I THINK I SCREWED MYSELF! |
Post Reply | Page <123> |
Author | ||
Scribeaholic
NYC Midnight Newbie Joined: 22 Jun 2013 Status: Offline Points: 69 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
|
For all anyone knows, you have written a script that the judges will deem a winner and you'll be propelled into the next round and beyond on the merits. But at the risk of being the scold in the chat room, I'll repeat what I said in the other thread about the offensiveness of your material, because it's an important point that repeatedly gets ignored or distorted by participants in the discussion, including the author, in what has amounted to an astonishing display of truly repugnant, infantile intellectual behavior.
Your screenplay presents a carelessly dishonest portrait of Hitler. Period. Full stop. It sanitizes, it conceals, it lies. That he had a banal or uninteresting side is not being contested by anyone. But presented by itself in a work of fiction, with his other aspects censored, as you do, indisputably, it is worthless counterfactualism at best, a sick fanboy revisionism at worst. The moral of your screenplay is that a subordinate's loyalty to a psychopathic, genocidal dictator reflects a virtuous universal truth about the sanctity of friendship. That is not just a historically false account of Speer and Hitler's relationship, but a morally offensive idea -- one that was not lost on the judges at Nuremberg who sentenced Speer to 20 years in prison for his actions in service of that so-called friendship. The author repeatedly dodges this charge with hysterical pleas of ignorance, hand-cleansing caveats about his "bullsh*t" (his word) research, rank-pulling theatrics, and obnoxious Victorian-style swooning about bad chat room manners and the sullying of his good name in a forum where he volunteered his work for critique. His allies follow suit with a rogue's gallery of equally pathetic subject changers, up to and including every faux-intellectual's favorite device in Nazi-related matters, the invocation of Hannah Arendt and a phrase of hers that bears no relation to the matter at hand. If you fancy yourself an intellectually honest person, answer the substance of the critique. The rest is just masturbation.
|
||
ykchris
NYC Midnight Addict Joined: 20 Apr 2016 Status: Offline Points: 547 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
|
Scribeaholic, I think you are missing something important in your critique. The true Hitler archetype (unbalanced, violent and unquestionably evil) is actually ever present in this piece and underlies the tension throughout. From the maid that screams in the presence of Hitler, to the military questioning of the deranged public rallies, to the many characters' expectation that irrational, violent retribution will result from any slight - the proper acceptance of the archetype is actually evident throughout the piece. In fact, the reader/audience is also led to believe that this will have a revisionist ending, with Hitler just as likely to kill Speer for his slight (not answering the phone). The fact that he does not (surprising the other characters in the piece) is just a twist on where the author has clearly been leading, using the preexisting and universal acceptance that Hitler was completely deranged and evil.
Just my thoughts. I do agree that this subject matter demands respect, and I believe that respect does underlie this piece. |
||
NilesPerry
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 10 Dec 2014 Location: Nevada Status: Offline Points: 2199 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
|
Scribeaholic -- the forums were designed for competitors to post their works and receive critiques from their peers. They were not designed to be battlegrounds. Albeit, not all critiques have to be filled with sunshine and roses, and writers must take the bad with the good, bit you have gone beyond the boundaries of criticism and launched an all-out assault against both the writer of the script in question and the script itself. Diplomacy is obviously not one of your strong points, and you should brush up on what exactly makes up a good critique that's well thought out and constructive.
|
||
Scribeaholic
NYC Midnight Newbie Joined: 22 Jun 2013 Status: Offline Points: 69 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
|
I commend ykchris for offering a rebuttal on the merits, although I disagree with it. I do not deny that an element of unbalanced personality lies in the portrayal; my critique rests on the idea that these personality details, good and ill, come off as trite in a context that is fundamentally ahistorical while passing itself off as the opposite. It is Nazism filtered through the lens of Disney. Playing with audience expectations in this framework -- will he or won't he punish Speer for going off grid -- has no dramatic payoff, no moral reveal, because it negates the possibility of true audience investment by its own structure. Knowing the historical truth about Speer, I have no care about the resolution of the story. It is a fireworks display without a marking occasion.
