Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Refusal of the Call

Two different GITS readers came up with two different ideas, both of which together actually comprise a nice opportunity for us to have a screenwriting lesson.

The week of March 5th: Refusal of the Call [suggested by Ryan Smith].

The week of March 12th: Statement of Theme [suggested by John Penny].

The Refusal of the Call reflects a ‘stage’ in The Hero’s Journey, a plot point early in Act One. There is the Call to Adventure, positing a turning point in the Protagonist’s life.

In many cases, the Protagonist is unwilling or resistant to change. Why should they? They are getting along in the Ordinary World, even if they are denying the pull of their Core Essence toward a more authentic existence. This initial refusal to accept the call may be expressed as a sense of duty or obligation, sense of inadequacy, or any sort of rationale to avoid changing their current situation.

By the way, resistance to accept an opportunity or responsibility can happen at any point in a story, so we can include those as examples this week as well.

So please reply with examples of Refusal of the Call moments, either in Act One or anywhere in a movie.

You know the drill:

* Copy/paste dialogue from IMDB Quotes or some other transcription source.

* Copy/paste the URL of an accompanying video from MovieClips or YouTube.

As I say, the following week: Statement of Theme. GITS readers came up with some other good ideas, so here is the schedule for the upcoming several weeks:

March 19–25: Apologies [John Arends]

March 26-April 1: Snark [Gabe]

April 2–8: Facing death [@tiffanyleigh, @al_grinter]

April 9–15: Inspiration [Summer Johnson]

Teddy P has suggested Led Zeppelin as a theme and offered three examples: The Client, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Rock. There is a broader context to this suggestion, so while it may not be very educational, it could be entertaining and I’d like to do it if we can come up with 7 movie references.

So there you go! DDT as far as you can see! See you in replies with your suggestions for any of these and especially this week’s theme: Refusal of the Call.

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