-
Day 5: Resolution Scene
1. Please watch this scene and provide your insights into what makes this scene great from a writing perspective.
2. Read the other writers comments and make notes of how you will improve your opening scene.
3. Rethink your Resolution scene using your new insights and rewrite the scene.
-
3 Replies
-
SCENE ANALYSIS – RESOLUTION: AMERICAN BEAUTY
ARC: The scene starts with a visual of a person lying on the floor, a bullet wound in the forehead pouring out blood. While not actively violent (although the gunshot is heard three times), it begins as a violent scene. The scene ends peacefully with the deceased discussing all the beauty of the world.
SITUATION: The deceased is talking about having his whole life pass before his eyes.
CONFLICT: Not so much except what the deceased is saying about death and the beauty of life seems to conflict with what the audience might think about death.
MOVING THE STORY FORWARD: Various other people are shown responding to the gunshot
SETUPS/PAYOFFS: Setup: Gun missing on wall. Payoff: Wife putting purse which seems to have gun in laundry basket.
HOW DOES THIS BRING THE MOVIE TO CONCLUSION? Reveals the protagonist is dead.
HOW DOES THIS SHOW THE NEW STATUS QUO? It shows everyone who is still alive and that life must go forward without their loved one.
HOW IS IT A SATISFYING ENDING? It’s been too long since I watched the movie to remember, but I feel that on some level justice is delivered to the protagonist.
DELIVERING CHARACTER? His final words talk about all the beauty in the world and how he needs to remember not to try to hold onto it, but to let it pass through him. So much beauty, his heart swells up. It also shows us that in his final words, he is telling the audience not to worry.
INTERESTING DIALOGUE, ESPECIALLY THE LAST LINE OF THE MOVIE:
“You have no idea what I’m talking about I’m sure. But don’t worry, you will someday.”
In his final words, the deceased is not talking about how horrible it was that he was shot. Rather, he talks about how much beauty there is in the world and in his life. He tries to reassure the reader that one day they’ll understand this and that death is nothing to be feared.
-
Such a great scene! I think what makes this scene great is perspective. Usually when someone is dead or dying, we don’t hear a long monologue like this. He’s reviewing his life, which is in direct alignment with what he does throughout the film, but this time it’s from a sense of gratitude and not deprivation. His seemingly peaceful manner is also in stark contrast to the imagery of screaming and despair that we see on the screen, but in alignment to his nostalgia. And the irony of the end dialogue is that it kind of suddenly turns the camera on the viewer.
-
Another gut-wrenching-scene! It is great on so many levels. If I had to sum it up in one word it would be: Irony. The moment the lead-character has come to self actualization is the moment he dies.
1. It pays off every loose thread of the story. 2. It provides unexpected twists. (The neighbor being the killer). 3. The calm narration is a beautifully contrasting juxtaposition to the dramatic content we see. It has, what we all crave: Lightness, humor, acceptance. It reconciles us with the antagonisms in life. Here is someone who has given up fighting, but not because he is a coward, but because he gained wisdom.
Structurally it is the editing with the repeated gun shot, that makes it great. What it shows is that the lives in this movie are so strongly connected, that they all have to be there as an “acoustic witness” when it happens. The shot is a wake-up call to everyone in the story and to everyone in the audience to be grateful for “every single moment” in their own “stupid little life” It is the christian motif interpreted in a very good but not in a moralizing way. The lead- character in the end is hanging on the cross for everyone else in the story and for all the people in the audience.
The new status quo is both shown and spoken: “I could be pretty pissed off (…), but it’s hard to stay mad, when there’s so much beauty in the world…” When the scene opens we see his face and very unlike other murder-scenes we see a calm and happy expression on his face. This is the face he leaves this world with, the expression that sums up his life.
The last line is a total goosebump moment: “But don’t worry, you will some day” This is one of the best lines I have ever heard at the end of a film. Because it is both very clear and ambiguous. The question I leave the film with is: What does he mean? When will I understand and experience his truth the way he did? When I die? Or is there a chance I can get to this place before I die?
Log in to reply.