We jump from one point to the other. So I started putting different scenes together with no time connection between one and the other. I jumped from one scene in the present to one in the past to one in the future to one in the past, and so on. My challenge was trying to make it work narratively—to have enough dramatic questions to keep the readers interested and allow them to construct a parallel story in their minds, filling in on their own the huge gaps of information that the structure left out.
I gave the first 20 pages to my father and to Maru. They are both my best critics and tough readers. They were hooked. At least the narrative was working. We all know that one scene has a meaning by itself and a completely different one when it is linked to a scene before and a scene after. I wanted to go beyond the conventional, so I went for symbolic choices. That was my main goal: Make the story emotional , not just intellectual.
I wanted the screenplay to challenge the heart as well as the mind. I like structures that help the audience get involved in the emotion of the story, so they can smell, touch, see, feel.
The next step was to build the structure carefully, trying to have large narrative ellipses, but with an emotional continuum.
So, in order to achieve that, I needed to create a balance within the scenes, a kind of narrative yin yang. I combined passive scenes with active ones; scenes that posed questions with scenes that answered them. Sometimes in one scene I presented the facts in a certain way, and then, in another scene, I changed those facts completely.
I was looking for a way to make the audience be much more participative—to have a constant dialogue with the film, to create and recreate the story. There were themes that could improve this involvement: love, death, life, hate, revenge, forgiveness. So I tried to use scenes with contrasting emotional themes; for example, scenes of love and then scenes of revenge.
Then there was light. I am obsessed with light, and I think it can completely change the way a film is seen. Light, in films, has a great emotional power. I intended to create an emotional path through light. In the first 35 pages, I tried to have predominately day scenes in order to communicate that there was some light in the life of these characters.
Then, when the accident is revealed, I wrote mainly night scenes. So I used night scenes for the next 35 pages as a metaphor of death, a metaphor for the abyss the characters were going to confront.
I tried to have the climax happen during the night and then have the montage of the last scenes with different lighting. The reason for this final montage goes back to 18 years ago when I had a terrible car accident.
I was sleeping in the back seat when the car suddenly rolled over a deep cliff. I woke up in the midst of shattering windows and metal breaking. Since then I have become obsessed with what happens just before an accident. How were things a minute before? Were people smiling or celebrating or angry?
Did they have everything in their lives solved? Did they ask for forgiveness that day? That was my intention on the final montage: to put the immediate moment before the accident together with the final consequences. And how, after all the pain the characters had endured, in the end they find hope.
When I wrote 21 Grams , I wanted to explore the way a human being can fulfill his need of hope—not the easy way but through the hell that some people live. How could these people, submerged in a deep abyss, overcome their pain, their fears, their guilt, their desire for revenge and find hope again?
Where in the darkest places can someone find the hidden road toward hope? My three characters come from personal hells: Jack Benicio Del Toro comes from the hell of jail and child abuse. Cristina Naomi Watts comes from the hell of drug addiction and Paul Sean Penn from the hell of very bad health. When they think they have overcome their personal hells and reached heaven—Jack through Jesus, Cristina through her family, Paul through a new heart—circumstances send them to a deeper hell, an obscure abyss where there seems to be no escape.
They struggle, fight and suffer, but they end up finding hope. They discover that, beyond death and desolation, life has an enormous power—a power that allows us to move on, to continue living.
The characters of 21 Grams have a final reconciliation with life, an acceptance of pain and fragility and a desire to move on. I truly believe 21 Grams is a film of hope and a story of love. Love is what allows these characters to find hope. It is love that makes Cristina understand there is a purpose in life; and through his love for his family, Jack finds himself again.
For me, love and hope always go together. We are maybe the only species that builds its identity through the ones around us. We are only through the others. When we lose our loved ones, we lose our identity. The loss of someone means undeniably the loss of a part of ourselves.
Each relationship marks us in a definitive way. We can only rebuild ourselves by relating again with others, loving again and not forgetting our lost ones. For me, love and hope are the themes in 21 Grams. My screenwriting teachers always told me I had to know all about my characters, to know even the brand of underwear they wear.
I completely disagree. I like to know very little about my characters, almost nothing. It, uh, looks like you had some kind of an infection We can try surgery, but I have to tell you, I think, uh, the probabilities are pretty slim. Excuse me for asking this, but it's important that you tell me the truth. Have you ever had an abortion? Any reason? I had already separated from my husband when I got pregnant, and l-- No.
I meant a medical reason. My husband's dying. I'm sorry? Paul, my husband, he's dying, and I want to have his baby. We can operate then and hope you get pregnant within three or four months.
How'd it go? Not good, Reverend. In one ear, out the other. Be patient. All it takes is one sheep in a thousand,Jack. Afternoon, Reverend. Hey, Wolf, you still having that birthday party Wednesday? My place, brother. I may be late,Jack. Back off. I told you to think. Hit me! Hey, hey,Jack! Come on! Leave it,Jack. He's a kid,Jack. You think,Jack. You think. Discuss this script with the community: 0 Comments. Notify me of new comments via email. Cancel Report. Create a new account.
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One 21 grams screenplay I was going through some old manuscripts. That accident 21 grams screenplay the genesis of 21 Grams. Did they ask for forgiveness that day? The doctor prescribed bed rest for three months. But life went on; they had other kids, and three years later she smiled and played again. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy.
Naomi Watts in 21 Grams. I never do any research. I gave the first 20 pages to my father and to Maru. I agreed, 21 Grams was the perfect title. I had read about it in some magazine. My character is going to be a born-again-Christian car thief, a man who will have pain all over him and who tries 21 grams screenplay overcome it through Jesus. His wife was so religiously sick that she thought anyone out of her sect was touched by the devil, so she xcreenplay her husband and his contact with the rest of the world.
I develop my characters through three main sources: It is love that makes Cristina understand there is a purpose in life; and through his love for his family, Jack finds himself again. They had been having nightmares every night, so I 21 grams screenplay them to see that movies are not real, that they are just a representation of reality and not reality itself. My three characters come from personal hells: I truly believe 21 Grams is a film of hope and a story of love.
I tried to have the climax happen during the night and then have the montage of the last scenes with different lighting.
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