Screenwriting Lessons from 'Lagaan'

This article of mine was published on Film Companion on the twentieth anniversary of 'Lagaan'.

If films were textbooks, Lagaan, released 20 years ago, would be my favourite textbook of all time. Here are ten lessons from the film which I believe can help us as we strive to write our own stories for the screen:

1. Solid Core, Unique Cover: What, in your story, evokes empathy in the audience? What makes the audience truly care for your characters? These are the most important questions we must ask while evaluating a story idea. Lagaan works so well because of what is at stake for its characters. Survival corresponds to the lowest layer in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. It is basal, the most fundamental need in living beings, and hence, the most universal. My grandmother may not understand English, but she can watch Cast Away with rapt attention because someone’s survival is at stake. The only genre where I can sit through a bad movie is horror — for the same reason.

The villagers of Champaner will die if they lose the match. This powerful simplicity forms the core of the story, along with the themes of injustice and the common man’s fight against the atrocities of an unjust ruler. This core has a unique and supremely attractive covering — in the form of the setting of the film, the rich, colorful socio-cultural milieu of a 19th-century Indian village, flanked by the British cantonment and the king’s palace on its either sides, where a game of cricket has to be learned, played, and won. This covering is unlike anything we have seen, thus lending originality and excitement to the simple, universal core. Most poor stories, ironically, do the exact opposite — they have an ill-defined, uninteresting, or esoteric core in a simplistic, familiar, and even predictable covering.

2. Your Film is a Concert: And each character is a musical instrument. Apart from a grand piano, make sure you have a rich string section of violins and violas, but also cello and double bass. You must have drums and cymbals but also a tambourine and a triangle. And you must have flutes, clarinets, horns, and trumpets. Nothing makes Lagaan more rewatchable than its wonderful set of characters: Guran’s eccentricities, Gauri’s endearing innocence, Elizabeth’s self-assured grace, Captain Russell’s cruel megalomania, Lakha’s shape-shifting, Bagha’s quiet strength, and Deva Singh Sodhi’s drive for redemption. Essentially, your characters should have specific roles to play, but they should be as different from each other as possible. They are each playing their own tune, and yet the resulting music is not discordant but harmonic.

3. Character is Story: British officers from a cantonment and poor farmers from an Indian village play a game of cricket to solve a purely bureaucratic matter of land tax. Could anything be more ridiculous than this? And yet, when the film reaches its Act I Climax, and Bhuvan utters the now-famous affirmation — “Sarat manjoor hai”(“सरत मंजूर है”) (“I accept the bet”) — it looks like the most obvious thing to have happened in that universe.

The starting point of plotting should always be the character. What kind of a British officer would make a ridiculous challenge like that — someone who reduces everything, even human dignity, life, and death, to a game. The first time we see Captain Russell, he is hunting, driven by his belief that “Angrez shikaar ke khel mein duniya mein sabse aage hain” (“अंग्रेज़ शिकार के खेल में दुनिया में सबसे आगे हैं”) (“The British are the best when it comes to hunting”). In his second appearance, he agrees to Rajaji’s diplomatic request regarding the temple on the condition that he eats the meat. When we see him for the third time, he makes the offer to Bhuvan.

Now, what kind of a villager would accept an impossible challenge like this — someone who sees opportunity in crises and who has tremendous self-belief and courage. We see Bhuvan perform two decisive actions before accepting the challenge: one, his ingenious disruption of Russell’s hunting; and two, a confident public proclamation of a rebellion if Rajaji refuses to lower the tax. When these two men come face to face, they do exactly what the writer wants. What we expected to be ridiculous is now a believable, engrossing drama.

4. A Ride through Hell: Screenwriting guru Robert McKee states in his book Story that the satisfaction the audience gains from any film is directly proportional to the degree of antagonism the hero faces. We want our heroes to win, but only after they have gone through hell. This antagonism should not just be strong, but also complex and layered.

Captain Russell is the strongest force of antagonism for Bhuvan. But there are several other conflicts he has to face: the villagers who act like threshold guardians refusing to be a part of Bhuvan’s journey, their age-old prejudice that resists Kachra’s inclusion into the team, the imminent betrayal by Lakha, and the challenges of the game itself. Until the very end, there are rules Bhuvan is unaware of and the game unfolds like an adventure into a mysterious land. Even when the senior British officers reprimand Russell and issue an ultimatum to him, our villain’s suffering only increases his determination to win the game. Bhuvan and his teammates go through actual physical suffering too — bloodied ears, huffing lungs, body blows, and a fractured foot. All that could go wrong, goes wrong until the final delivery. When Bhuvan hits the winning six, it is that which satisfies us at a subconscious level — the fact that he suffered way more than we feared he would.

