Austin Film Festival: Unreliable Narrator Panel with John August and Jim Taylor

On Friday, October 25th at 10:45AM in the Driskill Hotel Ballroom, I moderated a panel with screenwriters John August (Go, Charlie’s Angels, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Frankenweenie) and Jim Taylor (Citizen Ruth, About Schmidt, Sideways) on the subject of the unreliable narrator. Having written Big Fish (August) and Election (Taylor), both writers had first-hand experience with this narrative approach. [Jim Uhls who wrote Fight Club was scheduled to appear, but could not make the trip due to illness.]

We had a wide-ranging conversation and here are some of the key areas of discussion:

* Writers may use an unreliable narrator for several purposes including humor, surprise, and tricking the audience.

* Edward Bloom’s character in Big Fish is unreliable primarily because of his instinct for exaggeration (“Most men, they’ll tell you a story straight through. It won’t be complicated, but it won’t be interesting either”).

* Jim McAlister’s character in Election is unreliable primarily because of self-deception (i.e., he thinks he’s happy with his job and wife, believes himself to be a moral and ethical individual).

* There must be a compelling reason for a writer to use voiceover narration.

* Whenever a writer employs an unreliable narrator, the story must almost by necessity also deal with the subject of truth. For example, Will Bloom (Big Fish) learns there is a difference between historical truth and emotional truth, eventually embracing the spirit of his father’s tales. Conversely in Election, both McAlister and Tracy Flick have a crisis of faith about the ‘truth’ of the system in which they believe, whereas Paul’s sister Tammy is a true truth-teller in deriding the status quo.

* Other movie examples of unreliable narrator: The Usual Suspects, The Sixth Sense, Rashomon.

Here is the last 10 minutes of Big Fish, wherein Will recounts a tall tale of his own, honoring his father’s legacy:

Here is a big turn in the movie Election where McCalister’s world comes crashing down on him, his lies crushing whatever false ‘truth’ he had constructed about his ignoble life:

Thanks to John August and Jim Taylor for their participation in the panel.

Tomorrow: More on the Austin Film Festival.

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