Analysis: “True Grit” (Part 3: Dialogue)
In order to learn the craft of screenwriting, you must immerse yourself in movies. One of the best things you can do in that regard is analyze the movies you watch. I like to view them through four ‘lenses’: Structure, Character, Dialogue, Theme.
As an example, I’m going to analyze the Coen brothers’ remake of the movie True Grit in a 4-part series this week. Today: Dialogue.
If Plot = Structure and Character = Function, another screenwriting principle is this: Dialogue = Purpose. Yes, dialogue should entertain. But it should also have a purpose tied to the narrative. If it does not, it is likely useless.
We can think about a dialogue’s purpose in three ways:
1. Provide information
2. Advance plot
3. Convey character
Let’s look at three monologues delivered by the lead characters in True Grit: Mattie Ross (Hallie Steinfeld), Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), and LeBouef (Matt Damon). First Mattie caps off a sharp exchange between she and Cogburn after she has finally managed to convince the marshal to go after Chaney, but then riled him up by declaring that she intends to accompany him in that quest:
MATTIE
It is the same idea as a coon hunt. You are just trying to make your work sound harder than it is. Here is the money. I aim to get Tom Chaney and if you are not game I will find somebody who is game. All I have heard out of you so far is talk. I know you can drink whiskey and snore and spit and wallow in filth and bemoan your station. The rest has been braggadocio. They told me you had grit and that is why I came to you. I am not paying for talk. I can get all the talk I need and more at the Monarch Boarding House.
Provide information: Mattie lets Cogburn know two important things. First why she approached him in the first place: “They told me you had grit and that is why I came to you.” Second she has every intention of going after Tom Chaney with Cogburn or with someone else. “ I aim to get Tom Chaney and if you are not game I will find somebody who is game.”
Advance plot: Her bromide directed at Cogburn has the desired effect as he ends the scene by saying, “Leave the money. Meet me here tomorrow morning at seven o’clock and we will begin our coon hunt.”
Convey character: In yesterday’s analysis, we discussed some of Mattie’s key personality traits: She is intelligent, well-spoken, stubborn, headstrong, and crafty. Each of those is on display in this dialogue.
Next we consider LeBouef. In this scene, Cogburn and Mattie have rescued the Texas ranger from Lucky Ned’s gang, but not before LeBouef nearly bit his tongue off, hence the awkward nature of his speech in this monologue:
LEBOUEF
Azh I understand it, Chaney — or Chelmzhford, azh he called himshelf in Texas — shot the shenator’zh dog. When the shenator remonshtrated Chelmzhford shot him azh well. You could argue that the shooting of the dog wazh merely an inshtansh of malum prohibitum, but the shooting of a shenator izh indubitably an inshtansh of malum in shay… I wuzh within three hundred yardzh of Chelmzhford once. The closhesht I have been. With the Sharp’sh carbine, that izh within range. But I wuzh mounted, and had the choish of firing off-hand, or dishmounting to shoot from resht — which would allow Chelmzhford to augment the dishtansh. I fired mounted — and fired wide.
Provide information: This side of dialogue provides specifics on LeBouef’s involvement with Chaney in the past and importantly gives us a look into LeBouef’s soul: He feels a deep sense of regret and perhaps even guilt that he didn’t manage to kill Chaney when he had the chance.
Advance plot: Based on that key information and the blood he has recently shed, we know LeBouef is not going to give up searching for Chaney. It is a task he must finish.
Convey character: In yesterday’s analysis, we concluded these were some of LeBoeuf’s key personality traits: He is smart, well-spoken, idealistic, committed to those ideals, steadfastness. Those dynamics are conveyed through his dialogue and even more so for despite his swollen tongue, he persists in speaking well, using big words, and sticking to his ideals.
Finally we turn to Cogburn. This monologue concludes an argument between he, LeBouef and Mattie after the trio lost the opportunity to trap Chaney.
ROOSTER
In hand?! If he is not in a shallow grave, somewhere between here and Fort Smith, he is gone! Long gone! Thanks to Mr. LaBoeuf, we missed our shot! We have barked, and the birds have flown! Gone, gone, gone! Lucky Ned and his cohort, gone! Your $50, gone! Gone, the whiskey seized in evidence! The trail is cold, if ever there was one! I am a foolish old man who has been drawn into a wild goose chase by a harpy in trousers — and a nincompoop! Well, Mr. LaBoeuf can wander the Choctaw Nation for as long as he likes; perhaps the local Indians will take him in and honor his gibberings by making him chief! You, sister, may go where you like! I return home! Our engagement is terminated! I bow out!
Provide information: Based on his years of tracking, it is Cogburn’s assessment that Chaney is out of reach.
Advance plot: Cogburn ends his arrangement with Mattie and has decided to “bow out.”
Convey character: In yesterday’s analysis, we deduced that the key aspects of Cogburn’s personality were these: He is ornery, stubborn, loner, defiant, willful. And once again, each of these is on display in this side of dialogue.
There is one more meta principle about dialogue: A character’s dialogue should distinguish them from other characters. In other words, each character should sound different and display a unique way of communication. True Grit does that with its three lead characters. You could white out each of their character names and know who is talking based simply on the dialogue itself.
There is something else evident in the dialogue of these three characters: In Mattie’s words, we hear both Cogburn’s stubbornness, defiance, and willfulness and LeBouef’s intelligence, idealism, and steadfastness. This underscores the nature of their character interrelationships: Mattie (Protagonist), Cogburn (Mentor), and LeBouef (Attractor).
Tomorrow we look at what levels of meaning True Grit has as we consider one of the most misunderstood aspects of storytelling: Theme.
For Part 1 on Structure, go here.
For Part 2 on Character, go here.
Note: The principles I laid out above are just a few of the ways we teach dialogue at Screenwriting Master Class. I will be teaching it for the first time as part of a 4-week Core III: Dialogue and Writing course in April. For more information, go here.
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