by The Anatomy of Story- 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller (mobi)
The Godfather
(novel by Mario Puzo, 1969; screenplay by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola, 1972) To see how the writers of The Godfather might have constructed the scenes and written the dialogue of this great film, we have to start with the big picture, the overall story. These are some of the ways we could describe the story strategy or process they want to play out over the course of the film:
1. The passing of power from one king to the next
2. Three sons, each with different attributes, trying to be king
3. A family under attack fighting back to survive and win
Now let's look at some of the big thematic patterns the writers want to track over the course of the story. First are the patterns of identity. These are story elements we normally think of as different but that these writers want to show, on a deeper level, are the same. The three most important are these:
■ Mafia family as business
■ Mafia family as military
■ Profane as sacred and sacred as profane: "god" as the devil
Next, we need to focus on the patterns of opposition, the key elements that the writers will contrast and place in conflict. These are the main patterns of opposition:
■ Family versus the law
■ Family and personal justice versus American legal justice
■ Immigrant America versus mainstream and elite America
■ Men versus women
Working through the scene-writing process, the last step we would need to take if we were writing these scenes is to clarify the values and symbols, or key words, that will come into conflict throughout the story. Only by looking at the full story can we see which objects or images are central and organic to it. Then we can tease them out and highlight them through repetition (Track 3 dialogue). In The Godfather, these values and symbols fall into two major clusters: honor, family, business, appearance, and crime versus freedom, country, and moral and legal action.
Opening Scene
The average writer would start The Godfather with a plot scene to give this big, violent story a running start. He would write the scene strictly with
story dialogue (Track 1) to help kick off the plot. But writers Mario Puzo and Francis Coppola are not average writers. Guided by the principle of the inverted triangle for both story and scene, they created a prototypical experience for the opening that frames the entire story and focuses down to a single point at the end of the scene:
■ Position on the Character Arc Since this story tracks the end of one king and the rise of the next, the opening scene doesn't mark the beginning point of the new king (Michael). It starts with the current king (Don Corleone) and shows what he and his successor actually do.
■ Problems In a story about a "king" in a democracy, much needs to be accomplished in the opening scene:
1. Introduce the Godfather, and see what a Godfather does.
2. Start showing how this unique system of the Mafia works, including the hierarchy of characters and the rules by which they are organized and operate.
3. Announce the epic scope of the story so that the audience knows right away one of the main thematic points: the world of this family is not some ghetto they can disdain, but one that stands for the nation.
4. Introduce some of the thematic patterns of identity and opposition that the writers want to weave through the story.
■ Strategy
1. Start with the prototypical Godfather experience, in which the Godfather acts as a judge and exerts power over his unique dominion.
2. Place this essential Godfather scene within a larger, more
complex story world, a wedding, where all the characters who are part of this system are gathered and where the central element of family is emphasized.
■ Desire Bonasera wants the Don to kill the boys who beat his daughter. Bonasera is a very minor character in this world. But he has no knowledge of the Mafia system. So he is the audience. The writers use him to drive the scene so that the audience can learn the system as he does and can feel what it is like to enter and connect with this world. By the way, his full name, Amerigo Bonasera, can be translated as "Good evening, America."
■ Endpoint Bonasera is trapped by the Don.
■ Opponent Don Corleone.
■ Plan Bonasera uses a direct plan, asking the Don to murder the two boys and asking how much he wants to be paid. This direct approach elicits a "no."
In his efforts to reel another person into his web, the Don uses an indirect plan, making Bonasera feel guilty for the way he has treated the Don in the past.
■ Conflict The Don, angry at the various slights he feels Bonasera has made and continues to make toward him, refuses Bonasera's request. But there is a limit to how much the conflict can build in this scene because the Don is all-powerful and Bonasera is no fool.
■ Twist or Reveal The Don and Bonasera come to an agreement, but the audience realizes that Bonasera has just made a pact with the devil.
■ Moral Argument and Values Bonasera asks the Don to kill two boys for beating his daughter. The Don says that is not justice. He then cleverly turns the moral argument back onto Bonasera, arguing that Bonasera has slighted him and treated him with disrespect.
■ KeyWords Respect, friend, justice, Godfather.
The opening scene of The Godfather clearly shows why great dialogue is not just melodic but also symphonic. If this scene were composed only of story dialogue, it would be half the length and one-tenth the quality. Instead, the writers wove the dialogue using three tracks simultaneously, and the scene is a masterpiece.
The endpoint of the scene is Bonasera saying the word "Godfather" at the same moment he is trapped in a Faustian bargain. The beginning of the scene, and the framing line of the entire story, is "I believe in America." This is a value, and it tells the audience two things: they are about to experience an epic, and the story will be about ways of success.
The scene opens with a monologue delivered in a place with almost no detail. Bonasera's monologue doesn't just tell his daughter's sad story; it is filled with values and key words such as "freedom," "honor," and "justice." Don Corleone responds with a slight moral attack, which puts Bonasera on the defensive. And then Don Corleone, acting as the Godfather-judge, gives his ruling.
There's a quick back-and-forth as they disagree over moral argument, in particular about what constitutes justice. And then Bonasera, in the role of the audience, makes a mistake, because he doesn't know the rules of the system. He doesn't know how payment is made here.
At this point, the scene flips, and the Don drives the scene. He makes a moral argument, packed with values like respect, friendship, and loyalty, designed to make Bonasera his slave. Though the Don says he simply wants Bonasera's friendship, Bonasera sees the true goal of the Don's indirect plan. He bows his head and says the key word of the scene, "Godfather." It is followed by the last and most important line of the scene when the Godfather says, "Some day, and that day may never come, I would like to call upon you to do me a service in return."
This line has the same form as the pact the devil makes with Faust. Godfather and devil merge. The "sacred" equals the profane. End of scene. Pow!
Closing Scene
This scene, which is the final point in the upside-down triangle of the full story, is simultaneously a "trial," where Connie accuses Michael of murder, and a coronation. The last scene matches the opening. The prototypical Godfather experience that ended in a pact with the devil is now the new devil crowned king.
■ Position on the Character Arc Michael is accused of being a
murderer by his sister at the same time he gains his final ascension as the new Godfather. Michael also reaches a kind of endpoint in his marriage to Kay when he poisons it beyond repair. ■ Problems How to make the moral argument against Michael without having him accept it. ■ Strategy
1. Give Connie the argument, but have her discounted because she's hysterical and a woman.
2. D
eny Michael the self-revelation and give it to Kay instead. But make it based not on what Connie says but on what Kay sees in her husband.
■ Desire Connie wants to accuse Michael of Carlo's murder.
■ Endpoint The door closes in Kay's face. ■ Opponent Michael, Kay.
■ Plan Connie uses a direct plan, accusing Michael of her husband's
murder in front of everyone. ■ Conflict The conflict starts at an intense level and then dissipates at the end.
■ Twist or Revelation Michael lies to Kay, but Kay sees what Michael has become.
■ Moral Argument and Values Connie claims that Michael is a cold-hearted murderer who doesn't care about her. Michael says nothing to Connie and instead refutes her accusations by suggesting she is sick or hysterical and needs a doctor. He then denies Connie's accusations to Kay. ■ Key Words Godfather, emperor, murderer.
Writing Scenes—Writing Exercise 9
■ Character Change Before writing any scene, state your hero's character change in one line.
■ Scene Construction Construct each scene by asking yourself these questions:
1. Where is the scene positioned on your hero's character arc, and how does the scene take him to the next step on his line of development?
2. What problems must you solve, and what must you accomplish in this scene?
3. What strategy will you use to do so?
4. Whose desire will drive the scene? Remember, this is not necessarily the hero of the story.
5. What is the endpoint of the character's goal in this scene?
6. Who will oppose this character's goal?
7. What plan—direct or indirect—will the character use to accomplish his goal in the scene?
8. Will the scene end at the height of conflict, or will there be some sort of solution?
9. Will there be a twist, surprise, or reveal in the scene?
10. Will one character end the scene by commenting about who another character is, deep down?
■ Scenes Without Dialogue First, try writing the scenes without dialogue. Let the characters' actions tell the story. This gives you the "clay" you can shape and refine in each successive draft.
■ Writing Dialogue
1. Story Dialogue: Rewrite each scene using only story dialogue (Track 1). Remember, this is dialogue about what the characters are doing in the plot.
2. Moral Dialogue: Rewrite each scene, this time adding moral dialogue (Track 2). This is argument about whether those actions are right or wrong or comments about what the characters believe in (their values).
3. Key Words: Rewrite each scene again, highlighting key words, phrases, tagline, and sounds (Track 3). These are objects, images, values, or ideas that are central to the theme of your story.
Think of this process for writing the three tracks of dialogue in the same way that you might draw someone's portrait. First you would sketch the overall shape of the face (story dialogue). Then you would add the major shadings that give depth to the face (moral dialogue). Then you would add the most minute lines and details that make that face a unique individual (key words).
■ Unique Voices Make sure that each character speaks in a unique way.
A GREAT STORY lives forever. This is not a platitude or a tautology. A great story keeps on affecting the audience long after the first telling is over. It literally keeps on telling itself. How is it possible for a great story to be a living thing that never dies?
