Love it or hate it, the film is a cinematic milestone (which Spielberg then topped with his follow-up, Schindler’s List) and has a great premise full of life-and-death thrills.
Inherit the Wind: Don’t Monkey with Story Issues
This story is a study on what happens when people elevate topical and controversial issues above their personal relationships and others’ free exercise of truth. In fact, the titular reference to Proverbs 11:29 is used within the story to give an ironic comment on that dynamic.
Gone with the Wind: Worldly Change Changes the Life of a Character
Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh) especially shows how a character can be stretched one way and the other in response to a constantly changing environment—and how a character can drastically change without losing the fundamental nature of their character.
Tootsie: How a Risky Character Created a Character Who Took Risks
The premise is about an out-of-work actor playing a woman. The argument is about the way that men treat women and how women want to be treated by men. In order to do either meaningfully, a man has to take a risk and see things from a woman’s perspective.
Guys & Dolls: Helping a Character DO it “My Way”
For a character to be distinct (aka, “be in character”) there has to be a singular essence (aka, “characteristic”) that unifies that character’s different attributes and separates it from other characters with shared attributes.
Pride & Prejudice: When Core Values Fell in Love
Single-mindedness is what makes a character a character. But when two strong-willed So when the two strong-minded lovers in Pride and Prejudice clash, it’s only when they can appreciate each other’s core value that brings them together.