by The Anatomy of Story- 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller (mobi)
■ Position on the Character Arc Frank has already had his self-revelation. But this is the final step of his arc: he proves the self-revelation by winning the case in trial.
■ Problem How do you sum up the case so that it has the maximum dramatic power?
■ Strategy Make the case and the call to moral action for the jury by secretly describing Frank's own personal development.
■ Desire Frank wants to convince the jury to stand up for justice.
■ Endpoint He recognizes that each juror is a human being who wants to do what is right.
■ Opponent The rich and powerful out there who pound on us every day and make us weak.
■ Plan His plan is to speak from his heart and so make justice real.
■ Conflict The monologue shows a man struggling to know and do what is right even as he is asking the jury to do the same.
■ Twist or Reveal The audience realizes that Frank isn't just talking about this case. He is talking about himself.
■ Moral Argument and Values Frank's moral argument for acting with justice is a complete seven-step story. He begins with people being lost, feeling like powerless victims (weakness). People want to be just (desire), in spite of the rich and powerful who beat them down (opposition). If we can realize we have power (plan), if we believe in ourselves (self-revelation), we can act with justice (moral decision, battle, and new equilibrium).
■ Key Words Justice, believe.
Take a look at this film to see what a great actor can do with a beautifully written monologue.
Closings
Chekhov said that the last ninety seconds are the most important of any play. That's because the final scene is the ultimate convergent point of the story. Occasionally, the last scene includes one more plot kick, in the form of a revelation. But usually, plot business has already been taken care of. The final scene then becomes, like the opening scene, a miniature of the entire story. The author highlights the thematic patterns one more time, and the audience realizes that this representation of characters is also the way of the larger world. In short, the audience has a thematic revelation.
To write a great closing scene, you must realize that it is the point of the upside-down triangle of the full story and that the scene itself is an upside-down triangle, with the key word or line—of the scene and the entire story—coming last:
Done well, the final scene gives you the ultimate funnel effect: that key word or line at the end sets off a huge explosion in the hearts and minds of the audience and resonates long after the story is over.
Let's look at some great final scenes to see how scene construction and dialogue work at this crucial moment in the story.
The Sun Also Rises
(by Ernest Hemingway, 1926) This story tracks the meandering of a group of friends as they travel around Europe and of a particular man who can't be with the woman he loves because of a war wound. This is a great love that cannot be, so these characters spiral down to a point where life is nothing but a succession of grabs at sensation. They are purposeless people, aware of their trap but unable to find a way out.
The final scene is prototypical of the characters' actions in the book. After eating dinner, Jake and Lady Brett Ashley are again on the move. Someone is driving them somewhere in a taxi. As the scene funnels toward the endpoint, Brett says the ultimate Brett line: "Oh, Jake, we could have had such a damned good time together." This mundane, even
throwaway line, also symbolizes the entile story. The might-have-been of grand romantic tragedy has been reduced to having a good time.
The line is topped by the ultimate Jake line: "Yes. Isn't it pretty to think so?" Cursed not just by his injury but also by a sensibility that lets him have an illusion and see through it too, Jake is doomed for eternity.
The Seven Samurai
(by Akira Kurosawa & Shinobu Hashimoto & Hideo Oguni, 1954) In The Seven Samurai, the storyteller's craft is taken to the rarified level of highest art. This is one of the great scripts, masterfully executing virtually every technique described in this book. Its final scene leaves the audience devastated and yet strangely inspired that so much insight into human beings is possible.
In this story, the seven samurai have come together out of altruism and a love of their warrior craft to protect a village from marauding bandits. Katsushiro, a young samurai apprentice, has fallen in love with Shino, a peasant girl. Now the fight is over; the samurai and the villagers have won. But four of the great warriors lie in graves on the hill. And Shino has turned her back on the young warrior and joined the other farmers to plant the next season's crop.
With Shichiroji, the other surviving samurai, the lead samurai, Kan-bei, witnesses Katsushiro's heartbreak, the farmers planting new life, and the four graves of his comrades on the hill. And he has a final insight. Though victorious, he knows the samurai have lost, and their entire way of life is over. The deep differences between people, erased for a moment, have returned, and the heroism of the four dead warriors is as lasting as a gust of wind.
Seen in such a shortened form, this moment may appear to be a baldly stated self-revelation. But for many reasons, it doesn't come across that way. First, it comes after an epic struggle in which seven samurai defeat forty bandits just to save a few farmers who are strangers to them. So it's a tremendous emotional twist. Second, this is a huge revelation, and it comes in the very last moment of the story, much like the shocking reversals at the end of The Sixth Sense and The Usual Suspects. Finally, it is also a thematic revelation in which the hero sees the death of an entire, and in many ways beautiful, social world.
EXT. VILLAGE DAY
Kanbei lowers his head and looks at the ground. He takes a few steps toward camera and then stops, looking back toward the paddy fields. Then he turns and walks back to stand beside Shichiroji again.
KANBEI
We've lost again. Shichiroji is surprised. He looks questioningly at Kanbei.
KANBEI
No, the farmers are the winners, not us.
