Context is Everything.
Sep. 23rd, 2009 02:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
swestrupI just finished watching the third movie of the Bourne Trilogy. I finally got around to watching them. I had been told the movies were good, and I found them even better than I expected. I don't want to gush too much about them though, as I expect any actual CIA operatives would laugh themselves silly at some bits.
Still, there was one bit of writing that went above good, through excellent all the way up to brilliant. The second movie ends with an apparent throwaway scene. A phone conversation that takes place several weeks after the previous scene, and that ties up some loose ends and seems to indicate what the third movie is about.
Well, the third movie starts very shortly after the penultimate scene of the previous movie and shows you what happened during those weeks that were skipped over. The actual phone conversation is half way through the third movie and although the scene is absolutely identical, in context it is a completely different scene with what the two people saying having completely different meanings than one would have assumed after the second movie. Writing-wise I find something like that extremely difficult to pull off convincingly and in this case it was done perfectly.
Now, I'm off to watch an episode of "Modern Marvels" about medieval castles and dungeons. A use of the word "modern" with which I was previously unfamiliar.
Still, there was one bit of writing that went above good, through excellent all the way up to brilliant. The second movie ends with an apparent throwaway scene. A phone conversation that takes place several weeks after the previous scene, and that ties up some loose ends and seems to indicate what the third movie is about.
Well, the third movie starts very shortly after the penultimate scene of the previous movie and shows you what happened during those weeks that were skipped over. The actual phone conversation is half way through the third movie and although the scene is absolutely identical, in context it is a completely different scene with what the two people saying having completely different meanings than one would have assumed after the second movie. Writing-wise I find something like that extremely difficult to pull off convincingly and in this case it was done perfectly.
Now, I'm off to watch an episode of "Modern Marvels" about medieval castles and dungeons. A use of the word "modern" with which I was previously unfamiliar.
