Yeah, It's Almost Fourteen-Years-Old but Out of Sight Still Rocks

Bet you thought I was going to start with a shitty movie, right?  Sorry.  But I felt starting with a movie that’s actually really damn good would help illustrate what makes a movie work before turning to a movie that clunks along before slamming into an excrement wall and exploding on impact.

Why Out of Sight? Why not?

I mean it a good flick.  One not many people dislike.  Those I know who didn’t love it at first have tended to come around with repeat viewings.  Why?  It’s a movie that requires repeat viewings, pure and simple.  You don’t get everything the first time.  You don’t appreciate the cuts, the flashbacks, the different yet essentially perfect characters, the style, in the first viewing.  Instead, you feel let down.

What?  Let down?

Yep and here’s why: this is a subtle movie.  There’s no big shootouts.  There’s no big fight scenes.  There’s not a ton of violence.  And…it’s a love story.

Now if you went in expecting something like Pulp Fiction, you didn’t get it.  And much like Jackie Brown, people were disappointed (interesting that both are based on Elmore Leonard books and both came out close together and both earned the same initial reputation).  Until they watch it again with the benefit of time and reflection.  Once you separate this movie and JB, you realize, “Yeah, this isn’t PULP but it’s really fucking good.”

Let's dig in.

The Story and Plot

As discussed yesterday, there’s a difference between story and plot.  Jack Foley (George Clooney) is a bank robber who escapes from prison.  His goal on the outside: heist some uncut diamonds and retire.  Problem is he falls for a hot federal agent (Jennifer Lopez) who just happens to fall for him, too.  At the same time, she’s hunting him to put him back in the slammer. So the story is really about two people from opposite sides of the law who fall in love with each other but can’t be together.  

The plot?  All the stuff that happens that allows them to both fall in love and keep them apart, including the climactic heist.  The story isn’t the heist.  The heist is a MacGuffin.  The thing everyone’s after.  The story is Foley and Sisco getting the hots for each other and realizing it can’t happen for them in any normal way because of the lives they chose.

Yet at the same time, they would never have met the way they did if not for the lives they chose.  So in a way, it could have never been.  All they have are their few times together.  He will always run.  She will always chase.  Because that’s the only way it can be.  And that’s the way both want it.  The only other choice is being completely apart.  No dice.

The movie does a great job of milking this.  The two are only together three times throughout the film.  The trunk scene (where their attraction is established), the hotel scene (where their attraction is consummated), and the end (where they both accept their roles in life and how it’s going to be).

The rest of the time, they’re talking to each other on the phone, dreaming about each other, catching glimpses of each other across a room or in a photo in the paper.  They long to be together if only for a few minutes, and as a result, the audience wants to see them together.  We become more interested in their story than the heist, which is the way it’s supposed to be.   The movie is story driven vice plot driven.  Good stuff.

The Characters

The great thing about Elmore Leonard is you know you’re always going to get great characters.  

Jack Foley - the cool bank robber that doesn’t use a gun.  He talks people into giving him bank money (one of the best bank robbery scenes ever and not one shot fired followed by the worst getaway).  

Karen Sisco – the tough federal agent that kicks ass and takes names.  She’s a hunter.  She drinks bourbon neat.  She’ll shoot you in a heartbeat.

"But I'm also shy and sensitive when I need to be."

Buddy Bragg  (Ving Rhames) – Foley’s partner that feels guilty for every bad thing he does.  So much so he calls his sister and confesses to her every time he does something bad.  But he screwed up one time and confessed before the crime, which ends up landing him and Foley in jail.

Snoopy Miller (Don Cheadle) – the boxer with huge potential that has surrendered his talent to take dives and make money.  The boxer turned gangster who wants nothing but to make a reputation for himself.  Well that and those diamonds.

Richard Ripley (Albert Brooks) – the rich guy with the diamonds and a bad hair piece.

Glenn Michaels (Steve Zahn) - the bumbling criminal who always ends up in over his head.

Now these are the main characters.  There is a bunch more.  All unique and interesting and all have something to do.  None of them are just there to serve as plot movers.  There to just dump information.  They all add something, even if it’s something small, to the movie that makes it richer.

Take for example White Boy Bob.  White Boy Bob is nothing more than muscle working for Snoopy.  Easily forgettable in most movies.  But in this one, they develop his small character into something interesting and memorable.  I can tell you White Boy Bob is a fighter.  He’s strong.  He’s also a big damn klutz.  And that klutziness plays a part in the climax.

Take another example: Kenneth.  Kenneth is nothing more than muscle working for Snoopy.  Again, easily forgettable in most movies.  The kind of character that’s there and then either gets killed or rats out his boss.  But here, Kenneth is developed through two scenes.  We first see him and he’s wearing a big fireman jacket.  That stands out.  Makes him memorable right off the bat.  Then we learn why.  Because it helps keep blood off his clothes.  More memorable.  Next scene we learn he was also a boxer.  And he loves dogs.  But his dog just died.  He also doesn’t mind sexually assaulting women.  We learn this when he attempts to get a piece of Sisco.  Only Sisco whips his ass.  But it comes up again later during the heist and it ultimately leads to his downfall.

This movie not only has great characters, each character plays an important role in the overall story, even the small ones.  How many movies can you name that accomplish this? Very few, I bet.

Why am I talking about this so much?  Simple.  Each character is set up and each character pays off.

Structure

"Because 5 Acts is the only way to go...bitch."

This movie has a fantastic design.  Excellent use of flashbacks.  Great intercutting of two timelines over each other (the bar/love scene).  And all of it serves the overall structure.

So what’s the structure?

I argue it sticks to the Five Act one.  

Act One – Beginning through the prison escape.

Act Two – The trunk scene and action right after.

Act Three – Miami

Act Four – Detroit

Act Five – Heist and Resolution

Now within that five act structure are those awesome flashbacks and inter-cutting, etc.  But basically, that’s how the movie breaks down.  And it works great.

Look

Put simply, the look of Out of Sight is…out of sight.  Prison looks like prison.  Miami looks like Miami.  Detroit looks like Detroit.

What the hell does all that mean?

The colors, man.  The prison scenes have this cool washed out look in one location and a richer look at another.  Miami pops and screams MIAMI!  The buildings, the clothes, all saturated and vibrant.  Detroit yells INDUSTRIAL.  Cold.  Metallic.  Exactly what you imagine Detroit looking like.  Style, man.  It’s got a ton of style.

So the style give these settings character of their own.  They stand out.  They’re developed.  You know exactly where you’re at.  And, most important, they add to the overall story.  

 "You agree setting is just as important as character, don't you?"

Dialogue

Come on.  It’s Leonard.  You know the dialogue rocks.  No further discussion needed.

So, that’s what I think.  You can learn a hell of a lot from this movie.  How to create good memorable characters.  How to use setting to improve the overall story.  How to use plot to effectively tell a story.  How characters talk to each other.  And how to put them all together in a cohesive structure.

Or you could go watch a stupid Adam Sandler movie.

BUT, BUT, BUT….

I’m a writer and I didn’t say much at all about the trunk scene.  I mean, I have to say something about the trunk scene, right?

Look, it was a great way to put two characters in a place where they could talk, provide exposition without it feeling like exposition, and not bore the viewer to tears.  What else needs to be said?

Okay, it was awesome.  There, you happy?

 "Would I be dressed like this if I wasn't happy?"