True Stories 60: 20s—The Tender Bar

After the story of the young man in the American south, Emmett Till, two weeks ago, and then last week’s look at the young soccer players who were rescued from the cave in Thailand, we come to this week’s focus - J. R. Moehringer, a young boy who learns lots of the wisdom of life in his uncle’s bar on Long Island. The film, The Tender Bar [2022], by William Monahan, could have been cloyingly sweet. After all, it’s the story of a boy pretty much abandoned by his father, leaving his mother to raise him on her own. The only real male presence in his life is his rather unorthodox uncle—who runs a bar. A young boy finding the wisdom of life in a bar? Could have been a bit much.

But this film is an absolute delight. Well, at least the first section of it is! Take a look at the trailer for the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-DS9vtLeEs

There’s an irreverence to the way this story is told—and that’s fitting with the story itself, isn’t it? After all, having your lessons on how to live life come from your uncle, the rough and ready bartender, could have been too, too earnest. But the screenwriter worked the irreverence of the real people that surrounded this young boy into the script—and that made all the difference.

And that’s the best part of the film—the main character as a young boy. But when he goes away to college, the film changes.

It’s a difficult job to tell a multi-decade true story in two hours. You have to pick and choose what you want to focus on in that story. In this film, we see the young boy and all of his influences, and in the second half of the film we see him go away to college and put the wisdom he learned at the bar into practice. As written, the screenplay also requires us to follow a young J.R. for the first part of the film and an older J.R. for the last part of the film.

And, as I mentioned, the first part of the story with the young J.R. really works. But… when he goes off to college and we follow his struggles and his romance, I don’t feel it pays off well enough for us to have made that leap. The first part of the film was so compelling, that I would have loved more of that—and perhaps, then, to end the film as he heads off to college.

But this is the screenwriter’s constant dilemma when telling the true story—just which part of a person’s life is film-worthy? One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to think that you’re required to tell the whole story. No. Your job is to tell the most compelling part of that person’s story. Because it’s that part that will make the best film. Remember that you can start and end where you want—where you think the essence of the story will more forcefully come through. Tough decisions—but you’re the writer and it’s your job to make them.

Next week a story about a ruler—The Woman King.

Copyright © Diane Lake

06Aug23

Email Diane a question to Diane@DianeLake.com