5. Little Tales in a Grand Epic: The heart-warming love triangle of Elizabeth, Gauri, and Bhuvan. The betrayal by Lakha and later, his redemption. The heroic victory of Kachra over his social handicap. The homecoming of Ram Singh who gives up his job with the British. The atonement of Deva Singh Sodhi, a former soldier in the British army. The humiliation and the fightback of Arjan. The harmless nagging rivalry of Goli and Bhura. The secret romance between Bagha and Jigni. Lagaan is a rich mesh of emotionally fulfilling subplots, simple enough to be told economically without hurting the main plot. In fact, each of the subplots feeds the main plot and nothing is extraneous. Identifying, constructing, and structuring subplots is a tricky business. But its rewards are many.

6. Trust Simplicity and Exaggeration: In more than a decade of teaching screenwriting and direction, I have found that most young, aspiring filmmakers do not value simplicity. I don’t blame them. When I was in my early twenties, I too was fascinated by complex stuff. I thought complex was cool and that it showed my intellectual superiority and refined taste.

The second problem I observe among many screenwriters, new or experienced, is their hesitation to exaggerate. Epistemologically speaking, it is impossible to know what is adequate, until you have gone beyond it. Only when water starts overflowing do we know for sure that the vessel is full and we should not pour anymore. Hence, we must exaggerate and only then tone things down to what we think is optimum. The storytelling of Lagaan is rooted in simplicity — it’s like a grandmother narrating a fable — but the drama is as exaggerated as it could be, until the last second of the cricket match. The underappreciated art of simplicity and exaggeration deserves more attention than any of us have been willing to give.

7. The First Action: What is the first thing we see Neo Anderson do in The Matrix? He wakes up. In the story, Neo eventually opens his eyes to reality. Rohan, in the opening scene of ‘Udaan,’ is escaping and defying authority with the help of his friends. Later, he will take his first flight, escaping the brutal authority of his father. Both of these opening actions foreshadow the journeys the protagonists will undertake in the respective films.

Lagaan does this even better. After a long build-up of “Bhuvan kahaan hai?” (“भुवन कहाँ है?”) (“Where is Bhuvan?”), we find him trying to save an innocent animal from the brutality of Captain Russell. Not only is Bhuvan fearless, determined, and innovative in his effort, this is a matter of life and death, reduced by the British to a game. Note that the game is theirs, but Bhuvan believes he can make those bullets go to waste using the ill-shaped stone pebbles in his hand. The scene foreshadows Bhuvan’s upcoming endeavor. With the help of indigenous cricketing equipment and self-belief, he will try to defeat the British in their own game, with the villagers’ lives at stake.

With some imagination, you can find just the right opening action for your protagonist, whatever be the story or its constraints. We tried to do exactly that with Chintu’s father, Madan, in our film Chintu Ka Birthday. His opening act is a prayer, reminding us that no bad comes to those who keep faith. As he does that, Madan watches his son repeat the prayer after him. The transfer of faith is complete, without any effort.

8. Hide the Design: The biggest achievement of the many great scenes in Lagaan is the number of functions they serve. The “Eat the Meat” scene has a strong narrative function — it leads to the idea of double-tax, but it also sets up Russell’s character for the main plot, seeds in Rajaji’s cold war with Russell, makes us hate him and yet be enamored by his quirks, and introduces Elizabeth and Lt. Smith to us. When you create scenes that are so dense in their function, your writing becomes economical. But more importantly, all your design of plot and character hides behind the richness of the scenes. The audience has so much to see from the world of the story that they stop seeing you — the writer, the craftsperson, the storyteller.

9.The Spoken Word: KP Saxena, who wrote the Hindi dialogue for the film, is perhaps the biggest unsung hero of Lagaan. The richness of language in Lagaan is, as it should be in screen stories, conversational, although it has enough proverbs, ear-tickles, rhymes, and alliteration to make it a work of literature. It uses a concoction of Awadhi, Brajbhasha, and Bhojpuri for its linguistic flavor, but flushes in enough Khadi Boli to make it work for the urban Indian audience. The British speak a healthy mix of English and Hindi to keep things realistic while also ensuring that Indians who do not understand English have no trouble following them.

