RYAN COOGLER MEETS GEORGE BERNARD SHAW MEETS NEIL SIMON MEETS DAVID LEAN: WHEN CHARACTERS ARE DEFINED BY THEIR IDEAS

Ryan Coogler made indy movies about social issues. Then they asked him to write a fantasy superhero movie.

Sounds like it might not end well.

As with all such movies, the superhero is a kickass good guy. At the end, he will defeat the bad guys. How does a serious writer like Coogler make that fresh and interesting?

When Coogler approaches a script, he starts by asking a question: each of his movies revolves around one clear question. Not a question that he has answered, rather a question about something that he is trying to understand. Then he creates the characters and sets up the story so it will allow him to explore that question.

Okay, let’s leave Coogler for a moment and jump back in time to the 1960s and 70s. Neil Simon was one of the most successful writers of the time. Simon liked to create characters that were opposites; throw them together and let them clash. The iconic example is Oscar and Felix in The Odd Couple. One character is sloppy the other is fastidious. Put them in the same apartment and watch the sparks fly.

If we look a little deeper, we might see this story is about more than two personalities clashing. Beneath the personalities are two world views. Felix thinks the world would be a better place if everyone were careful, clean, prompt, considerate. Keep things organized. Everything in its place.

The Odd Couple

Oscar thinks it would be a better world if people would just dial it down, relax, not worry about every damn thing that comes along, be human.

These are not just random character traits, they are the essence of each character. Felix is the embodiment of the fastidious, fussy, perfectionist. Oscar is the embodiment of live-and-let-live. So when these characters clash, their world views clash. As we watch, we ask ourselves “Where do I land on this spectrum?” We learn about ourselves and about humanity. And all of it makes us laugh — Simon exaggerates everything to comic effect — but it is also poignant. We often laugh through our tears.

The world views that drive Simon’s characters are not political or lofty. They are everyday responses to the real world, and they often revolve around family. According to Simon:

The most important thing in drama is character…. I don’t write social and political plays because I’ve always thought the family was the microcosm of what goes on in the world. I write about the small wars that eventually become the big wars… I don’t think there’s anything more important than trying to find out who you are and finding your own identity. [Neil Simon]

Okay, now let’s jump back in time again – another 50 years back. In the early 20th Century George Bernard Shaw dominated dramatic writing. He penned one hit show after another. Pygmalion / My Fair Lady is his best-remembered story.

Shaw’s approach to character is similar to Simon’s with one difference: Shaw was unabashedly political. He created a character with a specific political view, then another character with the opposite political view, then set them on a collision course. When the characters clashed, their ideologies clashed.

Major Barbara is an iconic example.

Barbara believes that, to make the world better we must participate in charitable endeavors. Raise money through donations and give it to the poor. By contrast, her father is an industrialist who believes in money and power. Want to change the world? Make money, gain power. Then you have the resources to create the change you want.

When father and daughter’s lives clash, their ideas also clash. The story presents both of their world views with energy and force. The result is funny —- like Simon, Shaw exaggerates all for comic effect — but it also makes us think. Where do I land on this spectrum? Which view is right?

Shaw was a guy with a long white beard. A giant of literature: novelist, essayist, critic, polemicist, playwright, screenwriter. Neil Simon was the toast of Broadway. Not enough shelf-space to keep all his awards. And Ryan Coogler? A young guy out of film school who had made two movies: one an indy film set in Oakland, the other a popular film about boxing. Then he was contacted by the most successful movie franchise in the world, Marvel, and asked to write a screenplay about Black Panther in Africa.

Picture Coogler all alone, staring at a blank page. What will his story be? Where will his characters come from?

Ultimately, he decided on an approach similar to Shaw and Simon. He would create three key characters, each with their own distinct world view. Then he would set the characters on a collision course. When they clashed, their politics would clash.

What would you bet on a story like that?

Viewers are coming to the theatre to eat popcorn and watch cool superheroes. They want action. Excitement. And the writer is going to muck that up with politics? Not likely to end well.

But here’s the thing…

Coogler was a comic book kid. He grew up with comics. Loved them. And he wasn’t going to lose that spirit. Couldn’t lose it because it’s part of who he is.
Coogler was a serious football player, athletic scholarships, trying to make it to the pros, before he switched to film. So, he’s a storyteller but also a visceral guy. Physical action, vitality, sweat and pain; he’s not going to lose that spirit either. He couldn’t because it’s part of who he is.
If Coogler is going to write a story about Africa, it must have a political dimension. He couldn’t leave that out even if he tried. He’s part of the African diaspora, a young man still trying to figure out who he is. Is he African? American? Both? Neither? A prince? A pretender? A fraud? A hero? That is going to be part of his screenplay. It has to be.

In other words, Coogler is not peering down at this story and saying, “Hmm, I wonder how I can make a political point here? Let me look over the notes from my Black Studies class. How can I check off the right boxes to conform to the current ideas about this subject. Show my friends that I’m a good guy. That I’m on the side of the angels.” Coogler’s approach is not a pose or an intellectual exercise. The project raises questions and challenges that are a deep part of who he is. He will wrestle with those issues as he creates his story. It’s not a choice.

How to do it?

To get inspiration, Coogler watched David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia, a film about the first world war as it played out in the Middle East. As with Shaw and Simon, this film has characters that embody specific world views. They are not the views that the British Empire and the Ottomon Empire were fighting over. Rather, they are the cultural views of the Bedouin boys in the story. Those boys believe that we all have a pre-ordained fate — “it is written” — and we must accept that fate and submit to the inevitable. That view is then contrasted to the view of the main character, T.E. Lawrence, a Westerner who believes in agency. He maintains that we create our destiny through our actions. These views are in direct conflict and play out as compelling drama. At a key point in the story, Lawrence announces, “Nothing is written!” – And we are sure he is right. But as the story evolves, Lawrence is forced to question that belief. And so is the viewer.

