Ford v. Ferrari

 Showing without telling:

When I was in grade school, we sometimes had show and tell. Somebody would have something cool to show, a new toy or a fossil or a new puppy, and they would show us the cool new thing and talk about it. Some of us never had anything cool to show, but we did have an experience to share. I'm reminded of the time I told the story about getting cow manure in my mouth but blew the ending when in my excitement I said "on my foot" instead of "in my mouth" and thus didn't get the response I was expecting. Anyway, it's a short and not-all-that-entertaining-tale, but I still remember the taste. My point, if I had one, was that now we're told over and over "Show. Don't tell."

I'm firmly committed to doing whichever one I want. No one is the boss of me. Seriously, I think it's better to show than tell, most of the time. However, if that show takes three chapters, three pages, or three paragraphs of boring details or otherwise uninteresting minutiae, just tell me; spare me the boredom. I say, "Show me the good stuff. Tell me the condensed version of the boring stuff, and then only if the story requires it." That was a longer explanation than I anticipated--and it was all telling with no show.

Let me tell you how Ford v. Ferrari showed rather than told. I watched the movie in short chunks over three different days. It's. Totally. Awesome. I've seen it a few times before and get angrier at the Ford VP of Obnoxious Nincompoopery who kept Ken Miles out of the first race and fraudulently stole the title from him in the final race. That's not my point. I do love the movie. At it's heart, it's a great tale of the relationship between Carrol Shelby and Ken Miles as they strive to win a Grand Prix title for Ford, in spite of everything Ford and his malevolent toady do to hinder them. 

There's a scene after Miles has been denied the chance to race in the Grand Prix after doing all the testing and providing the technical advance to perfect the car when Shelby comes to ask him to come back to the team and do it again. Miles takes the request poorly and they fight, with Miles dropping his bag of groceries. As viewers, we don't know how serious these two are in their attempt to hurt each other. However, it all becomes clear when Shelby is on the ground with Miles on his back; Shelby grabs a stray can of food with which to strike Miles in the head, but drops it when he realizes the kind of damage it could do and instead begins walloping Miles with a bag of bread. It was brilliant. That one small act demonstrated the relationship and the terms of the fight. It was showing, not telling. It didn't take a long explanation (like the description I just gave) or require the viewer to interpret motivations based on the intersectionality and relative victimhood of the characters. It was straight forward and subtle. The detail could easily have been missed. Masterful.

If you haven't seen the 2019 movie directed by James Mangold, I insist that you do so at your earliest convenience. It's on Prime.

If you're interested in more bloviating about writing, check out: 

Part II of my substack post on Forging Unforgettable Stories 

 

The Trauma The Drama and The Dream

 I'm trying something different today.

Today's post can be found on my substack. Check it out.

 

Justice Resurgent

  

I don't know why this book came to mind today. Maybe I've still got the Five Card Stud movie on my mind. I know the theme song comes into my head a couple times per day. Whatever the reason, I opened Justice Resurgent, the sequel to Justice in Season, and reviewed the first chapter. The excerpts below don't do the chapter justice (no pun intended) but I think they do provide a peek at the initial trauma set up for my Trama, Drama, and Dream theory/system for creating memorable stories. Sheriff Upton has gathered a posse to make a surprise visit to our hero, McBride, and the other members of the vigilance committee. Harmony Rivers has discovered the corrupt sheriff's plan and needs to warn McBride.

 Excerpts from Justice Resurgent, Chapter One:

Harmony Rivers, from behind the open door of her balcony overlooking the street, watched them ride out. Although she would not be performing until the evening, she had pulled her red tresses back and had placed a cap with a white feather on her head. Her matching dress of blue and white failed to conceal the figure that sparked fires of desire in the hearts of men. She hurried from her room to the top of the stairs. She looked over the saloon, searching for the right man to carry out the mission she had in mind. Most of The tables were vacant. The men at the bar didn’t seem to have the qualities that she sought—those qualities being pliant yet dependable. Quickly, she decided to place her bet at a table where three officers from the Boise Barracks...

Howard, a local freighter, leaned forward, a shock of brown hair dropping to the edge of his left eye. “I can understand why the Sheriff has his ire up. McBride has ruined several of his enterprises by what I hear. I know for a fact that the sheriff lost some kind of bet with McBride in that horserace that killed Fool’s Gold.” 

“Lost the sheriff a tavern and a carriage is the way I heard it,” put in Jones, the other civilian. Jones, who ran the sutler’s store at the end of Main Street, held a mug of beer in a hand that lacked a ring finger from the first knuckle up. 

Harmony clasped her hands together. “Yes, yes. That’s all true. What are you men going to do about it?” 

...

"Where could we find such a courageous man?” The emphasis of those last two words reached out like an inviting hand. Howard brushed back the shock of hair from beside his eye and he lost himself for a moment in the look of silent supplication Harmony cast his way. “I’ll take that horse, Mr. Quartermaster. Take me to your stable.” 

