The Sweet Hereafter - group analysis

analysis
#61

Maybe I’m mistaken, but doesn’t the OS throughline HAVE to include everyone?

The OS & RS are definitely a Past / Memories thing (just not sure which is which). It feels more like a story that focuses on the memory of the event than the actual event, thought the hearing at the end suggests Past, Schwartz (the man asking questions) focuses on Memory…

			SCHWARTZ
	Was there anything unusual about the
	driver, Dolores Driscoll, or the bus
	that particular morning?

			NICOLE
	Like what?  I mean, I don't remember
	a lot.

And then…

			SCHWARTZ
	And according to your recollection,
	there was nothing unusual about the
	drive that morning?

And again…

			SCHWARTZ
	Did there come a time when all the
	children had been picked up?

			NICOLE
	Yes.

			SCHWARTZ
	You remember that much?

			NICOLE
	As I'm talking, I'm remembering more
	about it.

And here something that contradicts Dolores’ memory of the event.

			NICOLE
	There was a brown dog that ran
	across the road up there, right by
	the dump, and Dolores slowed down
	not to hit him, and he ran into the
	woods.  And then Dolores drove on
	and turned onto the Marlowe road, as
	usual.  I remember that.  I'm
	remembering it pretty clearly.

			SCHWARTZ
			(eyebrows raised)
	You are?

			NICOLE
	Yes.

			MITCHELL
			(worried)
	Note that she said 'pretty clearly'.
	Not 'clearly'.

And finally…

			SCHWARTZ
	....  Well, then, now that your memory
	seems to be clearing, can you tell us what
	else you observed at that time?

			NICOLE
	Before the actual accident?

			SCHWARTZ
	Yes.

NICOLE stares at her father as she responds.

			NICOLE
	I was scared.

			SCHWARTZ
	Why were you scared?

			SCHWARTZ
	This is before the accident, Nicole.
	Do you understand what I'm asking?

			NICOLE
	Yes, I understand.

			SCHWARTZ
	Why were you scared?

			NICOLE
	Dolores was driving too fast.

Silence.  MITCHELL is watching his entire case crumble.

			SCHWARTZ
	Mrs.  Driscoll was driving too fast?
	What made you think that, Nicole?

			NICOLE
	The speedometer.  And it was
	downhill there.

			SCHWARTZ
	You could see the speedometer?

			NICOLE
	Yes.  I looked.  I remember clearly
	now.  It seemed we were going too
	fast down the hill.  I was scared.

NICOLE looks at MITCHELL, who stares back.

			SCHWARTZ
	How fast would you say Mrs. Driscoll
	was going?  To the best of your
	recollection?

			NICOLE
	Seventy-two miles an hour.

			SCHWARTZ
	Seventy-two miles an hour?  You're
	sure of this?

			NICOLE
	Positive.

			SCHWARTZ
	You believe that the bus driven by
	Mrs. Driscoll was going at seventy-
	two miles an hour at this time?

			NICOLE
	I told you I was positive.  The
	speedometer was large and easy to
	see from where I was.

This isn’t fact, it’s memory (a lie) that is conjured because of an internal process (she’s disenchanted with her father and the lies he perpetrated while he was sexually abusing her).

#62

You posted huge chunks of the END of the story – what about the rest? Was memory and remembering a problem throughout?

And you can have characters that function as operatives in a certain Throughline that don’t necessarily fall under the context of the Overall Story. Throughlines are perspectives, and in those airplane scenes she is there to simply give Mitchell someone to bounce his Main Character Throughline junk against.

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#63

Ah. That, I didn’t know.

Yes. Wendell is prejudiced against all of the townspeople, he has bits of gossip that could crush all of them.

			WENDELL
	Kyle Lambston's a drunk.  Nobody
	likes him.  He's a nasty piece of
	work.

			MITCHELL
	In what way?

			WENDELL
	Been drinking since high school.
	Fucked himself up.  Used to be smart
	enough.

When Mitchell speaks to Wanda and Hartley, the hippie couple, his point of contention is that someone’s guilty and dreams up a memory of what happened…

			WANDA
	You think someone else caused the
	accident?

			MITCHELL
	Mrs.  Otto,  there is no such thing
	as an accident.  The word doesn't
	mean anything to me.  As far as I'm
	concerned, somebody somewhere made a
	decision to cut a corner.  Some
	corrupt agency or corporation
	accounted the cost variance between
	a ten-cent bolt and a million dollar
	out-of-court settlement.  They
	decided to sacrifice a few lives for
	the difference.  That's what's done,
	Mrs. Otto.  I've seen it happen so
	many times before.

