When the Bad Guys Win
I want to direct your attention to a recent article I read by Chad Stembridge entitled "When the Bad Guys Win." Chad does a fabulous job of analyzing the issues of when it works, when it doesn't, and how we as Christians should approach these kind of endings in our films. The following paragraphs are an excerpt to wet your appetite for the full article!
"Let’s face it — the reality is, the good guys don’t always win (though we who are Christians know that ultimately, the good guys do win). Such as it is, the stories we write won’t always have happy endings (at least, not in the timeframe of the story itself). But before we can charge into writing that tear-jerking ending, it’s always a good thing to keep in mind that there’s a right and a wrong way to do it.
I don’t consider myself to be an expert writer. However, I can think of two great examples that can be examined in order to see how to treat this kind of resolution. Let’s examine Zulu Dawn versus Valkyrie.
There’s a huge difference between these two films, even though they both have the same kind of resolution. Zulu Dawn was a flop, while Valkyrie was a box-office success. Why?"
In case you missed the link above, you can read the full article here.
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Reader Comments (1)
According to Michael Caine, Zulu Dawn was the film shot as part of a deal to allow the producers to film Zulu (since they wanted to not have just a movie chronically the British victory). They said they didn't quite put a lot into the sequel, and waited 15 years to make it.
-Ryan