After viewing many films and reading many books on the craft of screenwriting
one of the most important aspects of film seems to be theme. I’m sorry, I’m
starting to ramble. My question is this: is it bad to formulate an entire screenplay
on the basis of a theme, or does that get in the way of creativity? Should
an idea stem from a theme, or should the idea produce the theme, or can it
work both ways? I thank you in advance for reading this, I know that you have
a tumultuous schedule.
–Brian Formo
"Theme" is one of those words that’s thrown around a lot without
any consensus about what it’s supposed to mean. Here’s my definition to add
the to mix:
Theme is the emotional, intellectual or spiritual issue at the core of the
story. It is the "dark matter" that gives a movie weight – you don’t
notice it directly, but when its missing, the movie seems frivolous and disconnected.
Sometimes, it can be summarized in a word. In X-MEN, the theme is mutation,
and all aspects of the story radiate around this word. The heroes and villains
are all "mutants," different than normal people. The villain wants
to change – mutate – all the world’s leaders. Rogue and the others suffer prejudice
and persecution because of their "otherness." In crafting the story,
the writers focussed on parallels in the real world: particularly Martin Luther
King versus Malcolm X, and the controversy over gay rights.
In ALIENS (the sequel), the theme is motherhood. Almost asexual at the start
of the movie, Ripley adopts a surrogate child in Newt. When Newt is kidnapped,
Ripley must face off against the alien mother, resulting in one of the best
lines of dialogue ever shouted: "Get away from her, you BITCH!" (Interestingly,
in Cameron’s original script we learn that Ripley did have a child of her own
once, but after all these years asleep in space, Ripley
has outlived her.)
In GO, the theme is shouted by several characters in crucial moments: "GO!" Which
means, "I don’t care which way you go, you have to go now!" In each
of the three stories, characters get in way over their heads, but there’s never
time to stop and think through to the best answer. You’ve made a mistake, but
you have to keep going.
Which comes first, idea or theme? Ultimately, I think they’re too inter-related
to divide. When I was brought in to work on TITAN A.E., I explained to the
studio executives that I loved how the Earth was blown up in the first three
minutes, but that the only way to thematically balance the Earth’s destruction
was to create a new world at the end. The story, which had previously been "Treasure
Island in Space," with the Titan holding the Earth’s fortune, became a
Genesis allegory, albeit with a lot of laser blasting and cartoon cleavage.
Thematically, it was now a movie about Home, and every beat of the story focussed
on some aspect of it, from the initial destruction, to the derelict station,
the drifter colony, and finally the Titan itself.
The movie tanked, but how ’bout those themes?
In your own work, it’s definitely worth sitting down and looking at whether
you’ve really explored the idea-within-the-idea. The world doesn’t need another
hollow action movie, but it could use another SPEED (you can’t slow down),
MATRIX (reality is an illusion), or RUN LOLA RUN (what if you could do it again).
It’s no coincidence that the best movies of a category generally have the best-explored
themes.