An excerpt from my script review for Blood Father which will be available 09/12/16:
3.) Quality of Characters
Characters don’t always have to be good, or even completely likeable, but we need people to cheer for.
This script had a hard time with that.
Weak Political Points of View
Lydia – Young and liberal.
Link – Old, stereotypical redneck.
It’s an election year, so most of us are going to identify with one category or the other, but these two main characters represented the stereotypes that BOTH SIDES hate.
Part of me thinks we’re meant to agree with Lydia, who argues for noble causes.
The problem?
She comes off more as a bitchy know it all, constantly lecturing her father about saving trees or how zero white people pick fruit.
Want to know what the “elitist” label was based on referring to liberals? This kind of talk.
If you’re going into an argument with a condescending attitude, you’ve already lost, regardless of the validity of the points presented.
Same with Link.
He was one step short of today’s stereotype by not wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat in a sarcastic Facebook post.
Link’s a dumb redneck who likes motorcycles and Nazis…but was he?
Lydia consistently calls him a Nazi, and his old boss certainly shows affection for them, but does being a Hells Angel naturally make one a white supremacist?
I’m honestly not sure, being that all my “MC” knowledge comes from Sons of Anarchy, but it felt like these characters were formed more around assumptions than taking the time to research who they may be.
Aside from that, the script seems to have a very liberal frame of mind.
Look at the opening scene, we see Lydia unable to buy cigarettes without an ID, but is allowed to purchase 16 boxes of 9mm ammo.
Wow, that’s crazy! Fucking America, am I right?
Oh wait, looking into it, she’d need to be 21 to by that, and if someone cards her for tobacco, chances are they’ll do the same thing for ammunition.
And then arguing about sitting in a tree in Oregon. Sure it’s a nice thought, but saving a tree doesn’t make you righteous.
Or speaking Spanish in the Southwest. That’s not noble either, just a wise second language to have.
Oh, and pretty sure some white person somewhere in the history of the US has picked fruit for money.
My point here is don’t put the cart before the horse.
We need well thought out and developed characters in a script BEFORE a political agenda.
In Blood Father, both main characters got tiresome and annoying real fast.
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