...

“I guess you could say that.” Howard took the cup of coffee and warmed both hands against the sides of the tin cup. “The sheriff has a bundle of warrants for all of the vigilante committee. He aims to take you all in your beds tonight and figures at least one of you will be killed while resisting.” 

With this last statement he cast a glance at McBride through the lock of hair over his eye. 

“Meaning me, I suppose.” 

“I suppose,” Howard nodded. 

________________

I really like this opening chapter. The trauma, the conflict, and the tension are put in motion. We see (even if we haven't read the first book) that Upton and McBride are going to be at odds in the story. We see that Harmony is an ally persuasive enough to get a man with no dog in the fight to do her bidding to help McBride. The two forces are set in motion like trains heading toward each other on the same track. Will the sheriff take McBride or the other vigilantes, or will McBride be able to stymie the sheriff's nefarious scheme?

Naturally, the drama plays out with lots of adhesive tension and the stakes continue to rise up until the thrilling conclusion punctuated in blood and bullets. There's a reason that this book has more reviews than any other novel I've written. There are plenty of skirmishes leading up the the final showdown, so it's NOT a slow burn story. Detective work, romance, and gun play all combine to escalate and intensify the conflict. 

The characters are memorable; we know on which side of the good versus evil equation they fall. The hats aren't black and white, but the moral character is. I'll have to use them to illustrate my theories on crafting characters in another post.

 

Damn the Defiant!

 I had a keen thought earlier to day. In fact it was so sharp that it cut its way completely out of my memory. In the struggle to recapture the fugitive notion, I believe it had something to do with music and how it-- That's where the void takes over. I remember being fairly entranced with the idea and resolved to think and write more about it. Maybe some day I will, but it is not this day - something I have in common with the men of Gondor and Rohan. 

 

Because I could not remember the intriguing thought, I did remember that over the last week I watched Damn the Defiant! Or Obi-wan at sea before the force was with him. I also watched him as King Charles in Cromwell. As you might expect, I preferred him in the role of Captain Crawford. Alec Guinness will forever be Obi-wan to me. Although I had seen him in movies prior to Star Wars, it was that role that made the greatest impression on me. Therefore, he will always be Obi-wan, regardless of the role.

Guinness plays Captain Crawford and Dirk Bogarde plays Lieutenant Scott-Padget in this 1962 movie directed by Lewis Gilbert. Obi-wan has a terrible problem. He has a lieutenant on his new ship with his own version of the force in the form of friends in high places and who is used to bullying his captains into doing whatever he wants. To complicate the issue, a young padwan sails as a midshipman on the vessel. The padwan is the captain's son. When the threat of reporting the captain to his friends at court proves ineffective at manipulating Obi-wan, the Lt. uses punishment against the boy as his lever.

Another complication in our Sea Wars drama arises in the form of a fleet-wide mutiny that has been planned. The conditions for sailors in the British Navy never got a five star rating. In fact, most of those trying the accommodations gave no stars and didn't recommend to friends. Although, they would go about in the press gangs to welcome new guests in a manner in which the guests could not refuse.

Obi-wan's gentle hand and calm voice of restraint against Scott-Padget's excesses in discipline does the potential mutineers no favors. However, two things finally happen. Both concern the real reason I watch shows about the age of sail:

The unfriendly exchange of broadsides as an RSVP to a boarding party melee. In the first instance, Obi-wan and his antagonistic Lt. defeat a French frigate. One of the French muckety-mucks on the ship reveals that he knows the details for Bonaparte's planned invasion of England. The wily Captain Obi-wan takes the prize and includes his son as part of the prize crew to get him away from Scott-Padget's machinations. Obi-wan appears to have beaten his onboard enemy, but in an encounter with a second French ship, he is wounded and delirious. The Lt. assumes command and drives the mutineers to implement their plan. 

Obi-wan recovers from his delirium and persuades the mutineers to go to the fleet to turn over the Frenchmen with the invasion information by agreeing to speak for them to the admiralty. When they arrive at the rendezvous, the admiralty has already caved to the demands of the combined mutineers, so everything seems peachy. But wait, there's a last plot complication. One of the malcontents who had been abused and scourged by Scott-Padget completely loses his gruntle and throws his knife into the Lt.'s chest. Scott-Padget is struck through the heart, and he's to blame, he gave mutiny a bad name. Naturally, the other revolters know he's put them at risk by his rash slaying of an officer. The lead mutineer puts an old fashioned force choke on the malcontent by actually using his hands on his throat and then throwing him over the side. Obi-wan helps the Lt.'s corpse over the side as well. 