An example is from the scene where Bhuvan is having a chat with his mother, on the night after accepting the challenge and realising that he is all alone in this venture:

“Maa tohri kasam, maine jo kiya theek kiya. Mann kat-ta hai mora jab hum raja ka lagaan bharat hain, aur wo firangiyon ki gandi hatheli pe dhar det hain. Tu bol maa, dharti ki chhaati cheer ke beej koun boye hai? Hum boye hain. Phir seeche koun hai? Hum hi! Phir lagaan unki gaanth kaahe baandh dein? Gora sahab ki baat, maa, teen saal ka lagaan maaf kare ki baat thi. Main ka goonga ho jaata, maa? Tu bol, goonga ho jaata main?”

“माँ तोहरी कसम, मैंने जो किया, ठीक किया. मन कटता है मोरा जब हम राजा का लगान भरत हैं, और वो फिरंगियों की गन्दी हथेली पे धर देत हैं. तू बोल माँ, धरती की छाती चीर के बीज कौन बोए है? हम बोए हैं. फिर सींचे कौन है? हम ही! फिर लगान उनकी गाँठ काहे बाँध दें? गोरा साहब की बात, माँ, तीन साल का लगान माफ़ करे की बात थी. मैं का गूँगा हो जाता, माँ? तू बोल, गूँगा हो जाता मैं?”

Another example is from the moment when Bhuvan has almost succeeded in convincing Goli to join the team. With tears in his eyes, Goli starts wondering aloud:

“Toh ka humra lagaan maaf hoga? Hum bhar pet khaayenge? Kaa humre sapne sach honge? Nahin, nahin Bhuvan, tu geeli chutki mein namak pakad rahaa hai!”

“तो का हमरा लगान माफ़ होगा? हम भर पेट खाएँगे? का हमरे सपने सच होंगे? नहीं, नहीं भुवन, तू गीली चुटकी में नमक पकड़ रहा है!”

I have always been affected by the simplicity of the lines leading up to the final doubt. What a beautiful way to convey that Bhuvan is trying to hold on to an impossible hope! Of course, Bhuvan’s reassuring reply that follows comes from Javed Akhtar’s beautiful verse:

“Bharosa kar, Goli. Sach aur saahas hai jiske mann mein, ant mein jeet usi ki rahe hai.”

“भरोसा कर, गोली. सच और साहस है जिसके मन में, अंत में जीत उसी की रहे है.”

10. Write for the Medium: If you are dying to tell a story, find the right medium for it. Otherwise, you are not doing justice to your story. On the other hand, if you want to write for the screen, find the story most suited to the medium. Lagaan is a visual story. Its battles, its drama, and some of its greatest moments rely on visual action — not on conversations, or internal monologue. Many of the aspiring filmmakers I meet try to tell stories where characters are either talking a lot or are engrossed in deep thought. It is very rare to find a young filmmaker who actually understands the dramatic power of visual action. Remember what our hero does after being ridiculed by the entire village? He does not try to convince them with words anymore. Rather, he carves a cricket bat, hoping to demonstrate — in a long sequence of swings and misses — how “easy” it is to play the game. And just when the curiosity and the stakes are really high, he manages to hit the ball that soars in the sky, and lands at the temple gate, not before ringing the temple bell in the process. The eyes of Bhuvan twinkle at the miracle. His efforts have resulted in a divine prophecy. He will win, as long as he keeps fighting with truth and courage in his heart. Bagga and Guran join him. The long and tough fight for survival begins.

'Manchester by the Sea' by Kenneth Lonergan

My two co-writers and I decided to read a screenplay and have a discussion on it. One of them selected 'Manchester by the Sea' and we had a very fulfilling three-hour discussion last week. 

It is impossible to cover the entire discussion in a blog post, but I decided to write about the best points that were made and debated upon. There is so much to learn here, from this Oscar-winning script but the following will make more sense to you if you have recently watched the film or read the screenplay. And, of course, there are SPOILERS AHEAD.



The Protagonist

Lee, the protagonist, is extremely relatable because of the pain he has gone through. Suffering from guilt of the worst kind, he is mostly quiet and may come across as a passive character who has given up. However, in our discussion we realized that the writer has used him as a very active, decisive, motivated character in almost every scene. He is working hard, answering back to people, picking up fights, constantly driving the car with some short-term agenda, taking important decisions, and so on. What this does is wonderful. Every scene is dramatically rich and well-structured while overall we have a feeling that ours is a passive protagonist. This is a big lesson for me. The next not-so-motivated character I create can remain active at the smallest level, throughout the film, without appearing heroic. 

