Words in Action

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Words in Action Page 19

by Paolo Braga


  This same line returns much later on in the story, at the climax. This time it is Batman who pronounces these same words to his friend and police lieutenant Gordon (Gary Oldman) as he alludes to the tough decision he has to make. “You either die a hero or you live, long enough to see yourself become the villain”. This is what the superhero decides to do, become the “villain”. This surprising fact brings on all new significance. Batman, in fact, makes people believe he is the one responsible for the crimes that Dent, influenced by Joker, has committed. He does this to save the district attorney’s image as a man of justice, the man the people of Gotham City have put their hope in. Batman becomes the “villain”. This marks a surprising turning point, a total reversal from the first time the line was spoken. This time, however, the line does not refer to the use of power. It means benevolence. It is the sacrifice of one man, who takes the blame for another man’s unlawful actions, for the good of the people.

  Another good example of a setup and payoff that pertains to the deep construction of the protagonist, and thus the theme of the story, is found in Erin Brockovich. In the first part of the film, Erin loses the case against the doctor who unjustly accused her of having caused an automobile accident. Erin takes out her frustrations on the calm lawyer, Masry (Albert Finney), who has taken up her case and who she ends up working as assistant to throughout the story, “Do they teach lawyers ← 183 | 184 → to apologize? Because you suck at it.” Erin is an ex-beauty queen who can’t seem to get her life in order. The obscene language she uses here in response to Masry’s indifferent apologies is a normal part of her life, a result of the rage within someone who has yet to gain respect and consideration from others in life.

  This setup has its payoff at the very end of the story, in the very last line of the film. Erin has finally won her battle against the multinational responsible for polluting the environment and causing tumors among a great number of people. Masry, knowing he has obtained an astronomically high compensation for Erin, amuses himself by sending her into a rage. He starts by saying that her compensation isn’t exactly what they had discussed, making Erin believe the amount is actually less than what she was expecting. He listens to her brutal insults with a sly smile, then hands her a check for two million dollars. Erin is speechless and Masry joyfully throws her own line from the beginning of the film right back at her, “Do they teach beauty queens how to apologize? Because you suck at it.” As if to say, “You’ve finally achieved all the respect you deserve”.

  In contrast to the single repetition of a line with a setup and payoff, the second approach is to repeat a line various times throughout the film in a way that it gains greater significance each time it is said. Each time this “special” line is repeated, a new meaning is attached to it. The final time it is repeated, the meaning is more powerful than ever and more significant to the theme. This type of line is called a tagline.

  One tagline found in the film Gladiator is: “You’ll meet them again. Not yet.” Juba (Djimon Hounsou), the African prisoner who, with Maximus, is trained to combat in the arena, says this line three different times throughout the film. Juba addresses the protagonist in some way each time he says this line. The first two times it is said, he makes reference to Maximus’ wife and son, who were killed by the wicked Commodus and are waiting for the gladiator in the afterlife.

  Juba says the line the first time when Maximus, captured by slave traders, fights for his life after being fatally wounded by the Praetorian guards who are carrying out Commodus’ orders. Maximus is feverish and semi-conscious and while Juba heals him, he says the tagline. Here the words are like an invitation for Maximus not to give up, for him to fight for his life.

  ← 184 | 185 → Later on in the film, the second time the line is said, Juba’s own wife and daughter are far away and he feels destined to never see them again. He encourages Maximus, who is afflicted by the loss of his own family. “You’ll meet them again. But not yet. Not yet…”. The “not yet”, in this case, is an invitation for Maximus to endure the pain of losing the people he loved most and continue in his battle.

  Juba repeats the tagline, slightly modified, but with great significance, the third time in the last scene of the film. Maximus dies after having defeated Commodus. His African friend Juba can finally return to his family. First, however, Juba honors the memory of the man he owes his freedom to by burying Maximus’ small statues of his wife and son. In doing this, Juba speaks to Maximus’ soul and repeats the tagline for the last time. This time, however, he refers to both himself and his friend. “I will see you again. But not yet. Not yet…”. This scene comes immediately after Lucilla, Commodus’ sister, tells the senators to honor Maximus, who has died defending civilization (“Is Rome worth one good man’s life? We believed it once. Make us believe it again.”). In this context, Juba’s line clearly holds a thematic message. Upon saying these words, Juba recognizes the meaning of Maximus’ experience. These words confirm, to the audience, what Maximus had said to his soldiers at the beginning of the film: “Brothers, what we do in life echoes in eternity.” Moreover, by repeating this sentence, Juba urges his own self to follow Maximus’ example. “Not yet” means “like Maximus, I can and I must work for freedom and justice in the time I have left”. Even the audience feels emotionally involved in Juba’s thoughts.

  A very elegant tagline is found in The Truman Show.

