Script Analysis: “Jojo Rabbit” — Part 4: Themes

Read the script for the award-winning film and analyze all week.

Reading scripts. Absolutely critical to learn the craft of screenwriting. The focus of this bi-weekly series is a deep structural and thematic analysis of each script we read. Our daily schedule:

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

Today: Themes.

I have this theory about theme. In two parts. First, a principle: Theme = Meaning. What does the story mean? Second, while there is almost always a Central Theme, there are multiple other Sub-Themes at play in a story. Therefore the question: What does a story mean takes on several layers of meaning?

Time to ponder themes in Jojo Rabbit. You may download a PDF of the script here.

Screenplay by Taika Waititi, based upon the book ‘Caging Skies’ by Christine Leunens.

Plot Summary: A World War II satire that follows a lonely German boy named Jojo whose world view is turned upside down when he discovers his single mother is hiding a young Jewish girl in their attic. Aided only by his idiotic imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler , Jojo must confront his blind nationalism.

Writing Exercise: Explore the themes. What is its Central Theme? What are some of the related Sub-Themes?

Major kudos to Gareth Boucher for doing this week’s scene-by-scene breakdown.

To download a PDF of the breakdown for Jojo Rabbit, go 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 the Character discussion, go here.

You may download 100+ movie scripts from the last decade — free and legal — here.

I hope to see you in the RESPONSE section about this week’s script: Jojo Rabbit, one of two most favorite movies in 2019 along with Parasite.