Writing a Modern Cinematic Road Epic

The basis of this creative project was to construct a feature-length, three-act screenplay in the mold of both the American Western genre and the modern road epic.  With the “road” genre, a staple of American cinema, characters are confronted by situations that put them on journeys of Odysseus-like proportions during which they must overcome some fundamental issues in their lives.  Following the examples of mainstream road epics such as Saving Private Ryan (1998) and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2002), my screenplay incorporates a three-act structure depicting an historical setting in which the moral and circumstantial conflicts of the characters are explored.  These different issues all revolve around one fundamental question, which is reinforced by the journey narrative.  Set in the wake of the American Civil War, my road epic’s fundamental question revolves around the era’s divide between industrial progress and lost heritage.  My epic follows two protagonists--the ex-Confederate soldier, John Cutler, and his young Native American guide, Apenimon--as they travel west across a transitioning war-torn nation on their morally ambiguous phrenological quest to acquire the buried skulls of Native American tribes.  Despite their unique antithetical stances on the journey’s moral integrity, John and Apenimon face the same fundamental questions concerning their preservation of home as they travel across a war-ravaged country that is quickly working to restore itself.  Through their interactions with both the land and its share of absurd and quasi-mythological characters, John and Apenimon form their own conclusions about the morality of this journey.  In this way, the road challenges them in equal parts physically, emotionally, and ideologically.  Although, the long journey promises to bring the two protagonists together, both John and Apenimon know that their antithetical journeys will also bring them to a moment in which they must each finally decide on their own respective future paths.