  At the beginning of the film, Truman is ignorant of the fact his whole life is set inside a reality show. He leaves the house in the morning and greets the neighbors saying: “In case I don’t see you, good afternoon, good evening and good night!” The focus the first time the line is said is on routine and the frequent encounters Truman has with his neighbors. In addition, the line is spoken with a smile and excessive good humor, as if Truman feels obliged to joke around and show others how happy he is, as if he has unconsciously espoused the obligation of conformism that reigns in the fictitious world of Seahaven.

  ← 185 | 186 → Further on in the film, Truman says the line the second time to his neighbors in the same circumstances. This time, however, Truman is well on his way to rebelling against the false world he was born prisoner to. As will be discovered seconds later, he has devised an escape plan that will finally work. For this reason, the tagline is now delivered with feelings of contempt for the neighbors who are only acting out roles to the detriment of Truman’s own life. In addition, the line declares his intent: “This time I’m really saying goodbye, I’m leaving this place”.

  The same sentence is repeated for the last time at the very end of the film. Truman says the line once more as a final adieu to the director of the show his life was trapped in, to the audience of the reality show and to the audience of the film. The words now mean the exact opposite of when they were first said: “the show has come to an end, goodbye forever, I renounce the enticement of a secure, but false and estranged world”. The sentence has come to signify liberation. Just as he is about to enter into the real world, the tagline, initially soaked with pretension, is now being used by Truman with the most authentic spirit possible. The meaning of the sentence has changed so radically that the audience feels truly gratified by this new, profound significance produced by words full of irony and which previously lacked decisiveness and even seemed superficial.

  Another example of a tagline is found in Wall Street - Money Never Sleeps (directed by Oliver Stone and written by Allan Loeb and Stephen Schiff, USA 2010), a film that talks about the recent subprime mortgage crisis. In this case, the tagline is a sound (a quick whistle accompanied by an allusive gesture of the hand) that the elderly banker Jules Steinhardt (Eli Wallach), patriarch and grand old man of global plutocracy, produces four times throughout the film.

  Steinhardt whistles for the first time nearly twenty minutes into the film, during a heated meeting between bankers. The irritating sound means that, according to the most powerful man present, the encounter is finished and there is nothing more to be said.

&n
bsp; The whistle returns during another meeting, in act two, while Steinhardt explains to the New York bankers the apocalyptic consequences the crisis would soon have. In order to persuade the secretary of the treasury to agree to government aid, Jules says, “It’s going to be the ← 186 | 187 → end of the world, Bill”, and immediately whistles right after. Here the whistle gives the idea of a financial apocalypses. It stands for the risk the entire system swept away as trivial.

  The third whistle arrives when Steinhardt decides to let his closest assistant, an aggressive banker, go. “You look for the birds. They’re going to help you, those birds. You’ll see. Good luck” [whistle and hand gesture]. Good bye and good luck”. Despite his assistant’s pleas, this time the taglines means, “I won’t be charmed by your wiles”.

  The last time the tagline occurs is when the financial storm is at its worst, claiming many victims, but Steinhardt is still in the saddle, discussing new business deals with none other than Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), the character who symbolizes financial greed. Steinhardt says he is excited about their deal and seals his thoughts with his characteristic, eccentric whistle. Gekko is just as taken aback as the audience. We then hear the voice of the young trader, the protagonist (Shia Laboeuf), off-screen: “What is the definition of insanity? It’s doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” Old Steinhardt’s repetitive whistle now takes on new meaning. It becomes a metaphor for the judgment the story expresses about Wall Street. Despite the cyclical crises caused by their gambling, speculators never learn from their lessons and just start over from scratch. They are madmen, just like before.

  Besides taglines, each and every dialogue should express the theme as much as possible and include some metaphorical reference that brings the theme to the audience’s mind. For this reason, according to Truby, successful dialogue, like a symphony, should develop alongside the melody (lines that bring about action), the harmony (lines with which characters defend their own moral vision) and a leitmotif (recurring key words that serve the values in question as a synthetic allusion, in the metaphorical sense).

  For example, in the first scene of the The Godfather, the dialogue in which Don Vito persuades Buonasera to join the mafia is filled with very “sensitive” thematic words – “America”, “family”, “justice”, “friendship” and “revenge”. From the very first scene, these key words, some of which are repeated, already begin to create opposition to the ideas that will give rise to the drama.

  ← 187 | 188 → Another example is found in Scent of a Woman. The protagonists in this film are an adolescent with problems and a discharged officer who has lost his self-esteem and is incapable of training young men. In the first few scenes, the word “father” is repeated many times by different characters. This key word makes it immediately apparent that the officer will be called to take on the role of the young man’s father.

  In order to reveal the theme of the story through conflict in dialogue, many films use words to develop (alongside taglines and key words) extended metaphorical texture, interacting with symbolic visual elements.

  The following section will analyze how this happens in two, very different films with similar themes.

  Batman Begins. “Justice is about harmony”

  Batman Begins is a film about justice. The story is about the young millionaire Bruce Wayne, whose parents were killed during a robbery when he was just a child and is now grown up and decides to fight crime in Gotham City by becoming a masked superhero.

