy talk” and sex stories. Jay is cheating on his girlfriend, Cal is having one night stands, David tries to tell a romantic story about making love to his ex, but they all shout him down, pointing out that that was two years ago. Andy awkwardly says “no ass is worth thinking that much about, I always say,” which stops the conversation dead…
11. Jay asks Andy for a real nasty sex story. Andy fakes it: “she’d say, ‘Ah, you’re nailing me! Man!’” They get suspicious and ask for a description of her breasts. Andy says that a woman’s breast feels like a bag of sand. They quickly figure out that he’s a virgin. They all want to get him laid.
12. Distraught, Andy bicycles home angry, hearing their laughter.
13. Andy wakes up in the morning, not having slept, fearing what will happen at work. He says to himself, “This is gonna be bad…”
14. He arrives and sure enough everybody at work wants to talk to him about it, until the boss finally comes out and announces, “Let the virgin get back to work!”
15. Andy flees. David chases him down and corners him. Andy feels that he has to quit his job now. David says don’t. Carrell says he doesn’t want to go out with them: “I respect women. I love women. I respect them so much that I completely stay away from them! I have a very fulfilling life…”
16. Quick montage of Andy’s life: He plays tuba alone in apartment, he paints figurines, he plays a skateboard video game, he sings karaoke alone, he chuckles over a comic book...
17. David convinces Andy to come to a coffee shop and talk it over…
18. In the coffee shop, David asks how this could have not happened. Andy explains that he’s just gotten more and more nervous over the years. David tells him 40 is the new 20. Andy agrees to let them take him out...

This guy doesn’t do everything I say a hero should do (he doesn’t want anything much at the beginning of the movie, for instance) but he’s still very sympathetic. Meanwhile, are you starting to see some bizarre trends emerging? I sure am. Let’s rack up some more data tomorrow…

The First 15 Minutes Project #1: Clarice Starling

Welcome to the First 15 Minutes Project! I’m always on the search to figure out why we love some heroes and others leave us cold. To help solve this eternal mystery, I’m going to watch the character introductions (the first 15-20 minutes) of some of my favorite movies and TV shows. Unsurprisingly, we’re starting with one of my most frequent go-to movies on this blog...

Character Intro: Clarice Starling in Silence of the Lambs:

1. We first see Clarice in sweats with pearl earrings, really pushing herself as she runs through the woods, then climbs her way through a ropes course.
2. An instructor runs up to her: “Sterling, Crawford wants to see you in his office.” “Thank you, sir.”
3. Runs past a sign on a tree. “Hurt, Agony, Pain-- Love it!”
4. Enter the FBI training facility. She’s clearly happy to be there.
5. As she passes other cadets, she gives a high five and a “Hey!” to a black female cadet.
6. Clarice enters the elevator: everybody else is bigger and tougher, but she doesn’t care.
7. She is somewhat lost in the offices of the officials, looking for Crawford’s office, where she’s clearly never been.
8. Clarice is shown to the right office and waits nervously, then notices a cork-board filled with evidence of the “Buffalo Bill” killings and studies it intensely.
9. Crawford shows up and reads her CV: “Sterling, Clarice M., Top quarter of your class. I remember you from my seminar at UVA. You grilled me pretty hard on the Bureau’s record on civil rights in the Hoover years. I gave you an A.” “A-, sir” He lists all the awards she’s won. He wants her to interview Hannibal Lecter, claims it has nothing to do with the Buffalo Bill case. She recognizes Lecter as “Hannibal the cannibal.” Warned to be very careful. “Tell him nothing personal. Believe me you don’t want Hannibal Lecter inside your head.”
10. Clarice goes to the facility holding Lecter and meets the head psychiatrist, Chilton, who calls Lecter his “prized asset”, and then hits on Clarice. She politely but cleverly deflects his attentions.
11. As he walks her to the cell, he says “Crawford is clever using you: pretty young woman to turn him on.” He gives a long list of rules for staying safe while visiting Lecter.
12. They arrive, but Clarice sends Chilton away: “If Lecter feels that you’re his enemy, then maybe we’ll have more luck if I go in by myself. What do you think?” He takes offence: “You might have saved me the time of walking you here.” “Yes, but then I would have missed the pleasure of your company, sir.”
13. Walks past a crazy named Miggs who yells something horrible at her.
14. Lecter stands perfectly still. “You’re one of Jack Crawford’s.” “I am, yes,” He makes her hold credentials close, forcing her to break a rule right off.
15. Lecter asks “What did Miggs say?” She considers lying, but answers honestly, repeating the embarrassing comment word for word. He is impressed.
16. He guesses that this is really about Buffalo Bill. He then guesses where she’s from her hidden accent.
17. He likes her but then she gives him the standard questionnaire, which insults him. He sends her away with nothing.
18. While leaving she gets hit with Miggs’s bodily fluids and doesn’t flinch.
19. Impressed, Lecter calls her back, tells her to look up his old patient Miss Muffet, who might lead her to Buffalo Bill.
20. After leaving the prison, She has a flashback: greeting her sheriff daddy in the rural house where she grew up.
21. In the parking lot, she cries against the hood of her beat-up old car...

Now let’s apply our character checklist to this intro:

When we get a big enough sample, we’ll analyze our data and see what trends we find...