Post
based on the script ‘Hanna’ by Seth Lochhead.
Today I’ll be starting a new feature: In a first
post I will read a script and analysis just as usual, but I’ll follow that up
by a second post comparing the script to the final film. I’ll be writing about the
structure (using Blake Synder's Beat Sheet) and discuss the changes made to the story
The Verdict:
I adore the clear and precise language, but the
plot falls very flat, because the characters have no motivation or depth at all.
What’s it about:
A teenage girl, trained by her father to be the
perfect killing machine, has to travel across Europe
in order to make it home again.
First Image:
FADE IN:
EXT. FOREST - SWEDEN -- DAY
[...]
Hanna (14) glides through the
trees, a bow strapped to her shoulders. Her camouflage causes her to fade in
and out of the background. She floats through the trees as if she were a ghost.
[...]
Set-Up:
After the introduction to Hanna, the script cuts
to Marissa, a stone cold secret service agent, who picks up a signal in Sweden and
sends some men to capture Eric and Hanna. The next few scenes shows the “normal
life” of Hanna: training, hunting, fighting until ---
Catalyst:
-- O'Reilly arrives at their cabin, capturing
Eric and Hanna. Both escape from their confinement, but were hold in separate prisons.
Read Act Two and Three after the break:
Read Act Two and Three after the break:
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Break into Two:
Hanna finds herself in Turkey, fleeing
from the guards, that are close behind her, with the help of a French family
picking her up in the middle of the desert. They bring her to the hotel, they
are staying at and there Hanna lives the life, she never had.
B-Story (+Debate, perhaps?):
Hanna gets comfortable. She befriends the couple,
which owns the hotel and the French girl in her age. The couple even offers
Hanna to stay with them, but, alas, that would be a different kind of movie. In
order to give her reason NOT to stay, a mean loan shark appears, threatens the
hotel owners and is killed by Hanna. Hanna is dropped off at the train station
before Marissa brutally kills the hotel owner and his pregnant wife. In the
meantime returned Eric returned to the cabin in the woods, waiting for Hanna.
Midpoint:
Hanna arrives in Istanbul and finds the embassy, which she is
supposed to go to. The Ambassador helps her getting a passport and she takes
the next bus to Sofia.
Bad Guys Close In:
At the next station of her travel, Hanna is not
able to afford the bus fare. Suddenly two of Marissa’s agents jump in and pay
for her, as they were ordered to bring Hanna back to Sweden.
All Is Lost / Dark Night of
the Soul:
Hanna arrives at the cabin, but her father,
fatally wounded, orders her to turn herself in. Hanna doesn’t understand, but
has no more time as Eric burns down the cabin with him still in it.
Break Into Three:
Hanna is captured and brought to Marissa. In the
van the little girl can overpower her guards and wreak havoc on the whole
office, until –
Finale:
-- Marissa and Hanna finally confront each
other. In one last deadly fight, Hanna can kill her mother Marissa.
Final Image:
Hanna visits the French girl, now a free and normal
teenage girl:
Hanna and Thea stare at each other for a long moment. Rain
begins to fall.
All is right in the world and it’s going to be a nice
day.
The End
What did work?
Lochhead has a great style of writing; he
conjures up precise images and can fill them with emotions. I was really
shocked about the horrible death of the pregnant woman and his other flashes of
intense violence.
What didn’t I like?
My biggest complain about ‘Hanna’ would be the
lacking motivation for the main character. Hanna gets captured at each Act
Break, not acting on her own will. The main problem might be that she has no
goal. Something should have been stated at the beginning. As such she just
reacts to the things Marissa and her men do.
The whole back-story was left fuzzy and did not deliver
enough empathy with the characters, nor gave us any explanation for the actions
of Marissa. ‘So why should Hanna kill Marissa’, I asked myself throughout the
script. On the last page, Hanna explains herself:
HANNA
My father told me about her [Marissa, her mother]. He
would tell me stories about her. I decided I didn’t like her.
The next post, coming up in a few days, will compare the script to the
final movie and I am surprised how different both are.
So, see you next time!
- Tristan
No comments:
Post a Comment