  According to McKee, the theme of a film is completely summarized by a sentence that reveals the value that provokes change in the protagonist and the conditions for that change, or rather, which line of conduct makes that value possible or obstructs it. In these terms, the theme of Batman Begins can be formulated as: “justice is obtained through courage that looks beyond evil in order to create conditions that favor good”. The most important way the film develops this positive assumption is by emphasizing the exact opposite: “revenge does not bring about justice, but condemns the reiteration of evil. Revenge is enslaved by past anger and resentment”. The entire story exemplifies this moral truth.

  When Bruce Wayne reflects on the ideal of justice upheld by his father, the benefactor of Gotham City, he calls into question his vindictive intentions. Bruce thus travels to learn about the criminal underworld, to understand the reasons behind it and resist the temptation of joining a ← 188 | 189 → league that advocates punitive and violent means of obtaining justice. Thus, when Bruce returns to Gotham, he invents Batman. He also discovers that the head of the sect he met during his travels is the man who lies behind the crimes in the city. Bruce then thwarts the man’s plan of punishing the corrupt city by destroying it.

  Theme in dialogue

  Throughout the film, especially in act one, in some scenes dialogue deals very openly with the theme through conflict.

  The first dialogue takes place on Wayne’s trip, at the end of a very tough training session (a sword fight on the surface of an iced-over lake). Ducard (Liam Neeson), Wayne’s mentor (who we later discover is the antagonist, Ra’s al Ghul, the leader of the vindictive league) gets the better of Bruce when he precipitates into the icy water.

  The antagonist provokes the protagonist as they sit next to one another before a fire. Ra’s al Ghul is a mentor with a negative influence and insinuates that the young man is different and better than his father was, who was weak.

  DUCARD

  You are stronger than your father.

  BRUCE

  You didn’t know my father.

  The antagonist puts Bruce’s need under pressure:

  DUCARD

  But I know the rage that drives

  you. That impossible anger

  strangling the grief until the

  memory of your loved one is just

  poison in your veins. And one day,

  you catch yourself wishing the

  person you loved had never existed

  so you’d be spared your pain.

  ← 189 | 190 → In the end, Ra’s al Ghul confesses to have felt the same anger after his wife was killed by criminals. Wayne asks and he suggests the cure:

  BRUCE

  What stopped it?

  DUCARD

  Vengeance.

  Yet Bruce, unbeknownst to his adversary, has already embarked on the difficult path that will take him to becoming a mature man. He resists his mentor:

  BRUCE

  That’s no help to me.

  This dialogue reveals the theme by drawing attention to the countertheme, to the antagonist’s own reasoning, to the line of truth he uses to justify his position and make it comprehensible and defendable. In this case, the countertheme of the film is, “justice can be based on revenge as long he who carries it out finds solace”. This type of consolation is irrational and fleeting, based on distressing resentment and yet, it is comforting all the same.

  A second, openly thematic dialogue in the film takes place in a flashback that explains how Bruce began dealing with his desire for vengeance. Once again, the theme is presented by showing the countertheme.

  Bruce, a university student, secretly intends on murdering his parents’ killer (who, in the meantime, has repented and begun collaborating with the justice system). One of the mafia’s henchmen, however, beats Bruce to the act, gunning down the ex-criminal.

  At one point Bruce is in the car with Rachel (Katie Holmes) – the woman he loves and who ignores his vengeful desires. The young millionaire tells Rachel he is happy about what happened, but she objects to his satisfaction:

  BRUCE

  My parents deserved justice.

  ← 190 | 191 → RACHEL

  You’re not talking about justice.

  You’re talking about revenge.

  BRUCE

  Sometimes, they’re the same.

  RACHEL

  No, they’re never the same, Bruce.

  Justice is about harmony. Revenge


  is about you making yourself

  feel better. It’s why we have an

  impartial system.

  The theme has been stated. Justice is about harmony. The countertheme is restated as well. Revenge is about feeling better. Shortly after, when Bruce reveals his plan to kill his father’s assassin to Rachel, she is appalled and slaps him. Bruce is humiliated and is driven to get a better look inside himself.

  A third dialogue specifically related to the theme comes in the second act of the film. Ra’s al Ghul knows Batman has discovered his malicious plan and shows up at the Wayne estate during a party. Bruce sends his guests away and faces him, refusing his proposal to collaborate together:

  BRUCE

  You’re gonna destroy millions of

  lives.

  RA’S AL GHUL

  Only a cynical man would call what

  these people have “lives,” Wayne.

  Crime, despair… This is not how man

  was supposed to live. The League of

  Shadows has been a check against

  human corruption for thousands of

  years. We sacked Rome. Loaded trade

  ← 191 | 192 → ships with plague rats. Burned

  London to the ground. Every time a

  civilization reaches the pinnacle

  of its decadence we return to

  restore the balance.

  A bit further on, in the same dialogue, the antagonist makes this idea clear through a metaphor:

 

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