I watched a movie recently where the ending pretty much ruined the whole thing. I was stunned. It had big name actors, one of whom I liked. It had high production values. It had an interesting story–although it began with a prologue, which is not my favorite thing. Then, in Act III, it completely fell apart and the ending just sat there, dead on delivery. As I watched the credits start to roll, I was reminded of something that my first flying instructor said to me: fly it all the way down. [...]
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In Part 3, by the end of Act 2, the defense is well along in making its case in court and yet their most important witness has killed himself and one of their defendants has admitted lying on the witness stand. At this point, Danny does the only thing he can to salvage the situation: call Col. Jessup to the stand and try to get him to admit ordering the Code Red. [...] In the scenes below, the second half of Act 2 builds toward the final confrontation of the movie and moves our hero, Danny (played by Tom Cruise), into the courtroom to embrace the destiny that he has been denying. [...] Here in the first part of the second act, we see Danny begin to move away from the premise that has sustained his character in the first act–to arrange a plea bargain for his clients, two Marines accused in the death of another, all of them under the command of Col. Nathan Jessup, the antagonist (played by Jack Nicholson). Below, we begin the second act with their first meeting. [...] What the title really ought to say is “A Few Good Men and One Great Writer.” Per recommendations from writing coaches (and writers) such as Larry Brooks and Alexandra Sokoloff (please see their fantastic blogs for veritable treasure chests of writing information), I’ve decided to deconstruct the plot of a movie instead of a book this time around. It had been years since I’d seen A Few Good Men but I had the vaguest of memories regarding its plot and what I thought were the major plot points. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, A Few Good Men was originally a stage play, which I think may have something to do with it sticking in my mind as an example of a particularly strong three act structure. [...] |
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