We watched Grand Tarino on Valentines day and it was great.. at least in my opinion. If your a sensitive soul, you must know, it has more crude and racist language than you would hear on a Air Force cruiser back in WWII. But, without giving away too much--the story revolves around a elderly man still trapped by his past and fighting a war that still haunts him everyday, all the while dealing with clashing cultures and generations in his neighborhood. So, in saying that, the crude language and racial name calling is necessary to the film's plot and characters. It comes across so lightheartedly and innocent, that it hardly has the teeth to leave a offending mark. Though, I'm sure there will be many that are offended, the type looking for a reason to be.

I left the movie with my wife wondering why it left me so satisfied. I've seen some great movies in the last year, but hardly any with such a smooth aftertaste.

I started writing fiction novels a year ago and started to analyse the greatest stories of all time.. I found something in common with them all... Redemption, Salvation and Sacrifice. Look at the core of your favorite movie and I'll bet you'll find these attributes driving the story. 

Why do these attributes move us so? When our natural inclinations are toward our self and as evaluation would say, a law of human existence. sacrifice does not fit into our scientific idea of evaluation. Rather it stands in it's way... we can not carry out our survival mandate if our hearts and minds are so captured with the idea that the greatest of all human actions is sacrifice. Especially the strong for the weak. Why should we care for the weak, and especially the weak that are not of our blood line? It makes no sense. 

Unless, God's image is stamped on us all. He confounds the wisdom of this world. We say only the strong should survive and thrive. He says the strong should lay down their life for the weak and the unlovely. We say the more you have and the more you are respected by man the greater you are. He says the last shall be first and the first shall be last.

I'm not saying evaluation is not true in some form, but what I'm saying is that God has stepped into the very system of man and nature and changed the natural (fallen) course forever. And, even if you don't love God, I guarantee you love the greatest plot that human minds can fathom, and that is to give up this life and the spoils of war and riches, for love. 

Read the greatest stories of all human history and you will find the story of Christ at it's core. It may be deep in the rubbles of man's broken soul, but it is there. And according to evaluation, it shouldn't be. 

So if you want to write a great story here are the rules of a great story. Your character must fall greatly and find salvation or/and redemption through some sort of sacrifice. Or, if you want a sad story, your characters must fall and refuse salvation in return for the one thing he/she desires (see "there will be blood". 

Sounds allot like the greatest story ever told. 

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