Let’s Talk NollywoodBy Joy Bewaji (ThisDay)
Published: October 1, 2006
Print It was last week, while I was getting ready for work, I walked to the sitting room to pick up my phone, and as I was walking out, we looked at each other- the demon and I. It’s a demon alright- that television of mine. It has a way of pulling me back, and I always fall. That day was no different. I picked up the remote control and switched it on. I scrolled through- nothing interesting to keep me away from work, so I pressed the DVD and then came a selection of movies. I clicked on The Sentinel, then gradually sat down and got two hours of thrill.
The Sentinel is a very interesting, very fulfilling movie. Apart from the fact that I find Kieffer Sutherland quite attractive, the movie made a simple trick work like magic. The president being marked for death is a cliché, but with the Sentinel the story goes around the theme with many exciting and suspense-filling bits.
While I was watching, I couldn’t help but wonder if Nollywood could come up with a movie as simple, yet intriguing as this. Note that The Sentinel is free of any visual sophistication we like to credit Hollywood with. The only thing that’s worth mentioning here would be the helicopter that was blown to pieces, and something tells me Nollywood can achieve that kind of effect however mediocre.
I want to use The Sentinel as a yardstick for my analysis of Nollywood. I’d like to compare scenes from the film with the typical Nollywood scenes and see where we always get it wrong.
But if what I think of Nollywood is true, this would be a wrong thing for me to do, as I hear, ‘Nollywood practitioners’ are immune to criticisms. But who cares? Life is all about criticisms and comparisons. They ask, who is more beautiful- Genevieve Nnaji or Stephanie Okereke? Who is more handsome- Ramsey Noah or Desmond Eliot? Who is more talented- Rita Dominic or Bimbo Akintola?
Who raps best - Eldee or Freestyle? So in life competition, criticism, and comparison is the order of the day. You can’t run away from it. With all its accomplishments, Hollywood is still bait for criticism. So what’s Nollywood afraid of? Why do I have to wear a bulletproof vest before I can give some constructive criticism to an industry that is glaringly sick and average?
In The Sentinel, the president and his wife have a sour relationship going on. We know this because:
1. She’s having an affair; and
2. When they arrived at an event, he told her it would be nice if they could hold hands. If everything were fine, he wouldn’t need to take permission from his wife to hold her hand, would he?
So you see, in a few words, we are made to understand the situation on ground. Nollywood, on the other hand, would have preferred to take us through a boring session of arguments, rivalry and fights, only to lead us to their present state (little wonder we end up having too many parts to a film). This is always a bad thing to do.
You see, TV is like fast food. We grab it, enjoy it, and move on with our lives. It is always wrong to turn it into a three-course meal. As much as possible, keep all the irrelevant details out of our faces.
The story is simple- someone is trying to kill the president and that ‘someone’ is part of his secret agent team. While an innocent Pete Garrison (Michael Douglas) is made to look like the guilty one, after an hour or so, the real traitor is revealed. Nollywood has a penchant for revealing a suspect too early into a film.
That kills all the suspense and intrigue in a movie. Twenty minutes into the flick and you find yourself yawning and searching through the rack for something more exciting.
The killer is this cool, soft-spoken, evil man. And that’s the best way to portray the Devil. Nollywood likes to portray the ‘bad guy’ as a hysterical, loud, and crazy fella. If a bad guy isn’t calm and warm, he doesn’t send a chill down our spines. He ends up looking ridiculous when he screams and shouts like an empty barrel. Real cruel people aren’t empty barrels; they are filled with hate and vengeance. They don’t talk much and they don’t threaten with mere words.
Everything is in their heart and in their eyes. They are sadists. They have a weird sense of humour and death simply excites them. All of these you’ll get to find out through their actions, and not words.
At a point in the film one of the traitors (the inside man) ‘wanted out’. He ‘wanted out’ so much that he told his accomplice that he didn’t care if he was going to be exposed or killed.
“What! How dare you?! I’ll kill you if you try to mess this up!” – this is how the Nollywood script would have read, but in The Sentinel the other guy simply smiles- a wry smile and says, “We aren’t going to kill you.” He brings out a picture, “We are going to kill her…” he brings another picture, “and her…” and another one, “…and her.” Common sense tells us that must be the three most important people in his life (there was really no point taking us through his family history, everybody has someone he or she calls ‘family’).
The inside man swallows hard and you can see (and almost feel) the pain in his eyes. Those types of scenes are stronger and more intense. For movies the motto should be ‘more action, less talk.’
In the movie one of the agents was killed. A burial scene was skipped; apparently it had no advantage to the theme. Nollywood always loves the white ambulance, brown coffin, black- attired mourners, eyeglass wearing relations, and dusty sands associated with burial ceremonies. At the end it adds no value to the film, so what’s the point?
Here are some points to note:
When two people are in love, it’s best we see it in their eyes while they are busy talking about how delicious a piece of cake tastes. Please don’t bore us with all the ‘sweet nothings’ lovers say to each other. We want to feel it, not hear it.
Always try to make the bad guy a silent killer. His words should be few, witty, and his actions- calculated. It’s also best to make him an attractive guy- strong, sexy and cruel (believe me Segun Arinze’s fury wouldn’t send chills down my spine as much as a Pat Attah’s callousness).
A woman who sits on the edge of a bed deep in thought, and then suddenly bursts into heavy sobs is a more gripping picture than the one who wails on the floor kicking everything in sight, lamenting her fate, and attracting the whole neighbourhood to herself.
“I love you”. “I’m sad”. “I’m hurt”. “I’ll deal with you.” “I can’t leave without you.” Phrases like these should be used sparingly. It’s best (for the viewers) to see it- the anger, the hurt, the passion (through other ways of expression), than to say them out loud.
Try not to (always) send the villain to hell at the end of a movie. And try not to make him confess his sins all the time. Sometimes he should be left to wander away with his sins and his intentions.
The Nigerian audience is a very intelligent one, and we are so sick of watching predictable movies. We do understand that the sophistication of the international film industry eludes us, but I am sure a simple, sensible, and accurately delivered drama would have the whole world clapping.
Have you seem Akeelah and the spelling bee? It is a drama, a very easy drama about a gifted 11-year old girl who can spell words like- ‘synoecete’. How does one turn a laid-back story like that into a stirring tale? I cried at the end of that movie (and so did my hubby); not because it was a sad story- far from it. It was a story of hope, dreams, faith, and love. It was intense. It made me want to sit down and review my life, and it made me look into my baby’s eyes and see not just a jolly little girl, but a future. It was a great films; and Nollywood has to find a way of making film as simple and inspiring as that.
And may be we could start by focusing on talented Nigerians who can write good scripts. Aren’t you just tired of all these reality shows that focus on budding actors and actresses who win good cash and still end up in the unemployment row, why? Because there are just so many of them, but no scripts. We should start thinking of a forum to promote scriptwriters in Nigeria. Our focus now should be on discovering creative minds that can write excellent scripts. Really, what’s the point filling a restaurant with lovely faces when there’s no meal?
•Joy Bewaji is at festacbreedmag@yahoo.com