• Article Series

  • Arcs and Endings
  • Point of View
  • Structure: Examples
  • The Inciting Incident
  • The Logline

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Should you write a happy ending?

Commercial common sense will tell you: yes, you should.

Robert McKee says: “Tell the truth.” (see the previous post)

McKee means: your story needs to reflect your worldview. If you contradict whatever you believe in for the sake of commerce, you will fail. During his Arthouse seminar, he gives the example of Bergman’s THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY, where Bergman forced an ending upon the story in which he didn’t really believe. The story didn’t work, McKee says. Even the great Bergman couldn’t go against his instinct.

“The finest writing not only reveals true character,
but arcs or changes to that inner nature, for better or worse.”
-Robert McKee

In 1998 McKee signed my first edition hardback of STORY. He wrote:

“To Karel: Tell the TRUTH!”

Ironically with the quote at the top of this article, McKee is not telling his own truth.(*)

He contradicts something he teaches in his art film seminar. On Ingmar Bergman’s THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY(**), McKee makes the point that Bergman

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“The more time spent with a character, the more opportunity to witness his choices. The result is more empathy and emotional involvement between audience and character.”
-Robert McKee

In his introduction about point of view (POV) in the scene, Robert McKee focuses on screen time and the physical location of the camera. POV is more. It is about one character’s emotional experience of that scene.

The director will now take the literal camera POV of the character, then show the character’s emotional response.

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