I realize I didn’t mention this in the first post, so I’m gonna get it out of the way now. This blog is/will be a spoiler zone. I will not think twice about discussing integral plot twists and whatnot if I feel the need. Continue reading only if you’re cool with this…go ahead, this sentence is just filler to give you more chance to click off. Hmmm. Click off. Reminds me of the fake slang cussing in Ghost Rider 2099 where “fuck” was replaced with “shock.” … Ok, back to our rant. Jack is Tyler Durden, Heath Ledger dies. It was Ray Kinsella all along. Still with me? Cool. On to today’s bit.

 

Joss Whedon has no problem capping central characters. Tara, Joyce, and Wesley. Book and Wash. This I dig. It keeps you on edge and reminds you that characters are not supposed to be invulnerable. The fact that anyone could bite it at any time just works as a story telling device. Generally, you can guarantee that the protag of the story will survive, if not to the credits, then at least to the heroic sacrifice in reel 6. And that just gets to me. I fucking love that Josh Brolin bought it in No Country and that it happened while we were watching other characters. Because that’s the real. People drop and they don’t get back up, no matter how integral to the plot. No matter what the plot may be. The rest of us just cope and keep going, whether or not we actually move on. That’s a big part of what makes a central character interesting. All the script writing guide books say to make your characters reachable. To make them identifiable to the everyman, especially the main character. So flicks and novels are full of wonderfully flawed characters whose faults we share and whose dreams we recognize. But they’re bulletproof. And that is where I stop identifying. In my world, people are mortal, they can die. Except for the immortals, of course. But, I get it, I do. Storytellers don’t want to have to introduce a new point of view in the middle of the story. This goes back to the old stories, fables, rhymes and tall tales. But those are not about people. They are stories about gods and big bad wolves and trolls and princes charming. Ideals. Morals. Film is not that way, it is unique in that people stay dead. Somebody dies on stage, you’ll see them again, in costume, at final curtain. Even novels are very much like the old stories in that, even though the plot is being delivered to you, the details are yours to create. But with film, we, as filmmakers, create the detail and serve it alongside the plot. Our characters must deliver truth on the first attempt, or it is forever lost. And to effectively remove their mortality dehumanizes them. So. My advice to writers. Hurt your heroes. Not hurt like kill their wives or knock ‘em unconscious for a scene or two, hurt them. Break an arm and put it in a cast for the rest of the script. Slam them into a brick wall and don’t allow a miraculous full recovery. Credits roll, hero-man’s still in traction and it was sidekick-boy or best gal-girl who sworded the burninating dragon. You build your characters, to you they’re real. You know the back stories and the tribulations, we don’t. You must force us, the audience, to know that your creations live in a real world.