Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
For my screenplay story, I sometimes find myself clashing between the two. What if a character had do something which doesn't make the most logical sense plot wise, but it elevated the stories themes more for dramatic effect? Or is plot logic more important to the point where I should choose that over theme?
For example, in the movie Get Out (2017),
SPOILER
The main character a black man being brainwashed into becoming a mindless slave by white people. After he is kidnapped, they try to brainwash him, by having him listen to a hypnotist type character. But in order for him to avoid being brainwashed, he puts cotton in his ears so he cannot hear him.
This is thematic because a lot of black American slavery had to do with cotton production. But plot-wise, it doesn't really make a lot of sense, since cotton is an extremely incompetent at blocking out sound, and you would still hear the voice. But the writers chose theme over it.
So I find myself facing decisions like that when it comes to them vs. plot, but what do you think?
People put cotton in their ears all the time, and have for all your life.
So cotton as earplugs is a natural visual. Most folks don't know what modern earplugs look like, so the plugs would be visually confusing.
Cotton isn't 'incompetent'- poke enough of it into an ear canal, and noise will be dampened.
But the logic you used is spurious because you didn't think through this far enough.
If the town was counting on hypnotism for mind control, then the black guy couldn't go buy some earplugs without being noticed and suspected. He had no need to plug his ears when he arrived in town, so he wouldn't bring a pair with him.
So cotton would be the only thing he could use. He had to improvise on the spur of the moment because he didn't know beforehand he would become a hypnotic subject.
Last edited by banjomike; 07-17-2018 at 08:07 PM..
Oh okay, good points. Perhaps this is a case of plot and theme both being able to be used. It's hard thinking of good examples of what I mean by this.
Like for example, in the movie The Departed, the villain wants to stop the hero from unleashing evidence on him. Incriminating evidence on tape. However, this is plot driven and not theme driven.
If it were theme driven the hero would have taken the villain's greatest flaw, of what the story's theme represents, and he would try to use that flaw against him to bring him to his downfall, and thus taking the theme of the story in a new direction for the ending.
But they chose plot in this case. Why did they chose plot over theme?
I think employing thematic elements too blatantly in the plot makes the plot seem telegraphed or ties things up too neatly. I think the best fiction is an interaction of fairly blatant plot features with more nuanced thematic features.
An example I thought of of theme being used heavily was in the movie Minority Report.
SPOILER
At the end, Anderton, could have just arrested the villain and the movie could have been over, but instead he decides to allow the villain the decision on whether or not to shoot Anderton, and he tells the villain that his system will work, if he kills him. The villain thus has to make a decision that is very theme driven.
But realistically, cops do not use a villain's own theme against them when trying to catch them. So how risky is it to have a cop use a theme against the villain without it coming off as forced to the audience?
An example I thought of of theme being used heavily was in the movie Minority Report.
SPOILER
At the end, Anderton, could have just arrested the villain and the movie could have been over, but instead he decides to allow the villain the decision on whether or not to shoot Anderton, and he tells the villain that his system will work, if he kills him. The villain thus has to make a decision that is very theme driven.
But realistically, cops do not use a villain's own theme against them when trying to catch them. So how risky is it to have a cop use a theme against the villain without it coming off as forced to the audience?
Try it and see.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
