The final article in the series on the screenwriter’s role explores a few issues around the idea of the screenwriter as social commentator…
‘Audiences want to be entertained, not preached at…’
Good ‘social issues’ films can weave social/political comment around an emotionally engaging story that makes the audience care about the issue on a human level.
Take a classic like On the Waterfront (1954). While it’s based around union violence and corruption among longshoremen, when you watch the film, you’re simply drawn into the experiences of former boxer, Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando), a dockworker who testifies against a corrupt, Mob-connected union boss.
The film also serves as director Elia Kazan’s reaction to criticism of his actions in identifying eight Communists in the film industry before the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
‘Social films polarise audiences…’
Films that deal with polarising topics are designed to inspire a reaction. They press provocative ‘hot buttons’ and force the audience into a response.
Controversy often attaches to these films, and some even morph into something much larger than a motion picture. Take, for example, Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), which regularly appears on list of the most controversial films of all time.
These films generate their own publicity and more people than otherwise would have done so go to see them to take part in the wider ‘conversation’.
Making a wider social comment through fiction is a powerful device and one that has become particularly associated with certain genres. War films are the obvious example. From WWII and Vietnam to recent conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, there are few other topics that polarise opinion to a similar extent.
‘Scripts about social issues don’t sell…’
There’s a fine line between films with ‘a message’ and those that cross the line into being ‘preachy’. Films that act merely as a mouthpiece for a filmmaker’s ideology, without being entertaining and engaging on other levels, tend to turn off all but those who are sympathetic with the particular cause and point-of-view. However, films that harness the power of the medium to say something meaningful about the world can not only find an audience, they can be global hits that win over audiences and critics alike.
Film is an ideal platform to explore deeper issues, either by focussing on the issue at hand and using it to drive the narrative, or by weaving it in more subtly. But to be effective, film must fulfil more than one function – and, in order for it to reach a wide enough audience to be financially viable, like it or not, one of those functions has to be as an entertainment medium.
‘Social issues films can change the world…’
Some films go as far as achieving large or small-scale change in the real world (for good or evil). For example:
The Birth Of A Nation (1915): Widely held to have contributed to a resurgence of interest in the Klu Klux Klan.
The Battle of Algiers (1966): Often held out as a ‘blueprint’ for mounting a revolution.
JFK (1991): Led to the passing of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, which opened up access to documents relating to the president’s assassination.
What does this all mean for the screenwriter with a message to share with the world?
Your script will need to present its ideas in a way that’s entertaining and commercial. That doesn’t mean you can’t go political or controversial; it just means that you’ll need to ensure audiences will respond to what want to say.
Ultimately, audiences want to care about your characters, the journeys they take, and the injustices they encounter along the way.