'Why Were They There?': Screenwriting Guru Robert McKee Takes on Right-Wing Attackers
McElhinney acknowledged talking to seminar veterans who said McKee's attitude had in fact improved in recent years. McKee agreed, attributing this in part to his marriage in 2007 and also the shock of seeing himself depicted in all his bellicose glory in Adaptation.
"I was sitting at a screening of Adaptation with my son," McKee explained. "We came out, and I was saying, 'Geez,' Because my empathy was with Nicolas Cage, you know? And when the McKee character went down his throat, it hit me in the chest, you know? So I turned to my son and I said, 'Is that what it's really like to be on the receiving end of me?' And my son said, 'Yes.' So I thought, Maybe I should tone it down."
But one thing he refuses to tone down is his profanity. McElhinney wrote she was taken aback by McKee's early pronouncement that "he likes to curse and if you didn't like it, you could 'f*ck off.'" McKee was unsympathetic.
"They just can't cope with that," he said. "I [use profanity] for a lot of reasons; one is that it's a lot of fun. And two, it sort of clears the air so that the students understand that this is not a class at a university, and I'm not going to talk to them professor-to-student. I'm going to talk to them professional-to-professional as writers. The tone is going to be very frank, sort of as if we were having a beer together.
"What this person doesn't mention is how funny the class is," McKee continued. "People laugh continuously for four days; [the author] said [she] was there for three, but the story seminar -- the one I presume [she's] talking about -- is four days. And at the end, a couple of hundred or more people will get to their feet and give me a standing ovation. Everywhere in the world! People enjoy themselves. They laugh, they learn a lot, and at the end of it, they're very appreciative."
Ultimately, McKee suggested, the fundamental question for anyone concerned whether or not his seminar is right for them shouldn't come down to politics, ideology and money. It's about facing the challenge and the inspiration "to think in terms of content."
"You've got to take your mind beyond what you read and see in the papers and on TV to connect with what is really going on underneath," McKee said. "And so part of what I do is to demonstrate, indeed, how the world can be looked at as a writer: to see through the surface of things. [...] She said early in her essay that she was glad I set rules so that people will behave like civilized individuals in this social setting. The rest of it that followed apparently shocked this person.
"And... good! Maybe that'll get her to think and reexamine her positions in life. Because I don't care where somebody comes down politically or in any other way, so long as it isn't just a recitation of the same old shit."
[Top photo of Robert McKee: AFP/Getty Images]
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I know, right? We're working on the lag for awful comments; I think there's a Movable Type plug-in for it. Hang in there!
Here is the note I sent to Ms. McElhinney commenting on her blog:
don't know you personally and have never read your stuff, but I recently saw a blog you wrote criticizing Robert McKee's story seminar because he sprinkles his teachings with profanity, insults and anti-right wing diatribes. http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/annmcelhinney/2011/01/10/for-745-you-too-can-be-insulted-by-famed-hollywood-screenwriting-teacher-robert-mckee/
Frankly, I had to laugh out loud at how silly and overwrought your blog was. I am one of those right wing conservatives that Robert McKee insults, I served Republicans in the United States Senate and House during the Reagan Revolution, I served in Ronald Reagan's Presidential administration, and I also was awe-inspired by EVERY SINGLE MINUTE of the three day Robert McKee seminar I attended with my college son in San Francisco a year ago -- INCLUDING all the insults, profanity and political diatribes. Just as I laughed out loud at your silly critique of McKee, I also laughed out loud at each of his insults and diatribes in the seminar because he is not only the world's best writing teacher, he is also an irascible, incorrigible scoundrel who captures your attention and your heart from the very first minute of his marathon 3-days.
I may be a right-wing conservative in my politics, but I went to school in the '60s and 70's when I had the fortune to learn writing from fabulous teachers and to listen directly to visiting artists and poets such as Allen Ginsberg, Robert Bly, Pablo Neruda and Larry Woiwode. Their liberal politics and rants were irrelevant to me; what mattered was their art and their craft and their love of beauty. Sitting through Robert McKee's 3-day seminar with my college son, a writing major at Northwestern, brought out the same intense intellectual emotions I enjoyed so much during my college years. For that and that alone, I would have paid triple the 3-day fee Mr. McKee charged us. And the fact that my son was equally inspired by Mr. McKee is priceless.
