Inspired by the one-act play written by August Strindberg in
1888, McKee's screenplay recasts Strindbergs Miss Julie in an interracial love
story set in the deep south during the civil rights era of the 1960s. Optioned
several times but never made into a film (at one point due to controversial
racial content), the story begins in the more languid times of the 1940s with
southern ladies and gentlemen sipping mint juleps on the lawn, and with what
McKee refers to in his books and lectures as the inciting incidentthe
essential kick-start to any compelling story. A black boy and the rebellious young
lady of the manor, Miss Julie, have an encounter so mortifying it will follow
the boy into adulthood. (It's worth noting that almost 40 years ago, McKee
wrote a scene unmistakably reminiscent of the unforgettable opening scene of
the Academy Award-winning film Slumdog Millionaire.)
Skip 20 years, and John is now butler to Miss Julie's
father, a prominent judge making his way up the political ladder. The tension
mounts from the moment the professionaland racialbarrier between John and
Julie is crossed until it inevitably (although we never cease hoping otherwise)
culminates in a rapid fire explosion of shocking and tragic scenes.
McKee's Miss Julie Montgomery is a prime example of what a
screenplay can and should be. It reads like a fully imagined novel, McKee's
descriptive yet precise prose transforming language into a film in the minds
eye. It is as if McKee has completely envisioned the story in his imagination
and plucks just the right words to artfully bring it alive, while swiftly
carrying the reader up and over his narrative arc. He sets the scene from the wide lens to the most exquisite
detail, from the grand curving staircase and mammoth chandelier to a prism in
the window that breaks the sunlight into a spectrum. McKee goes far beyond
describing the scene, dialogue and action. He provides insight into nuances of
character that only the most deft actor, director and cameraman could
conveythe indicator that a writer knows his characters inside and out, the
emotions that lie behind their words and behavior, the experiences that have
made them who they are. It is the writing of a novelist, who has to create an
entire world to convince us to believe in it and be moved by it.
Not only is Miss Julie Montgomery a pleasure to read and a
work of art in and of itself, but it also illustrates McKees teachings in
actual screenplay form; it allows us to see his understanding of the craft translated
into a finished workwhich, ultimately, is why we hungrily read his classic
tome, Story, and attend the Story Seminar. Miss Julie Montgomery is proof
that McKee can walk his talk.
