Book-to-Film: The Creed of Violence Part II

Boston Teran’s cinematic fifth novel portrays the 1910 Mexican revolution via the gun sights of an unlikely duo: Rawbone, a hardened small time assassin, and John Lourdes, a Bureau of Investigation agent. The two are thrown together when Rawbone is caught smuggling munitions from Texas into Mexico and Rawbone’s lawyer arranges a deal: immunity in exchange for Rawbone sharing his criminal intel. A bargain is struck, with Lourdes assigned to accompany Rawbone into the Mexican underground. The twist: Lourdes, unknown to everyone but himself, is Rawbone’s son. As the two men make their way through a snake’s nest of smugglers, thugs and professional killers, Lourdes must suppress the angst he feels toward his father and focus on surviving another day.

Yesterday, we looked at potential actors who could play the parts, the look of the visual landscape and the film’s tone in terms of dialogue. Today we look at the concept, the structure, the working themes and who the potential audience might be for such a project.

The Concept
The key to Creed of Violence is that Rawbone is unaware that Lourdes is his son. As the men journey towards their goal each one is gaining awareness that there is more to their relationship than hate, they are forced to ban together and face obstacles as allies. Rawbone has been promised freedom if he co-operates with leading Lourdes to the arms smugglers. The reader becomes more aware that the son might kill the father and has been instructed to do so if he miss-behaves. Creed takes a philosophical stance, the reader or the viewer is aware that if Lourdes does kill Rawbone, he is killing his father. Will the men look alike on screen? Will there be a moment when Rawbone sees Lourdes as his own? The torment that Lourdes feels because of this tension is obvious and will translate to film in secret glances, actions and various ways which Field normally plays with character tension. The viewer will be able to see the struggle through the actors facial expressions and body language, pulling them into the drama even more.

Structure
Act 1: Since this is the introduction part of the story, Field will probably resort to flashbacks in order to establish the characters. The book opens by giving us a description of the Rawbone’s childhood, and we learn that he kills his first man at the age of ten. He changes his name to Rawbone, a name he took from a fight that he saw at a young age. This can be a really compelling scene and visually stunning. A young boy views a fighter and is so ashamed of his real name that he takes another on to change who he is. Next, onto present day and Rawbone decides to murder two men that are driving a truck full of munitions and tries to sell them. Unfortunately, he gets caught by a Bureau of Investigation Agent, his son John Lourdes who has been searching for his father (turned murderer) all of his life. Teran describes two men of similar background, one being Rawbone who has proven that having an unruly past can make you unruly, the other who has made a name for himself, he has overcome the odds. It is here that the men’s journey begins as Lourdes is instructed to offer Rawbone freedom as long as he can lead him to the men who were going to buy the stolen goods. Lourdes has to take Rawbone into the Mexican oil fields where he has no authority. Will Rawbone murder Lourdes? Lourdes is mad that his father will get freedom; he wants to see justice served on this murderer. Will Lourdes murder Rawbone?

Act 2: The men’s journey begins and after stopping off in the last town before the border, they stop and camp for the night. Townies followed them into their campsite and as Rawbone becomes aware of this, they come up with a plan that will lead to one of the most violent scenes in the movie. It’s a great introduction to the violence, Lourdes learns quick that it’s kill or be killed. If these men don’t lean on each other, then they will ultimately both end up dead. Most of this should be filmed in the magical golden hour, sunsets and basic camping. Once darkness falls it would be awesome if Field had the first confrontation with the men in total darkness, using only the gunshots to light the scenes.
There is a turning point here, something changes in the way the men interact with each other that the audience will recognize but not expect.

From here, the men take a train the rest of their journey and much of their next endeavor requires them to thwart train robbers. Father and Son are elected to take these killers down and in order to protect the car with the munitions, they do this without question. It is a train scene like no other. I can see the rickety train travelling down the tracks as two men on horseback pull away from in towards the gunshots they hear in the distance. This will make fabulous cinema. Lourdes and Rawbone riding away, horse and train competing, dust flying everywhere. The men succeed in their task and make it all the way to Mexico in one piece. They are heroes of sorts, saving most of the people on the train from certain death.

Act 3: Father and son have to act together as finding scoundrels seems to be harder than anticipated. There are deceptions and some great minor characters that walk in and out. There is a trace of a love story and wrapping it up in the end Rawbone discovers that Lourdes is his son by way of a crucifix that Lourdes leaves behind truly by accident for Rawbone to find. The crucifix belonged to Lourdes’s mother, Rawbone’s wife, and he recognizes it. In one defining moment, we are brought back to the men being father and son and actually real people. The dialogue driven scenes will be a real test in the end and it all comes down to a self-less decision that will surprise the audience. Justice comes full circle.

Themes
While there are themes of reconciliation and loss, the main theme that separates this from other Westerns is one of relationships. Father and Son become friends on this journey, it’s a violent buddy movie that can turn bad at any moment. Field will have to rely on tension for this to translate expertly to the big screen. Field is a fan of in-your-face realism and violence so it seems that he will do a really great job with the translation.
Traditional Westerns have similar themes as Creed but Tehran switches the usual cat and mouse and makes the reader empathize with the characters. Taking pregnant pauses and possibly musical cues which will reprise the themes as set up in the beginning will most likely play a large role as well.

Another theme in Creed is the need for justice and reconciliation. What sets this apart that if this story was set in present day, it would still work universally. Creed is a thriller first and a Western second and in my opinion doesn’t necessarily have to be set in 1910 in order to get the common themes across.

Audience
Anyone that loves a good gunfight, love story or action sequence will be drawn to this film. I don’t think that Creed will fall into the usual cookie cutter Western film and speaking of Western-bending There are some unique items on the horizon in terms of Western-themed films such as Cowboys and Aliens and even Rango, so studios are willing to embrace the genre and are partial to how much money Westerns can actually make them. I think that this is one instance where the potential film might actually turn out to be better than the novel — it certainly has the potential.