More than any other writers, screenwriters can persuade us to suspend disbelief.
The story moves fast. The technology draws us into the story. We question almost nothing. We are manipulated. We pay money to be manipulated.
It's entertainment, so we do not care. Hollywood has understood this, all the way back to D. W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation (1915), a blockbuster movie promoting the memory of the original Ku Klux Klan. It led to the establishment of a new Klan before the end of 1915. This was the great expansion of the Klan in American history. Harry Truman joined it briefly. So did Harry Byrd. The power of movies to create public opinion is limited, but they can reinforce existing opinions.
For my students, I go through an exercise. I have them watch a movie. Then I provide a list of incongruities. I do not mean visual gaffes. The movie director hires people who are skilled at keeping anomalies in between scenes shot on different days from occurring. I am talking about built-in incongruities in the script. The writers allow them for the sake of persuading the audience.
My readers are more sophisticated than most. They can read an article and spot inconsistencies. But once anyone sits down in front of a movie screen, he suspends his judgment. He is vulnerable to propaganda. I want you to recognize this.
I have selected two examples. First, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), which was Jimmy Stewart's breakthrough role. It was a feel-good movie to persuade us that reforming Washington in 1939 was not a lost cause, when it was clearly a lost cause. Frank Capra used techniques to persuade viewers to suspend disbelief. For my analysis, click here. It won the Oscar for best writing, original story.
My second example is Casablanca (1942). It is still a beloved movie. It was written just after Pearl Harbor. It was released after America's invasion of Casablanca in November. This movie was a subtle attack on what the pro-war interventionists had labeled "isolationism." Pearl Harbor marked the end of political resistance to the expansion of the military across the world. Sidney Greenstreet's character Ferrari tells Rick, "Isolationism is no longer a practical policy." Rick tells the corrupt police chief, "I stick my neck out for nobody," to which he responds: "A wise foreign policy." I have provided a list of 39 clear-cut improbabilities and outright impossibilities in the script. Download here. The screenplay won the Oscar. So did the movie: best picture.
One of the most respected movies in the history of film is Orson Welles' Citizen Kane (1941). It is powerful in its use of imagery. We might even call it legendary in this regard. Its opening scene and closing scene are among the most famous in the history of the movies. Both of them are fake.
Here is the opening scene.
Did you see the problem?
There was no one in the room. The nurse enters only after she hears the breaking glass. No one heard him say "rosebud." Yet the entire movie is based on the search for the meaning of "rosebud."
By the way, have you ever seen a bed located at the top of marble stairs with no carpet? Welles needed this for the snow globe to shatter.
Then there is the legendary conclusion.
Did you see the problem? Maybe not. The previous three minutes set it up. Here are all the things Kane collected, worth millions in 1939 dollars. The collection is owned by the banks, we are told. Every item was tagged with a price. Then the butler says, "Throw that junk." This could not have happened. It was not his property. It could have been auctioned off as part of the collection of Charles Kane. (Steven Spielberg paid $60,000 for one of the two surviving "Rosebud" sleds. The other one pulled over $230,000.)
Welles manipulated the audience. He co-wrote the screenplay. He directed the film. He starred in the film. He got away with it. The screenplay won the Oscar. The movie was nominated for best picture.
In the American Film Institute's 1998 ranking, Citizen Kane was voted the #1 movie of all time. Casablanca was #2. In the 2007 update, Casablanca was dropped to #3. Yet these two movies were based overwhelmingly on viewer manipulation. Their central premises were nonsensical.
We are dupes in front of a screen. Face up to it.
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