Movie Analysis: “Straight Outta Compton” — Plot
Another in our bi-weekly series in which we analyze movies currently in release. Why? To quote the writing mantra I coined over 5 years ago: Watch movies. Read scripts. Write pages. You will note which one comes first. Here are my reflections from that post about the importance of watching movies:
To be a good screenwriter, you need to have a broad exposure to the world of film. Every movie you see is a potential reference point for your writing, everything from story concepts you generate to characters you develop to scenes you construct. Moreover people who work in the movie business constantly reference existing movies when discussing stories you write; it’s a shorthand way of getting across what they mean or envision.
But most importantly, you need to watch movies in order to ‘get’ how movie stories work. If you immerse yourself in the world of film, it’s like a Gestalt experience where you begin to grasp intuitively scene composition, story structure, character functions, dialogue and subtext, transitions and pacing, and so on.
Let me add this: It’s important to see movies as they get released so that you stay on top of the business. Decisions get made in Hollywood in large part depending upon how movies perform, so watching movies as they come out puts you in the same head space as reps, producers, execs, and buyers.
This week’s movie: Straight Outta Compton, screenplay by Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff, story by S. Leigh Savidge & Alan Wenkus and Andrea Berloff.
Our schedule for discussion this week:
Monday: General Comments
Tuesday: Plot
Wednesday: Characters
Thursday: Themes
Friday: Takeaways
For those of you who have not seen the movie, do not click MORE as we will be trafficking in major spoilers. If you have seen Straight Outta Compton, I invite you to join me in breaking down and analyzing the movie.
While there are a lot of sequences, the way I see the plot, there are four major movements:
I: RISE — Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, and Ice Cube introductions; Formation of Ruthless Records; Hit record with “BoyZ in the Hood”; Sign with Jerry Heller.
II: TOUR — Houston; Cincinnati; Philadelphia; Detour when Dre’s brother dies and funeral; Detroit and the “Fuck the Police” melee.
III: INFIGHTING — Cube walks away from deal; Suge Knight eventually lures Dre away to form Death Row Records; Nobody but E trusts Jerry; Recordings in which the guys badmouth each other.
IV: REUNION — E discovers Jerry has been cheating him; E reaches out to Cube and Dre; The trio reunite to record; E collapses; Dies of AIDS.
Each of these movements has a Beginning, Middle, and End as well as a central theme running through it. One of the most effective is during the Infighting movement which plays out against the backdrop of the Rodney King arrest, videos of his beating, cops declared innocent, and L.A. riots. The violence in that news story symbolic of the fighting going on between Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, and Ice Cube.
There is the classic Rise and Fall dynamic at work here, capped off by E’s death, however as the closing credit sequence demonstrates, Dr. Dre and Ice Cube went on to successful careers as musicians, actors, and entrepreneurs.
As noted yesterday, it was a big challenge for the screenwriters Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff to craft a narrative constructed out of real life events which comes across as a coherent story that is both entertaining and moves forward from beginning to end.
What are your observations of the movie’s plot?
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