Recycling Stories For the Silver Screen

Good day, good day, my good and friendly readers! I apologize for having been gone for the better part of a month. My wife and I were traveling for vacation, going from San Antonio to Indiana to Florida and finally back again. It was very enjoyable, despite the sunburns. Speaking of which, here’s some good bit of advice: if you ever use the spray-on sunscreen, you still have to rub it in. My wife and I learned that the hard way. But even so, it was a very, very enjoyable time and I’m sad to see it over.

Now coming up soon, in approximately two weeks, is the debut of my brand-new, not-even-yet-written steampunk series, The Rift! The official premier date for it is July 11th. While I’m currently constructing an elaborate world and filling it with unique characters and mechanical/analog technology, I’m also brainstorming slight variants to the name. I’m thinking something to the effect of The Disparate Rift, or The Fantastic Rift, or something to give it a more sensationalistic title, The _______ Rift. If you have any ideas, feel free to shoot them at me, I’m open to suggestions. What adjective would help describe a story about the voyage of a steam-powered flying ship in a Victorian culture, which climaxes in the appearance of a horrific antagonist of Lovecraftian persuasion? Perhaps my brain needs more steam in order to think up a more advanced title.

Anyway, today I would like to share something I’ve noticed on the silver screen (that’s television, if you don’t know). Oftentimes, when a powerfully unique story hits the big screen, it only takes a year or two for the basic formula of that story to be incorporated into smaller television shows, with each show doing their own take on it. Other times, we see a trope start showing up across a variety of television shows. With these in mind, let’s explore four of these stories and see how they’ve been utilized in different ways on the small screen. I’ll begin with the least utilized and culminate in that which we see most often.

The Hazardous Challenges

Inspired by the 2004 film, Saw, this theme places the protagonist in some sort of temporary prison. He has no idea how he got there, but as his mysterious and almost never-seen captor begins presenting him with life-or-death challenges, he begins to understand that he’s being punished for past deeds. I enjoyed the first two Saw films (but none after that, as I feel that they lost their psychological component in favor of gratuitous amounts of gore), and so I was surprised when I saw an episode in the fifth season of Smallville entitled “Mercy.” In this episode, Lionel Luthor is held captive by a former employee whom he wronged, and he’s forced through various tasks which threaten his life but also force him to revisit his past decisions. Smallville, in this episode, essentially transferred the Saw formula in order to see what they could do with it, even going as far as having puzzles and clues in the challenges. But, as we’ll soon see, Smallville was notorious for stealing the formulas of films in order to flesh out some of their “filler episodes.” To their credit, though, they often used these episodes to advance the development of individual characters. In this case, it was Lionel.

What Happened Last Night?

Fans of the 2009 film, The Hangover, will recognize this next formula. What happens when a group of friends (usually between 3 and 5) wake up the morning after a grand party with no memories of the previous night? They retrace their steps, discover that they were drugged and find copious amounts of evidence and eyewitness testimony all pointing to a long night of drug-induced shenanigans. As one can imagine, this theme always veers on the side of comedy, whereas the previous theme stuck firmly to the horror genre. In Smallville‘s final season, we find this formula in the episode “Fortune,” chronicling the hijinks of Lois and Clark – accompanied by their friends – the night before their wedding. But lo and behold, just today I started rewatching an episode from the sixth season of the detective comedy-drama, Psych, in which the same formula was used. “Last Night Gus” covers four characters as they try to solve a murder to which their own prior-night’s hijinks were inextricably tied.

The Dreamscape

By far the most psychedelic of themes we’ve mentioned so far, this one may have its origin in the 2000 fantasy-detective film, The Cell. In this, Jennifer Lopez and Vince Vaughan use advanced technology to enter the comatose mind of a serial killer in order to locate his last victim before she dies. But during their ventures into the madman’s psyche, they explore the different facets of his personality and ultimately learn exactly what makes that killer what he is. This formula was used in yet another episode of Smallville, the 7th season episode, “Fracture.” After Lex Luthor is shot in the head, Clark elects to use experimental LuthorCorp technology to enter the comatose man’s mind and rescue him. Once there, Clark discovers a young boy (representing the good in Lex) dominated by a violent older man (representing Lex’s darker side). Sadly, this is an exact parallel to what Jennifer Lopez discovers in the mind of her serial killer: a young boy dominated by a violent grown man, a shriveled conscience overwhelmed by powerful evil. However, Smallville was not alone in exploring this theme: it also appeared in the sixth season of the animated comedy, American Dad, in the episode “Brains, Brains and Automobiles.” In this, Stan uses CIA technology to explore the bizarre mind of his comatose friend, a sociopathic alien named Roger. Again, we see a shriveled conscience, only in Roger’s case, it’s not dominated by violence but by wholesale insanity. Seriously, I could make very little sense of Roger’s mind. At least Lex and Jennifer’s serial killer were straightforward in their pathology.

