{"id":4926,"date":"2012-01-10T11:42:30","date_gmt":"2012-01-10T11:42:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/\/?p=4926"},"modified":"2012-01-10T11:42:30","modified_gmt":"2012-01-10T11:42:30","slug":"war-horse-spielberg-loses-his-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/war-horse-spielberg-loses-his-way\/","title":{"rendered":"War Horse – Spielberg Loses His Way"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"War-Horse-Movie-poster-Film-review-e1324422829991\"<\/a>Steven\u00a0Spielberg’s War Horse<\/strong> is the definition of an episodic narrative with very little character development. \u00a0A brave courageous boy acquires a brave courageous horse, the boy loses horse, he is determined to find horse again, he succeeds and brings the horse home. \u00a0A goal is set and we watch it being accomplished step-by-step.<\/p>\n

The film is beautifully shot but is low on emotional impact and, strangely, low on sacrifice. \u00a0Both the boy and the horse survive by a serious of amazing and miraculous coincidences. \u00a0A mediocre script in even the hand of \u00a0a master director pumped up by an overly emotional score still makes a mediocre movie.<\/p>\n

How did War Horse<\/strong> go so wrong?<\/p>\n

What the main character wants is a clear and simple ego-driven goal. \u00a0It is something that directly benefits the main character that he or she can physically have or obtain. It is clear. It is simple. It is concrete. It is specific. It is the finite object of the character\u2019s personal desire. For example: win the championship trophy, get the promotion, pay the rent, solve the crime, buy the fancy car, steal the jewel, get the girl (or guy), etc. To obtain the want, the character must abandon the need.<\/div>\n
What Does the Character Need?<\/div>\n
What the character needs is an inner ache or yearning that the character is unaware of, denies, suppresses or ignores. It is a deeper, more abstract or intangible human longing. It is not physical or concrete. It is an emotional or spiritual urge or inner call to live up to one\u2019s higher nature. For example: to become a better parent, to forgive another, to act with integrity, to find one\u2019s faith, to become more altruistic, to be a better friend, to face the truth, to love unselfishly, etc.<\/div>\n
To embrace the need, the character must abandon the specific self-centered goal (or object of desire) and address more fundamental and far-reaching human concern.<\/div>\n
What is the Conflict Between the Want and the Need?<\/div>\n
One of the most common problems with scripts that don\u2019t work is the lack of a clear and specific want vs. a deep and powerful inner longing.<\/div>\n
The want pulls us through the story. The need draws us deeper into or inside the character. If this bedrock conflict isn\u2019t clear the script won\u2019t add up to very much.<\/div>\n

What the main character in a movie wants is a clear and simple goal. \u00a0It is something that directly benefits the protagonist that he or she can physically have or obtain. It is concrete. It is specific. It is the finite object of the character\u2019s personal desire. In War Horse<\/strong> the boy’s want or goal is to find the horse and bring him home. To obtain the want, however, the character must abandon the need. \u00a0That personal conflict is the essence of good drama.<\/p>\n

What the character needs is an inner ache or yearning that the character is unaware of, denies, suppresses or ignores. It is a deeper, more abstract or intangible human longing. It is not physical or concrete. It is an emotional or spiritual urge or inner call to live up to one\u2019s higher nature. For example: to stand up for one’s beliefs, to become a better parent, to forgive another, to act with integrity, to find one\u2019s faith, to become more altruistic, to be a better friend, to face the truth, to love unselfishly, etc.<\/p>\n

To embrace the need, the character must abandon the specific goal (or object of desire) and address more fundamental and far-reaching human concern.\u00a0One of the most common problems with scripts that don\u2019t work is the lack of a clear and specific want vs. a deep and powerful inner longing.<\/p>\n

That is the case in War Horse<\/strong>. \u00a0There is plenty of external conflict in the family’s poverty and the horrors of war. \u00a0There is a good amount of relationship conflict– different people in the story clash about all sorts of things. But there is no inner conflict. There is nothing the boy needs to over come in himself<\/em> in order to succeed. \u00a0He is as plucky, courageous, determined and resourceful in the beginning of the film as he is at the end of the film.<\/p>\n

It’s astonishing that in a film about war there is very little sacrifice for the good of others. \u00a0The boy is not changed by his experiences and no one else is much changed either. \u00a0The relentlessly upbeat ending is ridiculous in the face of the devastation of “The Great War” which so profoundly changed everyone and everything in Europe.<\/p>\n

What the main character wants pulls us through the story. The need draws us deeper into or inside the character. If this bedrock conflict isn\u2019t clear the script won\u2019t add up to very much. Unfortunately, this is the case in War Horse<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steven Spielberg’s War Horse is the definition of an episodic narrative with very little character development. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[25,26,27,28,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,1054,513,41,1169,42],"class_list":["post-4926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies-character-development-screenwriting-screenplay-script-blog","tag-character","tag-characters","tag-emotional-toolbox","tag-etb","tag-film","tag-films","tag-laurie-hutzler","tag-movies","tag-nine-character-types","tag-screenplay","tag-screenplays","tag-screenwriting","tag-script","tag-scripts","tag-scriptwriting","tag-spielberg","tag-steven-spielberg","tag-tv","tag-war-horse","tag-writing"],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-300x225.jpg",300,225,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-768x576.jpg",768,576,true],"large":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"ttshowcase_normal":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",125,94,false],"ttshowcase_small":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",75,56,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",960,720,false],"Image Size 500x500":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n.jpg",500,375,false],"woocommerce_thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-300x400.jpg",300,400,true],"woocommerce_single":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-600x450.jpg",600,450,true],"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/30710870_10211699141895539_4496568718662303744_n-100x100.jpg",100,100,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Laurie Hutzler","author_link":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/author\/admin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Steven Spielberg's War Horse is the definition of an episodic narrative with very little character development.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}