[Writer Post] Of Movies and Mayhem
This past weekend I ended up watching two very different movies – and discovered something about myself as a viewer/fan and writer. I’m a “linear” storyteller/reader/watcher. Even with shows like Once Upon A Time, with their bouncing between current day story and back story, there’s a linear-ness to their story telling and it all connects.
What brought this up? My niece spent part of her Spring Break with us. My husband discovered that neither one of us had seen Pulp Fiction. So we watched it. And I still don’t know what it was that I watched. I can see how it won the awards it did, but I don’t get it. I UNDERSTAND the different bits from different aspects of the same story – but not the random placement. I know part of that is the strange, surreal place that is Quentin Tarentino’s headspace, but still… and if you take out the f-bombs, the movie would’ve been 1/3 shorter.
And it’s not Tarentino – well, not JUST Tarentino – I had a hard time following Phineas and Ferb‘s episode, “Remains of the Platypus”, and that was just going backward in time. I assume this episode has something to do with Remains of the Day, but I haven’t seen that either. (Yeah, yeah, you’d be shocked at the movies I have not seen and the books I have not read.)
This point was brought home when , on Saturday – St. Patrick’s Day – I suggested we watch Green Lantern (yes, “lovable rogue, Nathan Fillion would’ve done a great job, but I do like Ryan Reynolds in this role). Now many folks probably have problems with the Superhero movies, but darn it. I like the fun, could never happen in real life, adventure. Yes, it had a simple story – but it was a simple, STRAIGHT FORWARD story that I didn’t have to try to figure out how things were put together. I could simply enjoy the humor, the eye candy, and classic Good vs. Evil aspect of this Origin Story.
And that’s a lot of what I’m looking for in a story – whether written or film – is a clean story. The mayhem factor is irrelevant as long as I can follow the plot. I still couldn’t tell you what the PLOT was to Pulp Fiction. That bothers me. Mayhem, not so much – that’s why I like action films/stories to begin with. Well, and Muppets. You can’t have a good Muppet project without Mayhem. But the mayhem has to be part of the plot, part of the story – and if you can make part of a Romantic Comedy, even better. That’s why I like movies like Grosse Point Blank and This Means War.
Now that I’ve rambled on about movies with – maybe – some semblance of a point…I need to go work on my “chore typing”. I’m almost caught up with my novel-in-progress. I still have some editing typing to input. But the pile is coming down to a more manageable (and less depressing) size. But right now, it’s not getting any smaller.