The Musical

What TV show these days would be the same without a strong musical episode? We’ve seen it as far back as the 90s with an episode of The Drew Carey Show, and then later in the sixth season episode “My Musical,” of Scrubs. Then it appeared in the sixth season episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “Once More, with Feeling” (which was amazing, by the way). And then was the somewhat forgettable episode of Psych‘s seventh season, “Psych: The Musical.” Some shows choose to give reasons for the sudden musical outbursts. For instance, in Scrubs, it was because a patient had a specific kind of tumor which gave her the impression that everyone was singing around her, and in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it was because someone had accidentally summoned a musically-inclined demon whose very presence caused all those around him to burst into song (this is the only case in which being in the presence of a demon has actually seemed enticing to me). But Psych and The Drew Carey Show (the latter of which was already known for its highly experimental episodes) give no reason for the singing, with the characters seeming not to even notice the the musical numbers. Musical episodes, it seems, are becoming quite popular (and yet, they oddly made no appearance in Smallville). So come on, The Big Bang Theory. You owe us a musical!

These are some of the more fun themes and formulas which television shows have adapted from the big screens, except for the last one, which seemed to be a new development of its own. There are, of course, other themes, like the flashback episodes that almost always come in a show’s final season, and which I loathe. If you can think of any other themes or formulas that often show up, leave it in the comments!

Until next time, friends…

Stay tuned for my next blog post, in which I explore the relationship between the Church and mental illness! It should be touchy, so I’ll ask you to please be brave.

Heroes Turned Against Each Other

Good day, all! I hope you had a good weekend. I enjoyed mine, for it was my birthday, and to celebrate, my wife took me to see the new Marvel film, Captain America: Civil War. It was a very enjoyable movie, but it brought to mind (my wife’s mind, that is) an interesting concept that we’ve recently seen in the new DC film, Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice. In both of these films, we see superheroes who should be united instead pitted against each other, ultimately revealed to be due to the machinations of an enigmatic third party. In Captain America, this third party was (spoiler alert) a man named Zemo, and in Batman vs. Superman, it was Lex Luthor.

A Politico-Cultural Shift

After the film, my wife’s mind went back in time a little bit, discussing something she’d recently read in a book suggested by our pastor. The author of that book claimed that in post-WWII America, the general population had a deep trust in our nation’s political leaders. However, during the Vietnam War era (approximately 1955 through 1975), America’s political leaders made many decisions with which the population in general strongly disagreed, and this resulted in the government losing the trust of the American population. We can see the results of that paradigm shift today in that politicians are still trying – quite unsuccessfully – to regain our trust.

And to make matters worse, we have government leaders who cannot help but disagree with each other in an attempt to gain that trust, as if by throwing the opposite party under the bus, they think they can get the American populace to side with them. I don’t think I need to go into great detail on the Republican/Democrat War in Congress, other than referencing this old blog post I wrote in September of 2014. In any case, this seems to be worsening as the years progress. In 2012, we saw Barack Obama face off in a political campaign against Mitt Romney, with many people expressing the sentiment that choosing between them was “like choosing the shiniest of two turds.” This year, however, we’re seeing two presidential nominees who are not only mistrusted, but downright hated by the majority of Americans. Yes, I’m speaking of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. It seems the polarization of our society is epitomized in the competition between these two, and the people of our society are growing weary of it.

The Reflection of the Films

So what does this political despondency have to do with the two superhero films I mentioned at the start of this blog post? Well, what my wife pointed out was that those films both seem to reflect what we’re seeing in the political arena: those who should be helping us are far too busy fighting each other, having been turned on each other by some unknown force. Is it the devil? The Vietnam War? The general passage of time? Who knows? But it is peculiar that, as we see this great clash between Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton, a clash with origins going back to the Vietnam War era, we just happen to see two films from the two largest comics franchises covering the same topic. And these films were released just over a month apart from each other. Is this a coincidence? Can this be a coincidence?