Don't go away yet. The hefty soprano has yet to bellow. There's an enemy attack on the fleet. They've sent a fire ship right at the flagship, which for some reason I didn't catch can't get underway and avoid the flaming request to tango. The quick thinking Obi-wan persuades the head mutineer to let him command the ship to save the day. He takes the Defiant in and hurls some grapples to the fiery interloper and drags it away from the flagship in the nick of time (parsley, sage, and rosemary did not get mentioned). Of course, the admiral sends his thanks for saving him from the barbecue. It looks like all will be well. However, there was a broadside received by the Defiant and the mutineer leader took a substantial splinter to the chest and expires after getting word that the admiral thanks him for his service.

I give it 3.5 broadsides out of 5. 

 

 

Five Card Stud

  

I don't think I've talked about this movie before, other than to mention it in passing, It's a western-mystery classic that I never get tired of. I watched it this week while my wife was out of state.

First things first: The Blasters and Blades podcast with JR Handley hosted my and Jana Brown. We talked general nerdery and Accidental Pirates in particular - a great time, aside from the fact that I appear to have the charisma of a dry dish rag. The blank wall behind me in no way highlighted any good thing about me. I did get to mention that the sequel to Accidental Pirates is a go for publication as well.

 We now return to our irregularly scheduled programming:

Five Card Stud, directed by Henry Hathaway, written by Marguerite Roberts and Ray Gaulden, stars Dean Martin, Robert Mitchum, Inger Stevens, and Roddy McDowall. My love for this western is probably irrational, but I never miss an opportunity to watch it if I find it on television. This week I watched in on Prime Video. The film is nearly sixty years old, so I'm not hiding any spoilers. 

Several men begin a game of 5 card stud. After Van Morgan (a gambler played by Dean Martin) goes for a break, the game comes to a halt when Nick Evers (played by Roddy--without ape makeup) catches the lone stranger at the table cheating (his cheat roll came up snake eyes). They drag him out to an impromptu neck-tie party as the guest of honor with Nick as the fervent MC of the occasion. When Van tries to put a stop to the festivities, Nick invokes parliamentary procedure in the form of a pistol barrel across Van's skull. The stranger's body is discovered the next morning. Van heads out for Denver, saying goodbye to his girlfriend Nora (played by Katherine Justice) and her brother Nick at the Evers Ranch were Denver Pyle plays the father.

After Van's departure a new preacher arrives in town.

He aims to bring God's word to the boom town of Rincon. Shortly after his arrival, one of the poker-playing hangmen is found smothered in a barrel of flour. (It was obviously all-purpose flour even though I don't believe that is one of the commonly intended purposes). Another of the card players is strangled with a barbed wire fence for his bow tie.
 

George (played by Yaphet Kotto) was tending bar the night of the poker game and goes to Denver to warn Van not to come back lest he end up all breathless too. Naturally, Van notes that everybody loves somebody sometime and heads back to Rincon with George. He finds that the boom town is booming and has acquired a new business.

Lily Langford (played by Inger Stevens) runs the establishment that offers shaves, baths, and miscellaneous, Naturally, Van is intrigued.

The survivors meet to discuss the suspicious activity and come to the conclusion that one of them must be the killer. Another man dies, hanging from the ropes to the church bells. The miners go wild wanting the sheriff to do something about the killings. A deputy's attempt to disarm the miners results in his death and a shoot out in town.

Van and Reverend Rudd helps bring an end to the shoot out. Rudd is quite a pistolero We get a fire and another death. Somewhere in here there's a funeral and we find out that Nick has been feeding Rudd the names of the participants in that ill-fated game of 5 card stud, pretending all the time that he tried to stop the hanging.

At one point, Nick and Van have a tussle in the graveyard. Their struggle ends on the grave of the hanged stranger. They walk away wary but without any excess perforations.

We get to see Rudd kill George, who had no part in the hanging but Nick wants him dead. The killing goes bad and Rudd is forced to shoot and run, leaving enough time for George to provide a clue about who punched his ticket.

When Nick meets Rudd in the graveyard again to give him the final name, he admits that he led the hanging and now must put Rudd down lest the preacher kill him now that he has the name of the last man who helped in the killing of his brother, the cheating stranger in the game. Nick magnanimously allows Rudd a last request to read a scripture on this solemn occasion. He selects something from the book of Samuel Colt in .32 caliber. It's a killer.

Nick reacts badly to the chosen verse. It's really all in the delivery.

Nick's funeral will be at the Evers Ranch and Rudd volunteers to take the body and coffin out in his buckboard. First he stops by the saloon to see Van and invite him to ride out with him. Van declines, indicating that he'll be out a little later.

Van meets Rudd on the road. He figured it out with George's clue when Rudd tipped up the last chair at the card table. In the confrontation, Rudd again resorts to scripture but has his Bible upside down, and Van figures out somethings rotten in Denmark. They go for their guns. Van is wounded in the arm but sends Rudd across the threshold of mortality into the arms of his cheating brother.

