*28-31 Greatidea-Split.Indd
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
TM The Feature Film Memoir and the making of by Kate McCallum Jarhead is an irreverent and true account of a war that was antiseptically packaged a decade ago and is laced with dark wit, hon- daptations of books are a major staple est inquisition and episodes that are surreal of the film industry. The art of adapt- and poignant, tragic and absurd. A ing a story from the more internalized Bill Broyles grew up in Texas, attended literary style of a novel to the external visual Rice University and Oxford University, language of film is a talent and skill not all worked in the civil rights movement, and screenwriters are able to master. Veteran finished out the 60s as a Marine infantry scribe William Broyles Jr. shares the process lieutenant in Vietnam. Before working full- behind bringing Marine Anthony Swofford’s time as a writer, he was editor-in-chief of gripping and visceral memoir, Jarhead, to Texas Monthly and Newsweek magazines. He the big screen. wrote the book Brothers in Arms and was Jake Gyllenhaal (The Day After Tomorrow, the co-creator of the television series China Moonlight Mile), Jamie Foxx (Ray, Collateral) Screenwriter William Broyles Jr. Beach, both of which drew upon his experi- and Peter Sarsgaard (Kinsey, Boys Don’t ences in Vietnam. Cry) star in Universal Pictures’ version of 100-pound rucksack on his back through Broyles wrote the original screenplay Swofford’s recollections of his disorient- Middle Eastern deserts with no cover from for Cast Away and co-authored five other ing firsthand experiences in Desert Storm. intolerable heat or from Iraqi soldiers, who screenplays, including the script for Apollo Jarhead is directed by Academy Award®- are always potentially over the next hori- 13 (which was nominated for an Academy winner Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road zon. Swoff and his fellow Marines sustain Award and won the WGA Screenplay to Perdition) and produced by Oscar®-win- themselves with sardonic humor and wicked Award), Unfaithful and The Polar Express. ner Douglas Wick (Gladiator) and Lucy comedy on blazing desert fields in a country Fisher (Memoirs of a Geisha), partners in they don’t understand, against an enemy they scr(i)pt: Whose “great idea” was it to make Red Wagon Entertainment. can’t see, for a cause they don’t fully fathom. this memoir a film, and how’d you get involved Jarhead (the self-imposed moniker of Foxx portrays Sgt. Sykes, a Marine lifer with the project? the Marines) follows “Swoff” (played by who heads up Swofford’s scout/sniper pla- William Broyles Jr.: I’d read Jarhead Gyllenhaal), a third-generation enlistee, toon, while Sarsgaard plays Swoff’s friend the minute it came out and was impressed from a sobering stint in boot camp to and mentor Troy, a die-hard member of with its honesty and the way it captured active duty sporting a sniper’s rifle and a STA—their elite Marine unit. the details of life as a Marine, and—most 28 s c r ( i ) p t scriptmag.com ( the great idea ) of all—by what a remarkable story it was. The Feature Film Memoir Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher had been talking with me for some time about doing a project together. Usually, I’d hem and the making of and haw, take a while to decide, and final- ly say no. But, when they called and said they had Jarhead and started in with the pitch, I just interrupted and said, “Hey, I’m in. Let’s do it.” scr(i)pt: So, did Red Wagon already have the option on the book, or did they go after it at that point? WB: They owned it. They’d already gotten Universal to roll the dice and pick it up. It was very real, right from the beginning. scr(i)pt: Did you spend a lot of research time PAGE 28: Peter Sarsgaard as Troy, a die-hard member of the elite STA Marine unit. ABOVE: Jamie Foxx with Anthony Swofford? as Sgt. Sykes and Jake Gyllenhaal as Marine Anthony “Swoff” Swofford in Jarhead, a film based upon WB: I did. I talked to Tony a lot. He Swofford’s memoirs of his experiences in Desert Storm. PHOTOS: Universal Studios. had wonderful material beyond the book, like the notebook he kept from sniper of movies, once Jarhead came out, Swoff was middle of the victory parade. He’s got on school, which had all this graffiti on the going to belong to the world. It would be his old camies and his medals and has cover, the kind of stuff only a 19-year-old Jake Gyllenhaal—which he decided wasn’t that combat vet’s 1,000-yard stare. Swoff in obsessed with violence and testing him- so bad. Of course, Jake’s quite amazing in voiceover says, “Every war’s different, every self would write. The kind of stuff when the film, the kind of actor who makes the war’s the same.” As a vet, a proud Marine, you’re older you like to forget you ever lines you write seem natural and right. that always gets to me—the idea of one thought. He had wonderful material from generation and another. I’ve got a son in the war, too, just the details of what they scr(i)pt: Your experiences in Vietnam must Iraq right now, there for the third time. So, did, how they passed the time, the kind of have had a huge impact on your writing this it’s kind of like three generations working: food they ate, and the music they listened film. Do you agree? Vietnam, Desert Storm and the war now. to. He’d kept all those details and stories WB: Sure. The shadow of Vietnam hangs They feed into each other. The trick is to stuffed away in the rucksack of his memory. over the whole movie. Swoff was con- show that on film, not talk about it. Just When he sat down to write, they all just ceived when his dad was on R and R from let the audience feel it and make their own spilled out, and there was a lot that didn’t Vietnam. Being the son of a Vietnam vet connections. make it into the book. I talked to other shaped his whole upbringing. One of the It’s like that Hemingway short story Big Marines, too, and did lots of reading and most disturbing scenes in the movie is when Two-Hearted River where the character has research, the way I always do. the guys find out they’re going to war and clearly just come back from World War I, The other thing Tony and I talked about watch Apocalypse Now to get ready. Most but it’s never mentioned and is such a pow- was one of the truths I’d learned doing people would think of Apocalypse as an anti- erful presence because of that. China Beach and Apollo 13. When you war movie; but to see these kids go crazy as That’s one of my key rules about screen- make a movie about real people, it’s always they watch it, to see them cheer and yell, writing, by the way: Shut up, take the words jarring when they see themselves portrayed it’s very powerful and very true. It all comes out, let the story and the images create their on the screen. I told Tony that there was from fear, really. They’re about to go off to own emotions. I had a long voiceover at the character called Swoff in the book, there war for real, and they armor themselves by the end. One day it just occurred to me, was him, and now there was going to be a watching a war movie. We did something of it would be so much better to take it out character on the screen with his name. That the same thing in Vietnam. We watched all completely, say the absolute minimum, and Swoff on the screen wasn’t going to be him. the World War II movies and pretended to get out of the audience’s way. Like the end- It was going to be a character in a movie, be John Wayne. ing of Cast Away with Tom Hanks at that played by an actor, and that he better get To me, one of the most profound crossroads in the Panhandle. I hate wrap- ready to let go of that whole image of him- moments in Jarhead is after the war when ping things up neatly. War’s not like that. self. Because, thanks to the magic alchemy the Vietnam vet gets on their bus, in the Neither’s life. (2005) NOVEMBER/DECEMBER s c r ( i ) p t 29 ( the great idea ) war. But even then as I was writing, the act about the war took on a three-act structure and took over the script. Then, when Sam Mendes read it, he immediately said, “The war’s the movie.” He just knew that right away. So I tossed out the first and last acts, and we figured out how to reduce them to a couple of minutes of very visual storytelling. It’s all trial and error. You do this, it doesn’t work; you do that. scr(i)pt: How many drafts did you have to do? WB: A lot. Always more than you expect. The key for me is to read each draft as if someone else wrote it.