We’ve all been there: you’re writing a new screenplay that you know, on paper, boasts a great story… but for some reason, that script just isn’t clicking. The Bikeriders—the new film from Arkansas-born writer-director Jeff Nichols—is a great reminder of how choosing an unexpected character whose perspective we’ll experience that story through can elevate that material to new levels of excitement and intrigue.
The ensemble drama, inspired by a 1967 book of photos documenting young male bikers in Illinois, tells the rise-and-fall tale of a motorcycle gang known as the Vandals. There’s its charismatic leader, Johnny, played by Tom Hardy. There’s Austin Butler’s Benny, a hot-headed enigma who finds purpose (not to mention a father figure) in Johnny and his Vandals.
Finding Perspective in The Bikeriders
The events of the story would be fascinating even if told objectively—after growing in popularity during the free-spirited ’60s, the gang begins to transform as violent, drug-fuelled darkness sets in, reflecting the fractures appearing in post-Vietnam America. But Nichols opts not to tell that story objectively. Instead, Kathy (Jodie Comer), one of the film’s few female characters, explains the events to the audience through interviews.
“Kathy was the most interesting interview in the book,” Nichols told me last week on my podcast, “Script Apart.” “She holds the tension about masculinity. There’s tension in masculinity in that we know so much of it is false. These tropes don’t have to be true: men can share and show their emotions. Men can express themselves,” he says, explaining how these themes take on a new dimension when glimpsed by the audience through a female point of view.
“The other side of that tension is that it’s very attractive when a man is a man. Kathy is stuck in that tension,” adds Nichols. “She knows Benny’s probably ultimately not good for her but she wants to be with him. So she’s not just an observer to the tension of masculinity—she’s complicit in it,” he says.
Had the film told the story of Benny, Johnny, and co from a neutral perspective, the questions of why men behave the way they do that pulse beneath the surface of The Bikeriders wouldn’t have hit the same way. By making Kathy the audience’s entryway into the Vandals, the film becomes thematically richer, evolving into a meditation on what it means to be male, then and now—and how the women in these men’s lives often get caught up in the chaos of their macho behavior.
How would your latest screenplay change were you to pick a different character to tell the story through? If you believe in the story you’re telling but feel like your current execution of it isn’t leaping off the page, it might be a fun exercise to try. After all, it worked for Nichols with The Bikeriders, one of the best movies of 2024 so far.
Listen to the full episode of Script Apart, supported by ScreenCraft, WeScreenplay, and Final Draft, above.
Read More: Why You Should Avoid Writing Passive Characters (& How to Make Them Active)
Get actionable Drama Notes from a professional reader with real industry experience!
The post Script Apart: ‘The Bikeriders’ Screenwriter Jeff Nichols on Crafting a Story’s POV appeared first on ScreenCraft.
Go to Source
Author: Al Horner