Also, it is important to note that in the flashbacks, before the tragedy, Lee is often seen casually defending himself - that he knows how to take care of his children. The theme of being or appearing (ir)responsible and taking responsibility runs throughout the film.

Plot

We could summarize the film as follows: The death of his elder brother forces Lee to take up responsibilities he had run away from and giving him the opportunity to start healing the wounds of his past. The writer has decided to have a very realistic, life-like structure for the film, purposefully staying away from a well-defined and easy-to-figure plot. There are eight pages of character-building and zero plot before the inciting incident kicks in. There are three acts, but the act breaks have been very effectively hidden (refer to Billy Wilder's 10 tips of screenwriting). There is a climax and a resolution, but it is not built like one. 

Setting

The location plays a very important role in the film. This story has to be set in a small town, the gossip-rich and unambitious life of its people giving the perfect socio-cultural milieu to the story. Plus it is 'by the sea' and the boat of our characters and the activity of fishing has emotional and narrative importance. The location also gives a visual uniqueness to the film that could have been otherwise set in any small town.

Structure

The generous use of flashbacks does not hurt because they don't look like a lazy and easy tool for exposition in this film. Rather, they are brought in for emotional reasons alone and end up improving the emotional impact of the film. In fact, each flashback sevres more than the function of exposition: it throws light on the present, it increases our curiosity in Lee, and it often breaks our heart.

Also, every time you feel nothing is happening in the story, something dramatic happens. Or we simply cut to a point ahead in time, with a sense of momentum. This makes sure that despite a relaxed, life-like pacing, the script remains engaging.

Tone

The unsentimental tone of the script, despite dealing with such intense crises in the characters' lives, is beautiful. There is enough humor there as well, in the way some of the characters speak, but that only enhances the life-like tone. Nothing is done for the laughs, or for the tears. And still, it is such a powerful script, emotionally speaking.

Dialogue

Characters speak in a way only they can. For example, very early in the film, Lee is fixing pipes in a woman's bathroom. 

"Well, we could turn on the shower and see if it drips downstairs..." Lee says. 

The woman replies. "You want me to take a shower while you stand there watching, to see if the water drips down into Friedrich's apartment?" 

Now, only this woman knows that the apartment below hers belongs to some Friedrich. She is talking in a way only she can. Not Lee. 

The most remarkable thing about the script, though, is its use of dual dialogue. Characters' lines overlap throughout, and their overlapping has been meticulously designed and timed. It is as if the director is editing the film while writing. This is something no writer should do while writing for someone else. If you are writing to direct, I would still not advise this on the script level because then you are micro-managing your actors and leaving very small room for error. But the final realism that this film has, thanks to its overlapping dialogue, is something all of us may strive to achieve.

Economy

In the end, it is not a play. Nor a novel. And not life. It is a screenplay. And hence economy is extremely important. Economy of pages, scenes, even events, lines, and what we see from the rich backstory and what we don't. In the now famous apology scene that comes toward the end, for example, Randi says something to Lee that very succinctly explains all that must have happened between them since the terrible accident until today. Instead of showing various events or stages that must have pulled them apart, we only have Randi say this: 

"I said a lotta terrible things to you." 

And just a second later she says: "I said things that I should -- I should fuckin' burn in hell for what I said." 

In that moment we fill in the gaps in our head, without losing our emotional involvement with the characters. It's super smart.

Opening Scene

Lee and a young Patrick are having fun on their boat in the sea, being steered by Lee's elder brother, Joe. We all know how important the opening image of a film can be. Here, we not only introduce the three most important characters of the film, the boat that connects them and represents Joe after his death and causes conflict between Lee and Patrick, we also see the sea and the activity of fishing that introduces the setting to us. But most importantly, we see Sam steering the ship, just as he will steer the story, even after his death, while his brother and his son will engage and find support in each other.

The First Ten Pages

After the short scene mentioned above, we have eight pages of Lee's life in Boston. We see him working at different households as a janitor. Each scene has interesting characters, and the scenes get increasingly more and more conflicted. Since the story is not moving forward at all (and rightly so, to establish the monotony of Lee's life), it is important that these pages are written very well. And since some big news is about to reach Lee, forming the Inciting Incident of the film, this wait is justified even more.

Some Specific Observations

It has never been stated explicitly, but Lee is an alcoholic. In one of the flashbacks, he tells his wife that they didn't run out of beer and that they were 'temperate'. There are very evident signs suggesting that he needs to cut down. He gets into drunken brawls. He keeps sipping on beer whenever we see him alone. And, of course, the biggest tragedy of his life is caused by his craving for more alcohol when he had had enough. 

