Unlocking Secrets: The Hidden Depths Within “Barney’s View” Scene by Scene

Here is my take on this exercise from a previous series of posts — How To Read A Screenplay:

After a first pass, it’s time to crack open the script for a deeper analysis and you can do that by creating a scene-by-scene breakdown. It is precisely what it sounds like: A list of all the scenes in the script accompanied by a brief description of the events that transpire.

For purposes of this exercise, I have a slightly different take on scene. Here I am looking not just for individual scenes per se, but a scene or set of scenes that comprise one event or a continuous piece of action. Admittedly this is subjective and there is no right or wrong, the point is simply to break down the script into a series of parts which you then can use dig into the script’s structure and themes.

The value of this exercise:

• We pare down the story to its most constituent parts: Scenes.
• By doing this, we consciously explore the structure of the narrative.
• A scene-by-scene breakdown creates a foundation for even deeper analysis of the story.

Today: Barney’s Version. You may download the script here.

Screenplay by Michael Konyves, novel by Mordecai Richler.

IMDb plot summary: The picaresque and touching story of the politically incorrect, fully lived life of the impulsive, irascible and fearlessly blunt Barney Panofsky.

Barney’s Version
Scene By Scene Breakdown
Written by jem
GoIntoTheStory.com

P.1: Drunk on Scotch and smoking a Montecristo cigar, BARNEY dials the phone. A man answers (BLAIR in V.O.) and reveals it’s 3 AM. Barney: “Put my wife on the phone.” Blair (V.O.): “She’s not your wife…” Barney taunts Blair, asking him if he wants his old nude photos of Miriam: “…to see what Miriam looked like in her prime.” Dial tone. Reveal photos of Barney and Miriam, none of them nude.

P. 1–2: Next morning, Barney (60s) gets the newspaper. Upset by the front page. Inside, he sets the paper down. Newspaper blurb: “Book Review: Detective Sean O’Hearne writes his own account of the scandal that rocked the city 30 years ago…” Includes an old picture of Barney in handcuffs.