Kingdom Lambs

Matthew Michael Carnahan is a screenwriter and a gigantic butthole.

He wrote the movies The Kingdom and Lions for Lambs, both of which are shaping up to be bombs. Let me tell you why: I read an interview of his in Screenwriting magazine and later listened to the same interview on the Screenwriting magazine podcast. He comes across as a fine fellow all right, his in(s)ane politics notwithstanding. But really, in an interview, what else would one come across as?

What is telling about Carnahan is the predilection for preaching his (need I say liberal) politics when he should be telling a story and allowing his audience to draw its own conclusions? It seems that as a starting writer—with all of six screenplays under his belt, by any standard, he's a starting writer—he doesn't feel confident enough to put his work out there without shoving it down throats.

Here's the reason he's writing scripts that star Tom Cruise et al: his brother is Joe Carnahan, the pretty good director of Narc. Nepotism run wild.

The Kingdom is a political conclusion and a pretty anti-US one at that. In fact, he had to rewrite the end because the director and the studio knew it'd bomb worse than it came to do.

And now comes yet another political pill, Lions for Lambs, another bomb if you read the reviews. Hehe … well, old boy, instead of trying to force-feed us your political bullshit, why don't you concentrate on telling a good story?

A writer who imposes a theme on his idea, rather than finding the theme by understanding why he wants to write a particular story, may become preachy or didactic. Didactic screenplays sacrifice character and story to prove the theme correct. This results in propaganda, a story in which the characters are only mouthpieces for the author's message. Whether it's a complex motif or a simple idea, the theme should be deeply embedded in the action, woven into the subtext, not stated openly, unless you can do this naturally within the context of a scene. The best way to avoid didactic screenplays is to shun themes that sound like political slogans, personal mottoes, or life lectures. A writer attempts to persuade the audience, not indoctrinate it. Allow your audience a chance to think and consider—mostly, to feel. You're not trying to teach, you're trying to entertain, and when you preach to people, the only feeling you're likely to elicit is annoyance.

This passage from Screenplay: Writing the Picture by Russin and Downs should serve as a warning for all those liberal assholes who expect us to pay good money to go watch leftist political propaganda: fuck off with that.