Scriptsee enters the gladiatorial ring
Script review with Ralph Sanchez
Emmy nominated Writer and Producer
OPENING THESIS
“Is this a good movie? This is a fun question when you’re together with friends and you just watched a movie and you are throwing back a couple of drinks afterwards and getting into either agreement or arguments over the merits of the movie. It’s a fun, no-stakes social interaction.
But ...
If you’re a studio executive looking for the next good script and there’s 100 of them sitting on your desk or in your email today and you must pick one, or if you’re a producer who needs a good script for ammunition to get a studio deal it becomes a real issue.
Or if you are a writer who just finished a draft and you’re wondering if what you wrote on the echo chamber of your computer is good it gets serious. So the important question is, how do you get to an objective answer that circumvents your own biases and tastes? Let’s be clear, writing is art. So therefore, by definition it is subjective. Nevertheless, making film or television requires, for the most part, a consensus between various people involved in a project that said project is objectively good. This is where Scriptsee is not just a production tool, it is also an essential development tool.
In my first article, an episode of the series Andor was put under the Scriptsee microscope to determine if it succeeded as a good script. Had you never seen the original show or knew much about its characters, does the script immerse you in a good story? As a decision maker in the development process, would you green-light this script? The methodology of how we got those answers we’ll review shortly. In this article, we will go a step further by having Scriptsee compare two scripts that are related to an original and a sequel to the same story. Gladiator, an Academy-award winning film and highly regarded as “good,” will be compared to its recent sequel, Gladiator II. Were both good films, and if not, why not? And if you are making decisions to move forward with either as a writer, director, producer or any other creative multi hyphenate, how does Scriptsee help you reach an answer.
METHODOLOGY
FIG 1: Gladiator fim (2000) - pacing and action intensity
At the top you can see a row of tabs that can take you to different graphical and statistical analysis of elements of the script. Scriptsee then tracks all these elements across the entire length of the screenplay. In this particular example, Scriptsee is tracking pacing, and how the story moves and where it reaches heights of fast and kinetic scenes. It’s interesting to point out in this example that if a script is defined as a conventional three-act structure, the energy of its pacing seems to hit at the key act moments, where the story reaches the inciting incidents. It also appeared by looking at these graphs that this is a relatively fast paced screenplay, as there are only a few very low pacing moments that are relegated mostly in the second act. Act one moves fast, and act three moves at a rapid clip too, after some pauses at the start of the act. Alone, this does not tell you it’s a good script, but it does tell you it will keep you moving through the story. Combined with the other metrics from the tabs in the program, you can be armed with a better answer, is this an interesting story worth my time and money.
As we did with Andor, we used some key metric switches in the Scriptsee “machine” to evaluate how the story flows and does it engage the audience through action, pacing, emotion, and a lead character’s arc, among others. And importantly, do other characters contribute significantly to the success of the story?
An example of how these metrics work:
WHO WINS IN THE RING?
So. If we look at Gladiator and Gladiator II under these Scriptsee features, what do we find and can I in a relatively short amount of time determine if Gladiator II is a worthy successor to its highly acclaimed predecessor and does it stand alone as a good script?
First, some context about each film. Gladiator was a revenge story for the most part after Maximus, our lead, is betrayed, thrown into slavery, and his family killed. He fights to free himself of those bonds and is on a personal crusade against the emperor that betrayed him. He wins, defeats him and ultimately dies from his wounds suffered in battle, but is rewarded by joining his family in the afterlife. Gladiator II has similar themes of betrayal, a corrupt Emperor, and being thrown into slavery. The lead in Gladiator II, Lucious, also breaks from his bonds but his fight is more of a rebellion against the Empire itself than a personal one, and as such, interacts with more characters as a revolutionary leader. The differences in these films are reflected in the data we get from Scriptsee.
Story Arcs:
The most obvious one is how it tracks story/character arcs. From the below charts, we can see that Gladiator is very much focused on Maximus' story, while in Gladiator II, Lucious has less solo screen time as other characters become involved in the fight.
FIG 1: Gladiator film (2000) - story arcs
FIG 2: Gladiator II film (2024) - story arcs
Emotional Journey:
The commitment to the character in Gladiator seems far more intense and powerful than in Gladiator II. We can further determine if tracking those characters creates an emotional impact to the story by studying the next metric;
Gladiator’s emotional map creates a joy and trust in following Maximus. In the middle of the third act, we see a spike in fear that is triggered by his final fight, followed shortly with a spike in surprise, how he wins, and then finally sadness - at his death. We can determine that we are rooting for Maximus and are therefore thrown into a mix of fear and sadness at the end because of how things are resolved. This is a character story we care about.
FIG 3: Gladiator film (2000) - emotional insights
FIG 4: Gladiator II film (2024) - emotional insights
In Gladiator II, there is a lot of trust in Lucious as we know he stands for the right things, but the joy factor is not as strong. Part of that is muted by the anger and anticipation that is crafted by a story that’s large in scope, as well as spending (per the previous chart) less time with him and more time with other characters. Like Gladiator, surprise and sadness frame the final act and we can see that there is a level of immersion in the story.
The good news in the common themes of both scripts is reflected in these charts but what is different is the level of emotional investment in our lead. Anger and anticipation reign strong, showing us, that adversaries and action have a higher score here.
Screen Presence:
To further underline how one film is more of a character story than the other see the next two charts:
FIG 5: Gladiator film (2000) - multi-character presence
FIG 6: Gladiator II film (2024) - multi-character presence
Maximus clearly dominates our attention in the script in Gladiator. In Gladiator II, Lucious is also a major lead, but there is more presence challenging his screen time from other characters, particularly Lucilla.
SUMMARY
This is where the author of this article (me) puts on his executive/writer hat and decides about what these metrics tell us. Remember, Scriptsee is NOT a substitute for human creativity and human estimation of art, it is a measuring stick of creative ingredients.
And therefore, these are my takeaways:
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Gladiator feels like a more emotional, personal story. The chances of resonating with an audience are high because of its focus on Maximus and his hero' s journey. Gladiator II feels like a bigger story on a bigger canvas as it explores the concept of
fighting an Empire through the eyes of a lead, but others as well.
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I’m probably going to tear up at the end of Gladiator. And therefore, if I am trying to connect to an audience in “their feels,” which is always my preference (good story always comes from character), then I would choose Gladiator.