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Subplot Characters, are characters who's primary, story-based function exists within the framework of a story's subplot. These characters usually have motivations and needs that exist outside the motivations and needs of a

protagonist, though not always. They exist to give the overall plot of a screenplay a degree of variance to break up any monotony that could possibly occur for an audience; introducing a new, secondary story, and populated with interesting characters. It is important, however, that subplot characters not overshadow your primary characters, but rather, accentuate and influence the main story and characters in a believable, subtle way.

EXAMPLES:

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2002) is the story of three escaped prisoners in the south who attempt to escape the law and win back their leader's estranged wife before she marries another man. However, alongside this main storyline, the audience is treated to a series of reoccurring characters who, at the onset, have little to nothing to do with Everett (George Clooney), Pete (John Tuturro) or Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson) but who, by the end of the movie, will have a major impact on the fates of the film's three heroes. Pappy O'Daniel (Charles Durning)

SUBPLOT CHARACTERS (CONT’D)

is the grouchy, hard-to-please old-timey Mississippi politician who is

campaigning to be re-elected as the state's Governor, but who is falling behind his competitor Homer Stokes (Wayne Duvall) in the polls. Periodically, the audience is given episodic insight into Pappy O'Daniel and his political staff (J.R.

Horne and Brian Reddy) headed by his son Junior O'Daniel (Del Pentecost).

Throughout the course of the film, we see this hapless team of unhappy political hopefuls who supply a steady undercurrent of humor to the film until they supply a fundamental purpose to the story when they come tot he rescue of the three heroes when it seems they're about to be hauled off to prison once again rendering all their hard work and progress to nothing. This makes Pappy O'Daniel and his team an example of how subplot characters can become absolutely pivotal to the major narrative of a film, but who at the onset play only a minor function in its telling.

Boogie Nights (1997) is a huge ensemble film that explores the world of

professional pornography throughout the 70's and the 80's and includes an all-star cast that covers many different types of characters. One subplot character is Buck Swope (Don Cheadle), a cowboy-themed porn star who marries co-star Jessie St.

Vincent (Melora Walters) and attempts to get out of the adult entertainment business for good when he plans to open up his own stereo equipment store. As the audience watches Dirk Diggler's (Mark Wahlberg) career rise and fall, the audience is also intermittently caught up with Buck's attempts to cash in on his own American dream. When he's denied for a loan from the bank, due in large-part to his past as a porn actor, he is at a loss as to how to manifest his dream of being an independent businessman owning a stereo equipment retailer, until—as chance should have it—Buck is caught in the crossfire of a donut-store hold up that leaves him the only remaining survivor of a cash robbery. Buck takes the money and runs in order to open the store he's always dreamed of having, but when he does ultimately succeed—he finds that owning and operating a business of his own isn't necessarily easy-street. This subplot character, and the journey he goes on to achieve his goal, allows the audience temporary relief from the saga of Dirk Diggler and his surrounding entourage of porn-world friends and co-workers, while also adding an element of depth to the story that exists beyond and underneath it's major storyline.

Subtext

Subtext, is what is inferred or insinuated, not by what a character says, but by what a character doesn't say; and is often intoned by use of body language and the manner of their behavior. Oftentimes it seems that in real life, people seldom say anything or everything that crosses their minds—and employ subtle methods that make their points without blatantly issuing their true thoughts or desires.

Sometimes in life, people have a tendency to say everything just short of what is truly on their minds—hoping, perhaps, that the second person gets the hint or makes the realization of what is being said in subtext. Characters in a film can behave in precisely the same way, and for many varying reasons—but subtext is always a strong and powerful tool the writer can employ to help draw the audience's attention to the dramatic weight of two (or sometimes more) characters combating in a duel of wits, allowing both the audience—and the other character in the scene—the fun of guessing what any given character might be saying beneath layers of subtext in any given scene.

EXAMPLES:

From the moment Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft) first appears at a party celebrating the achievements of Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) in The Graduate (1967), each movement, demand, and bit of dialogue uttered by Mrs.

Robinson—though seemingly innocent and benign at face-value—methodically suggests her predator-like attempts to “seduce” young Ben. Though Ben is the first to suggest his suspicion that Mrs. Robinson has anything but wholesome intentions by asking him to drive her home from the party, Mrs. Robinson herself plays her desires close-to-the-chest until, finally, she makes her motives known to Ben—her almost obscene attempts to provoke an affair between them.

Ultimately, Mrs. Robinson succeeds—though not in the first act of the film. This 'cat-and-mouse' game played between Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson is a chess game of sorts where both Ben and Mrs. Robinson refrain from saying exactly what is on their minds until Ben becomes the first one to crack, and even then Mrs. Robinson doesn't bat an eye—she maintains her cool and continues to subtly (and not-so-subtly) suggest and provoke Ben using subtext; stating her intentions in a way that says everything but what exactly it is that she's after. This scene is a classic example of how subtext can add tension, suspense, and even an air of comedy to a scene—pitting what one character intends against what another character imagines is intended.

SUBTEXT (CONT’D)

In the 1978 film The Deer Hunter, Michael (Robert De Niro) seeks out his life-long friend Nick (Christopher Walken) in order to rescue him from an

underworld Russian Roulette gambling ring and return the both of them back home to their friends and loved ones waiting in Clariton, Pennsylvania. Yet, when Michael finally locates Nick—it is clear that Nick is only a shell of his former self, totally lost to the world in which he has been submerged, including—but not limited to—heroin abuse. Michael, however, is determined to bring Nick back—

to the point of risking his own life in a game of Russian Roulette against Nick in hopes that the match will help jar Nick's memory of the horrors they experienced together while held prisoners in a rural Vietnamese camp. As the Russian

Roulette match develops, Michael tries desperately to provoke Nick's memories;

and as the subtle nuance of strategy behind the dangerous game of suicide develops, a scene of subtexts evolves between the two old friends, witnessed by the audience. When Nick's memory finally returns, the audience is left to wonder not only what it was, exactly, that brought Nick back to reality—a look, an unspoken exchange, something familiar about the physical terror of this suicidal contest—but also what Nick truly means when he says “one shot”. The subtext of this scene then allows the outcome of the scene to mean different things to different audience members, depending upon their own emotional investment that has developed since the beginning of the film, what they believe about Michael and Nick's friendship and also what they understand about the two friends' life waiting for them back home in Pennsylvania. The ambiguity that can be dissected behind two simple words; “one shot” proves how subtext can leave an emotional scar on the viewer when properly applied.