Wonderful essay. I’d love to see a return of ensemble disaster pics. It’s so fun to imagine yourself as part of the group like in Towering Inferno or Posiden Adventure and wonder how you’d react. I thought The Usual Suspects jumped around in time to great effect as well.
RESERVOIR DOGS is basically the non-linear version of the story Ringo Lam tells in CITY ON FIRE (1987). Lots of folks criticise Tarantino for ripping off the Hong Kong movie, but the fact is Tarantino's film is much, much more interesting and memorable because of the way he structures the story.
Triangle of Sadness has some of the disaster/all-kinds coming together to survive, which is one of the things I loved about it. I've heard it pitched as "White Lotus" on a boat, which checks out.
Non-linear storytelling for the sake of being non-linear is obvious and people know. But as you pointed out, when used to tell a story to evoke surprise and emotion from a viewer, it's fantastic. I really enjoyed this essay, and I learned a lot from it. I'm going to re-watch some of these (Res dogs) and watch others I never have. Keep 'em coming!
Also a better example of modern day disaster movie characters is The Walking Dead, at least at the beginning before someone had to run with the idiot ball to keep things exciting.
And you made me realize that Ikiru is kind of like It's a Wonderful Life with the leap forward like Stewart's "what if I hadn't been born" vision.
Tony, fan here! In regards to your commets at the beginning- re the old 70s films, disaster films, that threw a whole bunch of differrent people together, and then had the most "unassuming" person, often retiree, or janitor save the day- I thought of one of the big suprises of the summer- "Jury Duty" on Amazon now. Upon watching it- which was fantastic and moving to me- I said to my husband- really? To the "lead's eyes all these different people are getting along, interacting? I wonder if that really really! would happen now, we're all so angry and polarized. E.g. every time I get a jury duty notice I just cringe- not that I don't want to do my duty- but I really don't want to put myself in certain people's orbit. I had a few very "high-conflict" jobs, particularly during the pandemic and it was not great a lot. So- I am a fan of a lot of these movies, and I wonder how it would work now- a lot of people are very very angry and have "high conflict" personalities.
I write non-linear everyday, so it was interesting to read. If you have time, I advice you to watch the korean dramas "W two worlds" and "Memories of the Alhambra". This screenwriter inspires me a lot. She uses a lot of non-linear tricks. Her screenplay is sometime complicated to read, but it's easy to catch on screen. I noticed that western screenwriters have problems using flashbacks, but it's natural in any kdramas. So flashbacks, flashforwards are common. But in these dramas it's more than that. It's mind-blowing and you wonder how the writer could do such a puzzle.
Interesting points! Thank you for this. But also interesting that you dive into films from legendary directors and storytellers. Always feels like any leap to make something dramatically unconventional mainstream will be guided by directors and showrunners and not studios. Even though yeah, Sunset Boulevard and films like Independence Day were once a thing. But, with hope, it seems our image-saturated current moment is way more open to individual directors and camera-wielding artists as the agents of change as opposed to studios. We can all make our own stuff now. The WGA/SAG strike seems to be symptomatic of all that. The studios are willing to bankroll the lowest common denominator because they won’t do anything daring, but (again, hopefully) that might be the general consciousness that comes from all this
Wonderful essay. I’d love to see a return of ensemble disaster pics. It’s so fun to imagine yourself as part of the group like in Towering Inferno or Posiden Adventure and wonder how you’d react. I thought The Usual Suspects jumped around in time to great effect as well.
Excellent post, Tony. Will share with my students.
RESERVOIR DOGS is basically the non-linear version of the story Ringo Lam tells in CITY ON FIRE (1987). Lots of folks criticise Tarantino for ripping off the Hong Kong movie, but the fact is Tarantino's film is much, much more interesting and memorable because of the way he structures the story.
Triangle of Sadness has some of the disaster/all-kinds coming together to survive, which is one of the things I loved about it. I've heard it pitched as "White Lotus" on a boat, which checks out.
Non-linear storytelling for the sake of being non-linear is obvious and people know. But as you pointed out, when used to tell a story to evoke surprise and emotion from a viewer, it's fantastic. I really enjoyed this essay, and I learned a lot from it. I'm going to re-watch some of these (Res dogs) and watch others I never have. Keep 'em coming!
Nice actionable suggestions at the end. Thanks.
Also a better example of modern day disaster movie characters is The Walking Dead, at least at the beginning before someone had to run with the idiot ball to keep things exciting.
And you made me realize that Ikiru is kind of like It's a Wonderful Life with the leap forward like Stewart's "what if I hadn't been born" vision.
Tony, fan here! In regards to your commets at the beginning- re the old 70s films, disaster films, that threw a whole bunch of differrent people together, and then had the most "unassuming" person, often retiree, or janitor save the day- I thought of one of the big suprises of the summer- "Jury Duty" on Amazon now. Upon watching it- which was fantastic and moving to me- I said to my husband- really? To the "lead's eyes all these different people are getting along, interacting? I wonder if that really really! would happen now, we're all so angry and polarized. E.g. every time I get a jury duty notice I just cringe- not that I don't want to do my duty- but I really don't want to put myself in certain people's orbit. I had a few very "high-conflict" jobs, particularly during the pandemic and it was not great a lot. So- I am a fan of a lot of these movies, and I wonder how it would work now- a lot of people are very very angry and have "high conflict" personalities.
I write non-linear everyday, so it was interesting to read. If you have time, I advice you to watch the korean dramas "W two worlds" and "Memories of the Alhambra". This screenwriter inspires me a lot. She uses a lot of non-linear tricks. Her screenplay is sometime complicated to read, but it's easy to catch on screen. I noticed that western screenwriters have problems using flashbacks, but it's natural in any kdramas. So flashbacks, flashforwards are common. But in these dramas it's more than that. It's mind-blowing and you wonder how the writer could do such a puzzle.
Interesting points! Thank you for this. But also interesting that you dive into films from legendary directors and storytellers. Always feels like any leap to make something dramatically unconventional mainstream will be guided by directors and showrunners and not studios. Even though yeah, Sunset Boulevard and films like Independence Day were once a thing. But, with hope, it seems our image-saturated current moment is way more open to individual directors and camera-wielding artists as the agents of change as opposed to studios. We can all make our own stuff now. The WGA/SAG strike seems to be symptomatic of all that. The studios are willing to bankroll the lowest common denominator because they won’t do anything daring, but (again, hopefully) that might be the general consciousness that comes from all this
Maybe the dogmatic approach to 3-acts makes the money people feel like they understand how to tell a story. Gives them a nice rulebook to follow.