ABSTRACT
There is no question that conflict is important. And we connect because we also strive, hit obstacles, and suffer. A screenwriter cannot afford to overlook a crucial fact of narrative life. If he/she wants to write screenplays that connect to others, he/she must learn to create and craft a human connection. In Philadelphia, the improbability of a connection between Andrew and Joe is carefully set up when Joe refuses to represent Andrew. And it is underlined again in a scene between Joe and his wife—just before the law library scene—when Joe admits that he’s prejudiced. Whatever the nature of the connection a screenwriter writes, he/she is looking for an improbable but plausible pattern of change—connecting—that leads to the characters’ shared understanding, humanity, communion, the two of them seeing each other in an authentic way.