Kanbei turns away from camera and looks up; Shichiroji does likewise; the camera tilts up the side of the burial hill, losing the two samurai and holding on the four samurai burial mounds silhouetted against the sky. The samurai music comes in over the planting music as the wind blows up the dust among the mounds.
The Great Gatsby
(by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925) The Great Gatsby is justly famous for its closing. Gatsby is dead. Nick has realized the falseness of his quest for success in the big city and has decided to return to the Midwest. The final page finds Nick looking one last time at this rich enclave of the East Coast.
Fitzgerald's final sequence bears careful study. Through Nick, he says the big mansions have closed for the season. This is a specific fact in the story that also symbolizes the end of the phony Utopia of rich parties that died along with Gatsby. He then jumps back in time and up in scope when Nick imagines the island at America's beginnings, when it was a natural Eden, all potential, "a fresh, green breast of the new world" and "the last and greatest of all human dreams." This creates a stark comparison to the same island today, where real desires by real people like Gatsby, Daisy, and Tom have turned the lush forests into the false idols of big houses and fancy, meaningless parties.
From this big-picture comparison, Fitzgerald focuses back down to one person, Gatsby again, whose own desire pointed laserlike to the green
light at the end of Daisy's dock. Gatsby is the false dreamer who, like the classic myth hero, does not know that he already had it all back in the "dark fields" of the Midwest where he started.
As Fitzgerald closes in on the point of the triangle at the end of the scene and the story, he speaks of the symbol of that fake desire, the green light. Unlike so many stories that end falsely with the hero's desire accomplished and everything settled for good, Fitzgerald ends on the desire that never stops, the effort that redoubles as our human goal recedes into the distance. His last line is a thematic revelation that s
tands for the entire story: "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
(by William Goldman, 1969) Just as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid has one of the great openings in movie history, it also has one of the great endings. And in many ways, the final scene is a mirror image of the first two scenes.
■ Position on the Character Arc The tragedy of these immensely likable guys is that they can't change. They can't learn. The new world that's coming on fast is too much for them. They can only die.
■ Problem How do you create an ending that expresses the heroes' essential qualities and shows the result of their not being able to learn?
■ Strategy As in the first scene, the characters find themselves in a tight room with everything closing in fast around them. As in the second scene, the characters face a crisis that defines them. First, they are defined by the way both men face death with extreme confidence—they have no doubt that they can get out of this.
And Butch is already planning their next stop. Second, the crisis shows their differences: Butch is still coming up with ideas, while Sundance is the one who has to get them out of the trouble that always ensues.
Again, Goldman showcases the beauty of their teamwork when Butch runs out to get ammunition and Sundance covers him. If Sundance was impressive when he shot Macon's gun across the floor, he is downright dazzling when he whirls and shoots every policeman in sight. But what
makes the audience love this team is how they work together comically. Their never-ending comic bickering, present from the beginning, with Butch the excited one and Sundance the cool skeptic, shows the audience once more that this really is a marriage made in heaven.
But Goldman sets up one more contrast in the scene that expresses the main theme and the lack of character change: these two guys can't see the world that's coming. Goldman crosscuts their comic bickering over Butch's latest idea for dodging the future—Australia—with the arrival of what appears to be the entire Bolivian army. The increasingly extreme contrast between what the heroes know and what the audience knows underlines what has always been there from the beginning: Butch and Sundance can't see beyond their little personal world. Lovable as they are, they aren't that smart.
With this contrast, a final audience revelation hits home: even supermen must die. And isn't it painful when they do?
Once again, the last line is the key line of the scene and the story. When Butch asks Sundance if he saw their nemesis Lafors out there and Sundance says no, Butch replies, "Good. For a minute I thought we were in trouble."
MASTERPIECES OF SCENE CONSTRUCTION
I'd like to take one last look at the techniques of scene construction and dialogue by studying two great films, Casablanca and The Godfather. These films are masterpieces in the art of storytelling, and their scene construction and dialogue are brilliant. Because so much of your success in scene writing depends on your ability to place a scene on the arc of your hero's development, I want to explore scenes that come from the beginning and the end of these two films. To fully appreciate the excellence of scene construction and dialogue, give yourself the pleasure of seeing these films again.
Casablanca
(play Everybody Comes to Rick's by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison,
screenplay by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, and Howard Koch, 1942)
First Scene Between Rick and Louis
In this scene, still fairly early in the story, Rick and Police Captain Louis
Renault have a pleasant chat before Major Strasser arrives and Ugarte is
captured.
■ Position on the Character Arc This is the first moment in the development of the relationship between Rick and Louis that will end in their mutual redemption and "marriage" in the final scene of the story.
This scene is a perfect example of why you should always start constructing a scene by determining its place on the overall character arc. This is not the first scene in the movie and so it appears to be just another step in the flow of the story. Only by starting with the endpoint of Rick's arc-—becoming a freedom fighter and entering a "marriage" of friendship with Louis—do you see that this is the crucial opening step in that arc.
■ Problems
1. Show the audience that Louis is as witty as Rick and that he is the appropriate buddy for Rick to end up with.
2. Show that Louis has just as much moral need as Rick.
3. Bring in more information about Rick's ghost, particularly information that shows that this cynical, hard man was once not only good but also heroic.