For the sake of being fully informed, I’d like to point out when the storylines for each film were written. Batman vs. Superman is based in great part on the 1986 four-part comic book series, The Dark Knight Returns, though it also borrows heavily from the ever-popular 1992 storyline, The Death of Superman. Captain America: Civil War is based on the 2006-2007 comic book series, Civil War. Looking at these dates, I think it would be a mighty stretch to say that they are immediate reflections of the post Vietnam War era political situation. More likely, they reflect the eventual aftereffects of that political climate after it’s had a few decades to mature. Essentially, both of these films reflect different stages in the political change our society has undergone, and they both reflect a pessimistic view of our governing forces.

I married a brilliant woman, who notices things that go right over my head.

Until next time, friends…

The Craft of Writing, Part Six: Prime Characters

Good day, fellow humans! I hope the day is treating you well. It’s been good for me, but I’ve been really struggling to stay on top of everything, hence the slightly late blog post. But I’m here now, so let us dive in together!

For today, we’re going to look back about a month to my blog post about characters. In that post, I stressed the importance of dynamic and developed characters, characters who have deep motivations and ultimate growth (depending on their importance in the story). This is crucial if you want to have memorable and, frankly, good characters in your story. But there’s a little more to it with two of them: the protagonist and the antagonist. Let’s examine each of these individually.

The Protagonist

The protagonist is your main character. He’s Harry in the Harry Potter series, Frodo in The Lord of the Rings, Tris in the Divergent trilogy and Thomas in The Maze Runner series. If your story is in the first person, this is the narrator. If your story is in the third person, this is the person that the narrator is stalking like a creeper. Considered the “hero of the tale,” this individual, above all others in your whole work, needs to be your absolutely most well-developed and well-written, ultimately achieving the most growth throughout the story.

Traditionally, the protagonist is described as the character who reacts to the events of the story. In The Choice of Anonymity, my protagonist is Cale, who is responding to the destruction of his hometown. He’s trying to both survive it and discover the truth behind what’s happening. This, in my novel, is what is considered the “hero’s quest.” Your story is, in totality, the tale of your protagonist, his “quest,” that which forces him to grow and become the hero that you want him (or her) to be in the climax. Your story should therefore revolve around him (or her).

The Antagonist

The antagonist, on the other end of the spectrum, is the character who “antagonizes” the protagonist. This is your villain, the person who is pushing the events of the story. He’s the one who gets the plot rolling, who manipulates the events as best he can. He is Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, the madman who draws Batman out of hiding. At the core, he is the one who instigates the events which force the hero to begin his quest.

Now too many times, I have read stories or seen films in which the antagonist is evil for the sake of being evil. He seems to be causing problems just for the sake causing problems. If your villain is the Joker, then this is okay because it’s his chaotic state of being, but I would consider him an isolated happenstance occurrence. For virtually all else, however, the villain needs to be nearly as developed as the hero. He needs to have a history (either merely hinted at for the sake of mystery or outright stated) and deep motivations for the things he does. He doesn’t just blow up buildings “because he’s evil;” He blows up buildings because the people who drove him mad work in those buildings, and he’s destroying them out of revenge. Or because they hold records of his past misdeeds. Or because there are individuals in those buildings who threaten his greater overall plan. But a character who does bad simply because he’s bad is just…badly written. Furthermore, if you take deep motivations and past hurts into the characterization of your antagonist, then you open the possibility of exploring the gray areas of morality, and this forces the reader to grow along with the protagonist.

The Relationship Between the Two

According to standard writing formulae, the climax will feature a confrontation between the protagonist and the antagonist. This ultimate battle will deal the final resolution of your work, and it will represent the glorious battle between order and chaos, darkness and light, good and evil.

But there’s some groundwork you need to build before you get there. You see, my highest recommendation is that you connect the backstories of your two characters in some way. Maybe they were once friends who became enemies (like Superman and Lex Luthor in Smallville). Or perhaps they had a happenstance run-in that ultimately set them on a collision-course toward confrontation. In any case, having some connection between them personalizes that final battle, making it not only something that the world needs to have happen, but something which they both psychologically need to have happen. The hero can’t have mental closure from a past tragedy unless he confronts the one responsible for it. The villain can’t be fully satisfied unless he’s personally dealt with this greatest of threats. This gives ultimate closure to the winner of that battle, and it brings the hero’s quest to a satisfying conclusion.

The relationship between these two is something vastly important as they fulfill their predestined roles, for their story is the symbol for all of the quests that we face, both together and alone.

