{"id":11,"date":"2012-09-03T13:10:51","date_gmt":"2012-09-03T17:10:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/screenplayasliterature.com\/?p=11"},"modified":"2013-03-28T18:33:21","modified_gmt":"2013-03-28T22:33:21","slug":"the-importance-of-theme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/screenplayasliterature.com\/?p=11","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of Theme"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my book The Screenplay as Literature<\/em>, I gave a brief treatment on \u201ctheme\u201d in cinema and how the term differs from \u201cpremise.\u201d\u00a0 In this work I defined \u201ctheme\u201d as a thought-provoking idea that pervades the entire production\u2014an idea that is often simple and profound.\u00a0 I pointed out that a \u201ctheme\u201d and its meaning should always be self-evident to the audience\u2014even if only on an subconscious level\u2014not demanding proof or demonstration, but development instead.\u00a0\u00a0 This I contrasted to a \u201cpremise,\u201d which I defined as a proposition that must be proved or demonstrated.\u00a0 Subsequently, I became dissatisfied with my earlier treatment of this important topic, primarily because my book did not included a suitable example of a film with a full-blown theme; I had endeavored to include one, but for reasons I cannot go into here, I was compelled to drop the chapter dealing with such an example (the film, by the way, was Hiroshima Mon Amour<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Sometimes the theme of a film is related to its premise.\u00a0 For example in the very harrowing Soviet film Come and See <\/em>(1985), set during World War II in Russia, <\/em>the premise is <\/em>that <\/em>war brutalizes its victims: \u00a0robbing them of their humanity, and for the young, also robbing them of their youth, even their childhood.\u00a0 This is really a subset of the theme, which, in this instance, can be stated in a number of ways:\u00a0 The Apocalypse of Our Time, War is Hell, and Man\u2019s Inhumanity to Man. (By the way, the title of the film is a Biblical reference to the destruction wrought by The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.)\u00a0 In this monumental film the theme is developed by depicting scenes of greater and greater brutality and horror.\u00a0 The premise, on the other hand, is demonstrated (or proved) by a \u201ccoming of age\u201d story in which the protagonist, a young, adolescent partisan, is thoroughly brutalized by his wartime experiences (shockingly, his hair turns prematurely gray at the film\u2019s end).<\/p>\n

Sometimes this dramaturgical concept of a theme is confused with the way the term is commonly employed in the film industry.\u00a0 In this instance, \u201ctheme\u201d or \u201caction-theme\u201d is used to describe what a film \u201cis about.\u201d\u00a0 Thus \u201ca secret agent prevents a terrorist organization from detonating a stolen nuclear weapon and destroying a major city\u201d might well\u00a0be the \u201ctheme\u201d of a James Bond film.\u00a0 And sometimes a filmmaker endeavors to make what his film is about<\/em> rise to the level of a theme in the higher sense.\u00a0 The British film Love Actually (2003)<\/em> is such an example.\u00a0 Here, in the opening scene\u00a0at London\u2019s main airport, Heathrow, we are told (by a voice-over) that love is all around us; and we are shown various couples (lovers, families) who obviously share love.\u00a0 The film then goes on to depict various relationships (ten in all) from all strata of society (including one involving a Prime Minister and another involving a couple who meet on the set of a porno film) which end in committed relationships and\u00a0 marriage. or hopefully will. \u00a0The film ends where it began, Heathrow airport, where we see many of those same couples coming together (if they have not already done so).\u00a0 Love Actually<\/em> is a very clever and well-made film.\u00a0 But in the end it is just a film about<\/em> love; its contrived love stories never rise to level of \u201ctheme\u201d.\u00a0 We just don\u2019t feel<\/em> the love.<\/p>\n

Some of the more intriguing examples of theme are to be found in some rather unexpected places.\u00a0 The films of Charles Chaplin, a comedian and director whose film career began in the silent era and spanned several decades, provide just such an example.\u00a0 Chaplin\u2019s signature hapless tramp, with his little mustache, battered hat, cane and clumsy gait clearly embodied the indomitableness of the human spirit.\u00a0 No matter how much he was beaten down by the vicissitudes of life–and beaten down he was–he always picked himself up, dusted himself off, and walked off into the sunset with his peculiar gait, ready for whatever life would throw at him next.\u00a0\u00a0 In the early days of silent films, the actors had no names.\u00a0 But theater owners had only to put a cardboard representation of the little tramp in front of their theaters and the audiences would come–because they knew who he was.\u00a0 He was them!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my book The Screenplay as Literature, I gave a brief treatment on \u201ctheme\u201d in cinema and how the term differs from \u201cpremise.\u201d\u00a0 In this work I defined \u201ctheme\u201d as a thought-provoking idea that pervades the entire production\u2014an idea that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[10,11,18],"class_list":["post-11","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theiory","tag-charles-chaplin","tag-premise","tag-theme"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/screenplayasliterature.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/screenplayasliterature.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/screenplayasliterature.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/screenplayasliterature.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/screenplayasliterature.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/screenplayasliterature.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90,"href":"https:\/\/screenplayasliterature.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions\/90"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/screenplayasliterature.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/screenplayasliterature.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/screenplayasliterature.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}