Dilemma

Unknown Screenwriter

Unknown Screenwriter

I just thought I would share this with anyone interested...

In my quest to reverse engineer my favorite films to see what makes them tick, I recently stumbled upon DILEMMA.

I was actually surprised to find out and realize that I didn't exactly know what DILEMMA means... Here's the definition as pulled from Dictionary.com:

di·lem·ma n.

1. A situation that requires a choice between options that are or seem equally unfavorable or mutually exclusive.
2. Usage Problem. A problem that seems to defy a satisfactory solution.
3. Logic. An argument that presents two alternatives, each of which has the same consequence.

I've really never thought of DILEMMA before... Especially when working with my main characters in my screenplays...

To me, a dilemma wasn't too much of a big deal... Just a choice of whether to do THIS or whether to do THAT.

I am now beginning to realize that the main character's dilemma is often what separates mediocre films from outstanding films... The more intense the main character's dilemma, the better the film.

From watching quite a few films in the last several days and mapping out DILEMMA, I am now fairly certain that most screenplays could be drastically improved by making the Protagonist's DILEMMA enormous...

So out of watching these films, I can easily see that DILEMMA is now defined as a DAMNED IF YOU DO -- DAMNED IF YOU DON'T CHOICE.

Or, a situation that you find yourself in where no GOOD CHOICES exist to get you out of the dilemma. Normally, you only have 2 choices and they both suck.

Take for instance, THE FIRM with Tom Cruise... Great dilemma in that story. His character, Mitch has quite a dilemma... Does he stay with the firm and continue to represent mafiosos or does he become a witness for the FBI and lose his license to practice law?

Both choices SUCK.

Now to take this even further...

I'm also noticing that the better films will have the Protagonist come up with their very own 3rd solution to their DILEMMA just as Tom Cruise did in THE FIRM. Remember, he didn't pick either of the 2 obvious crappy choices and instead, created a separate 3rd choice and got out of the dilemma.

Of course the Protagonist doesn't have to come up with a 3rd alternative to get out of his or her dilemma... He or she can certainly pick one of the 2 crappy choices and let the chips fall where they may...

Take for instance, Ethan Hawke's character, Jake in TRAINING DAY. Quite a DILEMMA he has... Does he become a bad cop on the take and go against all his morals or does he turn in Denzel Washington's character, Alonzo and become a rat cop? Huge dilemma and he chooses to turn in Alonzo.

Most recently, I watched DERAILED with Clive Owen and Jennifer Anniston... Not a bad film but not one I would want to own but I noticed in that film that Owen's character's DILEMMA is not nearly as strong or enormous as either of the character's dilemmas in THE FIRM or TRAINING DAY and I think the film truly suffers from this...

So from what I am able to see from over 25 films so far, DILEMMA can be (it's definitely NOT the rule) the element that makes your story, screenplay, and hopefully, FILM break out from the rest of the pack... Set up the dilemma of your Protagonist right from the beginning... Probably all the way through the 1st Act assuming you use basic 3 Act Structure... It also works for my 4 Act Structure.

Upon Act 2 (for 3 Act Structure and Acts 2 and 3 for my 4 Act Structure), it's time to keep PUSHING the Protagonist's DILEMMA back into his or her face every chance you get... Keep it escalating. He or she will run away from making a choice but you, the screenwriter, must make the Protagonist keep facing the dilemma and pushing it until it reaches the BOILING POINT.

For 3 Act Structure, that means by Act 3, your Protagonist must now make a decision from the 2 crappy choices or in fact create a 3rd alternative choice. With my 4 Act Structure, this happens at the beginning of the 4th Act.

In other words, no more running from the dilemma. Your hero must now CHOOSE.

If the dilemma you put your hero in is HUGE enough, you should have a very interesting story... And, it doesn't have to be physical... It can certainly be character driven...

Hope this helps with your screenplays...

filmy
 
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That's great, Filmy. I'll see if I can apply the theory to my script. It really clears some of the problems I was having- I realized although all the dialogue was alright and the plot alright, the main character wasn't embelishing a CHOICE enough...

It reminds me, as many things do, of Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan.... The Kobiashi Maru test. A no-win scenerio, to which Captain James T. Kirk outwits by creating his own solution- rigging the Kobiahi Maru test so that he COULD win. I think just the WAY the character goes about facing thier dilemma is one of the most important factors, and that's where the story come from.
 
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When you say to set up the dilemma in the first act, do you mean through foreshadowing?

For instance:

I watched Home Alone last night, so I will use it as my example. When Kevin realizes that men are trying to break into his house, he turns all the lights on, runs upstairs, and hides under his parents bed. It's at this point that his DILEMMA is created - does he fight back even though he is afraid of a lot of things OR does he go to the authorities and ruin his little solidarity party?