Throughout the film, we see Lee trying to shrug off the responsibility of Patrick. We first thought it is because he doesn't want to shift to Manchester. But during our discussion we wondered if this is because subconsciously he thinks of himself as a poor guardian, after what happened to his kids. And the way he opposes Patrick's choice of his mom as his guardian, and note that she too is an alcoholic, not a druggie or something, perhaps Lee blames his alcoholism for everything. And still cannot give it up.

There is one scene toward the end when a secondary character, we have never seen him before in the story, is telling Lee the story of his father's death. 

"My father passed away in 1959. A young man. Worked on a tuna boat. Went out one morning, little bit of weather, nothing dramatic... And he never returned. No signal. No Mayday. No one ever knew what happened." 

I feel the story of this man's father suggests a suicide. Look at the portions I have underlined above. And perhaps with this scene, the writer is teasing us. Will Lee, after suffering from grief for so long, finally take his own life? Of course, he doesn't. I don't remember how this scene has been treated in the film. But that, perhaps, can explain its need two pages before the end.

Epilogue: Of Vulnerabilities and Virtues

What a journey it has been, to complete this in-depth study of this brilliant screenplay! It has given me a tremendous sense of fulfillment, as this is the first script I have studied in such minute detail. But more that that, this study has humbled me, and has made me wonder once again at the power of the moving pictures.

There is one point I always make during my introductory lecture at a writing workshop. We all will agree that the screenplay of a great film is as rich and layered as a good novel, and is as true and relevant as the stories from real life. What most of us do not realize is that the amount of written word a screenplay uses to create this involving, enriching story-experience is much, much less than that of novels. A typical screenplay is less than 120 pages long, and each page has more blank space than letters and words. If you formatted a screenplay like a novel, it would not take more than 50 pages. To still achieve what great movies do is not only among the most supreme achievements of writing, it is a wonder how they do it. ‘Casablanca’ is and will always remain a prototype of what screenwriting can achieve.

It must be mentioned here that the script of ‘Casablanca’ was only half completed when the shoot began. The writing continued as they shot. In fact during the last days of production, scenes were written on the morning they were being shot. It might give us a wrong idea that this is how it can be done. If this unorganized, ad hoc writing could produce a movie of this stature, we could easily create half-decent movies with similar approach. We must realize that the screenplay was based on a play, and hence the story was very much in place when they started shooting. The bottom-line of this discussion is – go ahead if you do not have the patience to complete the dialogue draft and start shooting, but in your head, and in the heads of all cast and crew, the story must be extremely clear. And that story should be as powerful, rich, and emotionally involving as this. As someone rightly remarked, and I cannot agree more, that the most important thing for a film is not the script, but the story.

And what a brilliant story ‘Casablanca’ is. Using a unique, but now dated setting, it works even today because it is based on certain archetypes. It is the story of love and loss, of trust and betrayal, of loyalty and courage, and thus it is and will always remain relatable for all of us. But more than anything, it is the story of human vulnerabilities, against our most intimate emotions as well as the brutal force around us. And it is the story of winning over those vulnerabilities, with the help of our virtues, the inherent goodness and strength deep within us. We love our characters in this film because they are as vulnerable as we are, and we admire them because they are as virtuous as we should be. And then, we really, really want to listen to this story, and we want to know what happens in the end.

Despite adopting a classical three-act structure, this script breaks some conventions, and breaks them really well. With an extremely long set-up, and a very late arriving main plot, the film’s first act consumes forty per cent of it. This is not only unusual, I would go on to say that it is not advisable. But then, if this is the structure you want to adopt, the screenplay teaches you how to do it. A MacGuffin introduced in the first page, using extremely involving sub-plots to create the illusion of main plot, creating some unforgettable cinematic characters, including those with small parts, and giving them some of the best lines ever heard on film, the script keeps you involved and guessing. It plays with your expectations, constantly, and it delays exposition teasingly. The exposition also works because of a very solid back-story, believable and very relatable. In fact, it is a wonder how the emotional depth of the back-story, that actually becomes the emotional spine of the film, has been conveyed to us so magically. During my latest re-watch of the film, I was crying and smiling, as if it were my own story. I believe that this emotional resonance the film manages to achieve has also to do with how it controls it rhythm. It slows down at the right moments, to let us anticipate, feel, think, and come closer to the emotional space of our characters, so that when it picks up, we are not thinking any more, but reacting emotionally, and urgently to whatever they are doing on screen.

