Flashbacks Kill Story -- Film at Eleven

Obviously, I'm treating you to a picture of the fabulous Orlando Bloom, but he's not there just for his good looks. He's in a great movie just released on DVD - Kingdom of Heaven.

We watched this epic over the weekend, and when compared to Domino, which we saw on Friday in a *theatre*, KOH has a definite leg up in the storytelling department.

Domino, about a woman bounty hunter, is muddled by odd timing. It starts near the end with a crisis, then skips back to the sort of beginning of Domino's bounty hunter career, and pounds us throughout with disjointed flashbacks of Domino's childhood --- STOPPING THE ACTION!

Duh! In an action story, readers/viewers expect action. Don't halt the action to show me grainy images of a child on a beach narrated by a bored-sounding heroine. Give me the story. Show me how she became the way she is, instead of telling me through lazy flashbacks.

*Whew* Ranting. Sorry.

But during these annoying and uncomfortable flashbacks, people coughed. Dudes looked away. My husband rooted around under the seat for his popcorn bag. So, keep it moving people.

Kingdom of Heaven, on the other hand, is a linear story which begins in the middle of the action. Orlando's ordinary world is a blacksmith's shop. He's just lost his wife in dramatic circumstances. Enter Liam Niesen, his long-lost father, who offers redemption through a journey to the Holy Land. Orlando is forced to choose what to do and bang -- we're off.

We learn things about him through dialogue and through his subtle performance. We aren't bammed on the head with clunky flashbacks. In the end, I think the screenwriters trusted Orlando's character more than they did Domino. Weird, huh?

A woman bounty hunter is a cool character to begin with. Why did they think that we wouldn't understand her need to kick ass without the flashbacks? It may be a sexist thing -- that in order for a woman to be strong, something *dreadfully wrong* must have happened in her childhood and needs to be explained to the delicate viewers, again and again. Puh-leese. Did they not see Kill Bill? Sometimes, girls just wanna kick ass!

Sorry not to love it, because I do like the actress and I even liked the sexy anti-hero in the movie, but the storytelling killed me.

In fiction and in film, the audience just wants a good story. To pelt them with boring flashbacks is eeeeeeevil. Give me hints, mini-flashes, and the like -- in small doses if you must, but never stop the action long enough for the guy in the seat next to me to yawn.

Or the reader to click off the light and let the book flop to the floor.

Okay. It's safe to come out now. Rant officially over. Trust your characters. Be careful with your flashbacks. Enjoy Mr. O. and go rent his movie.