extreme, that style is represented in the recent “Dogma 95” films, partic- ularly Von Trier’s Breaking the Waves and Vinterberg’s The Celebration. But none of the work has given up those original documentary intentions—to share with the audience a real experience, and to educate more than to entertain. The docudrama represents the consciousness of style fused with dramatic principles to share a story the writer-directors feel is important. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS The Centrality of Actuality At the heart of the docudrama is the sense of actuality. Whether the focus is on real people, a real place, or a historical event, the docudrama trades on this sense—it happened to real people, in a real place and time. The deployment of style, as well as of the dramatic components, will likely focus on that veracity. Time will also be allotted to supporting the sense of actuality—details, habits, and customs will all be specific to the topic. This does not, however, necessarily mean that the focus will be on the famous or highborn, although both have provided ample material for the docudrama. It means that at whatever level, rich or poor, famous or obscure, the focus of the narrative will be as much taken up with the “anthropology” of the place and time as it will with the dramatic properties of the event or person. The Dominance of Place and Time Over Character In the melodrama, the character and his or her goal seem to transcend time and place. The reason is that at its heart, melodrama is about psy- chology, behavior, and interior issues; in a sense, the dramatic arc of the main character is an inner journey. Consequently, the externalities of time and place are subsidiary to the internal dynamics of character. Mike Van Diem’s Character, discussed in the previous chapter, is an excellent benchmark. The main character’s family life, his ambition, and his self- abnegation far transcend the sense of Rotterdam in the 1920s. We are aware of Rotterdam, its poverty, and its labor unrest, but none of this overrides the interior journey of the main character. In docudrama the reverse is true. Place and time not only transcend character, they are cen- tral to the experience of docudrama. In Ken Loach’s Wednesday’s Child, the prevailing ideas of antipsychiatry in the London of the 1960s override the film being considered as a family drama about dysfunction and 172 Writing the Short Film Ch14.qxd 9/27/04 6:10 PM Page 172 child–parent relationships. Equally, Michael Ritchie’s Downhill Racer is more about competitive international sports in the 1970s than it is about a particular skier. Why this is the case has everything to do with the goals of the writer or director, an issue we will address later in this sec- tion. The Nature of the Struggle of the Main Character The struggle for the main character in melodrama dominates the narrative. In the docudrama, the nature of the character’s struggle is subordinate to the goal of the story. In addition, here the voice of the author subsumes the elements of story, often for political (as opposed to dramatic) purposes. Also, the heritage of the documentary film overrides dramatic considera- tions. In Karel Reisz’s Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, the challenge of conformity is more critical than the character’s fate, and something similar is true of Tony Richardson’s The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. The idea of female oppression at the hands of male chauvinism far supersedes the portrait of Camille Claudel as an artist in Bruno Nuytten’s Camille Claudel; further, place and time—turn-of-the-century Paris and its art world—are more critical than the personal relationship between Claudel and Rodin. The Role of Plot In the melodrama, plot (if deployed) is a primary barrier to the main char- acter and his or her goal. If the main character and the goal are less impor- tant in the docudrama, how is plot used? In Peter Watkin’s Culloden, the battle itself, the last battle fought on British soil, dominates the narra- tive. Although there are many characters on both sides of the battle, their vividness does not dominate the story; indeed, there is no single main character. The course of the event, which is the plot, dominates the narrative. This dynamic does not change when Watkins takes a character as his subject. In his film Edvard Munch, the goal of the main character is to pur- sue his artistic goals. His early career in Norway and Germany is a failure, because of the powerful conservatism of the German art critics. Although Munch finds alliances with other artists and writers, the course of his career, the plot, has a tragic quality. Here too plot seems more important than the interior emotional journey of Munch (so often reflected in his own paintings). The Docudrama 173 Ch14.qxd 9/27/04 6:10 PM Page 173 The Relationship of Docudrama to Issues of the Day Like melodrama, the docudrama is eminently adaptable to the issues of the day. Because as a style it gives the viewer the sense of being there as the story is unfolding, the style evokes the power of television with its imme- diacy. Consequently, films such as The Death of a Princess are particularly powerful. Much of Ken Loach’s work, from Poor Cow to Riff Raff, has this quality. The docudrama also lends weight to past events, special events, and famous people of the past. Steven Spielberg’s techniques for the open- ing battle scene of Saving Private Ryan borrow extensively from the style of the docudrama. He has used the approach not only to memorialize the D-day landings on the beaches of