The aural ambience of the film is almost unparalleled. It does not have the irreverence of a Tarantino, nor the incision of an Allen. And yet it is a classical example of how film dialogue should be – attractive, pleasing at different levels, and most importantly, true to each character. And then there are image systems, as discussed under the heading “themes” in the ten preceding posts of mine. Since it is based on a play, there is a lot to hear, but there also is a lot to see, and it goes beyond the charismatic insouciance of Bogart or the endearing beauty of Bergman.

And then, the ending! “Wow them in the end!” – advises Robert McKee’s character in ‘Adaptation’, the film where he claims ‘Casablanca’ to be the best screenplay ever written. I’m grateful to McKee for leading me to this detailed study of this script and also for giving this mantra. I’ll always keep in mind the climax of this film as an example of a “wow finish”, something that Rick himself had seeded around mid-point.

A brilliant love story, an extremely engaging and powerful political drama, with elements of urbane comedy and a musical, it is rich and varied. It is driven by characters who will shine forever, and remind us of what being human is, or can be. For its sheer brilliance, and timeless appeal, I most humbly recommend ‘Casablanca’ as a must-watch-before-you die (#44), before I formally conclude this study of its screenplay. Informally, studying and learning from it will continue, for as long as I live. I am pretty certain of that.

#10: New Beginnings

In this ten-part series I study the screenplay of ‘Casablanca’ by breaking it down to its several aspects. Click here and read from down upward for the entire series.

“It doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you’ll understand that.”

Story Covered in this final part: Ilsa rushes to Rick to confirm that Laszlo is leaving and she is staying back with Rick. Rick reassures her. Laszlo believes Rick has arranged for Ilsa to leave with him and is thankful to Rick. Rick hands him the letters of transit without accepting any money in return. At that moment, Renault appears to arrest Laszlo. But his smile fades as he finds Rick pointing a gun at him. Rick makes Renault call the airport to ensure no problems ahead. But, actually, Renault has called Major Strasser who immediately leaves for the airport. Rick and others reach there. Once Laszlo goes to take care of the luggage Rick makes Renault fill in the names of Laszlo and Ilsa on the letters. To their surprise, Rick reveals to Ilsa that she is going to leave with Laszlo. Despite Ilsa’s protests, he convinces her, that this is the right thing to do, that Laszlo will need her, and more importantly, Rick too is going to enter the war. When Laszlo returns he informs him about Ilsa’s attempt to get the letters from him last night and that he does not believe she really loves him. Laszlo thanks Rick, and welcomes him back to the fight. He leaves with a teary-eyed Ilsa. Strasser reaches just when the flight is about to take off. Rick shoots him dead. Renault helps Rick escape arrest and as the plane takes off Renault earns his sense of patriotism. He and Rick are soon going to disappear from Casablanca and join the war.

Step Outline:

• Pg 115-117: At Rick’s. Scene between Rick and Ilsa and Laszlo. And Renault.
• Pg 118: Strasser has received Renaults call. He leaves for the airport.
• Pg 119-126: The climax at the airport. (With one brief intercut on pg 122 to show Strasser driving to the airport.)

        Structure: The rhythm and the pace of the events in this section are dramatically and emotionally so involving that we hardly have time to breathe. The classical design of the Climax comes into play that plays on reversal of expectations, using cinematic tools (see below), and an end that brings satisfying emotional resolution to not only the main plot, but all sub-plots.

The Character arc:

• Rick completely drives the climax, with his presence of mind, wisdom, and courage. By doing everything right, he has fulfilled our emotional investment in him.
• Ilsa completely surrenders to Rick’s command. Despite the pain, and the knowledge that she may never see him again, she understands what he has decided is the best for all of them. Their love story will stay unfulfilled, but Rick has successfully brought to it purity and pride.
• Laszlo continues to impress us with his understanding. Not only he implies that he understands the sacrifice Rick and Ilsa are making for the greater cause, he also makes sure to ask Ilsa if she is ready to join him on the plane. He also admires Rick’s entry into the War.

Sub-plots: Apart from the resolution of the incredibly beautiful love story between Rick and Ilsa, that was the main plot of the film, the following subplots are resolved as well.