■ Strategy
1. Have Louis question Rick and introduce information about his past under the guise that it is all part of Louis's job of stopping Laszlo. This is an excellent way of introducing exposition about the main character without being dull or heavy-handed. At the same time, Rick's insistence that he was well paid for his work keeps him from seeming too sentimental and idealistic.
2. Have Rick and Louis bet on whether Laszlo will escape. This gives the two men a desire line just between them and shows their mutual cynicism and selfishness; both will turn a freedom fighter's quest to defeat the Nazis into a contest for money.
3. Introduce information about Laszlo and Ilsa so that both arrive on the scene already having great reputations.
4. Provide more explanations between the complex and confusing power relationships between Louis, the French police captain, and the Nazi, Major Strasser.
■ Desire Louis wants to learn more about Rick's past. Then he wants to warn Rick not to help Laszlo escape.
■ Endpoint Rick won't tell him anything and claims he doesn't care whether Laszlo escapes, except as a sporting proposition.
■ Opponent Rick is Louis's opponent.
■ Plan Louis asks Rick directly about his past and warns him in no uncertain terms to leave Laszlo alone.
■ Conflict Rick and Louis disagree over whether Laszlo will escape, but Rick defuses any real conflict by turning their disagreement into abet.
■ Twist or Reveal The great freedom fighter Laszlo, whom we haven't met, is traveling with a remarkable woman, and hard-boiled, cynical Rick was a freedom fighter himself some years before.
■ Moral Argument and Values This exchange is about acting morally. The two men bet on whether Laszlo will escape, not on whether he should. Indeed, Rick insists he will not help Laszlo and wasn't acting for moral reasons when he fought for the "right" side in Ethiopia and Spain. Rick also says Laszlo will take one exit visa and leave his companion in Casablanca.
The clear value opposition in the scene is money and self-interest versus romance and selfless fighting for right.
■ Key Words Romantic, sentimentalist.
The dialogue of both characters in this scene is very stylized and witty. Louis doesn't just ask Rick about the ghost of his past. He asks, "Did you abscond with the church funds? Did you run off with the Senator's wife? I'd like to think you killed a man. It's the romantic in me." Rick doesn't just tell him to mind his own business. He says he "came to Casablanca for the waters." When Louis reminds him Casablanca is in the desert, Rick responds, "I was misinformed."
Closing Scene Between Rick and Louis
The final scene in Casablanca is one of the most famous in movie history. Rick has sacrificed his love for Ilsa and sent her off to help her husband, Victor Laszlo. Now he faces his former opponent but stylistic equal,
Louis.
■ Position on the Character Arc
1. This is the endpoint of Rick's becoming a committed freedom fighter and patriot.
2. Structurally, the scene has a double reversal, a change of two characters, Louis as well as Rick.
3. This is the endpoint of Rick's relationship with Louis in which the two enter into a buddy "marriage."
■ Problems
1. How do you give the final scene the most dramatic impact possible?
2. How do you show big ch
anges, in two characters, in a believable but not boring way?
■ Strategy
1. Hold off the reveal of Louis's change and the creation of a new buddy team until the very end.
2. Use a double reversal so that Rick and his equal both see the light but maintain their hard-nosed opportunism. What makes the scene is the return to the bet. This allows both men to make huge moral flips but still preserve their tough-guy quality and so avoid over-the-top sentimentality.
■ Desire Louis wants to join Rick in the fight and begin what looks
like a great friendship.
■ Endpoint Rick welcomes him on the journey.
■ Opponent It appears that Rick and Louis might still be opponents
over Rick's escape and the bet. But Louis finesses that.
■ Plan Louis hides his real intention, making it look like he could
still give Rick trouble over the exit visa or the bet.
■ Conflict The two men negotiate over Rick's escape and the money Louis owes Rick. But Louis comes up with a stylish resolution that ends in friendship.
■ Twist or Reveal Louis isn't going to nail Rick; he's going to join him. But it will cost Rick the 10,000 francs he won.
■ Moral Argument and Values Both men accept the idea that it is time to become a patriot. But they don't entirely forget about money, either.
■ Key Words Patriot, friendship.
The last scene funnels down to a single point of the scene and the story: friendship. Rick may miss out on true love, but he ends up with a great and equal friend. The scene is constructed to lead to the big reveal, Louis's stylish way of joining Rick in his new moral action. The dialogue between the two men is just as snappy and sophisticated as ever. What makes it even better is that they're not even trying.
There's one last thing to notice about the dialogue. Though extremely witty, it is quite dense. The writers pack huge story flips into a few short lines, and this has tremendous impact on the audience. Rick does his noble deed. There's a line of dialogue from each, and Louis does his noble deed, dumping the Vichy water. Louis proposes the deal concerning Rick's escape. Three short lines. Rick flips it back to the bet. Three short lines. Louis combines the escape with the bet. One line. Rick realizes what's happened. And the last line is eternal friendship. That series of combinations produces a big knockout at the very end of the final scene of the film. Clearly, these writers understood how to execute Chekhov's rule about the last ninety seconds of their story.