Nora cleans and wraps his arm and Van tells her goodbye. 

All the other card players and George are dead. Van and Lily part ways temporarily to meet in Denver or somewhere, unless the kiss Van gave her didn't keep him on her mind. Van rides off, and the closing credits roll to the music.

That's the gist of Five Card Stud. It's not much of a movie, but I like it beyond it's worth. There are lots of familiar faces. There's at least one Star Trek connection. The romance never overshadows the real story line, although there is a question about whether Van will choose Nora or Lily. When I first watched it as a kid, I couldn't believe Roddy McDowall was a bad guy. Watching it now, I wonder how I didn't realize that he was involved. It's obvious in everything Nick does. He's about as likable as a sharp stick thrust repetitively into one's eye. Anyway, it has about the perfect mix of gun play, romance, and mystery to make it a pleasure every time I see it.

 

 

Shuffling off this mortal coil

  

I suppose that's what writers tell their characters. I don't make a habit of offing my creations--at least not the ones who have become interesting and integral to the story. However, we occasionally fall upon times that try the writer's soul, when a beloved or captivating character must become referenced only in the past tense. 

Should the character's demise be played out on stage, or merely reported by messenger number three or via a sad dispatch from the front? I'm in favor of the matter getting stage time, provided that it's meaningful. If I've gone to the trouble of creating a name and backstory and linked the character's tale to the hero or plot, that character deserves a demise worthy of the role. More importantly, beyond what any character deserves, the reader has earned the scene. If the reader has had any chance to get attached to the individual, the reader needs understand that the dissolution fulfilled some purpose, that the sacrifice ennobled the character, revealed a flaw, or that the progression of the story required it. Such matters merit the stage--and should make for great reading.

A major character's expiration demands at least one good scene, if not a series of scenes with a foreshadow, a build up, and terrible climax. A little dialog or soliloquy adds a meaningful touch and can provide closure or resolution to some lingering question--or not. Final words cut short or imbued with ambiguity may provide more questions to be resolved later--and the generation of intriguing questions often drives interest and deeper meaning in the story. Remember the Trauma, the Drama, and the Dream, my three keys to great stories.

Naturally, I now think of a character whose demise did not get a full treatment and think I could've handled it better. On the other hand, I recall some characters who crossed the threshold of immortality and feel a sense of satisfaction with their final scenes even though they will be missed.

 

 

Box of Disappointment

 

The refit of Xanadu continues without help from Rush, Olivia, ELO, or Coleridge. A box of disappointment arrived today. I ordered it last week. I should've known better than to order through P. Andora Co. How did I come to request this delivery of dismay?

It's not a long story, but it goes back to before we closed on the new digs. When male offspring came to have a look at the place, we happened to look at the furnace filter. It looked like a bad and fatal case of black lung. Fortunately, there was a new filter sitting by the unit and we swapped in the clean one. After closing and move in, I thought it would be prudent to acquire an additional filter for change in the future. I noted the size on the old filter and went to the local hardware store to procure the ready replacement. 

I thought it would also be prudent to make sure the standby filter fit properly. <Morgan Freeman voice begin> It did not fit. <Morgan Freeman voice end> I compared the sizes as printed on the filters. They were the same. However, small print indicated the new filter was several millimeters bigger in the troublesome dimension. The local store gladly took the return of the filter, and I went online to find filters that matched down to the millimeter. Not-the-Nile store made the order easy and the delivery arrived within an entirely acceptable time frame. It's a box of six, because the filters are much cheaper by the half-dozen.

Once again, I decided to check the fit. It did not fit.

What?! The measurements all corresponded precisely--I had ordered the same exact size--but the fit was off by more than an inch, not mere millimeters. I had a big box of regret, failure in a six-pack.

There was a mystery here. A little investigation and a tape measure provided the clues I needed. Both the original black lung filter and the handy spare had been cut down from the size printed on them to remove a couple inches, and then reassembled, still bearing the now-false printed size. I suppose that if the previous owner could resize the filters, so can I. However, I would have preferred to have ordered the correct size and avoided the manual resizing.

By the way, I know where you can get a good deal on some furnace filters. 

I've saved the best for last.

There is good news. Out of the blue--even though I had been hoping for a response for many weeks--came a thunderbolt of fortuity. Raconteur Press has informed me that my sequel to Accidental Pirates has been accepted for publication. Of course, there will be rounds of editing and cover creation and all the tedious stuff in between the conditional acceptance and the final product, but I've already heard words of joy from happy readers who have fallen in love with Chris and Kenny and their adventures. Get Accidental Pirates here.

Wait! There's more! I was on the Blasters & Blades podcast with JR Handley and Jana Brown this week. I don't know how long before it goes live, but I'll post a link when it does.