Today’s script has a very real shot at becoming a future Oscar contender!
Genre: War
Premise: JULY 20, 1942: Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich becomes known around the world for writing an epic symphony during the deadly World War II siege of Leningrad.
About: This script finished fairly high on last year’s Black List and is, surprisingly, the only World War 2 script that made the esteemed list. While Daniel Persitz does not have any previous writing credits, he was a producer on the 2014 horror film, Ouija.
Writer: Daniel Persitz
Details: 117 pages
One of the early lessons I learned about screenwriting was that they will never ever run out of movies to make about World War 2. I thought they’d scraped the bottom of the barrel and that was 20 years ago. I was wrong. Hollywood will scrape the blood off the carcass of a dead World War 2 soldier if there’s even a SLIVER of a new movie concept in it.
At first glance, writing a symphony seems low stakes in the shadow of one of the most devastating wars ever. But let’s not forget, they made a World War 2 movie about a piano. A piano! A symphony has, like, what? 30 more instruments? Which, by the power of maths, means it must be 30 times better. Right?
Stop being such a film snob and agree with me.
The year is 1937 and famous Russian composer, Dmitri Shostakovich, has just finished his latest musical, Lady MacBeth. While Dmitri is the 1937 celebrity equivalent of Drake in Russia, the tide has been turning against Russian artists lately. Joseph Stalin, threatened by the new ideas that art contains, is quietly disappearing Russian artists across the land. During Lady MacBeth, he stomps out mid-performance, implying that it won’t be long before Dmitri disappears too.
Things only get worse as this new German rabble-rouser, a guy named Hitler, starts taking over Europe. Tensions grow because even though Stalin and Hitler make a deal to be friends, Hitler is becoming unpredictable. And then it happens. Hitler invades Russia, storming up north through the giant country.
At a certain point Dmitri, along with his wife, Nina, his mother, Sofia, his father and his two children, start getting worried. They’re safely tucked inside Leningrad at the moment. But Hitler’s forces relentlessly move north, getting closer and closer to the city. Nina freaks out, demanding that they leave. But it’s inconceivable to Dmitri that Leningrad could fall so he says, “let’s stay, it’ll be fine.” It’s a critical error, because soon, the city is surrounded. There’s no way out.
Dmitri passes the time by writing his seventh symphony, inspired by the atrocities of war – the bombing, the starvation, the hopelessness. Every day, through thick and thin, he keeps writing that symphony. Then, when the city is devastated and without hope, word travels about Dmitri’s determination, and he’s invited onto Leningrad radio. In one of the most powerful moments of the war, he tells the Russians to remain defiant. That the Germans can’t stop him from working. He’s still writing his symphony. They, too, should keep working, keep resisting.
His speech is so powerful that Stalin himself orders Dmitri to be rescued from Leningrad. He’s allowed to bring his wife and kids, but not his parents. Dmitri is then ordered to finish his symphony as soon as possible as Stalin believes it will inspire other countries, particularly America, to join the war. But Dmitri is more concerned with his parents. He asks, if he can deliver the symphony, can his parents be rescued? Stalin’s right-hand man says, “We’ll try.” That’s enough for Dmitri, who puts everything he’s got into finishing that darn symphony.
This was pretty freaking good.
I went in wondering why I was going to care about a man finishing a symphony. And while the plot itself never convinced me it was a necessity. From a character perspective, I liked Dmitri so much, that I wanted to see him finish.
I always try to figure out the exact reason (even the exact moment) why I like or dislike a hero. Because that’s usually the moment in a script that determines everything that follows. If you don’t like the hero, you’re probably not going to like the story. If you do, you probably are.
So it’s worth it, whenever you watch a movie that you like or read a script that you like, to figure out exactly where you started liking the character. For me, it was two-fold. When I heard that Soviet artists were being killed, I felt this immediate fear for Dmitri. He was vulnerable. For making music of all things. Audiences don’t like when people are unfairly attacked. So, right away, we feel sympathy for him.
And then Persitz got more specific. He had Stalin show up to Lady MacBeth and have him hate it. Now we really hate Stalin, cause he hates our guy’s music. So we want Dmitri to thrive so he can prove him wrong. But again, it’s that base setup of someone being unfairly threatened/attacked that ensured we would root for Dmitri.
But the script still had a tough mountain to climb. The story takes place over five years. That’s a long time in movies. Most movies do well with a short timeframe – under two weeks if possible. However, war movies are one of the few genres that do well with passing time because there’s an organic-ness to watching the toll of war play out over time.
And Persitz makes good use of the time. He makes sure that things keep getting worse for his hero. First, it’s bad enough in Leningrad that people start evacuating. Then, people start need ration cards. Then, the city starts getting bombed. Then, the city is surrounded, as the Germans try to starve the population out.
Just when that starts to feel repetitive, Persitz introduces the “radio interview” scene, which allows Dmitri and his family to get out of the city. And that gives the narrative new life, since we’re in a new place. This plotline is subsidized by Dmitri’s determination to save his parents (the stakes) and this newfound excitement around this defiant composer who’s writing a symphony while his city is being bombed. It’s inspiring stuff.
If I have a gripe, it’s that the symphony isn’t tied enough to the war. The writer makes all these inferences that the symphony is going to inspire the world. But I wasn’t ever sure what that meant, or if I even believed it. Granted, I don’t know what it was like living in 1941, or what the music scene was back then. But I find it hard to believe that all the kids are waiting by the radio for that new 1 and a half hour song with lots of old-timey instruments and no singer.
Still, the writer does an exceptional job of making us like and care about the hero. The circumstances surrounding the goal make everything feel big and important. Even with a sketchy connection to the war, I was tearing up when composers around the world played Dmitri’s music.
It really does have that juicy Oscar feel to it. More importantly, it’s a good script. I recommend checking it out!
Script link: Symphony of Survival
[ ] What the hell did I just read?
[ ] wasn’t for me
[ ] worth the read
[x] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: Beware “out of character” character introductions. Here’s a line early in the script. “He’s pulled aside by ISAAC GLIKMAN (25), his secretary and friend. A sophisticated intellectual who usually exudes warmth, at the moment Glikman fidgets with anxiety.” Notice that normally, Glikamn is sophisticated. That’s his true character. But we’re meeting him acting the exact opposite (“fidgets with anxiety”). The reason this is problematic is because readers put a ton of stock into how a character acts when they’re introduced. So if a character is a jerk, it doesn’t matter if you say in the description, “He’s normally nice.” Actions speak louder than words and right now, this guy is acting like a jerk, so that’s how we’re going to see him. For this reason, ALWAYS avoid out-of-character character introductions for your protagonists. And try your best to introduce every supporting character IN CHARACTER. If you absolutely positively can’t do that, then you can do what Persitz does here. But it should be your last option.