Before this, the DILEMMA (in my mind) is only set up through a few instances of foreshadowing since Kevin has no idea of the Wet Bandits' intentions. 1. We see that he feels tiny and insignificant in the opening scene (he can't pack a suitcase alone, his family looks down on him as a nuiscance). 2. We see that he has irrational fears as all kids do (he is afraid of the old man from next door, he thinks the stove in the basement is a monster). 3. We see that he relishes being alone (the classic scene - his romp through the house after he realizes that he "made [his] parents disappear").

All this is done to set up his DILEMMA, no?

I think I've answered my own question, but I thought I'd share the example with the members.

Poke
 
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Setting up DILEMMA...

Poke said:
When you say to set up the dilemma in the first act, do you mean through foreshadowing?

For instance:

I watched Home Alone last night, so I will use it as my example. When Kevin realizes that men are trying to break into his house, he turns all the lights on, runs upstairs, and hides under his parents bed. It's at this point that his DILEMMA is created - does he fight back even though he is afraid of a lot of things OR does he go to the authorities and ruin his little solidarity party?

Before this, the DILEMMA (in my mind) is only set up through a few instances of foreshadowing since Kevin has no idea of the Wet Bandits' intentions. 1. We see that he feels tiny and insignificant in the opening scene (he can't pack a suitcase alone, his family looks down on him as a nuiscance). 2. We see that he has irrational fears as all kids do (he is afraid of the old man from next door, he thinks the stove in the basement is a monster). 3. We see that he relishes being alone (the classic scene - his romp through the house after he realizes that he "made [his] parents disappear").

All this is done to set up his DILEMMA, no?

I think I've answered my own question, but I thought I'd share the example with the members.

Poke
Click to expand...
I'd be lying if I said it was to totally set up DILEMMA... Much of it is but a lot of it is to set up character, central question of the film, etc...

Not all films have a dilemma... A LOT of films have terrible dilemmas... Or dilemmas that are not ENORMOUS. What I'm saying is that many of the better films give the Protagonist an ENORMOUS dilemma. At least that's my observation thus far...

If worked correctly, the dilemma can totally drive the story through to the end and this, is where, I think, smaller, no budget Indie films can actually compete with the big boys... Story. An enormous dilemma to drive your story together with quintessential (not cliched) characters...

Basically, working with the 3 Act Structure, the Protagonist's DILEMMA is set up throughout the Act 1. Same for the 4 Act Structure. By the end of Act 1, we, the audience should be able to clearly see the Protagonist's dilemma. If it's a really good dilemma, we will empathize and identify with the Protagonist. For instance, in the movie, DERAILED that I saw recently, Clive Owen's character flirts with Jennifer Anniston's character on a train. They really hit it off and Owen's character decides to give her a call at work from his work. From there, they make a date to go to a bar. They drink all night. Afterwards, they leave the bar and impulsively make out and decide to get a cab and look for a hotel...

They eventually find one... They go inside and are just about to cheat on each other's spouse when a guy comes in and beats the crap out of them and steals Owen's character's money and identification. Anniston's character gets raped.

The thief leaves... Owen's character wants to call the police but Anniston's character says that if her husband finds out that she was screwing around, he will ruin her and take her daughter away from her as well.

Hence, Owen's character's dilemma at the end of Act 1:

He has 2 choices:

1) Call the police, Anniston's character loses everything.
2) Not call the police, the thief gets away and has his identification.

Notice both choices are unacceptable. Not making one of these choices NOW, escalates the dilemma...

The thief calls up Owen's character and asks for $10K.

Not making a choice when he should have increases the enormity of the dilemma... Again, he has 2 choices:

1) Call the police. He goes to Anniston's character and explains that it is now time to call the police but she talks him out of it again. He's just too nice a guy... So because he is a nice guy and Anniston's character doesn't want him to call the police, this is an unacceptable choice.
2) Pay the $10K.

Again, unacceptable because nobody wants to pay blackmail money. But he decides to go ahead and pay the money.

In other words, he now chooses one of the unacceptable choices... The wrong one. As a result, the thief calls back later and now demands $100K in addition to the $10K he just paid.

Another INCREASE in DILEMMA.

At this point, Owen's character decides to create his own 3rd choice. He hires the mail guy at his work who used to be in prison. The mail guy says he can scare the crap out of the thief.

Of course this plan goes completely sour and once again INCREASES the dilemma...

Using 3 Act Structure, Act 2 is spent increasing the dilemma... Owen's character keeps making the wrong choices... thus increasing his dilemma. Using 4 Act Structure, Acts 2 and 3 are spent increasing the dilemma until the dilemma finally reaches the BOILING POINT where the Protagonist must now choose one of the two unacceptable choices OR make his own 3rd choice.

