Running On Empty

Study Guide Brendan Maher

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Running On Empty Introduction including Eugene O’Neill’s A Long dir. /USA/111mins/1988 A deliberate act, to disrupt the work Day’s Journey Into Night and Arthur of a napalm laboratory, has far Miller’s A View from A Bridge (both Cast reaching consequences for student 1962). He has become known a Christine Lahti Annie Pope/ radicals Arthur and Annie Pope. A strong director on projects of social Cynthia Manfield janitor is injured in the attack and the significance such as (1973) River Phoenix Danny Pope/ pair find themselves on the FBI’s which looked at corruption in the Michael Manfield Most Wanted List. In order to protect American police force, Network Judd Hirsch Arthur Pope/ their two-year -old son, they go (1976), a film which satirised the Paul Manfield underground, taking on new names world of television and the desperate Jonas Abryz Harry Pope/ and new identities. They move from search for ratings and Stephen Manfield town to town, to keep a step ahead of (1982) in which a struggling lawyer Martha Plimpton Lorna Phillips the authorities. pushes a malpractice case for his Ed Crowley Mr Phillips Running on Empty opens 15 own economic benefit. L.M. Kit Carson Gus Winant years later. The Popes are still on the Lumet was given and Honorary Steven Hill Donald Patterson run and their son, Danny is now a Oscar in 2005 for his "brilliant Augusta Dabney Abigail Patterson teenager. He has a brother, 10 year- services to screenwriters, performers David Margulies Dr Jonah Reiff old Harry. ‘Normal’ family life has and the art of the motion picture." been sacrificed for a political cause, Production that has led nowhere. Now Danny First Look Costume Designer Anna Hill Johnstone must make a choice, whether to Before you see a film you will most Production Design Philip Rosenberg follow his talent for music and go to likely see the poster for the film and Art Director Robert Guerra college or have that opportunity have some pieces of information Casting Todd M. Thaler curtailed by the need to keep the about the film. Foley artist Marko A. Costanzo family together. The title of the film Running on Sound re-recording mixer Director Sidney Lumet said Empty is a phrase taken from the Tom Fleischman Running on Empty was a hard film to automobile industry which suggests Sound mixer James J Sabat classify: ‘It’s about the consequences that a car is operating on a very low Original Music Tony Mottola of our actions and the dynamics of level of petrol. Editor Andrew Mondshein what makes a family.’ Cinematographer Gerry Fisher The story however deals with a Screenplay Naomi Foner simpler theme; an event that happens Producer Griffin Dunne, Amy Robinson in all families - the moment or Executive Producers realisation that a child is now an adult Naomi Foner, Burtt Harris and must be allowed to make their Director Sidney Lumet own decisions. Production Companies Double Play, Lorimar Film Director Entertainment Sidney Lumet’s pedigree made him the perfect choice as director of Running on Empty. Born in 1924, Lumet was a child actor on Broadway, fought in World war II and worked in television and theatre upon returning. In 1957 he made his directorial debut with 12 Angry Men which was nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award. Lumet brought to the screen a number of well known theatrical works

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From the information you have, what back and cycles to pick up his 10 year- recounts their story, suggesting they do you think this could mean in old brother Harry from a run-down are armed and dangerous. relation to the story? house. They wait on the road for their Arthur goes to the local library Look at the poster for the film. It’s parents Arthur and Annie, who pick and looks up the obituaries. He finds designed using a torn photograph of a them up in a van. Danny tells his the name Paul Manfield and takes this family, with the phrase ‘Wanted by the parents about the car, saying the men identity. The family now take on the FBI’ stamped on it. What does the use inside were ‘Feds’ (FBI agents). name Manfield and change their of photograph and the phrase together The family move. In a motel, christian names accordingly. In the city, suggest to you? Harry finds a newspaper which Arthur swaps vans through a political recounts the story of his parents: friend. She tells him that his mother Synopsis They are fugitives because fifteen died, three weeks previously. Later, At a baseball game, 17 year-old Danny years ago, as radical students, they Arthur tells Annie that his family now Pope strikes out. Cycling home were involved in the bombing of a consists of her and the boys. afterwards, he becomes aware of a chemical factory which made napalm. Danny begins a new school and black car following, with two men in The janitor was badly injured in the shows his skills at the piano to his sunglasses watching him. He doubles attack. The television news also new teacher. He goes to the teachers