• Laszlo's escape brings a satisfying end to the political drama
• Rick is back in the fight
• Renault’s sense of patriotism is back. Despite trying his best to prevent Laszlo from escaping until the last minute, Rick’s sacrifice makes sure that Renault finally gives up his selfish and corrupt ways.
• Renault always had a soft-corner for Rick. It resolves when he helps Rick after he kills Strasser. We are not sure how much Rick will trust him, but for a while they are going to be together. The famous line that closes the film assures us of that, when Rick says, walking away: “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
• Strasser dies. If there is one character who deserved to die, it is he, the one who is most brutal, and the one who signifies the Nazis.

Tools Employed:

• Reversing Expectation: Since we are not aware of Rick’s plans, and he manages to create wrong expectations in all of us, including the characters on screen, what he eventually ends up doing is an extraordinarily pleasing surprise.
• Surprise: When forced to call the airport by Rick, Renault makes the call. But as the scene ends we cut to the other end of the phone call and are surprised to find it was Strasser whom Renault had called, thus informing him about the escape plan.
• Time-lock and Rising Tension: And thanks to that phone call, the tension in the film rises like never before. There are several films where all characters converge at one place at the climax, but not many films manage tension so effortlessly and effectively. Also, as soon as we cut to location of the climax, the airport, an Orderly makes a call informing us that the Lisbon flight is leaving in ten minutes, thus creating a time-lock and enhancing the sense of tension.
• Cinematically stunning climax: Apart from closing on great emotional and dramatic high, the climax also works cinematically, visually. One, heavy fog surrounds the airport. Two, the energy of the moment and intercutting with Strasser driving to the airport gives it a formal urgency.

Themes:

• One big theme of the film has been the struggle between the personal and the political. Rick’s passion has turned this patriotic and compassionate man into a recluse. Renault’s premature line “Love, it seems, has triumphed over virtue” further confirms this struggle. And in the final lines spoken by Rick to convince Ilsa, the personal desires and the political virtues meet, merging into each other, losing something for the greater good. What powerful lines: “Inside of us we both know you belong to Victor. You’re part of his work, the thing that keeps him going. If that plane leaves the ground and you’re not with him, you’ll regret it… May be not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life… We’ll always have Paris. We didn’t have, we’d lost it, until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night.”
• Also, Rick’s entry into the War signifies more than just personal. Remember, the setting of the movie is December 1941, precisely when America entered the war. Hence, Rick’s personification of the USA is complete here.
• Rick’s killing of Strasser foreshadows Germany’s defeat in the War some years after the film’s release.

Standout scene: The final scene at the airport, for obvious reasons.

#9: Hero's Call

In this ten-part series I study the screenplay of ‘Casablanca’ by breaking it down to its several aspects. Click here and read from down upward for the entire series.

“Each of us has a destiny, for good or for evil.”

Story Covered in Part 9: Ilsa shares with Rick the complete truth regarding the past. She was really in love with him during their days in Paris when she believed Laszlo to be dead. She did not share with Rick that she was a widow to ensure their safety as Laszlo was an important man. Just before they were to leave Paris, she got the news of Laszlo’s return. She now requests Rick to help Laszlo escape. Rick does not want to lose Ilsa again. She leaves the decision on him. He must decide for both of them. They are interrupted by the arrival of Carl and Laszlo, escaping the police. Rick makes Carl take Ilsa to her hotel room without letting Laszlo know about it. Rick then has another conflicted moment with Laszlo when he gets to know how much Laszlo loves her. He wants Rick to take her away to ensure her safety. A French Officer arrives at this point and arrests Laszlo. Next morning, Rick goes to Renault and reveals that he is about to leave Casablanca with Ilsa. He convinces Renault to frame Laszlo in a better way, so that they have bigger charge against him. The plan is that Rick will arrange for Laszlo to pick up the letters of transit from him, and precisely then Renault will arrest Laszlo. Gaining Renault’s trust Rick goes to meet Laszlo in the lock-up. He then goes to Ferrari and sells his café to him. That night, Renault reaches Rick’s and they wait. Laszlo arrives with Ilsa.

Step Outline:

• Pg 103-104: Ilsa reveals the complete truth to Rick.
• Pg 105-106: Carl is back with Laszlo. Rick makes Ilsa leave with Carl.
• Pg 107-108: Laszlo requests Rick to take Ilsa away, to safety. Laszlo is arrested.
• Pg 109-111: Rick meets Renault next morning and convinces him of his plan.
• Pg 112: Rick sells his café to Ferrari
• Pg 113-114: Rick and Renault wait at Rick’s. Ilsa and Laszlo arrive.

