Free Save the Cat Goes to the Movies by Blake Snyder Page A

steady disintegration of the team, both in number as they die one by one, and also by the doubts about the mission that chip away at camaraderie and faith. Infighting grows when Tom decides to take the squad off course to knock out a German machine-gun nest. The men want to avoid the fight, but Tom insists. They lose another of their comrades though they capture a German prisoner. His fate is hotly debated and the team is ready to mutiny. Tom stops the argument by sacrificing his identity, revealing he’s a schoolteacher — and that they must band together. They agree, and let the Nazi go.
    All Is Lost: The squad finally finds Private Ryan — blonde, blue-eyed Matt Damon. The surprise comes when Matt refuses to go home. Matt doesn’t want to leave his own team in the lurch, and the “road apple” is: death of the mission.
    Dark Night of the Soul: With Matt refusing to be saved, Tom and the survivors of the trek to find him wonder what to do.
    Break into Three: Tom decides to dig in and defend the bridge where Matt and his squad wait for a Nazi attack. A and B stories cross as Tom chooses individual sacrifice for the larger goal of saving others and bringing the war to an end as soon as possible.
    Finale: The big battle as Tom and Matt and the rest defend the bridge. In a final irony, the Nazi soldier they freed returns to kill. Man by man, many die — including Tom. But one survives.
    Final Image: Back at the gravesite, a bookend. All along we’ve had the feeling
(I
did anyway) that the old man at the gravesite was Tom Hanks. We now see it’s Matt Damon. Private Ryan survived. He was given his life back by the soldiers who rescued him. We realize that Private Ryan is us. Just as Tom’s “team” saved Private Ryan on the battlefield, Tom — and men like him — saved us at home. And we must thank them for their sacrifice. It’s a powerful coda and a heartfelt salute to those who serve.
OCEAN’S ELEVEN (2001)
    Every once in a while the remake turns out better than the original. In the millennium upgrade of
Ocean’s Eleven
, director Steven Soderbergh and star George Clooney had an advantage — the 1961 film starring Frank and Dean and Sammy was fun, but no masterpiece. What Team Clooney crafts here goes beyond its namesake and is a great example of the “Caper Fleece,” especially in its lineup of supporting players. We also see an example of a B story that starts late — but is no less powerful for doing so.
    Clooney plays con man Danny Ocean, whose mission — on the surface — is one of avarice. But in collecting his team, plotting the impossible heist, and executing it with hairsbreadth timing, we learn his mission is about something more. It’s about a girl. In this case: Julia Roberts. And it’s about getting her back from the guy who took her: Andy Garcia. The other themes are “performance” and “disguise,” and nowhere does show biz meet crime biz better than when Carl Reiner and Elliott Gould steal scenes from younger stars Matt Damon, Scott Caan, and Casey Affleck — for topping one another and proving one’s stripes is what this story is about. The Fleece in this mission, it turns out, is “manhood,” and with that as each character’s primal stake … we must go along.
    GF Type: Caper Fleece
    GF Cousins:
Rififi, Topkapi, The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery, The Hot Rock, Papillon, Escape from Alcatraz, Quick Change, Sneakers, The Usual Suspects, The Italian Job
    OCEAN’S ELEVEN
    Screenplay by
Ted Griffin
Based on a Screenplay by
Harry Brown
and
Charles Lederer
And a Story by
George Clayton Johnson & Jack Golden Russell
    Opening Image: Prison. “Man walking,” yells a guard. Enter Danny Ocean (George Clooney). It’s a parole hearing and he’s on his best behavior. A caged lion, he looks unnatural behind bars.
    Set-Up: We hear George had a wife who left him. Asked “What do you think you would do if released?” George says nothing. When he’s processed out of prison, he gets the