Script To Screen: “The American”
The opening incident in the 2010 movie The American, starring George Clooney [screenplay by Rowan Joffe, based on a novel by Martin Booth].
Setup: An assassin [Clooney] who thinks he is out of harm’s way discovers otherwise.
EXT. LAKESIDE - MORNINGThey continue through the woods until they reach the
shoreline of the lake.INGRID steps onto the ice. Holds out her hand. A beat.JACK takes Ingrid’s hand.Solid as stone, the frozen lake takes his weight.They walk out, INGRID slipping and laughing.The landscape is magical.JACK begins to relax, slipping and swearing.Suddenly, he stops.There are footprints in the thin snow going out across the
lake.Beside the Snow-hare’s prints are those of a man.INGRID
A hunter?JACK studies the two sets of tracks.INGRID
Don’t they always travel in two’s?Those of the Snow-hare are heading out into the lake. The
man’s prints are heading in the opposite direction, towards
the shoreline.JACK spins around in the direction they’ve just come from.No one.EXT. FOREST - MORNINGA man sits in a Mercedes Benz.EXT. LAKESIDE - MORNINGThen, about ten metres inland from the edge of the lake, a
low branch dips and a thick rug of snow falls from the
branch.JACK grabs Ingrid, yanks her towards the cover of the
lakeside trees and pushes her down into the snow.She grunts, winded. He lies besides her.We hear the CRACK of a bullet- so quiet it might be a bough
snapping under the weight of winter.It isn’t.INGRID
Jack?JACK pulls a WALTHER PPK/S semi-automatic handgun from the
pocket of his Parka.Cocks it.INGRID
You have a gun...why would you have
a gun...There’s another CRACK from the trees.JACK pinpoints the spot from the drift of BLUE SMOKE, almost
invisible in the winter air.There’s someone in the shadows.He rubs snow into his woollen hat, edges up until he can just
see over the snow and pumps THREE SHOTS into the dusk
under the trees.We hear a muttering groan and then a sliding sound, as if
JACK has just shot a tobogganist.More snow slides off the trees.EXT. FOREST - MORNINGMan steps out of the Mercedes, pistol in hand. Leaves car
door open.EXT. LAKESIDE - MORNINGJACK waits.INGRID gathers her breath but loses her wits:INGRID
You have a gun!JACK keeps his eyes fixed on the trees.INGRID
Jack?He stands up slowly and walks inland towards the corpse that
is just visible now in the shadows beneath the trees.INGRID follows, frightened.The MAN is slouched forwards in a drift of snow, his body
cushioned in white softness.
The scene in the movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxI6RnTFj3U
Questions to ask to analyze the scene:
* What elements in the movie scene are the same as the script?
* What elements in the movie scene are different than the script?
* Regarding the differences, put yourself in the mindset of the filmmakers and speculate: Why did they make the changes they did?
* How did the changes improve the scene?
* Alternatively are there elements in the script, not present in the movie, that are better than the final version of the scene?
* Note each camera shot in the movie version. Which of them does the script suggest via sluglines or scene description?
* How does the script convey a sense of the scene’s tone, feel, and pace through scene description and dialogue?
* What ‘magic’ exists in the movie that is not indicated in the words of the script? How do you suppose that magic emerged?
I’ll see you in comments for a discussion of this terrific scene from The American.
Thanks to Teddy Pasternak for suggesting this scene from The American.
One of the single best things you can do to learn the craft of screenwriting is to read the script while watching the movie. After all a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and it’s that magic of what happens between printed page and final print that can inform how you approach writing scenes. That is the purpose of Script to Screen, a weekly series on GITS where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.
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