Problem Solving in 127 Hours

This was an extremely impressive film to me. It was amazing from an audience’s standpoint. It takes place in a  space roughly the size of a phone booth for the better part of a week and it still managed to keep me interested the entire time. The transformation of Aaron from a happy-go-lucky guy to one struggling for survival is a feat that James Franco pulled off expertly. And, from a technical perspective, the climax of the film was one of the most impressive special effects I can recall. All good reasons to like this movie. But what I really loved was that this showed me a story I have never seen before.

I know Aaron’s story. I watched the news reports of his self-rescue right after they happened with great interest. I watched his documentary made with Peter Jennings with fascination. I hiked some of the same landscapes Aaron did. And I did them alone, and without telling anyone where I was going. In short, his story speaks to me on a very personal level. So when I saw the film, I knew, in a general sense, what to expect. For those unaware, Aaron goes on a hike in a secluded canyon. He fails to tell anyone where he’s going. While climbing down a narrow canyon, a rock dislodges and traps his arm. He’s stuck there for the titular 127 hours. In this time he dehydrates severally, hallucinates, tries several different methods of moving the rock, and finally, when all else has failed, he amputates his own arm. He then finishes his hike, as that’s a shorter distance than the way he came in, stumbles across some hikers who give him their food and water, and finally a helicopter comes and whisks him to a hospital, saving his life.

They could have told this story several ways. Knowing the story as well as I did, I knew that it was no coincidence that the helicopter was there. His mother had been looking for him frantically. She managed to guess his email password, read his messages, contacted his coworkers, and took guesses as to where he might be. She called all the potential parks, where they found his car. Once they had found the car, they sent the lifesaving helicopter. This movie could have been about the relationship between Aaron and his mother. A family reuniting has been told many times before. That would have been a very good movie. Instead, what they gave us was the story of one man solving a problem.

Problem solving is not a subject that most movies will tackle head on. When problems usually occur to characters, the solution is for the character to change in some way previously foreshadowed. It’s the change in characters that’s the source of the drama. Here, though, the character doesn’t change. He’s the same Aaron walking out as walking in. The epilogue of the movie nails this point home, saying Aaron still hikes and loves outdoor activities. The only difference, the movie tells us, is that now Aaron leaves a note. When Aaron first finds himself trapped, he takes stock of all the tools he has, taking special note of his pocket knife. He tests the knife’s sharpness, and it’s clear that he’s thinking, even at the very beginning, that he might have to cut his arm off. That’s not his first attempt. He calls for help. He attempts to move the rock, fashioning a very clever pulley system. He attempts chipping the rock away. Indeed, as his situation gets more dire, he fashions a tourniquet, tries sawing at his arm only to be stopped by it’s dullness, tries stabbing only to be stopped by the bone. Finally it’s panic that really pushes him over the edge. He breaks his arm by leveraging his body weight against the rock that trapped him, then worked, for minute after agonizing minute, hacking at each layer of muscle and tissue, till he finally free himself. Before this he rations out his minuscule food and water. He figures for how long he would have to survive before rescue is even possible. He entertains himself. At the worst of times he badly hallucinates and falls into deep despair.

Now, what amazed me is how many times I have run into similar but infinitely less severe situations. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance has a great deal of good information on what the problem solving process looks like. There are so many examples in my own day to day life. A stripped screw, a flat tire, a difficult to assemble piece of furniture. Anything, where your goal is relatively small and straightforward, but an unexpected delay causes you to nearly fail in the entire attempt. My favorite example is from when not long after I got my license, and I had to drive into New York City to pick up my parents from the airport. An easy job. I got directions, checked traffic, left myself plenty of time to get there. This is the pre-GPS days. Then I managed to get thoroughly lost. Now what? Ask for directions? From who? Check my map? What map? I have one that’s about 30 years old. All I can do is come up with hypotheses, and test them. Try this road, try heading north, keep an eye on street signs. Ask at gas stations. Finally I found the airport through a combination of luck, effort, and a lot of failed tries.

Every part of Aaron’s journey was familiar. The initial hubris. The disbelief at something so small stopping you so completely. The taking stock of supplies. The despair at the fact that the only reason you’re in this situation is your own actions. The attempts, each getting more desperate, at getting passed it. The final attempt that either gets you passed this problem, or stops you entirely.

