Writing Subtext. Linda Seger

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      Other movies about multiple personalities, such as The Three Faces of Eve (1957), or films about mental illness or other psychological problems, such as I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977), David and Lisa, (1962), I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can, (1982), One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), Frances (1982), Girl, Interrupted (1999), A Beautiful Mind (2001), Don’t Say a Word (2001), and The Soloist (2009), tell stories about rooting out unconscious problems, which are able to heal as they become conscious.

      A bad break-up, bad luck with relationships, or unresolved relational problems in the past can cause someone to be unable to love or to become averse to being involved with or committed to someone (Up in the Air [2009], Runaway Bride [1999], High Fidelity [2000], 500 Days of Summer [2009], My Fair Lady [1964]). The excuse might be “I’m too busy,” or “I don’t think we’re right for each other,” or “I just met someone else,” but the real truth may be under the surface. Perhaps the person is really trying to say: “I’m still not over my last relationship but I don’t want to talk about it with someone I’ve just met,” or “I don’t want to get close to anyone after the pain of the last break-up, but that makes me sound weak so I’m not going to allow myself to be vulnerable with you by discussing this.”

      Subtext can be expressed through the emotions of a character – either by displaying the emotion or by hiding it. Sometimes characters feel their emotional reactions are not appropriate and therefore have to be suppressed; but then the emotions come out in some other way. In the comedy Broadcast News (1987, by James Brooks), broadcast journalist Jane Craig (Holly Hunter) tries to keep her professional persona intact, but certain unconscious problems and motivations come through. Jane has a crying spell every morning in her apartment because a woman of her professional caliber is not supposed to cry at the office. At work, she keeps her “I’ve-got-it-all-together” persona in place, even though it’s clear to the audience that she doesn’t have it all together.

      Jane is jealous of a male colleague’s developing affections for another woman on their team. Because emotions such as jealousy are not considered appropriate between two professional women (so some say), Jane hides her emotions, but uses her authority to send her female colleague on an assignment to distant cold Alaska. Either way, the audience understands the motivations in the subtext.

      Desires, dreams, and wishes can also inform subtext. Some desires we do not dare share. You might want your script to get sold to Steven Spielberg and become a huge box office hit, but you feel that’s unrealistic and silly, so you don’t let anyone know how you’ve conspired to meet him. You have rehearsed, innumerable times, what you’ll say at the exact moment your paths cross and, although you plan to tell your friends after it’s all over, right now, you act blasé about everything to do with your script. Your dreams seem much too big to share at this time, even with friends.

      Subtext may motivate many of our normal activities. You might not know why you’re driven to sell a script, earn a college degree, buy a red sports car, or sign up for the Army to fight in a war. Of course, all of these actions can be motivated for good, solid, conscious reasons. But not always. If you’re obsessed with a particular effort, and things seem out of proportion in terms of how you are going about fulfilling a goal, subtext might explain your motivation. Perhaps you realize, after some consideration of the obsession, that it’s all about getting daddy’s approval, about making up for a deprived childhood, wanting the high school kids to know you made it after all, or wanting to get your name in the newspaper because when you were ten you won second place in the community talent show and there was a big fuss made about you and you had your name in the newspaper and everyone talked nicely about you. That experience motivated your desire for approval all your life – and, besides, all along, you felt you should have come in first.

      Whatever the reason, you can sense there’s something else going on that bothers you and pushes at you and doesn’t let up. And if you put this subtext into your character, the audience will feel it too.

      SUBTEXT THROUGH IMPLIED SEXUALITY

      Sometimes a film doesn’t want to make explicit statements about the sexuality of its characters, especially if they partake in what might be considered abnormal behavior. In Lolita (1962), Humbert Humbert is clearly interested in the adolescent Lolita, although he pretends to be in love with her mother. Innuendos signal his interest, including his concern that Lolita might be going out too much, which is really a concern he’ll have to spend too much time with the clinging, seductive mother while waiting for Lolita to come home.

      If they are gay, depending on the context, characters may experience struggles accepting their sexuality. Brokeback Mountain (2005), which begins its story in 1963, gives a fairly clear portrayal of two gay men surviving in the face of society’s attitudes toward homosexuality by acting straight. The night after the two men first make love, Ennis states, “I’m not gay,” which is belied by his emotions and actions.

      Sometimes the relationship between two people is deliberately left ambiguous, and the subtext merely implies a relationship, or strongly suggests one (Women in Love [1969], Troy [2004], Brideshead Revisited [2008]).

      In Bonnie and Clyde (1967, by David Newman and Robert Benton), the sexual subtext differs between the script and the film, partly because of the casting. In the script, Clyde is in his early 20s. Bonnie is also very young, but sexually much more aggressive. In spite of her willingness (and in spite of the fact they sleep in the same bed), their relationship isn’t consummated. Often C. W. is sleeping in the same room, or Clyde doesn’t seem interested in being alone, or he shifts the focus as soon as they start making out. We might ask, “What is Clyde’s problem? Is this a moral problem?” which would seem odd, considering that he shoots guns with lots of bullets, and doesn’t seem to have a problem crossing other moral boundaries. Toward the end of the script, Bonnie reads him her poem about “Bonnie and Clyde,” which tells their story and characterizes him as a notorious criminal. This recognition galvanizes a new image of him, as Clyde realizes he has “made it” and achieved his goals.

      The description in the script clarifies the subtext we have probably sensed throughout: “It is all starting to come out now – his realization that he has made it, that he is the stuff of legend, that he is an important figure!”

      No hero is complete without the conquest of the damsel, so he finally makes love to Bonnie. In the script, after they make love, Clyde reacts, clearly pleased with himself:

      CLYDE

      (chuckling, apparently quite pleased.) Damn!… damn… damn!

      As Clyde looks at Bonnie for some kind of approval, the stage directions mention his “underlying anxiety,” which is beginning to surface.

      CLYDE

      Hey, listen, Bonnie, how do you feel?…

      BONNIE

      Fine.

      CLYDE

      I mean you feel like you’re s’posed to feel after you’ve uh…

      His hesitance implies his unsurety. He desperately wants her approval.

      Well, that’s good, ain’t it. Reason I ask Is, I uh… Well, I figger it’s a good idea to ask. I mean how else do I tell if I did it the way…

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