Owen's character does in fact create his own 3rd choice almost by accident but hey, it seems to work and keeps him from losing his family and he even gets the money back...

I won't spoil the ending for anyone but just wanted to use a recent film to help explain it...

More discussion on the topic is welcome of course...

filmy
 
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Yup!

Poke said:
A character can either make the wrong choice or refrain making a choice, it just has to escalate the dilemma.

Poke
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Your character can do anything YOU want him or her to do... To escalate the dilemma, he or she can make wrong choices, create 3rd choices, or no choices at all and simply run away... The trick is to keep the dilemma right in front of them... To keep making the character FACE the dilemma...

You can literally do anything you want with the dilemma from what I am finding... No rules except maybe one... No matter what your Protagonist does... i.e., make a choice, create an alternative choice, or run away, each one of these actions must escalate the dilemma i.e., make it worse... Make it reach it's boiling point so that finally, the Protagonist must choose or create a final choice.

In reality, you have all the freedom in the world...

filmy
 
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I can see this, in that often the dilemma is a choice between the protagonist's moral standards and survival and it's that that defines the protagonist's transistion into Martyr in the last act.

I agree that not all films have one, but it seems to me that the ones that do give the audience a greater cathartis. I think a great example of a complex film that revolves around dilemas is "To Kill a Mockingbird"

Atticus is given the dilemma of defending a man charged with rape, knowing that he'll found guilty simply because he is black. Now Atticus knows that he can't win and also that by defending the man he'll put himself and his family at risk and yet if he doesn't defend the man he won't be able to live with the moral consequences.

So, the dilemma to me often seem to be about the important of sacrifice and moral values in the life of any protagonist.
 
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Clowns to the left of me jokers to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with you.


Dilemma is great technique that offers several different avenues to explore.
Sometimes the character himself can present a 3rd problem.

1. Sharks to the left

-OR-

2. Alligators to the right

-BUT-

3. The character can’t swim anyways.


Sometimes a 4th element exists. In Cast Away, Chuck (Tom Hanks) can:

1. Die on the island

-OR-

2. Die on the ocean.

-BUT-

3. Either way miss his wife.

-YET-

4. He doesn’t get his wife


Sometimes other outcomes are arrived at (Especially in cheesy moral dilemmas)

1. Save the bag of money?

-OR-

2. Save the people?

-SO-

3. The character saves the people which gets him the girl and a reward.


Dilemma is worth exploring as the right one can leave your character with no choice but
to go forward and sometimes comprimise their standards or put their faith to the test
which is interesting to see.


-Billy-
 
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Billy said:
Sometimes a 4th element exists. In Cast Away, Chuck (Tom Hanks) can:

1. Die on the island

-OR-

2. Die on the ocean.

-BUT-

3. Either way miss his wife.

-YET-

4. He doesn’t get his wife
Click to expand...

But that fourth one is not a choice - it's an unacceptable outcome.

Poke
 
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Thanks again Filmy, your tips are great (even if they are over my head sometimes like the first one).

I just realized I am writing a short script at the moment which contains dilemma! The main character has done something all his life one way but when presented with a new situation in a different light, will he change or wont he?

Diabolical!
 
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Yep you're right Poke, not a choice at all (an element- outcome) that shows the character doesn't have to always get what they want once the delemma is resolved. You could say he does get what he wants by surviving, or being rescued, but I mean there can be twists on the dilemma.

-Billy-
 
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That's the beauty...

Billy said:
Yep you're right Poke, not a choice at all (an element- outcome) that shows the character doesn't have to always get what they want once the delemma is resolved. You could say he does get what he wants by surviving, or being rescued, but I mean there can be twists on the dilemma.

-Billy-
Click to expand...
That's the beauty of the DILEMMA. Just know what it is and how it works... Then do with it, whatever you want...

Nobody ever said the Protagonist MUST resolve the dilemma...

filmy
 
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if you want to make the audience sympathetic to a character i think their failure to resolve a problem early on, which returns again to them later (but with heightened stakes) is a good device to use.

edit -
it can also offer a sense of full circle to the script i believe, a kind of closure, of development arc, at which point the audience can feel the internal conflict of a character comes head to head with the external conflict (they combine in the later raised stakes)

eg - Srgt. Al in Die Hard. problem - guilt 'i shot a kid, it was dark, i still got him though'. when this comes to the raised stakes, the big german bloke Karl with that gun, Al faces the dilemma of using his gun. he does.

not only is the external conflict now over, his internal conflict is over too. despite him being a support character, his internal conflict lends weight to the script immensly.
 
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