Reader Question: What about a revelation flashback?
Open Forum question from Peter Dwight:
I just wanted ask a question about Flashbacks twists. I went over previous posts on GITS, and found several posts involving them. The reoccurring idea is that it’s looked down upon, especially by readers. The type I’m interested in is the ‘revealing flashback’, one that shows what actually happened and the mystery is revealed. In my current script it feels better to show how it happened than to just have it discussed.
So do you have any personal experience with these kind of flashbacks in your own work? And how to you feel about Flashback Montages?
Movie examples like Gothika, Ghost Ship, sort of Usual Suspects (but not really the same).
Using flashbacks as a device to reveal a mystery is something that’s been around for a while. A couple pop to mind:
* In the movie Ordinary People (1980), the Protagonist Conrad (Timothy Hutton), a suicidal youth hides a dark secret about his brother’s death by drowning that is eventually revealed after numerous sessions in therapy with a shrink Berger (Judd Hirsch) — in a flashback.
* In Nuts (1987), Claudia Draper (Barbara Streisand) is a high-priced call girl who has been charged with murdering one of her johns and in the climactic moment in her court case, there is a flashback montage revealing that she was abused for years by her father.
You mention The Usual Suspects, where Dave Kujan (Chazz Palminteri) suddenly pieces together all the B.S. that Roger ‘Verbal’ Kint (Kevin Spacey) has fed him during the interview. There’s also a flashback montage in The Sixth Sense when Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) puts together all the clues to make him realize that he is, in fact, dead.
You note — accurately — that for whatever reason, there is a prejudice against flashbacks in Hwood development circles, mostly, as I’ve argued on this blog in the past, due to (A) flashbacks being badly handled by screenwriters and (B) the presupposition that they somehow reflect weak writing, basically a cheap way of telling the narrative.
But then, as I’ve also noted many times before, some of the best movies of all time feature flashbacks: Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Rashomon, It’s a Wonderful Life, Forrest Gump, Slumdog Millionaire to name a few.
Given that background, before you commit to using a flashback in a script, I would advise that you ask yourself two things:
* Is using a flashback the only way I can convey what I need to show?
* Does the use of this flashback enhance the narrative?
Peter, you mention in your question: “In my current script it feels better to show how it happened than to just have it discussed.”
Absolutely! Remember the mantra, “Show it, don’t say it,” which is true in most cases. So it would appear that it is at least worth exploring the use of a flashback to reveal the mystery.
And here I have this advice: Watch every single revelation flashback in movies you can find. Nuts. Ordinary People. GITS readers, can you help out Peter with this? What other movies have a revelation flashback? In particular, what are some good uses and what are some bad uses? You can learn what not to do from the latter and what to do with the former.
By the way, “show it, don’t say it” is not universally true. If any of you has seen the movie Manon of the Spring, the ending is absolutely gut-wrenching — and it is a long story recounted by an old lady to Cesar (the great Yves Montand). A flashback reveal there would have been a travesty because by staying in the present, the movie keeps the focus where it should be — on Cesar’s face as he slowly realizes one truth after another, and how so many of the choices he made in his life have resulted in a series of tragedies, all from one tiny event in the past. It is achingly sad — and stunningly beautiful.
Okay, GITS readers: What about movies with flashback reveals?
Comment Archive