I suspect you and I may share some of the same views in the culture wars. But layoff Robert McKee -- he is an American cultural treasure, and your confusion between art and politics is not only an insult to all of us who have been inspired by McKee, but also an insult to the distinction between art and politics that true conservatives and true liberals both revere and celebrate.
Thanks for listening.
Whether we like it or not, technology has given everyone, fools and thinkers alike, a platform to make their innermost thoughts public. Ms. McElhinney started an incoherent “rant” on her blog. It’s baseless, insulting, and nothing more than “noise” acting as a smoke-screen! Her diatribe is just a distraction from the truth, from the real question that’s pleading to be answered: Does Dr. Robert McKee have something to offer to the world? If her answer runs contrary to the thousands, if not more, who have benefited from Dr. McKee’s guidance and vast knowledge, then a vigorous discourse could be had.
Dr. Robert McKee’s job is to teach, to impart his substantive knowledge to the students who that choose to learn from him. In the years I have attended his seminars (and I have attended all of them) he has always and seamlessly fulfilled this intent. If an attendee chooses to pay attention to irrelevant points such as Dr. McKee’s so-called politics, his age, choice of language used at strategic moments during the seminar, how much coffee he drinks, etc – instead – of what he is teaching, then they are focusing on the wrong thing; thus they will have missed the boat, so to speak! Ms. McElhinney has done just that! Hence, she never learnt a single thing in the seminar and has thus wasted her time and money. Whose fault is that?
In a democratic country people are free to express themselves in the manner they choose; they are also free to think whatever they wish. But not according to Ms. McElhinney. It’s either “her way or the highway!” She wants the entire world to forego attending McKee’s seminars for two reasons: One, Dr. Robert McKee’s politics and hers aren’t aligned, and, two, according to her, he’s too expensive. This is not only anti-democratic but hypocritical.
Ms. McElhinney and her followers are of the mindset that Dr. McKee is not allowed to dictate his rates. If someone chooses to buy a Mercedes Benz over a Mini, then so be it. It’s a democratic and an individual choice! One can charge whatever they want for their products and services. It seems to me that they want Dr. McKee to offer his products and services for free! That’s insane! Cost should not be wielded as an excuse to maintain ignorance. And it seems that Ms. McElhinney and her followers subscribe to this attitude.
So-called critics of Dr. McKee claim that he can’t write so he teaches. Untrue! If these said individuals did a little research they would have discovered that Dr. McKee has made money in the industry and that he “chose” to become a teacher and a film scholar!
These so-called critics are also of the belief that if you’re actively employed in the industry then it means you are qualified to teach. That’s utter rubbish; pure junk logic! Teaching is an entirely different discipline. Just because you are adept at doing something does NOT mean that you automatically have the requisite skills to impart what you know to another. Dr. McKee can do both – write as well as teach. Can these critics do the same? They are doing either doing one of the other.
I count myself among the hundreds of thousands of students that personally benefited from Dr. Robert McKee’s knowledge in a myriad of ways. So have others too numerous to mention, but here is just a taste: John Cleese, Peter Jackson, Faye Dunaway, Julia Roberts, Drew Carey, the entire cast of Damages, the numerous production companies that have hired and continue to hire him as a consultant in the USA, Brazil, Mexico, Brazil, Israel, the UK…and the list goes on…..
I caution those who believe everything they encounter on the internet… to be more mindful and critical of what masquerades as truth on the web before absorbing it into their consciousness.
Leave Dr. Robert alone. He has a right to do and say what he does.
I'm a conservative and love McKee. How 'bout that *bleeping bleep*?
I don't see anywhere in the article that McKee insulted McElhinney personally. She was merely offended by his statements—which is not the same thing. Some people think everything revolves around them no matter what you bleeping do.
J'ai toujours suivi votre blog, j'ai appris quelques petites choses à partir de votre blog, tiens à remercier yo-vous, j'espère que vous avez un jour heureux
We have been waiting to hear about this, my girlfriend told me about it last week. I really wish i could be in 2 different places at at will.
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