Normandy but also to give us the feeling that we are on those beaches. The docudrama form is particular and elicits a very specific kind of reac- tion from its audience. It lends an immediacy to events past and present, an immediacy that is quite unique in its impact on the audience. The Voice of the Author Although one interpretation of docudrama is to call it simply classical melo- drama with a distinctive style, this is too circumscribed a definition to encompass docudrama fully. Another view is to call docudrama a story form that, by virtue of the author’s strongly held views, requires a style powerful enough to act as a pronouncement of those views. To put it more simply, docudrama is a form in which it is important to the author to say to the audi- ence, “This story is more important than your average melodrama. I have something to say, and I want you to listen and to watch and to be moved to action by the experience.” In this sense, the choice of a docudrama approach in a film such as Ken Loach’s Land and Freedom, with its cinema verité style, gives us the sense that we are there on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War. The style gives a feeling of immediacy to the combat scenes, but the docudrama form also has an impact on the narrative choices Loach makes. On at least three occasions during the film, lengthy debates take place about issues that are in essence matters of dogma: land rights; the role of the Soviet Communist Party and Joseph Stalin in the organization of the Republican side; and mil- itary organization—whether formal structure would undermine the para- military units, which are presented as ideologically “pure” and therefore true revolutionaries. These lengthy discussions are filmed earnestly and respectfully, as if they were just happening. From a dramatic point of view, these choices make the experience of the film more educational than “emo- tional,” as melodramatic equivalents (The Sun Also Rises and For Whom the Bell Tolls) would tend to be. 174 Writing the Short Film Ch14.qxd 9/27/04 6:10 PM Page 174 When they wish to achieve a more active voice—a voice that implies a higher level of importance, serving an educational or political goal rather than entertainment—directors choose the docudrama, a form whose style implies, “This is important.” MOTIFS—CASE STUDIES For docudrama, as for melodrama, it is useful to look at case studies in order to understand the narrative shape of the form. The two case studies below will represent two of the subcategories of the docudrama: the event, Peter Watkins’s Culloden (1964); and the political portrait, Ken Loach’s Land and Freedom (1996). Culloden The Main Character and His Goal The story proceeds without a main character. The combatants are the Scottish and the English. The leadership in each case is highlighted; how- ever, there is no single character through whom we enter the story. If there is the equivalent of a main character, it is the narrator, in essence a reporter in search of the story. He interviews combatants, the victors as well as the van- quished. He is looking to explain as well as to understand the battle and its aftermath. In this sense, the narrator could be considered the main character, with the goal of reporting the story of the last battle to occur on British soil. The narrator, by the way, is Peter Watkins himself. Using the form of the docudrama, he has made himself, and his voice about the battle, the entry point (which is the role of the main character) into the story. The Antagonist The antagonist in this story is certainly the imperial forces, from the com- mander, Prince William of England, down to the English soldiers. They are portrayed as cruel, lusting for Scottish blood. Although Prince Charles, who leads the Scottish rebellion, is rebuked for his indifference to his forces and for his addiction “to his little bottle,” he is presented as no worse than an incapable leader of the disunited, underarmed forces that meet the English on the field at Culloden. The Catalytic Event Since the entire film is devoted to the events leading up to the battle, the bat- tle itself, and its aftermath, the catalytic event would have to be considered The Docudrama 175 Ch14.qxd 9/27/04 6:10 PM Page 175 the beginning of the Scottish rebellion that has resulted in the battle. Whether this is the landing of “Bonnie Prince Charlie” from France or some subsequent political coalition, the fact is that the catalytic event, unusual as it is, occurs before the film begins. The Dramatic Arc The shape of Culloden is the course of the battle itself. There is a lead-up to the battle, and there is an aftermath. However, the major part of the narra- tive is devoted to the battle itself, its details, and its outcome. The Resolution The battle ends with a decisive victory for the English forces. In the after- math of the battle, the Scottish wounded on the field of battle are executed, and those who are captured are transported for execution in the cities of England or deported to Australia. The Narrative Style Culloden is entirely plot. We follow the course of a battle from beginning to end. Since there is no central character, relationships are not developed. Characters are introduced only in terms of their roles in the battle. Their per- formance and their fates are reported in the narrative. The Narrative Shape Because Culloden is about a battle, time is important. The film illustrates how quickly and decisively the English forces were able to win the battle. Time also plays a role in how remorselessly and cruelly the vanquished were hunted down and