This week I'm looking at storytelling takeaways from the 2021 Oscar Nominees for Best Original Screenplay.
A good biopic is very much like an adaptation--your goal is to capture the essence of the person and their lives, rather than to hit every beat.
Most biopics struggle to do this well, I think because the creators come to so love the people and events they met in their research they're no longer capable of the objectivity needed to create a coherent and compelling story.
Every detail in a biopic has to stay true to the essence of the actual people and events being represented. And it also must answer the same question as one asks in any other story: Why is this here? How does it serve the narrative?
And this is where JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH excels. Writers Will Berson, Shaka King, Keith Lucas and Kenneth Lucas are incredibly disciplined in the three stories that they set out to tell--William O'Neal's insertion as a plant and struggle to get free of the FBI while slowly being won over by Fred Hampton; Hampton's relationship with Darlene; and the FBI's relentless pursuit of his destruction and the destruction of the Black Panthers in light of his growing popularity.
Look at the script and you won't find a single beat that doesn't hit one of those three stories. And all three arcs are also very tightly constructed. Each next scene moves the ball forward, step by step. We get no repeat beats and also none of the typical origin story flashbacks or Act Ones. Given how impressive a man Hampton was, there must have been many compelling stories from his youth.
But the writers refuse to get drawn into any narrative cul-de-sacs. The film has not a single wrong turn or note.
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Last week comic book artist Elsa Charretier did a video showing how she'd adapt a scene from RESERVOIR DOGS to a comic page. It absolutely nails the way a good adaption should be faithful to the source material. It's very worth watching for anyone interested in writing any kind of narrative translation, including a biopic.
Takeaway Question: What are the main arcs of my biopic (or other story)? If I list them as a series of single sentences, are there any that don't seem to follow from the last or lead to the next?
