Dear Evan Hansen vs. World's Greatest Dad: Why Story Execution Is Everything

there's nothing more exhilarating than pointing out the shortcomings of others is there [Music] this video was made possible due to those who support me on patreon i'd like to give a big shout out to patrons conrad truett dan ray flake joseph abrams kyle kramer majin weebu mariah sophia narwicz and steven dylan thank you all for your support a few months ago me and my main albeit only chick went to see the dear evan hansen cinematic movie film for those not familiar dear evan hansen is a 2016 broadway musical that received wide acclaim going on to win six tonys i was vaguely familiar with its existence but didn't really take notice until the 2021 film adaptation was announced and we all had a collective giggle over the film trying to pass off 27 year old ben platt as a 17 year old by applying a slight layer of makeup and giving him a perm for some reason prior to the trailer being dropped i had no idea what the story was even about and for those of you who still don't buckle up [ __ ] evan hansen is a high schooler with severe social anxiety who struggles with feeling alone and unnoticed through a set of absurdly contrived circumstances everyone thinks evan was friends with a boy named conor murphy who has committed suicide and instead of simply clearing the record evan just kind of goes along with it eventually fabricating an entire friendship between him and conor all the while chilling with the kid's family and dating his sister thus finally attaining a sense of belonging right about now i'm sure some of you are thinking jesus [ __ ] christ how could they pull a story like that off how could they possibly make evan a character we can root for and sympathize with well they didn't the film bombed at the box office and was critically panned criticism being levied at the film's questionable morality and misdirected sympathies again i'm sure some of you are thinking there is no way a story like this could possibly work however you would be mistaken 2009's world's greatest dad tells the story of lance clayton played by robin williams a failed writer and single father struggling with not feeling respected nor appreciated in his life after his son kyle accidentally dies while performing autoerotic asphyxiation lance stages his death as a suicide after the suicide note that lance wrote is made public and kyle becomes a sort of cult martyr lance pens a fake journal of kyle's which becomes a nationwide phenomenon giving lance the adoration he is always desired while they are of course not the exact same story both involve someone taking advantage of the death of another for their own personal gain yet while dear evan hansen is a thematic [ __ ] with a protagonist you run out of patience for by the halfway mark and a confounding central lesson world's greatest dad is a biting satire featuring a flawed yet empathetic protagonist that concludes with an inspiring finale every idea no matter how seemingly ludicrous can make for a good story one simply must find out how to tell it it's all in the execution and thus in this video i will compare and contrast the two films demonstrating how each film tackles the same general concept which depending on the execution results in a rousing success or a pitiful failure before we begin a couple quick notes i will be bringing up the stage musical of dear evan hansen to compare some of the changes that were made for the adaptation while the stage musical executes its concept better it still runs into some of the same narrative issues the film does particularly in its final act both films deal with mental health self-harm and suicide so just a heads up for those who may be sensitive to said subject matter and for those of you who may be interested in checking out world's greatest dad considering the details of robin's passing it can be a melancholy watch however i highly recommend it as it is not only a hilariously astute satire but an inspiring tale about embracing who you are and finding those who accept you as your true self with all that said let's get into it [Music] both films begin by establishing their protagonist evan hansen is a 17 year old high schooler with severe social anxiety he doesn't have any friends aside from jared who is a bit of a dick to him his mother is lovely but she works a lot to support them his father is absent and he has an unrequited crush on zoe lance clayton is a high school teacher who has written several novels none of which have ever been accepted for publishing he is a single father to his petulant bride of a son kyle his girlfriend claire doesn't seem to respect him in fact he doesn't really seem to be respected by anyone around him overall both characters feel unnoticed in their life urine defined a sense of belonging and are by and large very sympathetic however unlike evan lance isn't framed as entirely innocent while lance says he wants his writing to help people and ease their suffering it's also made clear he is driven by a desire for fame and attention particularly of the female variety furthermore he isn't void of unflattering traits demonstrated when he shows pettiness towards a fellow teacher who has had his own writing published in the new yorker the film doesn't shy away from his own self-serving nature i've discussed the distinction between sympathy and empathy on this channel before sympathy being more in the vein of feeling bad for a character empathy of understanding a character even if we don't necessarily like them lance is shown to have a number of flaws but this conversely makes him feel more human we still feel for him but it's not as if the film is framing him as some holier-than-thou type whose [ __ ] don't stink whereas with evan he doesn't really have any flaws per se he has anxiety and trouble making friends but these are more afflictions that are meant to make the audience feel bad for him world's greatest dad simply asks us to understand lance even if there are aspects of his personality we don't like or even if we consider him somewhat pathetic whereas dear evan hansen uses an abundance of sympathy to get the audience on evan's side not putting him in any sort of negative light though this may seem like a menial difference keep it in mind as it will become extremely pertinent later on now on to each film's inciting incident and dear evan hansen okay i'm i'm gonna have to go slow here um so evan is classmates with connor murphy a troubled student who struggled with depression and displays erratic and even violent behavior one day some jock makes fun of connor and evan happens to be standing nearby being all awkward and [ __ ] so connor assumes evan is mocking him and gets in his face conor's sister zoe whom evan has a crush on apologizes on his