Storytelling: Bambi vs Godzilla and BBC's Born Equal

Last night I was really looking forward to the all-star 90 min premier of Born Equal on BBC 1. Dominic Savage's new offering featured the likes of Colin Firth, Robert Carlyle, David Oyelowo and Anne-Marie Duff. Dominic Savage offers the follow about the film:

Born Equal started life as a film about homelessness but, as the director Dominic Savage embarked upon his research, a markedly different film began to take shape.

"When I began to look into the problem of homelessness, my sense was that there was a really big issue around people living in temporary accommodation for long periods of time."

They're known as the 'hidden homeless' because, although they've got a roof over their heads, it's far from being a home."

Savage visited a number of these hostels and met many different people who generously shared their stories with him - stories he says he'll never forget.

"The film shows huge contrasts between people and how they live, their ideas, what they've got and what they haven't got," says Savage, who points out that although the film is set in London, the same contrasts can be seen all over Britain.

"In the end, what the film aspires to achieve is to encourage people to think more about others, care about the less fortunate and be more aware of what's going on around them."

The strength of the cast and the quality of the trailers looked really enticing. Indeed the film was really good. I was however a bit put of by the comment in the Guide(guardian) that said something to the effect that the film is such a downer, it makes you wonder what's the point. A little off put and a little intrigued because at the moment I am gearing up to write a tragedy, I sat on the couch and was also struck by the continued, unrelenting bad luck suffered by all of the characters. Plot-spoiler: no one wins. Not only that, no one ever looks like they are going to win, with the exception of the day at the beach Carlyle and Duff spend together which only acts to foreshadow the inevitable.

At the moment, I am reading a book on plot(Elements of Fiction Writing, by Ansen Dibell) and early on it forewarns of what I feel this film suffers from. Dibell describes the short satire film in which Bambi hops along and then is promptly squashed by Godzilla's foot. End of film. funny as a one liner short, but a feature would be dreadful.

Anytime you're tempted to write a pure-victim story, in which the protagonist(s) doesn't have a chance, think about Bambi Meets Godzilla and try something else.

An Even Battle is More Fun to Watch

Whether the ending is happy or unhappy in the traditional sense, any story needs to be founded on an effective and strongly-felt conflict, in which opposing forces - whether people, ideas, additudes, or a mix - are at least fairly evenly matched, enough so that the final outcome is in doubt... not an utter mismatch.

Oedipus was doomed from the beginning; but he didn't know it, and he was fighting all the way. The emphasis was on the fighting, not the doom. That's what makes the fighting, the wrestling, become engrossing narrative.

Maybe it is here where Savage loses the way. Because the message is in the doom rather than the fight. All of the characters suffer from their their position in life the lot they were given through fate. Be they rich or poor, the suffering through societies structures of inequality effects everyone and everyone will suffer because of it. This message is the point of the film, but is inextricably linked to the doom more than the fight. The fight by every character moves the action, but the film is ultimately about the doom.

In all a superbly acted and crafted film, but I, like the Guardian critic was left wondering why I watched 90 minutes just to see Bambi, squashed.