Without a Doubt, it will be Nominated for the Oscar for Best Writing Adapted Screenplay

As a reminder, Claire and I are going to guess which screenplay will win the Oscar for Best Writing Adapted Screenplay.  I’ve written about “Revolutionary Road,” which is a contender in my opinion, and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” which I think belongs in Best Writing Original Screenplay.  For those of you who missed the moment on the Golden Globes, “Slumdog Millionaire” won the writing award, along with every other non-acting award.  The nominees for all of the Oscars will be announced on January 22nd, and I’m positive “Doubt” will be on the list for Best Writing Adapted Screenplay.

John Patrick Shanly wrote both the play and the screenplay for “Doubt.”   In the preface to the play, Mr. Shanley writes what I have so long advocated, that it is through the struggle of doubt that we learn what we truly believe, that we test the mettle of what we’ve accepted as truth.  I wish I could remember the name of the famous theologian who answered the woman to who told him “I’ve been a Christian all of my life and I”ve never doubted” by saying “Then, madam, you are no Christian.”  Mr. Shanley states, “Doubt requires more courage than conviction does, and more energy; because conviction is a resting place and doubt is infinite–it is a passionate exercise.” 

Both the play and the movie open in the mid-1960s with a sermon by Father Flynn a charismatic young priest in his thirties discussing doubt:

A cargo ship and and all her crew was drowned.  Only this one sailor survived.  He made a raft of some spars and, being of a nautical discipline, turned his eyes to home, and, exhausted, fell asleep.  Clouds rolled in and blanketed the sky.  For the next twenty nights, as he floated on the vast ocean, he could no longer see the stars.  He thought he was on course but there was no way to be certain.  As the days rolled on, and he wasted away with fevers, thirst and starvation, he began to have doubts.  Had he set his course right?   Was he still going on towards home?  Or was he horribly lost and doomed to a terrible death?  No way to know.  The message of the constellations–had he imagined it because of his desperate circumstance?  Or had he seen Truth once, and now had to hold on to it without further assurance?

It’s this sermon that causes Sister Aloysius, the Mother Superior and head of the grammar school, to grow suspicious of Father Flynn.  There is no room for doubt in her intolerant existence.  Her stern world is a series of strict rules about behavior, no ballpoint pens, and is a place where “Frosty the Snowman” is satanic.  She advises her fellow nuns to watch Father Flynn. 

It is Sister James, a young nun and teacher, who notices strange behavior on the part of the first, and only, black male student after he visits Father Flynn.  She tells Sister Aloysius that his breath smelled of alcohol.  Sister Aloysius immediately believes Father Flynn is a pedophile.  Aloysius is a German term for a male “famous warrior” and Sister Aloysius is certainly a warrior.  On this very slight evidence, she battles Father Flynn relentlessly.  Our recent history of the Catholic Church causes many of us to believe the Sister.  But is he a pedophile or is he the winds of change that the 1960s bring and so many fought; changes in the Catholic Church, changes in society and changes in relations between generations?  Claire noticed that added to the confusion on the lack of evidence is that the character we would like, the jovial Father Flynn, is the one who would be the evil one, andthe strict, stern character that we want to avoid, is the one who appears protectiveve.

The play never answers the question of who is right, Sister Aloysius or Father Flynn.  Doubt permeates the primary relationships and each characters’ faith; certainty is never reached.  After reading the play, I struggled with who was right and realized the answer would come from me, where my beliefs directed me, not from the play.  The movie was different.  Two scenes were added, the shirt in the locker scene and the hug in the hallway scene, that weren’t in the play and I think they allow the viewer to leave the theater secure in an opinion.  Personally, I think that the movie loses something because so much less is asked of the viewer.

It’s obvious to say that the winner of the Oscar for Best Writing Adapted Screenplay must be well written.  The writing in the play and the movie, where so much is carried over, is stellar.  The beauty of reading a play is being able to see the language.  To then see the movie and hear the language was truly a treat in this instance.  I don’t doubt that I’ll have a hard time choosing/guessing which screenplay will win the Oscar.

UPDATE:  “Doubt” was nominated in the Writing Adapted Screenplay category, congratulations John Patrick Shanly!