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Movies are produced for many reasons, excitement, thrills and laughter being three; but the larger purpose is a constantly increasing sympathy, suspense and believability ; three audience reactions which, if consistently intensified, total maximum appreciation. And just what does Theme contribute to a constantly heightened sympathy, suspense and believability?
Now we do not mean to be captious but we are as conscious of Theme as we are that never in any discussion of the movies in which we have taken part has Theme's silly face failed to sooner or later pop up over somebody's shoulder. Or that someone hasn't disposed of Theme with one all-revealing burp-like definition.
"What is Theme?'
"Why, uh, the Theme is the gist of the play, the subject matter. Or the Theme is the substance, the basic idea, or the backbone of the play ; or the dramatization of a proverb, an adage or parable. Or the Theme is the proposition upon which the play is based. And Theme, consequently, becomes so many things that it cannot possibly be any one thing, and if its identity is muddled or indeterminate, so is its purpose, and that is bad when one considers that all things have value only in their effect, in the purposes or the ends they serve or fulfill.
In trying to find out what it is in a movie that contributes most to the entertainment of millions of people each week, any discussion of Theme is a pure waste of time. It has no definitely objective function. It rambles, it ruminates, it meditates.
Finally, theme is not a part of a movie. Therefore, Theme serves only to retard any useful inquiry into what parts are important in estimating inherent appeal in a movie, a process that must begin with its parts. Nor does theme indicate which parts are most important to sympathy, suspense and believability.
As for plot and problem, no play, stage or screen, can get very far without a plot or problem of one sort or another, but plot structure has very little to do with the parts of a movie or the value of those parts outside of encasing them, or indicating where they might belong in the general structure.
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