People in Hollywood like to say that if Shakespeare were alive today, he'd be a screenwriter. But what about the philosopher Aristotle? Writers who know their family trees are aware that Aristotle laid the foundations of storytelling instruction around 335 BC in his work Poetics. Not much of western civilization has gone untouched by Aristotle's influential mind, and writers of the greatest stories have been using the Poetics; probably completely unaware of it at the time. A former story analyst for Miramax Films, Michael Tierno, has built the bridge from this foundation in his book, Aristotle's Poetics for Screenwriters.
Just consider the works Tierno references in Aristotle's Poetics for Screenwriters, as emblematic of Aristotle's ancient fruition of the perfect screenplay. Some of films Tierno uses as example, most of which are Oscar winners, include The Godfather, Rocky, American Beauty, It's A Wonderful Life, Angel Heart, Rosemary's Baby, Dead Poet's Society, Pulp Fiction, of course Citizen Kane, and even some shockers like Road Trip.
The screenwriters of these films channeled essential teachings from Aristotle, perhaps remembering their college classics course, or just as intuitive storytellers. With cinema like Jim Jarmusch's Stranger than Paradise and Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, Tierno also shows that sometimes you can follow the rules of great storytelling, but rearrange them to rousing affect.
Tierno mentioned on his website that he asked two questions of films in formulating Aristotle's Poetics for Screenwriters; why the filmmakers structured their story the way they did and what effect did it have on the audience? Considering the films above, we can easily come to the conclusion that audiences want a bag of mixed emotions flying at us from all angles. Yet, what Tierno reveals about Aristotle and subsequently these masterful films, is that simplicity is at the core of great storytelling.
The drama of human emotion and behavior is complex enough, so the most thrilling or rewarding films are those that build from one simple idea. Tierno translates this from Aristotle as the "Action Idea"; which essentially is the main premise underlying the entire storyline of the film. Producers, writers and agents might call this the "Pitch", and if it's a good pitch, then it could be considered the Action Idea.
Yet for the sake of the screenwriter alone, the Action Idea is something that will propel everything in the plot and stimulate each character's endeavors. For an example, among several other films he describes an Action Idea; Tierno related a classic, The Breakfast Club. Why is this film practically a favorite of anyone born after 1972? As much as we love Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez and Anthony Michael Hall, not to mention creator John Hughes, it is much simpler.
The Action Idea of the The Breakfast Club, speaks about universals to anyone subjected to the American High School experience, or even just teenage angst in general. Tierno describes the Action Idea of the Breakfast club as, "five stereotypical teens sent to detention...after initial tension and arguing, they open up to each other and discover each has similar problems with alienation, parents and living up to stereotypes. The day changes them, causing them to realize they are not so different."
As with all the films Tierno uses as example in Aristotle's Poetics for Screenwriters, every piece of action, dialogue and back story informs or relates to this central Action Idea. Much of the book revolves around the gravity of the Action Idea, however insightful the rest of Aristotle's Poetics are. All great stories have a fundamental "idea" that is given emotional rocket fuel from the main "action" of the characters. As is to be expected with Aristotle, there is a highly moral tone to creating characters and plots in the Poetics, and Tierno stays true to this.
It is not uncommon to hear wannabe screenwriters complain about films with moral lessons and that people just want to be entertained. This may be true, but the essence of the entertainment is the morality of the characters, at least when it comes to films and stories that transcend time. With truly great films, the moral lesson is not always black and white, but it is still there.
This morality is not necessarily beaten over the heads of the audience either and the emotion is felt in the character's tragedy. What exactly does Rocky learn as Apollo Creed beats it out him or Michael Corleone learn about family, guns and canoli? Unless the screenwriter has subjected us to a lame voiceover where the character tells us, we walk away from the dark theater enlightened subconsciously. We experience a character's morality through their actions and reactions to a central Idea about human nature.
The most refreshing thing about reading Tierno's Aristotle's Poetics for Screenwriters is that it defies the "what's hot" mentality of Hollywood. Trends of the times and plot devices that audiences buy into will always be triumphed by writing from the soul. Let's refer to the ancient Greek philosophical soul, which tackles the overwhelming task of understanding human nature within the larger scope of the universe. This is the soul of great screenwriting, where we aren't instructed in our morality, but experience it through the lives of characters that will undergo transformation, for better or worse.
Overall, Tierno's book is a perfect cure for writer's block; putting any screenwriters journey into the big picture mentality. It is also a revelation that a screenwriter is foremost a great storyteller.