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home to play on a Steinway and meets love with Lorna, Danny explains his linked to the robbery. They decide to Lorna, his teacher’s daughter. family story to her. leave instantly. Arthur and Annie pick At school, Lorna invites Danny Danny decides to take an up the boys. Danny delays saying good- to a recital at their house. Danny audition at Julliard, a College of Music bye to Lorna. Arthur, Annie and Harry wants to go but argues with his father in New York. He performs well and is wait for him. On the radio, they hear who regards the event as ‘bourgeois’. accepted. But the school requires his that Gus has been killed by police in a Danny goes anyway and meets Lorna. full academic record (this is shoot-out. This means that some of Annie has a job as a unavailable due to the series of name the pressure is off them. Arthur tells receptionist at a Doctors office. She changes he has had in his life). Annie Danny that he can go to College. The is visited by Gus, an underground is told by the teacher that Danny has three drive off leaving Danny alone with figure from their past. They go home been accepted for College. She his future before him. and talk about the past. Arthur is realises that Danny wishes to leave. suspicious of Gus, who is planning to She has an emotional reunion with Second Look rob a bank. He leaves the house. Gus her father. He agrees to take care of You’ve now seen the actual film. Any and Annie talk, both attracted to each Danny while he attends College. Annie preconceived expectations you would other. Annie asks him to go, telling arranges through a contact to have have had have now been clarified by him that the revolution is over. Arthur false records made for Danny. this viewing. arrives home drunk. Arthur doesn’t agree with At Annie’s birthday, Lorna Danny’s plans and decides that the What did you think of the film? arrives and offers a present. It’s shell family should move on. He sets a date. What is the overriding theme of the film? necklace that Danny had found on the Lorna is heartbroken. This date comes Does the film centre on any one beach. The party breaks up in a early when they find out that Gus has character or is it the story of dance. A few days later, after making robbed the bank and they may be a family?

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Do you regard the family as criminals Radicalism in the 1960’s as the Government does? Following the Second World War (1939-1945) the return of a large number of What do you think of the parents males to their home countries and a strengthening economy triggered a ‘Baby Arthur and Annie in the story. Are they boom’ - a large increase in the numbers of children born in the late 1940’s and wise, foolish. Should they have early 1950’s This phenomena happened across America, Europe and Asia. This handed themselves in? generation came of age in the 1960’s, which meant that a substantial Family Relationships/ proportion of the population were young people. This fact, linking in with a Authority number of social and political causes and a fundamental cultural change set One of the secondary themes of the this younger generation in opposition to their parents and figures of authority. film is the notion of authority and how In America, the election of President John F. Kennedy in 1960 in the power is wielded within both society and early Sixties had suggested an era of hope, however this was dashed by his the family. Weber in defining authority: subsequent assassination in 1963 and that of his brother Robert in 1968. states it ‘as power which is recognised The eventual collapse of the Johnson administration that followed JFK and the as legitimate and justified by both the Nixon presidency which ended in resignation following the Watergate scandal powerful and the powerless.’ in 1974 did little to stabilise matters There are three subdivisions: The nation became embroiled in bitter disputes. Civil rights for the African American community, with Martin Luther King as the leader of the non- 1) Traditional authority: which simply derives from long-established violent movement for change, became a major issue. As the decade went on, habits and social structures. The the non-violent movement was splintered into radical offshoots such as the right of hereditary monarchs to Black Muslims and the militant Black Panther Party. rule furnishes an obvious example. The rise in opposition to the Vietnam War, and resistance to 2) Charismatic authority: a political conscription (‘the draft’) culminated in a massive protest in 1969. The antiwar or religious figure creates or movement was initially based on the older 1950s ‘Peace movement’ captures the mood of a society controlled by the Communist Party USA, but by the mid '60s this centred on and becomes a figurehead for the growing young population in university campuses. change. Authority is offered to this The apparent slowness of change caused some people to pursue person by their followers. radical methods to achieve change in a swifter manner. In ‘Running on Empty’ 3) Legal-rational authority: depends - Arthur and Annie Pope are such people. Their deliberate action of bombing a for its legitimacy on formal rules, chemical factory shows that they had pursued radical means to effect change. usually written down, and often very complex. In the social sphere, the allied increase in use of recreational drugs, a breakdown in what was considered conventional sexual morality and the cultural The legal-rational idea of Authority is change in the arts, especially music compounded the gap between generations. utilised by modern societies. These rules are agreed upon by the people Find out what you can about the following people or events: in these societies through the judicial 1) The Civil Rights Movement system and governmental structures 2) The Black Panther Party and are initially outlined in a 3) The American New Left constitution. In Running on Empty 4) Kent State University Shootings Arthur and Annie find that their belief system is at odds with this Authority Biological connection, tradition, habit, for adulthood. and they believe that this authority formalised laws and an underlying Identify the relationships within the has become corrupted e.g. their need for survival, all encourage us film both in the state/individual sense Government through it’s army is when we are children to accept the and within the family structures. napalming villages in Vietnam. authority of our parents or guardians. Within these relationships, can you Authority in the family situation is a However, as teenagers, we begin to assess an underlying power struggle mix of traditional and legal rational. challenge this authority, in preparation and the stage it is at?