Nothing is Written - Lawrence of Arabia

Watch the original scene here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EZCG2Ex8Q0

As with Simon and Shaw, David Lean and his screenwriters Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson built their story around their characters’ world views which led to powerful drama.

Coogler took a similar approach to Black Panther. These are the key characters he created:

The father, T’Chaka, believes that his people should stay separate and live in secret to protect themselves from the aggression and cruelty of other groups of people outside of Africa. He is an isolationist.
The cousin, N’Jadaka (Killmonger) believes that his people should go to war to dominate, control, and take revenge for the aggression and cruelty they’ve endured from other peoples. He is a warmonger.
T’Chala (Black Panther) believes that his people should join with the other peoples of the world to try to move humanity in a positive direction. Underneath his dynamic superhero persona, he is a classic Western liberal.

As the story unfolds, these characters clash and their world views clash, so the story succeeds as an action movie, and it also succeeds in making the viewer think. As viewers watch the movie, they compare the differing philosophies – “Where do I land on this spectrum?” — So the film has far more substance than other films in this genre.

Michael B. Jordan

Michael B. Jordan who played Killmonger says that he doesn’t want viewers to simply think Black Panther was right and his character, Killmonger, was wrong. He wants the audience to question it:

“It’s a cool conversation being had between T’chala and Killmonger and I think they both make valid points. … If I can have you feeling some kind of way about the quote-unquote ‘bad guy’… and make you question who you want to see on top, I think we did a good job.” [Jordan]

Coogler wrote the script to do exactly that. He doesn’t want you to think, “Killmonger is bad. The hero must defeat him.” Rather, he wants you to think, “Killmonger is bad, yeah okay, but maybe this homicidal maniac has a point.” And Jordan plays it that way with a vengeance:

“Two billion people all over the world who look like us whose lives are much harder, and Wakanda has the tools to liberate them all… Where was Wakanda! … The world’s going to start over. I’ma Burn It All!”

The leaders of Wakanda have failed to be their brother’s keeper. Killmonger will hold them responsible for that. He is violent and cruel and is leading his people on a path of destruction and self-destruction. He is wrong. Nevertheless, somehow we admire him. We understand that his violent character was forged out of the violence that he and his people have endured. As a result, his argument is powerful and persuasive, and as a character, he is riveting. His relationship with his cousin, T’Chala, is at the center of the film, and though they are lethal foes, by the end of the film, we see the underlying love between them. They are of the same family, dealing with the same crushing experiences, each in his own way.

Since the film shows that neither isolation nor wars of domination are viable paths, we could conclude that Black Panther ultimately delivers a mild mainstream message: “T’Chala is right. Western liberal values are good. Let’s all be reasonable, vote for a mainstream political party, and join the international family of nations.” But there is a more powerful point just below the surface: “If we don’t find ways to create real social justice, we can expect a world of Killmongers. Once unleashed, they will be very difficult to stop. So, let’s get busy and fix this mess.”

And then you say, “Yeah but wait a minute, isn’t Coogler just doing what all these other social justice movies are doing? Delivering political messages instead of telling real stories?”

In a 2018 interview, Coogler was asked about the theme of Black Panther. He said:

“There were things we wanted to say as filmmakers… “

But then he stopped and corrected himself.

“…not say, but explore…. That’s really what you’re doing. … I was content exploring the themes, exploring the characters, and telling the story that way.”

That little hitch, that moment of self-reflection and self-correction, tells everything about Coogler. He doesn’t claim to have the answers. He’s just trying to find the right questions and then figure them out.

Which brings us back to Coogler’s method: each of his films is built around a specific question, and each of those questions is personal. It isn’t “How can I tell everyone else what they should think and believe?” No. The question he is exploring – and the question any screenwriter might ask about a film is: “How can I make sense of this for myself? How can I understand it? And as I try to figure it out, how can I share that with the viewers?”

For this film, the question Coogler formulated was:

“What does it mean to be African in this world?”

That was a personal question, and he had a corollary question to go with it.

“Am I my brother’s keeper? If I have it and my brother doesn’t, does that matter?”

Again, this isn’t a writer delivering a pre-packaged message. Posing. Wagging a self-righteous finger at his audience. This is a writer wrestling with his personal demons and angels and bringing that struggle to his viewers.

Ryan Kyle Coogler is an American filmmaker.

Coogler grew up in Oakland, California. From age 21 he worked as a counselor with incarcerated youth at San Francisco’s Juvenile Hall. These issues aren’t academic to him; he sees them through his own experiences and through the kids he works with. He’s immersed in them. And even though Black Panther is a fantasy film, the authenticity of the underlying thought and feeling is unmistakable; it’s in every scene.

So yes, in the last few years we have been flooded with films that are trying to make political points. Most of these films are horrible. Unwatchable. Cringeworthy. But before you write them all off, listen to Coogler for a moment. A genuinely humble man, no pretense, no virtue-signaling; a hugely talented artist using story to explore real questions and shed light on a world that needs light. There’s a place for these kinds of stories, they just need to be written by people who are writing from their guts, not people trying to turn a bumper sticker into a movie.

Which brings us to your writing.

When you are staring at the blank page, starting your next script. When you’re asking, what is this story going to be? Where are the characters going to come from? You might consider taking a cue from Coogler via Shaw via Simon via Lean. Let each character embody a different view, a way of thinking and being that you are grappling with in your own life. Then throw the characters at each other. Watch them clash. Find out what happens when their ideas get challenged and shaken. See if that leads to meaningful conflict. Drama. Discovery. A story that makes your viewers feel but also think. A story that is imbued with inspiration and maybe even wisdom. — It may be worth a try.

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