1. Posted: May 9, 2018In:

    An aging radical’s suicide reunites seven of his college cohorts to mourn and reflect on the gap between their youthful idealism and their middle-aged conformity.

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    >>>>Would Lawrence Kasdan have been given this opportunity without the successes he had garnered before? Probably notTotally agree.? ?Kasdan was on a roll.? He had?writing credits on 4 commercial hits on his resume including "Star Wars" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark".As far as? I can see,Read more

    >>>>Would Lawrence Kasdan have been given this opportunity without the successes he had garnered before? Probably not

    Totally agree.? ?Kasdan was on a roll.? He had?writing credits on 4 commercial hits on his resume including “Star Wars” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark”.

    As far as? I can see, the plot, such as it is, is constellated by the collective desire of the group to share their grief, catch up on each other’s lives, and hang out for the weekend,.? That’s it.

    Kasdan did inject two subplots driven by two characters with specific objective goals.? The Jeff Goldblum character wants to get the Kevin Kline and Tom Berenger characters — the ones with the most money — to invest in his New York night club.? ? The Mary Kay Place character, who has never married, wants one of the guys to stand stud so she can have a child.

    The narrative neatly divides into two parts.? The? focus in the 1st half is on their remorse for their lost friend, and remorse for their lost ideals.? At the midpoint, the narrative shifts focus to the resolution of personal? and relationship issues, past and present.

    Variable: about Nick?s character

    It feels contrived to me to try to? use one particular character? around which to build an overarching plot line.? I think each character illustrates as facet of the theme Kasdan wanted to explore: the varying ways the rebels and radicals of? his generation? lost their idealism, were co-opted by the system.? Nick’s idealism and psychological health were victims of Vietnam .

    And that’s the way an ensemble film should work:? each character and subplot should illustrate and serve one overarching? theme.? In “The Big Chill”? Alex’s death is so obviously a metaphor for the movie’s theme. (Every time a logline is posted featuring an ensemble cast, that’s the question I would like an answer to:? what is the overarching theme that unites all these characters?)?

    This film is one of a kind, a beneficiary of good timing.? ?As Karel noted,? the script was green lighted because Kasdan? was already an established screenwriter, — a high successful one.? And the finished film was such a commercial success because it resonated with? the mood of baby boomers who were the primary target audience — and a huge one.? (And it resonated because of the memory-evoking, soundtrack.)

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  2. Posted: April 5, 2018In:

    After allied bombing accidentally destroys her safehouse, a jew joins the dutch resistance, only to face a series of deception

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    Now that I have actually viewed the movie, here is my amended logline (version 2.0).After the Nazis kill her family while trying to flee Holland, a Jewish singer joins the resistance and infiltrates the German high command to collect vital military intelligence. ( 28 words)The accidental bombing ofRead more

    Now that I have actually viewed the movie, here is my amended logline (version 2.0).

    After the Nazis kill her family while trying to flee Holland, a Jewish singer joins the resistance and infiltrates the German high command to collect vital military intelligence.
    ( 28 words)

    The accidental bombing of the house where she has been hiding out is what I call the Point of Attack, the 1st significant conflict in the story.? ?Usually, it’s dramatic significance is that it dramatizes what’s wrong with the status quo as far as the protagonist is concerned.? And that is certainly the case here.? She’s hiding from the Nazis and caught in the cross-fire as the Allies liberate the continent.

    But as dramatic as that scene is, it is not the inciting incident.? Why?? Because it does not motivate her to join the resistance.? Only after the Nazis ambush and kill her family while they are trying to flee Holland, does she join the resistance.? Now she’s motivated:? she’s getting involved not just out of a sense of patriotic duty but because it’s personal.? It’s her way of avenging the death of her family.

    A good inciting incident hooks into something personal in the mind, the life of the protagonist that compels her to respond, to do something radically different, something she would have never dared do before the incident. It’s an opportunity, a call to action disguised as a personal problem or, in this case, a personal tragedy.

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  3. Posted: April 8, 2018In:

    When his wife is murdered in Africa, his diplomat widow has to get to the bottom of an international conspiracy to find the truth. – Constant Gardener

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    First of all, thanks to moviefreak81 for posting the logline.? It was the inciting incident that spurred me to give the film a second look.? I am a great admirer of the fiction of?John le Carr?',? and film adaptations, but this adaptation initially underwhelmed me.? Here's my take:After his fearlessRead more

    First of all, thanks to moviefreak81 for posting the logline.? It was the inciting incident that spurred me to give the film a second look.? I am a great admirer of the fiction of?John le Carr?’,? and film adaptations, but this adaptation initially underwhelmed me.? Here’s my take:

    After his fearless, socially-conscious wife is murdered in Kenya, a timid diplomat must get to the bottom of an international conspiracy to discover why.
    (24 words)

    My version builds on moviefreak81’s by inserting a few? words, defining the husband and wife.

    His wife is “fearless” in a country racked with violence.? Which enables the local authorities and the British government to write her death off as lamentable. but her own damn fault:? she? recklessly put her life in danger for the sake of her social work.

    The diplomat’s timidity offers a contrast between husband and wife that generates both love and conflict in their relationship.? And central to the plot, it? stipulates the character flaw he must overcome in order to achieve his objective goal.

    Too often in loglines, a character flaw seems tossed in that is not germane to the objective goal.? And by not germane, I mean it doesn’t represent a subjective problem the? protagonist must overcome to? succeed, a problem that dooms him to failure if he doesn’t.??The way I determine how germane a flaw is to recast the flaw explicitly:? “After X, the protagonist must overcome Y in order to accomplish Z.”

    For this film that would be:? “After his fearless, socially-conscious wife is murdered in Kenya, a diplomat must overcome his timidity to get to the bottom of an international conspiracy to find why.”? At 27 words, it makes explicit what is only implicit in the standard logline formula.? And clearly the flaw is germane.??

    fwiw

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