The work exists for itself as an exercise in grandiose puppetry that amounts to an extremely short-sighted and vulgar manner of dramatization.
|
||
Scribeaholic
NYC Midnight Newbie Joined: 22 Jun 2013 Status: Offline Points: 69 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
|
NilesPerry, in contrast to ykchris, resorts to the lecturious moralizing that is common among participants who are too illiterate to participate in the discussion on the merits. Rather than trying to recognize the important moral stakes, NP takes to his/her pulpit of sanctimony waving a bible or Miss Manners rulebook of screenwriting decorum or whatever holy text he/she slavishly subordinates to, and solemnly laments the lack of comity in a discussion he clearly does not understand.
|
||
DBA Lehane
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 16 Aug 2010 Location: Somerset, UK Status: Offline Points: 2540 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
|
Yeah I remember it well Scott - and always felt bad about it! I gave you hard time about posting a script after you got a good score. But as you say, we quickly mended that fence, and I think we had a mutual respect after that. I've not been around on the forums a lot these past few years...so apologies I missed these posts. As for the whole Historical Fiction thing...I think that whole "debate" went down in NYCM folklore! :) One of the great ongoing threads...it most probably led to NYCM introducing genre definitions. I still say me and Scarlet were right all along. ;) Scarlet so sorry I never got a chance to read this. I'll try and do that in a bit. You will remember we both joined in the same year (2010) and supported each other during our first Short Screenplay Challenge. Funnily enough, my script in that first one was the Death Train Express - a horror set on board a train load of jews going to a concentration camp. Despite the brilliant response it got in the forum, the judges felt otherwise and I got hammered for the theme by some, with one even being vocally opposed to a script with Nazi's in it. So I'm not surprised if you've fallen foul of this 7 years on! I'll try and be a better forumite again!
Edited by DBA Lehane - 30 Jan 2017 at 3:14pm |
||
Screenplay Challenge 2020 Finalist.
SSC 2014 Finalist. FFC 2015 4th Placed Finalist. |
||
DBA Lehane
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 16 Aug 2010 Location: Somerset, UK Status: Offline Points: 2540 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
|
Pot kettle black anyone?
|
||
Screenplay Challenge 2020 Finalist.
SSC 2014 Finalist. FFC 2015 4th Placed Finalist. |
||
NilesPerry
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 10 Dec 2014 Location: Nevada Status: Offline Points: 2199 |
Post Options
Thanks(1)
|
|
Nice one, Darren. Great hearing from you after all this time. Congrats on moving on to the current round. I made it, too, so we'll see how things go. Good luck to you. Hey, while I'm thinking about it... remember that short script you wrote that I thought was hilarious? The inmate preparing for release into society and didn't know anything about modern technology? Any chance I can get a copy of that. It's one I'd love to keep for my files.
|
||
Scribeaholic
NYC Midnight Newbie Joined: 22 Jun 2013 Status: Offline Points: 69 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
|
and thus DBA Lehane joins the rogue's gallery of brit-twits who know not of which they speak.
|
||
NilesPerry
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 10 Dec 2014 Location: Nevada Status: Offline Points: 2199 |
Post Options
Thanks(0)
|
|
And who's the twit now? DBA is, indeed, a British citizen. However, Scarlet happens to be a citizen of Australia. And I live in the State of Nevada in the good old United States. I see you're in NY. No wonder you're so abrasive. Probably one of the fools who voted for Trump. Didn't do as well on the second challenge, now, did you Jason? Only 10 this time, was it? Knocked down a few pegs, eh? Not feeling so smug as you were with that 15 in the first challenge? Why not crawl back under your rock of ignorance and quick stinking up the forums with your noxious comments and attitude?
|
||
Post Reply | Page <123> |
Tweet |
Forum Jump | Forum Permissions You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot create polls in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum |