Movie Analysis: “In Bruges” — Part 6: Takeaways

Watch this critically acclaimed indie movie and analyze it all week.

Another in our series in which we analyze notable movies. Why? To quote the writing mantra I coined 9 years ago: Watch movies. Read scripts. Write pages. You will note which one comes first. Here are my reflections from that post about the importance of watching movies:

To be a good screenwriter, you need to have a broad exposure to the world of film. Every movie you see is a potential reference point for your writing, everything from story concepts you generate to characters you develop to scenes you construct. Moreover people who work in the movie business constantly reference existing movies when discussing stories you write; it’s a shorthand way of getting across what they mean or envision.

But most importantly, you need to watch movies in order to ‘get’ how movie stories work. If you immerse yourself in the world of film, it’s like a Gestalt experience where you begin to grasp intuitively scene composition, story structure, character functions, dialogue and subtext, transitions and pacing, and so on.

This week’s movie: In Bruges, written by Martin McDonagh, starring Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, and Ralph Fiennes.

IMDb plot summary: Guilt-stricken after a job gone wrong, hitman Ray and his partner await orders from their ruthless boss in Bruges, Belgium, the last place in the world Ray wants to be.

Our schedule for discussion this week:

Monday: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown
Tuesday: Plot
Wednesday: Characters
Thursday: Themes
Friday: Dialogue
Saturday: Takeaways

Today: Takeaways.

Write a RESPONSE and let me know what your takeaways have been from the script for In Bruges.

A shout-out and thanks to Mark Furney for working up the scene-by-scene breakdown for this movie.

You can download a PDF of the breakdown here.

For Part 1, to read the Scene-By-Scene Breakdown discussion, go here.

For Part 2, to read the Plot discussion, go here.

For Part 3, to read Characters discussion, go here.

For Part 4, to read Themes, go here.

For Part 5, to read Takeaways, go here.

For more Go Into The Story Movie Analysis posts, go here.

For Go Into The Story Script Analysis posts, go here.