punished for participating in the Scottish rebellion. Tone The battle is presented in a cinema verité style. Details of social, economic, and military organization and weaponry are combined with journalistic interviews with the combatants. The presentation is extremely realistic. The narrator, the writer-director Watkins, has clear sympathies for Scottish nationalism; consequently, he editorializes about the English leadership and forces in the harshest terms. It is his view that this last battle on English soil destroyed a culture, the remnants of which were dispersed to the far corners of the Empire as a result. The tone of the narration is one of 176 Writing the Short Film Ch14.qxd 9/27/04 6:10 PM Page 176 loss. That loss is the sense Peter Watkins wants to leave with us, via the experience of Culloden. Land and Freedom The Main Character and His Goal The main character in Land and Freedom is a young man, a laborer (and a Communist) from Liverpool. His goal is to live by his beliefs; to that end, he joins a militia group fighting on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War. He is a man of principle trying to live by those principles. The Antagonist Superficially, the antagonist would seem to be the Nationalist forces of General Francisco Franco, but this is not a story about the Civil War and its outcome. Rather it is a story, focused on the Spanish conflict, about idealism versus pragmatism as it plays out in the world political arena. Thus, the forces of pragmatism (the main character would say cynicism) are the real antagonists. This means that Stalin, Stalinism, Communism, or Fascism would all be far more important antagonists than Franco. Organized politics and its leaders become the enemy to the true idealist. They are the real antag- onists in Land and Freedom. The Catalytic Event The main character decides to go to Spain to fight for the Republican cause. The Dramatic Arc The arc of the story is the journey of the main character to disillusionment in the very cause in which he enlisted. The story begins with an aura of cama- raderie in a particular militia unit. The unit is democratic, its members princi- pled and brave. They succeed in combat. Slowly, however, the unit is fractured by orders from Moscow—a requirement to obey a central command (implied to be controlled by Moscow). Dissension among the group leads some to join the organized army, others to remain in the militia. The final confrontation occurs when Republican soldiers, commanded by a former member of the militia, order the men of the militia unit to surrender their arms and its lead- ers to submit to arrest and prosecution. The confrontation ends with the death of a female member of the militia. The group is disbanded, and the main char- acter becomes a man hunted by the very forces who represent the cause he The Docudrama 177 Ch14.qxd 9/27/04 6:10 PM Page 177 first joined. The implication is that Franco did not win the Spanish Civil War but that the Republicans lost it, by giving up their original principles. The Resolution The main character buries his female comrade-in-arms and lover and returns to England. The Narrative Style Land and Freedom has both a plot and a background story. The plot is the expe- rience of the main character as a soldier on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War. The background story is that of his personal relationship with a woman who is a member of the militia group he joins. Originally a prostitute, she is passionate about the purity of the ideology held by their group. She believes in the egalitarian ideal within the militia and within Spanish society. She is the ultimate idealist. The main character, on the other hand, is a Communist, and when the Party orders the militias to join into reg- ular forces, he obeys (thereby betraying her). His experience with the regular forces fighting in Barcelona is disillusioning, and he eventually rejoins the militia and the woman. When she is killed by Republican soldiers com- manded by a former member of the militia, the main character’s disillusion- ment is complete. There is nothing for him to do now but return to England. The narrative is framed by a modern sequence. At the film’s opening, the main character dies of a heart attack. The story unfolds as his granddaugh- ter reads his letters. The film closes with his funeral. The granddaughter empties onto his casket a red bandana filled with Spanish earth gathered from the earlier funeral of his Spanish lover, and so he goes to rest with frag- ments from his past buried with him. Tone The tone is realistic. The introjection of various debates among the militia- men and townspeople, between the militiamen themselves, or with Republican soldiers provides a sense that ideology is what is important here—not people, not their fates, but political ideas and structures that can change everything. The respect for ideology over dramatic principles sug- gests Loach’s priorities. In this sense the details, the style, and the dramatic choices characterize Land and Freedom as a docudrama. WRITING DEVICES What writing devices will help you shape your story as a docudrama? How do they differ from those of the melodrama? We now address these questions. 178 Writing the Short Film Ch14.qxd 9/27/04 6:10 PM Page 178 . sec- tion. The Nature of the Struggle of the Main Character The struggle for the main character in melodrama dominates the narrative. In the docudrama, the. the battle itself. There is a lead-up to the battle, and there is an aftermath. However, the major part of the narra- tive is devoted to the battle itself,