Randy Wallace, a Duke alumnus and the screenwriter of such classics as Braveheart and We Were Soldiers, spoke at the divinity school last night. He was engaging though a little self-indulgent, like a man who’d had an extra glass of wine at dinner just beforehand. But I liked it that he thinks about his war stories in their mythic or deeply religious context, which explains in part why they are not much like antiwar movies and if anything may celebrate violence. It’s a very Christian perspective, actually. He said two things worth writing down, and I did:
- “I do war movies because I want to know what people love enough to die for.”
- “If you want to move an audience, all you have to do is rip your heart out.”