After Aaron self-amputated, he still had to hike the narrow slot canyon, rappel down a rock wall, and hike several miles in the blazing desert sun. And he knew that, and planned for it, even after the incredible pain and blood loss he endured. He understood that solving a single problem didn’t mean he was done. There was still his initial goal, and it had to be completed, even though now it meant an unbelievably more difficult and dangerous trip. After I found the airport, I still needed to park, find my parents, then negotiate rush hour traffic to get back home. Was my situation less severe than Aaron’s? Absolutely. But the techniques to get passed it were essentially identical.

I’m not aware of any other films that focussed so completely on solving a single problem. Character falls away. Story, plot, rising action, climax, and all the other elements of successful storytelling are present, but they all are pushed aside to focus on one man, getting passed one obstacle.  The tag lines for the movie went something like, “How far would you go to survive?” They could just as easily been, “How do you solve problems?”

Pirates Part 2

So we last left our characters betraying each other, all for their own ends. These next events are critical, as they set up the entire movie from here. Sao Feng allies with Barbossa, to free the never-before-mentioned Calypso. They overwhelm the EIC’s crew and head to Shipwreck Cove, where they intend to free her. Sao Feng thinks he has a way of allying himself with Calypso, but mistakes her for Elizabeth. It’s a fair mistake. Here’s he’s met a strong woman with an agenda of her own, who’s respected by her friends and enemies alike. It’s reasonable to assume there’s more to her than meets the eye.

Meanwhile, Jack has been captured by the company, for the sole purpose of having him meet with Beckett. After some back and forth, Jack agrees to betray all his friends in exchange for his own life. He’ll betray the location of Shipwreck Cove, betray the pirates hidden there, and the members of his crew he finds annoying. In exchange he gets Davey Jones off his back. Now, this scene is fascinating, as we’re not really sure of Jack’s intentions. Does he really intend to betray his on again off again allies? He was killed by one of them. He’s spent the last few scenes explaining to Barbossa he has no intention of fighting, that he’ll use the Black Pearl to outrun all his enemies. Beckett certainly believes him. However, Jack has to realize that after handing over all the other pirates, he has no protection. No leverage, something this series of films has a lot to say about. So what does he really have in mind? Jack and Beckett agreed to Jack’s plan, and they part ways.

We now move to Sao Feng, who’s quickly been caught by Davey Jones. He states his intentions towards the woman he thinks is Calypso, and is promptly killed.

Now, Sao Feng has already betrayed his previous deal with the EIC in order to capture Elizabeth. Davey Jones shows up now, conveniently killing Sao Feng, and making Elizabeth captain. This moment, where Elizabeth becomes captain, is Sao Feng's entire purpose in the film. Everything else that Sao Feng does is quickly undone. 1 plot down. While Jones captures Sao Feng's ship, Norrington comes back, and betrays the EIC for Elizabeth. Norrington's desire to win Elizabeth motivates nearly all his behavior in all the Pirate movies. In the first film he wanted to rescue her. In the second, the get his old position back, and it’s never stated but it’s implied it’s for her. Here, he reaches his redemption. In letting Elizabeth go, she forgives him, and he pays for his sins with his death. His death is clean; he dies doing what he believes in, and does not take the coward's way out, by which I mean signing up with Davey Jones. 2 plots down. With Norrington out of the picture, though, the Flying Dutchman loses interest in chasing her, and instead goes back to Beckett, with Beckett's lieutenant in charge now. This is the last we see of Elizabeth for awhile, as she slowly makes her way to Shipwreck Cove, the pirate's meeting place.

The next thing we see is a trail of bodies, floating in the water for Beckett to find. Beckett assumes it’s a “gambit, from a skilled opponent.” He thinks it’s Jack leading him. Clearly, he thinks Jack is keeping to his end of the bargain. We find out, though, that it’s not Jack but Will leaving the bodies. Does this mean that Jack was lying? After all, he could have done this exact thing. He all but confesses to Will that he had already thought of it. But here he states another goal. He wants Davey Jones off his back permanently. The only way to do so is to kill him. The only way to kill him is to take his place. What he does here is critical. He hands Will his compass, then hands Will to Beckett. Is he still trying to lead Beckett to Shipwreck Cove? Is he trying to lead Davey Jones there, to get his chance to kill him? We don’t know. Jack’s motivations in this film never entirely clear. It doesn’t help that he’s crazier than we remember after his time in Davey Jone’s locker.

