davidklecha | Context is King: Some Personal Observations (Reply)

“Lewis Nixon had some tough times after the war. He was divorced a couple of times. Then in 1956 he married a woman named Grace and everything came together for him. He spent the rest of his life with her, traveling the world. My friend Lew died in 1995.” — Maj. Richard Winters, Band of Brothers

Five really simple sentences that make me cry like a baby when I hear them… in context. Right now, queuing up the DVD and listening to them in isolation so I could transcribe them, did not affect me quite so much. They come in the waning moments of the tenth episode of the very excellent Band of Brothers miniseries, as Winters is recapping the lives of many of his paratroopers, and those lines (and all the recap lines, really) when heard at the end of such an emotionally wrenching show, are devastating. At least for me.

The question is why, and it’s an interesting question to me because recently I was able to step back and look at the question of context through a couple of somewhat emotional entertainment events recently. Taken without the perspective I had, the events probably would not be as emotional, and it struck me that I’ve seen people try to pull this kind of thing off in fiction, but they fail to really establish the context. Anyway, rather than talk about negative examples, I’ll mention three personal, positive examples.

The first is the Band of Brothers example above. The key thing about context with that quote is not just that you have to view the whole mini to see Nixon and Winters and the rest of the Easy Company men really bond in their experience of combat, but you also have to have some appreciation of the greater context in which it occurs, what WWII means to us in the West and especially in the US. Now, it can be argued that Band of Brothers is also exceptional storytelling–and it is. I happen to think it’s possibly the definitive portrayal of the war experience, at least in the ETO. (Incidentally, Spielberg is producing an analogue, “The Pacific” which hopes to do the same for the Marines in the other half of WWII. And it’ll feature Chesty Puller and John Basilone onscreen at some point.)

So, you need the context of WWII and further the excellent storytelling of the Band of Brothers creators to make that line really have an impact.

And then there’s images.

Does that bring a tear to your eye? No? Probably not a Red Wings fan, then. That’s then-Captain of the Wings Steve Yzerman hoisting the Stanley Cup for the first time in 1997 after what seemed like a million tries at it and a millions years of hockey futility in Detroit. And you could know that, and I could tell you how Yzerman gave his heart and soul (and body) for the team and all that, but the key is if you haven’t followed the team, if you didn’t live and die with the team each playoffs, chances are it’s still not going to move you. Just another picture of just another player.

The sports angle to context came home to me this summer when the Wings won the Cup again, and how it moved me, and how I realize that you can’t have that if you haven’t come along with the team all these years. There’s that organic context which is hard to manipulate or duplicate, it just comes from being invested in something.

The third one was Lord of the Rings, which has been a bit puzzling to me, and I don’t have much to say about because I don’t really understand it myself, especially since Frodo’s departure at the end is one of the things that gets me the worst and really, by the end (of either the movie or the book), I am sick to death of Frodo. But it’s certainly something Tolkien did well, given the following the book (and movie) enjoy, and something that Peter Jackson managed to capture in the process.

Anyway, I lied, I think I am going to offer a negative example: and that is the end of Revenge of the Sith which strikes me as stuff that is supposed to be emotional and moving, but largely falls flat. Especially the final confrontation between Obi-Wan and Anakin. Technically interesting scene, but zero emotional impact. And I’m sure the root cause is that Lucas has completely lost whatever touch it was he had as a teller of affecting and moving stories, though there’s all kinds of other causes, I think, in spite of the deep investment that me and so many others in my generation have had in the whole Star Wars property. In that respect, Revenge of the Sith stands as a colossal failure, where the emotional context that so many fans had created for themselves over the years was squandered and ignored.

There’s something to context and nurturing an environment that is going to create that kind of impact, either through out or in the end, and it’s not easily done. If I get ambitious, maybe I’ll write more on it this week, but in the meantime I’m going to leave it with my observations, and go to bed.

Crossposted with klech.net