Thoughts on Conflict

*Prelude - Had two recent British films from Blockbuster, the prison escape movie THE ESCAPIST and the comedy about the Iraq War build up IN THE LOOP last night. I started THE ESCAPIST and turned it off, it was so boring. IN THE LOOP was one of the best comedies I've seen in awhile. I'm also thinking about the two Boetticher/Kennedy Westerns I watched this past weekend - RIDE LONESOME and COMANCHE STATION - both awesome movies...

What the Boetticher/Kennedy films and IN THE LOOP had in common, that inferior movies often miss, is the use of conflict between allies. Every filmmaker/writer knows they need conflict in the script/movie. They set up a protagonist and an antagonist with competing goals and so forth. But what makes a movie special is when there is inter-conflict or micro-conflict within this super structure of conflict. IN THE LOOP is excellent at using this constant rate of conflict between every single last character, screaming and shouting and yelling and getting angry at each other, each trying to get some little edge over one another, all trying to get the other person to do something a little different, a little more, or a little less. It is a battlefield. IN THE LOOP is hilarious. But the comedy is built upon dramatic foundation. The most impressive element of the movie, is that it felt realistic, despite being over-the-top. I imagine it captured the insiderness of political staffers much more so than say WAG THE DOG or WEST WING.

The Boetticher/Kennedy films could be studied for a number of things, but foremost, writing. There is outside conflict in each film which brings together a group of temporary allies to ride together - but within this group of allies - each set has different goals that converge and diverge at different points in the movie. This really ramps up the excitement and dialog and meaning in the movies.