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Building a character

Characters should be built one layer at a time, using small touches of colour. Naturally, this approach demands both time and patience from the reader, as well as a willingness to explore the character. In Darren’s review of the film Zero Dark Thirty, we find this about one of the characters: “The “enhanced interrogation” in the film is mostly conducted by Dan, the CIA operative played by Jason Clarke. Clarke is not a low-level army officer. He’s a veteran CIA officer. He keeps (and feeds) monkeys. He has a PhD and is characterised as quite intelligent. He uses words like “tautology”, and it’s clear that he has some idea what he is doing. While he manipulates those people in his custody, he is consistently portrayed as level-headed and rational. He’s not an angry sadist lashing out some pent up frustration or aggression at a hapless victim.”

He also adds: “He might be smart, and he might be educated, but it’s clear that he has been tainted by what he is doing. Mid-way through the film, he opts to get out of the torture unit. And he complains about the death of his monkeys. It’s a moment that exists to make his priorities clear. This is a man who routinely tortures and causes suffering to human beings. At the end of it all, however, the only sympathy he has is for a bunch of monkeys” (“Who We Are In The Dark: Zero Dark Thirty & Torture…” Darren, them0vieblog.com, January 21, 2013). This is a rather deductive analysis because there are no large explanatory scenes in which the character expresses his thoughts and motivations. Viewers must bring their own interpretations to the film.

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