With Will aboard Beckett’s ship, he reveals everything. Will is easier to figure out than Jack. Will wants his father freed. He wants Elizabeth. He reveals everything in order to do so. Calypso, the Brethren Court, everything. He even agrees to use Jack’s compass to lead them there. It’s easy. The compass leads to what it’s holder wants most. Beckett wants Jack dead. Will wants Elizabeth. Davey Jones wants Calypso. Everything is at Shipwreck Cove. How much does Will know of Jack’s intentions? Does he believe that Jack will truly kill Davey Jones? Does he care? Will is no simpleton, but he is in a completely different league than Jack who’s own intentions aren’t even completely clear to himself.

Skipping forward a bit, we arrive at the Brethren Court. Elizabeth is late, and when she arrives she makes the case to go to war with Beckett. Norrington had told her that Shipwreck Cove’s location was betrayed, and she uses this to press her argument. Barbossa says to go to war is ridiculous, that they would lose, and they must release Calypso. Jack says they need to run away. Once again, we’re wondering exactly what Jack’s motivations are. Elizabeth is in no way dishonest about what she wants. She’s been a dynamic character throughout this whole film. Barbossa is completely honest as well. Slightly less than Elizabeth. He steals the “Pieces of 8,” but he does so to do exactly what he originally stated. But Jack. Does he really want to run away? He always has before. How will that help him kill Davey Jones? How will that help Will kill Davey Jones? We don’t know, but we get a little more information soon.

When Beckett’s armada reaches Shipwreck Cove, they talk to Barbossa, Elizabeth, and Jack. Elizabeth is now pirate king, so she has every right to be there. Why these two other characters are here and not the rest of the pirate lords is never stated. I always felt that was a weakness here, but from a movie making perspective, it does make the scene much more fluid. It’s the writing that bugs me. At any rate, Beckett states that it’s been Jack who’s betrayed the pirates, and Will was just the tool. They trade prisoners, Jack for Will, and prepare for battle. Walking away, Will and Elizabeth give us the best evidence for what Jack’s intentions actually are. They both agree that they need to get Jack to Davey Jones, to give him his chance at taking his place. How did they know what Jack was thinking? How could they be sure he’d survive? It’s a measure of their trust. The three of them had been through so much they knew that, despite his outward appearance, Jack is a trustworthy guy. He’ll do the right thing. Elizabeth has been saying so since the last movie. And Will will do pretty much anything she says.

So once again we get an enormous action sequence. This fits right in, as the plot is now completely convoluted. We need something to compensate for the confusion. It ends the way we would all expect, with the bad guys dying gloriously, the good guys getting what they deserve. It’s inevitable that Will will become Davey Jones. Twice, first in the second and again in the third, Calypso says he has a “touch of destiny.” It’s obvious that Jack will do the right thing. It’s obvious Elizabeth and Will end up marrying. It’s obvious Barbossa remains the dastardly pirate we’ve come to love.

This is what’s great about the Pirates films. Despite all the confusion, convolution, and sheer insanity, it ends in comfortable ways. This isn’t a movie to base a thesis on, but it’s hard to argue that it’s not a good time. It’s nice to see a Disney film really accomplish what it set out to do.

Pirates of the Caribbean, At World's End

When I last, long ago, wrote about Pirate of the Caribbean, I wrote about the enormous number of plots the writers were dealing with. We left Jack Sparrow for dead, newly re-appointed Commodore Norrington taking his old job back but with a new boss, The East India Trading Company, Will failed to save his father, Elizabeth estranged herself from Will, and, in the last shot, Captain Barbossa comes back from the dead. And let’s not forget Davey Jones, who’s lost control of his one weakness. The filmmakers here dug such a deep hole for themselves it’s difficult to imagine a way to pull them out. The end result is a mess of shifting alliances, secret decisions, and simple confusion. I love it. To unravel this web of stories, let’s start at the beginning.

The first section of this film loosely mirrors the first section of the second movie, Dead Man’s Chest. The whole journey to the Land of the Dead, as Barbossa calls it, or Davey Jones’ Locker, as it’s called at other times, doesn’t really do a whole lot for the story as a whole. Much like Will rescuing Jack from the cannibals, all it serves to do is set the tone for the movie, and get the main characters where they need to be in order to advance the plot. Everything that happens before the Black Pearl emerges back into the real world can, from a plot perspective, be forgotten. For the purposes of the analysis, I will consider the movie to start at the island where Will and the competing captains go to resupply.

