Working with a script’s central theme and sub-themes

Typically when I read an article or book where they discuss movie themes, the focus is on the one, big, overarching story theme.

“Love conquers all.”

“A divided house can not stand.”

“You can’t judge a book by its cover.”

People tend to frame the subject as if there is one story theme and it is equivalent to the “moral of the story”.

While I agree that most movies will have one central, unifying theme, that is not the end of it. In my view, a story should have multiple themes: some big, some small, some specific to one subplot, others in play across several subplots, some readily apparent, other tiny grace notes that exist only for the most discerning eye.

Why multiple themes? Because good stories are multilayered. They have plots and subplots, primary characters and secondary characters, themes and sub-themes. The value of sub-themes is that they not only can amplify the central theme by giving it various angles of meaning, they also provide the script reader a variety of emotional and psychological access points into the story.

Let’s look at a few notable movies and consider the central themes and sub-themes.

With The Silence of the Lambs, the title itself and what it refers to tips us off to a central theme: the power that death has over the living as evidenced by the recurring nightmares suffered by the story’s Protagonist Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster). There is also the sub-theme of transformation focused around Buffalo Bill, the moths, and the killer’s desire to become a woman by accumulating and sewing together a female skin-suit. That sub-theme is also played out in Clarice’s own metamorphosis. There is the sub-theme of blood and blood sacrifice, directly tied to the absolution of Clarice’s guilt. There is also an interesting sub-theme with Clarice and father figures — the loss of her own father, the role her FBI boss (Crawford) plays, and even Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) as substitute patriarchal figures.

How about the comedy Tootsie? We all know the central theme in that movie, as the Protagonist Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman), confesses to the Attractor character Julie Nichols (Jessica Lange), “But I was a better man with you, as a woman, than I ever was with a woman, as a man.” There also is a sub-theme of the roles we play and the masks we wear in our public lives. A sub-theme about friendship. A sub-theme about honesty. Another sub-theme about the contemporary’s culture’s cult of personality.

Finally, what about The Shawshank Redemption? “Get busy living, or get busy dying” is the clearest articulation of its central theme. Amplifying that point is Red’s personal transformation — from cynicism (“dying”) to hope (“living”). But there are sub-themes involving hypocrisy in the form of Norton’s religiosity versus his illicit extortion activities. There is the sub-theme of institutionalization. Sub-themes of violence, self-deception to self-honesty, sublime beauty amidst the darkest corners of human existence (e.g., suds on the roof, Mozart over the PA system, Rita / Raquel posters on the wall). How about “salvation lies within”?

If you look at these three movies, their central themes and sub-themes, I think you’ll see that the smaller themes tie into and enhance the depth of meaning of the main themes.

I contend you can analyze any movie, or at least those that are any good, and find multiple themes in each. Turning that point around, therefore, it is incumbent upon us, as writers, to be aware of the themes that emerge as we develop and write our stories.

That said, themes are oftentimes the most elusive aspects of the story-crafting process. I remember reading once that James L. Brooks was in the editing room working on As Good As It Gets when he finally realized what the central theme of that story was. After co-writing the script. Casting. Rehearsals. Production. All that. And only during editing that he fully grasped the essence of the story from a thematic standpoint.

As I said, themes can be elusive.

So let me open this up for discussion: How do you find and develop your story’s themes? Is it a straight-ahead process or one that plays out in fits and starts? Do you think in terms of central themes and sub-themes? Finally what’s the best advice you’ve ever read or received about working with story themes?

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