Sunday Showdown: AFI vs IMDb #87

Sunday Showdown - running a few minutes late this week.

#87: 12 Angry Men (AFI) vs Inglourious Basterds (IMDb)

The one thing I love about Inglourious Basterds is Brad Pitt’s pronunciation of Nazis: Nat-zees.  Really this film was more of a social experiment: is the highly-graphic, utterly-gratuitous Tarantino-esque violence more acceptable if it portrayed against the Nat-zees rather than some poor kid named Marvin in the back of a car?

Quinton Tarantino - Such a Basterd

I was pretty okay with it until the David Bowie music video about 2/3 of the way through.  But Tarantino has always been known for his complete disregard for cinematic rules… so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised.   You always know what to expect with Q.T.: a spit in the face to all things normal.

12 Ang... Zzzzzzzzz...

Regardless, how do you compare Inglourious Basterds to 12 Angry Men?  Definitely no graphic, gratuitous violence in 12 Angry Men (and seriously, in comparison to Basterds they really don’t seem that angry).   Unfortunately, I’ve used 12 Angry Men too many times as a group dynamics-teaching exercise in my college classes to really see it as an award-winning film any longer.  

12 Angry Men shows back up as #8 on the IMDb list – totally unbelievable to me, especially for IMDb. It definitely won’t win as #8. I’m not even going to choose it as #87.  That’s right; this week I’m going with sheer entertainment value over award-winningness. 

Maybe if Henry Fonda could’ve worked the word Nat-zees in there, the results would’ve been different.

	AFI’s Top 100	IMDB’s Top 100 (as of 1/1/12)
#87	12 Angry Men (1957)	Inglorious Basterds (2009)
#88	Bringing Up Baby (1938)	The Great Dictator (1940)
#89	Sixth Sense (1999)	Braveheart (1995)
#90	Swing Time (1936)	The Bicycle Thief (1948)
#91	Sophie’s Choice (1982)	The Apartment (1960)
#92	Up (2009)	Goodfellas (1990)
#93	The French Connection (1971)	Downfall (2004)
#94	Pulp Fiction (1994)	Gran Torino (2008)
#95	The Last Picture Show (1971)	Metropolis (1927)
#96	Do The Right Thing (1989)	The Sting (1973)
#97	Blade Runner (1982)	Gladiator (2000)
#98	Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)	The Maltese Falcon (1941)
#99	Toy Story (1995)	Unforgiven (1992)
#100	Ben Hur (1959)	The Elephant Man (1980)

Next week (or…er, this Sunday) -  2001: A Space Odyssey (the movie I love to hate) and Full Metal Jacket. AKA: Kubrick vs. Kubrick.  No matter who wins – I lose.

Take That, Right-Brain!

Creative process = brain splatter

Last post, I talked about The Fight of the Century:My Left-Brain vs. My Right-Brain.  At that time, the left (analytical, logical) side of my brain was resisting trusting the right (intuitive, creative) side of the brain when came to the new story I am writing.

Upon posting, I got lots of encouragement from friends, here, on Facebook and Twitter. Most people were cheering for Right-brain: “Just let yourself go!” “Follow your gut!” “Forget about logical!”

My favorite was a writer buddy who told me my post reminded her of a quote she had read and written down from Stephen Covey author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

The creative process is also the most terrifying part because you don't know exactly what's going to happen or where it is going to lead. You don't know what new dangers and challenges you'll find. It takes an enormous amount of internal security to begin with the spirit of adventure, discovery, and creativity. Without doubt, you have to leave the comfort zone of base camp and confront an entirely new and unknown wilderness.

I also stumbled across this quote on Twitter by Roberta Jean Bryant author of Anybody Can Write

The fear of being wrong is the prime inhibitor of the creative process.

Those quotes sure are inspiring, aren't they? Makes you want to grab your rucksack & snap brim fedora and head out into the wild creative unknown!  No obstacle would dare get in your way because you have that creative fire in your eye!

Um, yeah.

Sadly, I have to admit in my battle of Left-Brain v. Right-Brain this week, creative Right-Brain lost. Like capital L-O-S-T lost.

Not only could I not force myself to write that “dead end” chapter I mentioned in the last post, I couldn’t even bring myself to move forward with my WIP until I had figured out where everything in the entire book was going.

Here’s what you get when your Left-Brain beats your Right-Brain into submission:

 An entire book mapped out on evenly-spaced index cards, with color-coordinated high-lightings indicative of different literary elements present in your novel. Take that, Right-Brain! 

I look at my chart and it brings me comfort. Why? Because I have created parameters for myself.  For me, it’s like the quote I mentioned before: “The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.” (Orson Welles). Too many choices meant I couldn’t seem to make any. Now, because I have set parameters, I believe I’ll be able to set my right-brain loose to do its thing. If it is willing to ever speak to me again.

Let’s keep in mind I’m not writing the great American novel here. Nor am I writing some great fantasy narrative, with hugely colorful realms and languages and characters. If I was, I daresay my pretty little chart probably wouldn’t work so well.

I am never going to be the most creative writer. I am completely at peace with that. But I will be a writer who gets projects finished.

Hopefully, I won’t have to put my right-brain into a coma every time to do it.

The Fight of the Century: My Left-Brain vs. My Right-Brain

My brain has been utterly resisting the creative writing process for the last couple of days.  And not even because I’m lazy. 

Usually if I’m not writing (while in the middle ofsomething like NaNo or a Boot Camp) it’s because I’m just too plain lazy to put in the work. 

But the last couple of days my right brain and left brain have been in the middle of Tarantino-worthy knock-down, drag-out.  And my analytical left-brain seems to have my creative right-brain spitting teeth at the moment. Not surprising really, I am heavily left-brained. 

In case you need a brainology lesson...

But why the big throw-down between my left and right brain? Because I’ve reached the most dreaded part of my new book:

The Middle.

I usually start off with a pretty firm idea of the beginning and the end of my stories. But the middle…  There’s so much stuff that can go in there that it becomes paralyzing. You have to decide what is important, interesting and keeps the story moving. 

Orson Welles said it best: “The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.” Too many choices causes my heavily left-brained self to completely shut down the writing process. 

Plotting a story is like running through a giant maze. It’s fun, and it’s challenging. At first you run freely because Wheeeee! I’m in a maze!!  But after a while you slow down because Wait. I’m in a maze. Where am I going again?

My left-brain balks at the thought of going down a part of the maze that looks like a dead end. Even if my right-brain promises it is not really a dead end. There is a cut-through part way down that maze path that can’t be seen right now. 

Yesterday I wrote zero words because my right-brain couldn’t convince my left-brain the chapter we were about to write wasn’t really a dead end.

But today we will go down that dead end-looking path and trust that right-brain is correct about the cut-through.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't skeptical. But we're still going to write it.

(And yes, I have reached the point where I am referring to myself in plural tense. It's not even the worst of my... uh, our... problems)