Then there’s all of the photos of the children that Dolores has on her wall.

Also, Nicole’s recollection of the things Sam told her.

			NICOLE
	We used to talk a lot, didn't we,
	Daddy.  About all the things you
	were going to do for me.

			SAM
	What do you mean?

			NICOLE
	I mean I'm a wheelchair girl now.
	It's hard to pretend I'm a beautiful
	rock star.  Not like you used to
	tell me.  Remember, Daddy?  All the
	people that were going to discover
	me?  Where are they now?
#64

Is prejudice really a problem in this town? If they stopped being prejudiced tomorrow, would all their issues be resolved?

#65

Granted, the prejudice example is problematic. I was focusing more on memory, not prejudice. The townspeople, like Mitchell, can’t stop reliving the past (they keep going over it in their minds). The lawsuit does exactly that, it dredges up old memories and makes them relive it over and over.

But honestly, if Zoe and Allison are locked into the MC throughline and are out of OS Domain, then the RS and the OS become pretty much the same, don’t they? Both deal with the same set of characters dealing with the exact same set of problems, just viewed from a different angles (external VS internal). My impression favors internal for the OS, mainly on account of Schwartz and the Stenographer. As I see it, Schwartz is focused on Nicole and Dolores’ memories more than on the past, but maybe that’s just me interpreting that scene incorrectly.

Another example for memory.

			RISA
	Is it true that you gave Nicole one
	of Lydia's dresses?  That she was
	wearing it when the bus crashed?

			BILLY
	Yes.

			RISA
	Why did you do that, Billy?

			BILLY
	You think that caused the accident,
	Risa?  That it brought bad luck?
	Christ, it sounds to me you're
	looking for a witch doctor, not a
	lawyer.  Or maybe they're the same
	thing.

RISA is crying.  BILLY opens the door.

			BILLY (CONT'D)
	You know what I'm going to miss?
	More than making love?  It's the
	nights you couldn't get away from
	Wendell.  It's the nights I'd sit in
	that chair for an hour.  Smoking
	cigarettes and remembering my life
	before...

EDIT: Or maybe I’m getting stuck on the word “remember” being used so much in the script. Might be a consequence of my quoting the screenplay so much (maybe it’s a bad idea for me to do that, I dunno).

#66

Yeah, I don’t think quoting large chunks of the screenplay is helping out at all.

When you focus on only one Concern you’re not really addressing the other Concerns in that Throughline. Beyond Memory, where do you see Impulsive Responses a problem or Innermost Desires?

And as far as RS and OS being one and the same - the RS is the relationship between lawyer and client - is that problem Situational? What is stuck externally between the two of them that needs to be unstuck? Remember the relationship is handed off between several different characters - so what about their situations is shared? Are they stuck with each other?

#67

Memories: Dolores’ recollection of the day
Impulsive Responses: Wanda wants to person responsible for the death of her son to rot in jail.
Innermost Desires: Billy wants Mitchell to get the hell out of his town and leave them alone.
Contemplation: Nicole lying during the deposition.

What is it about their fixed attitudes that are shared? Each IC has a different point of view, a different attitude toward the accident and what should be done / not done about it. They don’t exactly share a common opinion about it, but they do all share the same experience (loss of a child = external state).

Future: Sam wants to know “When will we get our money?”
Past: Dolores tells Mitchell what happened that day.
Present: Wendell asks Mitchell: “Are you a reporter?” suggests who he should talk to.
How things are changing: Mitchell explains to Billy, “We have to act fast, people lie, evidence is covered up.”

#68

Catching up…

So the domains would be:

MC Activity
OS: Situation
IC: Manipulation
RS: Fixed Attitude

?

#69

Looks like it, though I’d be grateful if @jhull could explain why OS: Situation and RS: Fixed Attitude, and not the other way around. Feel like there’s a lot to be gained from insight there.

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#70

Yes, @Jerome. I’d also like to have @jhull’s advice. But I’d like to give it a try:

OS Situation: An external state - the disaster of losing their children. Yes, there are emotions involved but it’s not seen from the point of view of the children in the accident.

RS: Fixed Attitude: An internal state - Mitchell and the townspeople clash because of their attitude towards dealing with the loss of their children. Join the lawsuit or not? Have a constant reminder of the disaster or try to get over it? And it’s mirrored in the Zoe-Mitchell relationship. “give your anger a voice” vs. “Leave us alone, you can’t help”.