Until next time, friends…

Stay tuned for my next blog post, in which I’ll discuss how you can become more efficient as a writer!

Christ or Superman?

When our world was in danger, his father sent him here to save us, to be a light in the darkness and shine forth for all of mankind. He was raised as a human, even though there was a part of him that wasn’t human. And when he came of age, he revealed himself to the world and became the savior to all of us, protecting us both from the evils that flowed from realms beyond and from deep recesses within. Who was this man, this light of the world?

I’m guessing that there are two different camps: those of you who thought I was talking about Jesus, and those of you who thought I spoke of Superman. But can it be that Superman is merely a metaphor for the character of Christ? While the original creators of Superman were Jewish and (it has been alleged) modeled Superman more off of Nietzsche’s Uber-Mensch, Hollywood has recently taken a particular turn in modeling him as more of a Christ-figure. As such, let’s look a little deeper and see what similarities we can really find.

First, Superman was sent here by his father, partly due to the impending devastation of his own homeworld and partly due to the need of humans for a light in their more primitive darkness. Now Ephesians mentions “forces of evil in heavenly places,” a plausible reference to the war in heaven between God and the devil. But the devil also reigned here on Earth, where Jesus was sent to save us, to be a light to the world. Both Jesus and Superman were raised by simple people of humble origins (Jesus by a carpenter and his wife, Superman by a farmer and his wife). And both display amazing, near God-like abilities. Jesus walked on the water that Superman flew over, Superman lifted the mountain that Jesus told us we could command to drop into the sea, etc. Some of the gospels even end with Jesus ascending into the clouds…like Superman!

There’s also a similarity in their identities. Superman protects a secret identity. Jesus, oddly enough, seems to do the same, often telling the people he helps to keep quiet about his messianic identity; this is most notable in the gospel of Mark. Furthermore, the very name of Superman suggests a Godly identity: Kal-el. You see, El was a name often associated with God in the first five books of the Bible. “El” always translated as “God.” The names “El Shaddai,” “Elyon,” “Elohim,” etc., all have “El” as their primary part. Additionally, many prophets (Elijah, Ezekiel, Daniel) and even angels (Gabriel, Michael, Uriel) contain the name “El.” Now enter Superman, Kal-el, the son of Jor-el, together comprising what in later comics was referred to as the “House of El.” That would translate in English as the “House of God.”

If you’re still not convinced that Superman can stand as a metaphor for Christ (I include the word “can” because I have no idea what the motivations were of the writers who first conceived of Superman in 1933), then let’s examine a few of his top villains.

1. First, you have Lex Luthor, a millionaire (later turned billionaire as the American economy grew) who is corrupted by power, both jealous of Superman’s powers and resentful that Superman limits his attempts to oppress the world. Lex seems to represent corruptive wealth.
2. Next, we have Brainiac, a Kryptonian computer program run amok. Could it not represent the advancement of reason unbound by morality? Of course, I’m not saying reason itself is contrary to Christianity (I am a Methodist, after all, and I believe reason is one of the four primary factors necessary for the advancement of my faith), but when reason ignores moral barriers, it becomes quite dangerous, like Brainiac overstepping his original programming.
3. Another popular villain is the evil Kryptonian, General Zod. Often credited with orchestrating the destruction of Krypton, Zod possesses power which appears to rival that of Superman himself. He is militaristic in his desire to be worshipped and feared by planets of followers. Luckily, Superman always succeeds in stopping this jealous devil.
4. Lastly, we have the corruptive Darkseid, ruler of a hellish world called Apokolips (does Revelation – the Apocalypse of John – ring any bells here?). Darkseid is that remnant of evil that clings to the soul of even the most pure and incorruptible of us. He is that whisper in your ear that tries with subtlety to corrupt the whole soul piece by piece. Effectively, Darkseid is the darkness inside each of us, the desire to follow the path of destruction.

So is Superman merely a metaphor for Christ? Is it coincidental that when Superman falls to Earth after each devastating victory over an enemy, he typically assumes a cross-like position? Is it coincidental that he has a very special place in the world where he goes to commune with the program (or spirit) of his father? So even if it was not the writers’ original intent to make Superman a metaphor for Jesus, if someone is able to grow closer to God and Christ through an affinity to Superman comics, who are we to complain?

Until next time, friends…

Stay tuned for my next blog post, in which I’ll begin to study the battle of the Christian warrior!