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Fitting In The film also avoids dealing sitting around the table that it cannot The idea of peer pressure is often with the political issues mentioned. hold them in view as a group. If discussed in relation to teenagers. Producer Griffin Dunne says: ‘We characters get up from the table and When young people are thought to be didn’t set out to make a movie about: move, they seem about to collide with engaging in antisocial activity, this “was it all worth it or did we fight in each other or the furniture. The small term is often used to explain away a vain?” and we aren’t gong to be able dining room looks unnaturally shallow. group compliance with that activity, to answer those questions or resolve Our vision of a character may be which is based on the individuals fear any of the anger that people have clumsily obscured by another of being excluded. Running on Empty about that time. Running on Empty is character, or by some miscellaneous gives this issue an interesting twist. about the consequences of that party ornament; characters at the Danny and his family must fit in in decade set within a family.’ periphery of Lumet's frame are in order to survive. They must not bring danger of slipping out of the frame attention to themselves or else they Contrast the style of the film with entirely. Nothing appears balanced. will be noted as being different. other films dealing a similar theme. […] There is certainly a sense of Danny must embrace school norms Look specifically at Enemy of the inauthenticity to be found in the film, and not stand out. This is very State (dir. Tony Scott/1998) but whether this is due to Lumet’s evident in the scene where he attends ineptness as a director is subject to his first class in his new school. Style: Cinematography debate. Nothing in the Pope However, Danny’s difficulty is that his Reviewer Karl Rackwitz notes that: ‘the household is real. Everything can be talent makes him stand out. style of the film is not as dark as some cast off at any moment.’ Naomi Foner, the screenwriter of the work Lumet has made with of Running on Empty says: ‘the way cinematographer Do you think this is a correct you make yourself inconspicuous is by (, The Verdict). In assessment of this scene? being as ordinary as possible. It was Running on Empty, the photography by Is this idea of inauthenticity very important to have them (the Gerry Fisher (who has an especially suggested by the filmmakers in any family) living on the edge of middle- good eye for the poetry of the night) other scenes? class society. That way they were not seems quite natural at first sight, but it conspicuous for either being very is also characterised by a subtle Conclusion wealthy ot terribly poor.’ employment of unusual camera Running on Empty is presented as a perspectives and framing. This stylistic family drama against the backdrop of Look for examples for ways the Popes conception reflects the fact that the a political event which took place in try to make themselves fit in. Popes try to live a relatively “normal” the past. This event has kept the Contrast these with the things they life, which is made very difficult by Pope Family’s life in a constant must still do covertly in order to their situation, on the other hand.’ turmoil for fifteen years. The survive. emergence of their son into adulthood Style: Framing the Scene means that they have to reassess Style Jay Boyer in his book ‘Sidney Lumet’ their family structure. Screenwriter The style of the film is naturalistic. observes: ‘…While one might argue Naomi Foner points out that the film The emphasis of the story is on the the camera placements lend an is: ‘the story of what happens to interpersonal relations. Lumet does inauthentic quality to what we see, every family when parents have to let not develop any overt action set- such inauthenticity underscores a their child go. Parenting is the only pieces because the drama of the film central concern of the film. Consider love story that to end successfully, is held within the Danny and the the birthday party. The camera seems means that the participants must family’s dilemma. to be so close to the characters ultimately leave each other.’

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