Writing Subtext. Linda Seger
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it’s all over, right now, you act blasé about everything to do with your script. Your dreams seem much too big to share at this time, even with friends.
Subtext may motivate many of our normal activities. You might not know why you’re driven to sell a script, earn a college degree, buy a red sports car, or sign up for the Army to fight in a war. Of course, all of these actions can be motivated for good, solid, conscious reasons. But not always. If you’re obsessed with a particular effort, and things seem out of proportion in terms of how you are going about fulfilling a goal, subtext might explain your motivation. Perhaps you realize, after some consideration of the obsession, that it’s all about getting daddy’s approval, about making up for a deprived childhood, wanting the high school kids to know you made it after all, or wanting to get your name in the newspaper because when you were ten you won second place in the community talent show and there was a big fuss made about you and you had your name in the newspaper and everyone talked nicely about you. That experience motivated your desire for approval all your life – and, besides, all along, you felt you should have come in first.
Whatever the reason, you can sense there’s something else going on that bothers you and pushes at you and doesn’t let up. And if you put this subtext into your character, the audience will feel it too.
SUBTEXT THROUGH IMPLIED SEXUALITY
Sometimes a film doesn’t want to make explicit statements about the sexuality of its characters, especially if they partake in what might be considered abnormal behavior. In Lolita (1962), Humbert Humbert is clearly interested in the adolescent Lolita, although he pretends to be in love with her mother. Innuendos signal his interest, including his concern that Lolita might be going out too much, which is really a concern he’ll have to spend too much time with the clinging, seductive mother while waiting for Lolita to come home.
If they are gay, depending on the context, characters may experience struggles accepting their sexuality. Brokeback Mountain (2005), which begins its story in 1963, gives a fairly clear portrayal of two gay men surviving in the face of society’s attitudes toward homosexuality by acting straight. The night after the two men first make love, Ennis states, “I’m not gay,” which is belied by his emotions and actions.
Sometimes the relationship between two people is deliberately left ambiguous, and the subtext merely implies a relationship, or strongly suggests one (Women in Love [1969], Troy [2004], Brideshead Revisited [2008]).
In Bonnie and Clyde (1967, by David Newman and Robert Benton), the sexual subtext differs between the script and the film, partly because of the casting. In the script, Clyde is in his early 20s. Bonnie is also very young, but sexually much more aggressive. In spite of her willingness (and in spite of the fact they sleep in the same bed), their relationship isn’t consummated. Often C. W. is sleeping in the same room, or Clyde doesn’t seem interested in being alone, or he shifts the focus as soon as they start making out. We might ask, “What is Clyde’s problem? Is this a moral problem?” which would seem odd, considering that he shoots guns with lots of bullets, and doesn’t seem to have a problem crossing other moral boundaries. Toward the end of the script, Bonnie reads him her poem about “Bonnie and Clyde,” which tells their story and characterizes him as a notorious criminal. This recognition galvanizes a new image of him, as Clyde realizes he has “made it” and achieved his goals.
The description in the script clarifies the subtext we have probably sensed throughout: “It is all starting to come out now – his realization that he has made it, that he is the stuff of legend, that he is an important figure!”
No hero is complete without the conquest of the damsel, so he finally makes love to Bonnie. In the script, after they make love, Clyde reacts, clearly pleased with himself:
CLYDE
(chuckling, apparently quite pleased.) Damn!… damn… damn!
As Clyde looks at Bonnie for some kind of approval, the stage directions mention his “underlying anxiety,” which is beginning to surface.
CLYDE
Hey, listen, Bonnie, how do you feel?…
BONNIE
Fine.
CLYDE
I mean you feel like you’re s’posed to feel after you’ve uh…
His hesitance implies his unsurety. He desperately wants her approval.
Well, that’s good, ain’t it. Reason I ask Is, I uh… Well, I figger it’s a good idea to ask. I mean how else do I tell if I did it the way…
BONNIE
… Hey. You done just perfect.
CLYDE
I did, didn’t I? I mean I did, I really did. I did it, I did, I mean this as my first time and it was just like rollin’ off a log. When it comes right down to it, it was easy, I mean I didn’t even have to try.
So, now the subtext became clear: Clyde was unsure and afraid that he wouldn’t be able to do it right for Bonnie. Clyde, in the script, is a virgin.
The film shifts this subtext. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway look older than early 20s, so there seem to be other reasons for the lack of sexual activity between them. It is clear throughout the script that Bonnie is frustrated by Clyde’s lack of sexual response. After he robs the grocery store, their first robbery together, they hole up in a house out of town. Bonnie sleeps inside and Clyde sleeps out by the car. Immediately, we might wonder why. Over and over again, Clyde will start making out with Bonnie, and then stop.
At various times in the film, Clyde makes comments about his sexuality. Shortly after they meet, as they start to make out and it’s clear that Bonnie is eager and willing, Clyde tells her:
CLYDE
I ain’t much of a lover boy… Ain’t nothing wrong with me, I don’t like boys…
Later, he tells her:
CLYDE
If all you want is a stud service you get on back to West Dallas and you stay there the rest of your life…. You could find a lover boy on every damn corner in town.
Out of Bonnie’s frustration, she accuses him:
BONNIE
Your advertising is just dandy. Folks never guess you don’t have a thing to sell.
Bonnie wants to be alone with Clyde, but over and over again, he makes sure they aren’t. C. W. is around and so is Buck, his brother. Bonnie tells him:
BONNIE
Always somebody in the next room… Don’t you just want to be alone with me?
CLYDE
I always feel like we’re alone.
BONNIE
Do you, baby?
Then Clyde changes the subject:
CLYDE
I’m hungry.
Later, Bonnie tells him outright:
BONNIE
The only special thing about you is your peculiar ideas about love-making which is no lovemaking at all!
Although ambiguity surrounds Clyde in the film version, several viewers I spoke to reached the conclusion that he is impotent until Bonnie writes the “Bonnie and Clyde” poem. Then he feels like he’s finally somebody.
CLYDE
You told my story. One time I told you I was gonna make you somebody, that’s what you done for me!
After they make love, they seem to have finally come together as a couple in love. Clyde expresses tenderness and Bonnie shows obvious satisfaction. He still expresses uncertainty, but the motivation for this sexual ambiguity is not because it was his first time, as in the script:
CLYDE
Hey,