Immediately before they go, we see a stand off. Everyone pointing guns at everyone else. It’s ended by Jack, who quickly discovers their guns don’t work, as they’re wet from their previous journey. This is a fascinating point. After all, their guns will dry. Even if they don’t, they’re all armed with swords. There’s no reason to let the fight end here. Yet they don’t, they instead decide to resupply, and take up their argument later. On the surface, this struck me as lazy writing. Why else have these characters threaten each other’s lives, only to have them decide to wait? It seemed a way to extend the length of the movie, nothing more. It wasn’t until I rewatched it that I saw what the point was. Will was the one who pulled the chart out, finding an island to resupply. Will was the one who mediated the fight between Barbossa and Sparrow, as who was to leave the ship. He did it with some humility, his “temporarily” spoke volumes, but he was the instigator. A few minutes later, the captains realize they’ve been had. Will had been planning to steal the Black Pearl all along, since they left Sao Feng’s city, indeed conspiring with Sao Feng to trade off Jack Sparrow in exchange for the Black Pearl. The other characters held off their argument because of Will’s subterfuge. That’s not the only reason. Sparrow needs a willing crew to continue his flight from Davey Jones. Barbossa wants the Black Pearl back. Will just gave them an excuse.

Shortly after this, we see the first of several double crosses. First is Will’s, as he claims the Black Pearl to free his father. He had learned during the last film that the Pearl was the one ship that could outrun Davey Jones, and he stated then that he wanted to fight. However Sao Feng quickly betrays Will for the East India Trading Company. He claims the Pearl from Will. Then the EITC claims the Pearl for itself, betraying Sao Feng. What happens next sets up all the rest of the events of the film. For this, we await part 2.

Complex plots and movie fun

Dead Man's Chest ends bringing the whole host of plots it's raised to unsatisfying conclusions. Not unsatisfying in that they don't end, but that the endings are not what we would expect. We'll need to break down each story, and it's conclusion, to see what I mean.

1. Jack Sparrow is fighting to save his own life. Resolved when he thinks he's stolen Davey Jones' heart, only to find it's been stolen from him.

2. Norrington is fighting to regain his old life, resolved when he steals the heart from Sparrow, and at the expense of all the other characters.

3. Will's primary goal is to save his father, and he loses his chance due to Norrington stealing the heart, leaving no way of using the Black Pearl to fight Davey Jones. Incidentally, he also wants to make Elizabeth happy, but that's taken a back seat while he worries about his father.

4. Elizabeth has found, and saved, Will, but now has to worry about her own skin. Here earlier techniques of pretending to be helpless no longer work, so she betrays Jack, as he foreshadowed earlier. Her guilt over this comes to be a block between her and Will.

5. Beckett gets exactly what he wants. He claims the heart of Davey Jones, giving him the ultimate leverage over the ultimate power of the sea.

It's fairly clear that the characters we're sympathetic with are in a bad state, and their antagonists have won. This is a classic ending for the middle movie of a trilogy, especially in the fantasy genre. Think Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, where the Empire wins. Think Lord of the Rings, where Gollum spells out his plans to betray Frodo, and Gandalf has won one battle, but now is beginning a much larger one. The difference here is the scope. Whereas most fantasy movies have 2 or 3 plots moving along, there's no less than 5 here. This is a level of complexity that most movie goers simply are not prepared to deal with. It's incredibly ambitious. The filmmakers knew this. They knew that the plots were hugely complex, and would be hard to swallow. To help absorb all this, audiences were also treated to fantastical action sequences. I can't recall any other 3 way sword fights. Davey Jones and his crew look amazing for such extensive computer effects.

So now with all these plots going, all these frustrated good guys sitting around unsure what to do, and these bad guys with the means of taking over the sea, what does the next movie hold? Well, the first thing it has to do is bring back Jack, and the Pearl. The last movie in a trilogy needs to resolve everything in the good guys' favor, so Jack has to come back. Will needs to resolve his relationship with his father and Elizabeth. Beckett needs to get his comeuppance, Norrington needs redemption, Jones must be defeated. The plots become so complicated you practically need a flow chart to keep track of changing allegiances and betrayals. And in addition to that, we need epic action, and good old fashioned movie fun, so we can accept it all. We get all this in Pirates of the Caribbean 3, At World's End.

Plots and Symbols in Dead Man's Chest

I mentioned last time how Jack Sparrow begins to behave as puppet master. That is certainly holds true. Jack has 2 maguffins he's chasing, Davey Jones's key, and Davey Jones's chest. Of course, that's just to get what's inside the chest, but he spends the bulk of the movie trying to get both these elements. He sends Will off to get the key, and incidentally temporarily settle his debt. He has no intention of leaving Will on Jones's boat, but he needs to get the chest in order to get him off. That opportunity presents itself when Elizabeth finds him on Tortuga. He uses her desire to save Will to find the chest.

