30 Days of Screenplays, Day 16: “Being There”
Why 30 screenplays in 30 days?
Why 30 screenplays in 30 days?
Because whether you are a novice just starting to learn the craft of screenwriting or someone who has been writing for many years, you should be reading scripts.
There is a certain type of knowledge and understanding about screenwriting you can only get from reading scripts, giving you an innate sense of pace, feel, tone, style, how to approach writing scenes, how create flow, and so forth.
So each day this month, I will provide background on and access to a notable movie script.
Today is Day 16 and the featured screenplay is for the movie Being There. You may read the screenplay here.
Background: Screenplay by Jerzy Kosinski, based on his novel.
Plot summary: Chance, a simple gardener, has never left the estate until his employer dies. His simple TV-informed utterances are mistaken for profundity.
Tagline: Getting there is half the fun; being there is all of it!
Awards: Won the 1980 WGA Award for Best Comedy Adapted From Another Medium.
Trivia: Originally there was a different last shot planned for the funeral sequence at the end of the film. Director Hal Ashby was chatting with another director one day about filming when he commented how well everything was going. “It’s like walking on air,” he said, then suddenly was struck with a thought. He changed the last shot to the one that appears now in the movie.
I’m a huge Peter Sellers fan and for my money, he has starred in two of the best satires of all time: Dr. Strangelove and Being There. As satire is notoriously difficult to pull off, this is no small feat.
I suspect that many Go Into The Story readers have never seen the movie and I’d be surprised if any of you have read the script. Both are worth the effort. There are some sublime comic moments in this story. If you read the script before seeing the movie, keep in mind that Sellers modeled his speaking style as Chance after Stan Laurel of Laurel & Hardy.
There’s a saying that there are only two kinds of stories: “A person goes on a journey… and a stranger comes to town.” Being There is a combination of both narrative dynamics. On the one hand, the story’s Protagonist Chance goes on what seems at first to be a classic hero’s journey. Apparently he has never been outside the house where he has lived since his birth. Then on P. 13: “Chance is reluctant to open the front door. After some hesitation, he gathers up his courage, opens it, and steps outside, closing the door behind him.” Once outside, “Chance stops short on the steps; the front of the townhouse is run down and the yard is filled with trash. He tries to return to the safety of inside, but the door is locked.” And at that precise moment, we are hooked. We know that Chance is a simpleton. We have learned how he is man of routine. Again he has never stepped outside the house. Now he has. And he can’t go back in. He is a person who is going on a journey. And we can’t help but feel sympathy for him.
However, unlike most hero’s journey where the Protagonist goes through a series of events that causes him/her to change, Chance doesn’t change at all. Rather it is he who changes others. And that’s where the other narrative dynamic comes into play: “A stranger comes to town.” That town just happens to be Washington D.C., and all the people with whom Chance intersects — Eve, her husband Ben, President ‘Bobby,’ and the rest — think of him not as Chance the simpleton, but Chauncey Gardner, adviser to the rich, powerful, and famous.
It’s the basis of a brilliant satire and an interesting blending of those two story elements. But it would not have worked had it not been for the set-up where we learned about Chance and felt the sympathy we did when he emerged into the ‘world’ for the first time, taking that tentative step into his hero’s journey.
Years later, another movie came along with a similar set of narrative elements — a simple man, who goes on a journey, and changes others along the way: Forrest Gump.
What’s your take on Being There? Stop by comments and post your thoughts.
To see all of the posts in the 30 Days of Screenplays series, go here.
This series and use of screenplays is for educational purposes only!