tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706282221761427996.post1514182321981066968..comments2024-03-07T20:15:45.996-08:00Comments on The Bitter Script Reader: "Eating your vegetables" vs a "Five-Course Meal"The Bitter Script Readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16575166527272639709noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706282221761427996.post-84808810722293229912012-04-16T19:45:22.321-07:002012-04-16T19:45:22.321-07:00I should state that in fairness, I've not seen...I should state that in fairness, I've not seen the movie - I'm going off of the script draft I read years ago. I went looking for my old coverage to reinforce it, but after checking two computers, I can only conclude that it was lost in a hard drive crash a few years ago.<br /><br />First problem - it's hard to follow. I remember there being a lot of supporting characters and side plots being introduced throughout the course of the script. It was more complicated than complex. That's a problem - I've read plenty of scripts with really intricate complex stories and they can be great reads when done right. What doesn't work is when things get complicated and muddled. The more I have to keep going back and checking names or my own notes, the more likely it is that an audience will get lost too. I've read some great scripts where I almost didn't have to take a single note because the story just moved and carried me along. I remember having to restart Green Zone twice and making notes on almost every other page.<br /><br />Strike two - especially at the time I read the script, no one wanted to make a movie about Iraq and WMDs because no one wanted to SEE a movie about Iraq and WMDs. Marketability counts. It ain't the parsly on the side of the plate the no one ever eats.<br /><br />Strike three - related to strike two, it was political - which means it's possibly polarizing. That scares off buyers and it chases away audiences. But more to the point, there's probably no faster way to write a "vegetable" than to get political. Someone like Sorkin is often able to produce material that might depict a particular point of view without turning it into too much of a lecture. (And frankly, even HE has ended up on the wrong side of the line.) <br /><br />I didn't care about the characters because I didn't feel like they were there for any reason other than to express the film's underlying anti-Iraq War message. It didn't have anything to say beyond that, and after (at the time) eight years of debate on this, the country clearly had fatigue.<br /><br />You can't have lobster as the main dish of your five-course meal if a good portion of your audience is allergic to shellfish.The Bitter Script Readerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16575166527272639709noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4706282221761427996.post-65559875304529369662012-04-16T11:28:02.986-07:002012-04-16T11:28:02.986-07:00The following is a serious question, not a flame.
...The following is a serious question, not a flame.<br /><br />Why is GREEN ZONE vegetables? Didn't it have a strong core concept, vivid compelling characters with arcs, intense pace, and a formidable evil?<br /><br />As far as I can see, the only preachy thing about it is that the evil is REAL evil, not robots from the future or cartoonish Nazis. <br /><br />What am I missing?Peter Ahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05195874545722642770noreply@blogger.com