Now, in each case Jack uses Will and Elizabeth's love for each other to get what he wants. They don't give him the full story either, but Jack is clearly manipulating those around him for his own ends. However, on board Davey Jones's ship, the Flying Dutchman, Will finds his father and makes a promise to free him from Davey Jones, by stabbing Jones's heart. This is where the story of parts 2 and 3 start to get complicated. So now we have 2 characters, both of whom we're rooting for, both after the same goal, with completely different intentions. It gets more complicated, as Norrington comes back into the picture, another character we're sympathetic with, who wants the chest for himself to regain his old life back. It's around this point when the two pirate we've been following since the first movie, the bald one and one eyed one, have to spell out exactly who wants what. The first time I saw this I couldn't help but laugh. It seemed to be a joke on the part of the screenwriters. They're acknowledging the complexity of the story, and are giving us a simplified version of what's going on.

Now, the longer that these characters spend with Jack Sparrow, the more they begin to behave like him. It's spelled out when Elizabeth in on the Black Pearl with Jack, complaining that she isn't married but is ready to be. Jack tells Elizabeth she'll behave selfishly, out of curiosity, and Elizabeth tells Jack he'll behave honorably, again out of curiosity. Will doesn't spend as much time with Jack in this movie, so his intentions tend to stay much more open and obvious. Norrington spends more screen time with him, so we tend to see him behave more like Jack, hiding his true intentions and goals until the very last minute.

Let's look, for a moment, at a little symbolism in the movie. This is a Disney movie, so we're not going to see outright sexual or violently gory action, but we are going to get plenty of symbols for it. The violent symbols are first. There's plenty of swordplay, plenty of stunts, and a fantastic three way fight scene on a runaway water wheel, but never any blood. This is a payoff for all the complexity that the audience has to absorb. Giving us too much plot, or too much action tends to wear out an audience. Dead Man's Chest seems to resolve this problem by stepping up action when the plot gets too complex, then plot when the action gets overwhelming. The sexual symbols are slightly more subtle and pervasive. Jack and Elizabeth share some very pointed dialogue. The whole conversation about marriage has little to do with holy matrimony, and everything to do with penetrative sex. When she holds the compass she keeps finding it pointing to Jack at unexpected times, often while he's playing with a phallic symbol. This is most noted on the ship, after their conversation. Jack is staring out his telescoping telescope, and Elizabeth surprises herself by her true wants changing. We'll see it again later when she's sitting cross-legged on the beach, and Jack mentions that she's sitting on what she really wants. Her, "Beg pardon?" is classic here. It is not much of a stretch to bring this back to sex, how she wants to be penetrated, pure and simple. The problem is another symbol, this time Jack's. His compass doesn't work. Not only does it not point north, but since he has no idea what he wants it doesn't work at all for him. Again, not to harp on the obvious, but this is a phallic symbol. Jack's penis doesn't work, and the movie is as much about his saving his own neck from Davey Jones as it is to regain his own sexuality. Why did he lose it in the first place? We'll come back to that question.

I bring up the symbols not out of a sense of shock value, but to get a better understanding of all the layers going on in this movie. There are no less than 5 major characters in this movie, all of whom have different motivations, techniques, and are distinct characterwise. They all have stories that have a beginning, rising action, a climax, and falling action. Beneath those layers are the symbols that expand the surface plots. And all these elements come to a head in the dramatic end of the film, which is also the beginning of Pirates of the Caribbean, At World's End.

Pirate of the Caribbean, Dead Man's Chest Begins

Pirate of the Caribbean, parts 2 and 3, really need to be taken together as a single story in order to best understand them. I'm not going to address Pirates 1, The Curse of the Black Pearl, because Todd Alcott already did an excellent analysis of it here, but also because the story moves so far away from it's beginnings in the next two movies.

Pirates 2, Dead Man's Chest, starts out not long after Curse of the Black Pearl. Elizabeth and Will are getting married, Jack is off pirating, and Norrington is missing in action. The drama starts immediately as, just before Elizabeth and Will's wedding, a mysterious man comes to arrest the pair, as well as Commodore Norrington who, the governor tells us, has resigned his post and vanished.

