Batman BEGINS!!!

I SAW BATMAN BEGINS!!! (AND with my Super-Hot Best Friend Traci!)
AND THE DID IT RIGHT!!!

***Tommy, if you're reading this and you haven't seen it yet, STOP IT! GO AWAY! This entry has nothing to do with the progress of the scripts, so just stop reading until you've seen it! (HOW have you NOT seenit YET?!! YOU?!!)***

So anyway, THEY DID IT!!!

I WEPT! It was so well-done that I actually WEPT! MORE THAN ONCE!

I had 2 problems with this movie before I saw it: The costume (Still all black, no blue and grey, or even BLACK and grey!!!) and the Batmobile (I always found it more believable when the Batmobile was simply a souped-up version of a car we've already seen on the street). But after seeing the movie, I buy them both!

THE WRITING!!! Oh, dear Lord, the writing!!!

It's EXACTLY what feature film writing SHOULD be!!! Let me explain:

I love "entertainment" or "popcorn" movies! That's just what I dig. Can't help it; don't want to help it; that's just me. Not that I believe those should be the only movies made -- far from it; the more "challenging" films teach the entertainment filmmakers how to do their job much, much more effectively!!! -- but that's just my taste. Many is the drunken party conversation when I've had to defend "entertainment" movies to "art film" filmmakers and film conesuers(sp?) by pointing out, in their language, the subtle (often too subtle) "value" or "importance" of these films. (You can't defned the catagory as a whole, but if you go case-by-case you can mount a strong artistic arguement for any film you love... if you know what you're talking about in the first place. Remember, Shakespeare wrote for the masses, NOT the critics!)

So anyway, Robert McKee lays it all out in brutally honest terms: Good storytellers actually DO serve a purpose to Society. Stories give us the tools for life.

Therefor, one of the critera for ANY fulfilling entertainment is that it deals with the Human Condition, it illuminates some Truth about what it is to be human in a way that helps us understand ourselves and those around us BETTER than we currently do.

And the way to do this is through Thematic Arguement. I go this from the Wordplay guys (www.wordplayer.com), Ted Elliot & Terry Rossio who wrote -- among MANY others -- THE MASK OF ZORRO, SHREK and PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURES OF THE BLACK PEARL, and John Truby, who lectures about and created a program for writing the "blockbuster" screenplay, as well as the creator(s) of the StoryTeller software (www.storymind.com/storyteller; sorry I don't remember the name(s)) as well as McKee himself.

The Thematic Arguement is this: You have many opinions about how to go through life successfully. Your Thematic Argument is ONE of those opinions. Let's say that one of your opinions is "A person can live successfully if he/she overcomes his/her fears". Now, the way to turn that opinion into a screenplay is to have all your major characters dealing with their very personal, very specific fears... But in different ways.

So your hero deals with his fears in one way, and your villain deals with his fears in a slightly -- note SLIGHTLY -- different way. Then you have other characters dealing with their fears in different ways.

The outcome you get is a story about fear, and whoever prevails at the end of the movie has won the arguement, in the filmgoer's eyes. Because they have watched this arguement played out IN ACTIONS, NOT WORDS over the course of 2 hours. They see how each attitude informs and/or provokes different actions/reactions under different circumstances and they understand the value/weaknesses of each point of view.

Now here's the key: Robert McKee once autographed one of my short scripts, and here's EXACTLY what he wrote: "To Ray Jay - Write The Truth" and then his signature.

If you are an observer of WHAT REALLY HAPPENS IN LIFE and you write things that unfold the way they REALLY DO, then you make a strong case for your arguement.

Not back to BATMAN BEGINS. The movie has a very strong Thematic Arguement that is introduced almost immediately, and plays itself out REALISTICALLY throughout the entire movie!!!
And thus, we walk away from having seen a REALLY COOL MOVIE, and with some insight into ourselves and others!!!

You think it's a coincidence that STAR WARS has endured the way it has? It's NOT. And STAR WARS will continue to endure generation after generation -- despite the complaints that I know many have about certain, nit-picky details (and characters) because Lucas was laying out his extensively-considered viewpoint of spirituality and social politics.

Anyway... So, the movie was really well done! It even defined for me exactly what it is that I enjoy so much about dark fiction: It's not about showing how awful Life/Society/The Human Condition/whatever is, it's about showing us how we can dig deep within ourselves and OVERCOME the DARKEST darkness!!! Because let's face it, when we watch BATMAN, we're NOT The Joker, we're The Batman!!! When we watch a Romero flick, we're NOT a zombie, we're The Black Guy!!!

DUDE!!! And THE MUSIC!!! You know how a John Carpenter theme consists of the same 7 notes (or so) but WORKS SO BRILLIANTLY for the emotion of the film? Well this movie has a very simplistic approach to scoring, but IT SO WORKS!!! After Traci and I said good-night I HAD TO buy the soundtrack!!! (I'm listening to it now, as I write this, and IT SO RULES!!!)

So... blah. I loved the movie, and I think anyone who is into (a) writing, (b) filmmaking, or (c) being entertained SHOULD SEE THIS FILM!!!

THEY FINALLY GOT IT RIGHT!!!