#i liked the little detail of watching them actually HELP each other too the soldat like 5 seconds ago just helped the engineer jump up there

[munch-mumbles]

shoutout to this poor soldat that got killed because he took a split second to look at his buddy who just died

[magicinaframe-part2]

Motivated Movie Characters

I'm thinking of a particular movie, on this sunny weekday in New York City. It's a movie with a crucial element in its plot; i.e., in terms of the way that the plot is set up and developed. That crucial element is the motivation of the main characters who are in relationships with each other.

The element is crucial to me in that it is the determining factor in the movie as an experience. I've watched many movies, over the years, but I often don't have an experience, at a movie's conclusion. I watched this movie that's on my mind on my flatscreen tv. In a movie theater, I think I would have an experience.

From a writer's point of view, I wonder whether the script of this movie was undertaken as an exercise in creating main characters who are like actual people, people who exist separate from the movie, in real life; i.e., people who are difficult to get along with. There are plenty of such people in the society in which I live.

The movie that I'm referring to is a contemporary drama and character study, with psychological elements.

This is not the first time that I've written about a movie, here, at Tumblr, with a similar crucial element. Not too long ago, I wrote about the movie EPILOGUE (org'l title: POSLESLOVIE - 1983). I posted the piece in January; it's titled 'Family Members.'

In the case of EPILOGUE, I had no difficulty figuring out the details of each of three characters who were in relationships with each other. But with this movie, the movie that I'm thinking about today, the details of some of the relationships are murky at its conclusion, and in the case of one character, the script and direction combine to make motivation difficult to explain. The viewer has to figure out the motivation.

As you -- you who are reading my words -- might surmise, I'm not recommending this movie to someone who I don't know.

The movie is called LITTLE SOLDIER (org'l title: LILLE SOLDAT - 2008), a movie that played in theaters in Denmark and Sweden and did not get theatrical distribution, here, in the U.S.

What is it about these main characters? What are their priorities in life? What is the most important idea in their lives? Do they say anything about this, in the course of the movie? Is there anything that the character does during the movie that explains that one, most important idea in their life?

In going into detail about each of the characters, I will be giving the plot of the movie away. This is something I don't usually do in my writing. My decision to do so connects with the way that movie lovers would pass on watching the movie. It's an example of a movie that's not easy to watch. It's painful to watch.

Where would a movie lover likely find information about LITTLE SOLDIER? Here's what the Internet Movie Database has to say about the movie: "A soldier returning from war is hired by her own father to drive his prostitutes around town. She calls upon herself to help one of them."

Considering that many adults in this society have hyperactive imaginations, I'm certain that some movie lovers, reading the above capsule plot summary, will decide to pass on watching the movie.

And a person who decides not to watch LITTLE SOLDIER... Are they missing out on a positive movie experience? I cannot answer for a group of movie lovers who I won't likely ever meet. Instead, I've chosen to think about the main characters of the movie.

The main characters in LITTLE SOLDIER are Lotte, a woman who may be about 30 years old but who looks older; Lily, a younger woman, about 20 years old, from Nigeria; and Lily's father, a man who looks to be about 60 years old, with plain or unremarkable facial features. Lotte is the movie's title character.

Lotte's father, who is never referred to by either his first or last name in the subtitles, runs a trucking company and, more recently, has started a second career as a pimp. Lily is one of his prostitutes and also his current girlfriend.

The relationships amongst the three characters is the main strand of the plot of this 100-minute movie that takes place in and outside of an unnamed town in Denmark.

The other main strand of the plot is the day-to-day workings of the prostitute business run by Lotte's father.

Lotte signed up for a tour of duty in Iraq as a soldier in Denmark's army. She returned home earlier than what she signed up for. This is established early in the movie.

Of the three main characters, Lotte is part of every scene in the movie; even so, I found myself connected to every character, even the supporting characters.

A perceptive viewer will pick up on the fact that Lotte and her father have not had a solid or thriving relationship for some time. Maybe this was an unstated reason for Lotte signing up for a tour of duty?

There are also a couple of references in the script's dialog regarding Lotte's past. She was raised by her grandparents. Her mom died when she was 11 years old. There didn't seem to be much father - daughter interaction in her childhood, no happy moments for the two of them to recall, as the movie progresses.

When Lotte's father shows his daughter some photographs of her wearing a Confirmation dress, he thinks he was the one who took the photographs. It turns out that this is just what he wants to remember; i.e., he created an event in his imagination. Clearly, there's been poor communication between the two characters.

What sets the plot in motion is Lotte asking her father for a loan. He had no knowledge of Lotte being back in Denmark. His usual driver, named Fischer, by chance passed Lotte on the street, late at night; he relayed the information to Lotte's father.

The request for a loan occurs in the aftermath to a night out on the town. Instead of a loan, Lotte's father offers her a job working as the office 'gopher.' But before a workday can properly get started, in walks Fischer with one of his legs wrapped up, hobbling with metal crutches. The usual driver has to recuperate for six weeks.

At first, Lotte's father convinces himself that his daughter will drive just for one day. But the situation with the day-to-day trucking business is not going the way he was expecting it to go: there's a problem with one of his company's trucks in Milan, Italy, and he can't find a new driver that he can trust. So one day as a driver turns into driver-for-the-foreseeable-future.

It's Lily, the girlfriend of Lotte's father, who Lotte drives to and from calls for appointments.

The bulk of the plot of LITTLE SOLDIER plays out over seven consecutive workdays. It's on the fifth day that something happens with Lily that becomes an emotional turning point for Lotte. What happens, exactly? She has to rescue Lily from a life-or-death situation with one of the johns. And following that experience, her father collapses in his office and winds up in the hospital.

In my humble opinion, Lotte has carried a great deal of unexpressed anger within herself about her father. In the course of her workdays as a driver, she comes to a conclusion regarding the prostitutes in general -- and regarding Lily, in particular -- and she feels she has to do something to make life better for the young woman from Nigeria.

Lotte comes up with a plan and it all comes to naught.

If what I have written sounds interesting, find out whether a streaming service has LITTLE SOLDIER available on-line. There is also one company that has the movie on DVD with English subtitles.

-- Drew Simels