The man we meet, Cutler-Becket, is a strange man. On the one hand he seems to be a government official. He comes carrying warrants, he commands soldiers, he's dressed as a military man. But he states that he's working for the East India Trading Company. I'm not familiar with the history of the British Empire in the Caribbean, but the East India Company seems to be a quasi-governmental institution which gives it's employees government level power, without government level restrictions on it's use. This is a theme we'll see mentioned here and there in these two movies. It's a dangerous institution, and seems to act only for it's own benefit. At any rate, Becket releases Will with the promise of a full pardon in exchange for finding Jack Sparrow, and trading for the compass we first saw in Curse of the Black Pearl. He leaves immediately.

Now we see Jack Sparrow, escaping, via coffin, a dangerous island that looks to be a prison of some kind. His crew is getting antsy. They'd endured storms and attacks, with no treasure to show for it. Jack has been in this position before, when he was last captain of the Black Pearl, and was mutinied against. He quells the rebellion in his crew, and sets about finding out what his next step is. He's accomplished his first, finding a drawing of a key, but doesn't seem to know what to do next. His compass is no help, changing direction whenever he looks at it. We'll find out later that the compass points in whatever direction of what the holder really wants. The reason it isn't working for Jack is because he does not know what he wants. This asks the question, why? Why doesn't Jack know what he wants? We'll come back to that question. But it's about now that Jack finds out he's being hunted by Davey Jones, and an old friend, Will's dad Boostrap Bill, is working for him. This leads Jack running panicked, to the first island he comes to, an island of cannibals.

Now, this scene on the island is fascinating. It's beautiful, adventurous, dangerous, and exciting. It's wonderful to see, but what actually happens here? From a plot and a story perspective, not much. Jack loses half his crew, but conveniently enough the half that seemed to want to mutiny, and Will finds them and gets onboard the Black Pearl. I could write another post about this scene on it's own, but I'm more interested in why it was included in the movie in the first place. There's a lot here that we simply don't understand. Why was Jack made the chief? In the first film, before Jack and Elizabeth meet, he's talking to some soldiers, and he mentions that he's made chief of some group. Now here we see him actually chief. What are the odds that Jack becomes chief of two aboriginal tribes? We never find out how, or how Jack learned their language, or what happened when the crew explored the island. We do quickly see Will find them, and rescue the crew, giving Jack time to escape as well.

This scene could have been done other ways. Will could have found the ship at Tortuga, much as Elizabeth would later. The crew could have attempted to mutiny and Will might have saved Jack and the loyal crew. But instead we get this beautiful, but ultimately pointless scene. We never get to see this tribe again. I don't know, but I think it simply was for the beauty. We're meant to see the enormity of the Pirates of the Caribbean world, in a way that's simply fun. It's entertainment for the sake of entertainment. This is a huge risk on the part of the filmmakers. Sure, the scene is fun, but if we're not given anything serious to show for it, they risk losing the audience's interest. Fortunately, we get back to the drama quickly. We'll see more as Jack begins to play puppet master of his friends, Will and Elizabeth.

The Last Word on Adaptation

So why all the sprawl? Well, the answer to that is right out in the open. It's in the title itself. The film is called Adaptation. It isn't just the adaptation of nature. It isn't just Charlie Kaufman's adaptation to his role as screenwriter. It isn't just Susan Orlean's adaptation from New York journalist to adulteress, drug user, and attempted murderer. Even though all these things are true, the answer is much simpler. It's about adapting a book into a movie.

If I had to boil what this movie is about down to a single word it would be, "writing." Normally movies have a difficult time being about general subject. Brokeback Mountain is not about homosexuality, it's about star crossed lovers, a story older than Romeo and Juliet. Million Dollar Baby is not about euthanasia, it's about what a champion will do to win. Lord of the Rings is not about monsters and magic, it's about a small man doing everything he can to save himself from corruption. Homosexuality, euthanasia, monsters and magic are all just techniques that are used to tell much more universal stories.

All the sprawl, the change from a rambling, disjointed movie to one that follows a strict plot, the change in characters, everything is to show how one can go about adapting a book to a movie. It's right there in front of us. The scenes that Charlie describes (during scenes of writing!) we all actually get to see. Kaufman jerking off to the book jacket picture of Susan Orlean? It's there. The opening sequence of a lifeless planet? There. The last time we see Charlie, driving away, his voice over is describing the very scene we are seeing, all except the last shot of flowers.

Whereas Brokeback Mountain, Million Dollar Baby, and Lord of the Rings tell universal stories using different subject matter, Adaptation tells us about the process of writing. The tacked on, Hollywood plot is a technique to tell us about what it's like to write.

A final note, on Adaptation. It is not the only movie to tackle the subject of writing. I need to add another film to my to-do list, Naked Lunch, possibly my favorite movie about writing.