MC Activity: An external process - Mitchell tries to achieve something: convincing people to join the lawsuit. “I shall sue for negligence until they bleed”

IC: Manipulation: An internal process - The townspeople influence over Mitchell is because the way they think. “I can help you” vs. “Not unless you can raise the dead”

#71

What do you mean by “point of view of the children?”

As I understand it, that’s Mitchell the protagonist, not Mitchell the main character. Mitchell the main character is a man trying to cope with a world where children die before their parents, he’s trying to make sense of it all. Mitchell the protagonist is a man trying to convince people to join the lawsuit. I don’t think the two can overlap.

But maybe I’m wrong.

EDIT: Yeah, I’m lost. I can’t make head or tails of it anymore.

#72

@Jerome:
What do you mean by “point of view of the children?”

I mean we never see the accident as the children experienced it. I think if the accident would be shown from the children’s point of view in any throughline, then it would become an activity. (external process). Think of Titanic - we see Jack and Rose trying to survive that disaster - it’s an activity. Not here.

@Jerome
that’s Mitchell the protagonist, not mitchell the main character."

Yes, you’re right, I still confuse some of this stuff. So…

MC Activity: He tries to save Zoe doing whatever he can. And I think this motivation to help Zoe in part motivates him to convince the townspeople to join the lawsuit. I think he tries to redeem himself through the lawsuit. It’s probably his way to deal with his rage.

#73

Personally I love @Alejandro’s interpretation of the MC Throughline - that’s totally what Mitchell is all about. Trying to convince everyone how important it is to join the lawsuit. Any lawsuit. Plop him in another story and he’s going to be doing the same thing. It’s not just this lawsuit, he just wants some semblance of coherence in his life.

As far as why the RS would be in Fixed Attitude instead of Situation - the Domains express in the largest possible context what is wrong or out of whack. If you fix that, then that Throughline is resolved. In this film the relationship is between lawyer/client – wait a second, writing this out I would think a better definition (and maybe its been said before), parents who have lost their children. That’s the more emotional part (the part between Mitchell and Billy).

And so with that in mind - what is the situation that is out of whack? How are they stuck with one another? I can’t think of anything, so to me it makes more sense that the difference is again, @Alejandro here:

That’s consistent, regardless of who is taking the Influence Character role.

As far as Overall Story goes - a bus filled with children plunged off the side of the road and killed everyone on board except for two. There is nothing they can do to get away from that. They’re stuck with that situation. Forever.

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#74

Ah, now that’s a great way to help understand the MC. Take him out of the story and plop him in another, then ask what is it about him that remains the same? So clear.

Re: OS & RS. Right. If there’s no accident, then the MC would never have met the ICs and there’d be no story (OS: Situation). If the IC and MC agreed on everything, again, there’d be no story (RS: Fixed Attitude). Got it.

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#75

And in that attitude, forever, too? A fixed attitude (mind) never changes in a story, right?

#76

I would say that fixed attitudes remain the cause of the problem - I don’t know if the specific attitude needs to stay the same throughout.

Yes! That’s something I learned from Chris and it really helps to delineate the MC’s personal problems from the story at large.

Ok, so onto Concerns… looking at each Throughline - what argument would you make for a group of 4 Concerns?

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#77

OS: The Past (the bus accident)
MC: Understanding (trying to make sense of it all)
IC: Developing a Plan (Nicole plots her revenge, the townspeople imagine getting settlement money, etc.)
RS: Memories (remembering what happened)

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#78

I like this. And you can see how Mitchell is trying throughout to get other people to Understand how important revenge is. Such a great story.

Assuming everyone is cool with this how about Issues and the Problems underneath. Let’s stick with the OS and MC since we know that those problem elements will appear directly under the Issue. Which ones sound good for this story?

Do problems exist for everyone because of Interdiction and Predicition? Or Fate and Destiny?

Does Mitchell create his own problems because of Senses and Interpretations? Or because of Instincts and Conditioning?

All these sound great for both Throughlines (a good sign we are on the right track). But which one stands out as THE issue. And you can use the elements underneath to help defend your choice.

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#79

OS Issue: Destiny (they all have to live without their children)
OS Problem: Aware (everyone is looking for a reason, for an explanation, for something / someone to put the blame on)

MC Issue: Conditioning (Mitchell uses his training as a lawyer during his crusade to find those responsible for the senseless deaths of children)
MC Problem: Inertia (No matter what he does, children continue to die, to disappear, to fall between the cracks)

#80

Remember in all of these, look for what is problematic. Don’t just use these appreciations as storytelling (What happened), but rather look for what is creating conflict.