[spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom=”no” pb_border_bottom=”no” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”] What’s The Worst Thing That Can Happen?: Blue Ruin, The Bourne Ultimatum & Alien By Jacob Krueger [/spb_text_block] [divider type=”thin” text=”Go to top” full_width=”no” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”] [blank_spacer height=”30px” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom=”no” pb_border_bottom=”no” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”] TRANSCRIPT OF PODCAST Hello, I’m Jacob Krueger and this is my Write Your Screenplay podcast. On this podcast each installment we’re going to be looking at a movie, and exploring what you can learn from it as a screenwriter. Rather than looking at movies like critics, we’re going to be looking at them as screenwriters, avoiding the urge to give a thumbs up or a thumbs down response, and instead focusing on how screenwriters can benefit from studying these films, no matter how perfect or how flawed. We are going to look at good movies, we’re going to look at bad movies, we’re going to look at movies that are a mess, we’re going to look at movies that are perfectly executed. We’re going to look at big genre movies and we’re going to look at the tiniest little indie films. We’re going to look at what makes them work and what makes them not work, how they’re built and what you can learn from them as a writer. This episode, we’re going to be looking at Blue Ruin. Blue Ruin‘s a nice little indie film by Jeremy Saulnier. For those of you who haven’t seen it, the main character, Dwight, is a deeply troubled man who became homeless after the brutal murder of his parents. At the beginning of the film, a police officer informs Dwight that his parents’ murderer is being released from prison, and he decides to go get revenge, to murder the person who’s murdered his parents, and in that way to get the justice that was denied to him. Now this murderer’s actually part of a big ol’ nasty white trash family, and they’re all criminals and they’re all violent and they’re all terrible. And no sooner has Dwight killed this man than he realizes that he has started a war, that these people are now going to come after his remaining family, his sister, her children, and that they’re not going to stop. He also learns a shocking surprise, and if you haven’t seen the movie this is a little bit of a spoiler: the person he killed is not actually the man who killed his father. It was actually that man’s father (we’ll call him Grandpa) who committed the murder for which his son took the blame. Grandpa has since died from old age. Which means that our protagonist not only exacted his revenge on the wrong man, but also can never have the justice he seeks. So now Dwight has set off this horrible escalating war that he cannot get out of, by killing a person who had nothing to do with his father’s murder. What’s interesting about this movie from a screenwriting perspective is that Dwight does not arc in the traditional way that screenplay characters arc. He doesn’t change in the way that traditionally screenplay characters change. In fact, primarily this movie is built around plot, and not around what we would generally consider structure. And yet, it is a quite enjoyable movie and it works. Now would it have been stronger if he had gone through a change? Probably. Would there have been more of a feeling of journey and compassion and empathy? Absolutely. But this is a great example of a very important principle in writing: When in doubt, make it hard.