You don't create a never-ending story just by making it so good it's unforgettable. The never-ending story happens only if you use special techniques embedded in the story structure. Before we consider some of those techniques, let's look at the reverse of the never-ending story: a story whose life and power are cut short by a false ending. There are three major kinds of false endings: premature, arbitrary, and closed.
The premature ending can have many causes. One is an early self-revelation. Once your hero has his big insight, his development stops, and everything else is anticlimactic. A second is a desire the hero achieves too quickly. If you then give him a new desire, you have started a new story. A third cause of a premature ending is any action your hero takes that is not believable because it's not organic to that unique person. When you force your characters, especially your hero, to act in an unbelievable way, you immediately kick the audience out of the story because the plot "mechanics" come to the surface. The audience realizes the character is acting a
certain way because you need him to act that way (mechanical) and not because he needs to (organic).
An arbitrary end is one in which the story just stops. This is almost always the result of an inorganic plot. The plot is not tracking the development of one entity, whether it is a single main character or a unit of society. If nothing is developing, the audience has no sense of something coming to fruition or playing itself out. A classic example of this is the end of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain tracks Huck's development, but the journey plot he uses literally paints Huck into a corner. He is forced to rely on coincidence and deus ex machina to end the story, disappointing those who find the rest of the story so brilliant.
The most common false ending is the closed ending. The hero accomplishes his goal, gains a simple self-revelation, and exists in a new equilibrium where everything is calm. All three of these structural elements give the audience the sense that the story is complete and the system has come to rest. But that's not true. Desire never stops. Equilibrium is temporary. The self-revelation is never simple, and it cannot guarantee the hero a satisfying life from that day forward. Since a great story is always a living thing, its ending is no more final and certain than any other part of the story.
How do you create this sense of a breathing, pulsing, ever-changing story, even when the last word has been read or the last image seen? You have to go back to where we started, to the essential characteristic of a story as a structure in time. It is an organic unit that develops over time, and it must keep on developing even after the audience stops watching it.
Since a story is always a whole, and the organic end is found in the beginning, a great story always ends by signaling to the audience to go back to the beginning and experience it again. The story is an endless cycle—a Mobius strip—that is always different because the audience is always rethinking it in light of what just happened.
The simplest way to create the never-ending story is through plot, by ending the story with a reveal. In this technique, you create an apparent equilibrium and then immediately shatter it with one more surprise. This reversal causes the audience to rethink all the characters and actions that have led them to this point. Like a detective who reads the same signs but sees a very different reality, the audience mentally races back to the beginning of the story and reshuffles the same cards in a new combination.
We see this technique executed beautifully in The Sixth Sense when the audience discovers that the Bruce Willis character has been dead since the beginning. The technique is even more astounding in The Usual Suspects when the wimpy narrator walks out of the police headquarters and before our eyes turns into the fearsome opponent of his own invention, Keyser Soze.
The reversal reveal, while shocking, is the most limited way of creating the never-ending story. It gives you only one more cycle with the audience. The plot was not what they first thought. But now they know. There will be no more surprises. Using this technique, you don't get a never-ending story so much as a twice-told tale.
Some writers would argue that it is impossible to create the never-ending story if your plot is too powerful, too dominant over the other story elements. Even a plot that ends with a great reversal gives the audience the sense that all the doors of the house have now shut. The key turns; the puzzle is solved; the case is closed.
To tell a story that feels different over and over again, you don't have to kill your plot. But you do have to use every system of the story body. If you weave a complex tapestry of character, plot, theme, symbol, scene, and
dialogue, you will not limit how many times the audience retells the story. They will have to rethink so many story elements that the permutations become infinite and the story never dies. Here are just a few of the elements you can include to create an infinite story tapestry:
■ The hero fails to achieve his desire, and the other characters come up with a new desire at the end of the story. This prevents the story from closing down and shows the audience that desire, even when it's foolish or hopeless, never dies ("I want; therefore, I am").
■ Give a surprising character change to an opponent or a minor character. This technique can lead the audience to see the story again with that person as the true hero.
■ Place a tremendous number of details in the background of the story world that on later viewings move to the foreground.
■ Add elements of texture—in character, moral argument, symbol, plot, and story world—that become much more interesting once the audience has seen the plot surprises and the hero's character change.
■ Create a relationship between the storyteller and the other characters
that is fundamentally different once the viewer has seen the plot for the first time. Using an unreliable storyteller is one, but only one, way of doing this.
■ Make the moral argument ambiguous, or don't show what the hero decides to do when he is confronted with his final moral choice. As soon as you move beyond the simple good versus evil moral argument, you force the audience to reevaluate the hero, the opponents, and all the minor characters to figure out what makes right action. By withholding the final choice, you force the audience to question the hero's actions again and explore that choice in their own lives.
