Over the weekend I saw a teeny, tiny low-budget film called Avatar. Oh, you’ve heard of it? Well, it was an interesting movie and there’s lots to say about it, some good (e.g. the visuals were stunning) and some bad (e.g. it’s yet another tale of the “noble savage”). But one of the things that stood out to me the most was the storytelling, especially in terms of the main character’s motivation.
The first thing you’re told when you start writing fiction is that you need to figure out what your character wants. Often, that can sound too simplistic. How can a character only want one thing? It’s important to remember that the character might have many desires, but one should be stronger than the others. In Avatar, for example, the main character, Jake, has one main goal driving him: he wants to regain the use of his legs.
Jake’s desire might be simple, but what it motivates him to do becomes increasingly complex. Eventually that desire shifts and changes as the character also changes, but the desire to walk again is still the main thing motivating him for a big chunk of the story. In that way his simple motivation helps propel the story forward; he agrees to be part of the Avatar program to earn money to fix his spine, and he agrees to essentially spy for the army in order to get his operation even sooner.
Then there is the very fact of Jake becoming an Avatar. Who can benefit the most from a program that gives humans other bodies to inhabit? A human whose own body has been damaged. This is why, though Jake doesn’t have the training of the other Avatar program participants, he takes to it so enthusiastically; for those short stretches of time, his Avatar body gives him a chance to feel whole again.
This is where I thought the story was rather brilliant. You take a character whose greatest desire is to walk again and you give him a chance to do so, albeit in another body. The character gets exactly what he wants, but at what cost? What is he willing to do to keep his new-found freedom? How will his experiences in the story affect his driving motivation?
Say what you will about James Cameron, but he knows how to tell a story. And while telling that story on-screen might involve huge amounts of money, the foundation of the story is based on something as simple as the character’s main goal.
Edited to add: Did you know that HarperCollins published a companion book for Avatar? It’s essentially a faux history of Pandora. How…interesting.
- Categories: A Closer Look, Craft, Writing Rants
I think this is the obvious advantage movies have over books—the ability to visually show you what a character wants and his struggle with it. It gives it to you in pictures. You don’t have to envision anything on your own. Personally, I think I’d rather let my imagination create those ‘pictures’, but when film gets it right, it’s breathtaking. I’m thinking of the expression on Orson Wells face at the very end of The Third Man. Or Garbo at the end of Queen Christina. I’m not sure if written word could capture the volumes the actor and the screen shows us.
Andrea, I think you’re absolutely right that film can convey things like desires in a flash, whereas writers really have to work at it. If a writer comes right out and says, “My character wants this,” then we’d probably call that bad writing.
Still, I think there’s something to be learned from the way some films convey their characters’ motivations in a simple way. I think sometimes writers (myself included!) can complicate our stories so much that we lose sight of what’s most important to our characters.
I also think it’s good that he’s military to begin with, so it’s almost natural for him to fall into that role, thus not detracting from his heroic-ness. (is that a word? well, it’s 8am here so it’s a word for me.)
And wasn’t it beautiful??
Hi Martha! I think you’re right that having Jake be a marine made his role more believable since he was already used to following orders. It also made his choices later on in the movie even more interesting.
And yes, it was very pretty. I just loved the scenes when all the plants were lit up! Plus I could actually follow the action scenes without having a seizure, which was a nice change.