Structure: The slowed rhythm of the seventh part does not affect the film at all. In fact, by taking us away from the main plot during that segment, the writers prepared us for the very thick eighth and ninth parts. The Second Act ends on a high after both Ilsa and Laszlo leave the decision on Rick, and it seems he has made the decision by the time Laszlo is arrested. From page 109, the Final Act begins. Notice that after spending the entire film not knowing the complete truth, Rick is now the only person who knows what is going to happen. The hero has taken over. No other character, and neither the audience knows what he is going to do. There is a plan he has shared with Renault but as the ending will reveal, he is closely guarding his cards. Also, the rhythm of the scenes has prepared us for an exciting climax, emotionally and dramatically.

The Character arc:

• Rick: Since Ilsa has left the decision on him, and now we know that Rick and Ilsa really want to be with each other, his apparent decision of going away with Ilsa looks kind of fulfilling. But then the film is more than Rick’s desire to have Ilsa. And hence we hope he does something more than that. All our expectations ride on him, our hero. Also, his kindness is further affirmed when he ensures the security of his employees as he sells his café to Ferrari. And, as the final segment will reveal, the sharpness of Rick’s mind is more than impressive, as evident from how he sets up the end as per his own wish.
• Ilsa: Our expectation is fulfilled. She is a nice woman, in every way. The revelation of truth is extremely fulfilling. And then she surrenders herself to Rick, leaving him to decide for both of them. We love her more than ever. We care for her more than ever.
• Laszlo: His love for Ilsa is more than we could imagine. He surprises Rick by requesting him to take Ilsa to safety, knowing very well that Rick loves Ilsa. “Apparently you think of me only as the leader of the cause. Well, I am also a human being.” These lines by Laszlo create a more rounded character of Laszlo for us than before, more tender, more relatable.
• Captain Renault: We were always aware of his soft corner and admiration for Rick. Hence when Rick convinces him so easily, it does not come as a surprise.

Sub-plots: Ferrari’s sub-plot comes to a close, as he gets what he wanted since the very beginning – the ownership of Rick’s Café. Also, with this, all employees at the café get their sub-plots closed, whether they like it or not. Sam, Carl, Sacha and Abdul – all will stay at Rick’s under Ferrari. Rick has ensured their continued employment and has, we assume, raised Sam’s share in the profits from ten to twenty-five per cent – thus closing this sub-lot in somewhat fulfilling manner.

Tools Employed:

• Control on the rhythm of the screenplay, as mentioned in the structure above.
• Rising Tension: as mentioned above
• Use Character Motivation for Plotting: Both Ilsa and Laszlo leave it on Rick to take the final call. With Rick acquiring all the power, all possibilities of the film’s ending are alive, despite ninety per cent of the film being over.
• Keep the Protagonist Ahead of the Audience: Rick’s entire plan, as revealed since page 109 is, as we realize in the last part, untrue. He has something else in the mind. Also, since his plan involves Laszlo coming to him for the letters of transit, we will never be able to predict the end.
• Surprise: When Rick reveals to Renault that he has decided to leave Casablanca it comes as a surprise, despite the last night’s events clearly leading us to believe that.
• Tie the ends logically: Reading Rick’s scene with Renault is a pleasure. Rick has made a fool-proof plan that serves various purposes. It convinces Renault and us of something, while making sure that something exactly different takes place in the end. The writers have not left any room for logical errors. These final lines of this scene prove how much of thinking has gone into it, by Rick, and effectively by the writers: “And by the way, call off your watchdogs when you let him (Laszlo) go. I don’t want them around this afternoon. I’m taking no chances, Louis, not even with you.”
• Ellipsis: After his conversation with Renault, Rick goes to talk to Laszlo in the lock-up. But we never get to see that scene. It is because we really do not need to see that.
• Use Conflicted Dialogue to Make the Character’s Internal World Available to the Audience: Thanks to a wonderfully conflicted scene, Laszlo’s lines to Rick sum up the hero’s state of mind, both personal and political. The lines are: “You know how you sound Monsieur Baline? Like a man who’s trying to convince himself of something he doesn’t believe in his heart.”

Standout scene: Ilsa’s revelation of the complete truth to Rick is satisfying at many levels. Craft-wise it works so well because of two reasons: the delayed exposition and fulfilling character-reveal that has made us love all three of them now – Rick, Ilsa, and Laszlo.

What is the audience expecting: The scene with Ferrari further confirms that Rick is leaving. So we do not have any doubts about his intentions. But we are still waiting to be surprised. To be honest, the energy of this segment is dramatically so powerful that we do not have the time to think. We are so damn curious to know the end.