behalf later evan is in the library writing a letter to himself addressed dear evan hansen an exercise his therapist assigned him to help with his self-confidence in which he mentioned zoe connor is there and seemingly remorseful for his earlier outbursts offers to sign evan's cast but then conor reads evan's letter and after seeing it mention zoe assumes evan wanted him to find the letter as a way to make fun of him conor then takes the letter and storms off a few days later evan learns that conor committed suicide evan's letter was found in his pocket and it's worded in such a way that it makes it seem like conor addressed it to evan as a suicide note thus everyone assumes conor and evan must have been secret best friends like i said it's absurdly contrived in world's greatest dad it is established that lance's son kyle engages in autoerotic asphyxiation lance comes home one day to find that kyle had accidentally died while engaging in said activity and that's it a hell of a lot more simple after finding kyle dead lance stages his death as a suicide in dear evan hansen evan is brought in to meet with conor's parents and learns of his suicide he initially tries to tell them there has been a misunderstanding but after seeing how relieved conor's mother cynthia is to know her son had at least one friend in his life he is unable to bring himself to tell them the truth and just goes along with it so as for lance we as the audience can't really fault him here despite how much of a petulant brat kaio was lance is tremendously heartbroken over losing his son and him staging his death as a suicide is clearly an attempt to spare his son from further embarrassment as for evan while some may say he should be derided for not telling karr's parents the truth i actually can't really fault him for this evan hardly has any time to process what is even happening but even still he tries to tell them he and conor weren't friends but then cynthia is like you don't understand this is all that we have this is the only thing that we have left like i know the right thing to do would be to calmly explain the truth but if a kid's grieving mother was sitting right in front of me begging me to affirm that her son had at least one friend in his life would i have the stomach to be like actually no your son died friendless and alone again i know what evan should have done but it's hard to straight up chastise him for this same deal in the next scene where evan attends the most awkward dinner party in history cynthia invites him over to learn more about conor but it breaks out into a family argument meanwhile evan is just sitting there like a [ __ ] goon the kid looks like he'd go into cardiac arrest if he caught a glance of his own shadow so i can't really fault him for not really knowing how to act in this situation after being put on the spot by cynthia evan proceeds to make up a story about him and conor spending a day together at an apple orchard cynthia states conor loved but it doesn't come off as if he is doing so with nefarious intentions more like he is doing so too one give this poor woman at least one comforting memory of her son and two for the love of every [ __ ] christ please let this allow me to extricate myself from this awkward as hell evening so both films introduce their protagonists as sympathetic outcasts thrust them into an extraordinary situation and have them react in somewhat reasonable ways but now is where the films diverge greatly in world's greatest ad after kyle's suicide note gets leaked and is published in the school newspaper because that's totally something that totally non-insane individuals in charge of the school paper would totally do the entire school becomes fascinated with kyle thus lance is given the attention he is always yearned for lance not wanting to lose it attention pens a fake journal under the guise of it being kyle's which leads to him finally receiving the appreciation for his writing he has always wanted dear evan hansen to lend credence to him and conor being besties evan recruits jared to help him fabricate months of back emails between them so we see each character decide to perpetuate their respective charade for their own benefit but there is a massive difference in both the framing and severity of their actions when lance fabricates kyle's journal we know he is doing so for self-serving reasons as does the film remember how i mentioned that lance is established as having somewhat egotistical motives this is why that is so important there is a level of self-awareness present making it clear that the filmmakers are aware that what lance is doing is for his own gain this is even evident in the film's title it being a sarcastic nod to the fact that what lance is doing is pretty [ __ ] up the film is simply asking us to understand his actions and see them through but in dear evan hansen there is no self-awareness the film tries to frame evan fabricating the emails for cynthia's benefit [ __ ] cynthia is clearly struggling to cope with her son's death the right thing for evan to do is to come clean before things get too out of hand by keeping up the charade all he is doing is hindering the murphy's ability to process conor's death as a family evan's actions are blatantly self-serving he is happy to be the center of attention for the first time in his life and doesn't want to sacrifice that now one may argue that well maybe dear evan hansen is self-aware that evan is fabricating the emails for his own selfish reasons but this is refuted by the fact that the film actually changes the details of this plot point from the stage musical in both the film and the stage musical zoe tells evan they went through conor's phone and found no evidence of him and evan ever communicating evan lies by saying they kept in touch via a secret email account now in the film evans says that cynthia requested to read the emails but in the stage musical cynthia makes no such request and evan initiates the fabrication of the emails completely on his own accord while a small alteration it actually leads to massive implications in the stage musical the fact that evan decides to create the fake emails on his own suggests that he wants to keep the charade going for his own self-serving reasons like world's greatest dad it's not asking us to agree with his actions but simply to understand them but in the film it's framed in such a way as to imply he is only doing so for cynthia's benefit the angle of evan's actions being for his own selfish reasons is completely scrubbed out and this isn't the only time the film does this in the stage musical after some time has passed people begin to forget about conor evan imagines a conversation with conor where he expresses that he doesn't want conor's memory to fade he then recruits jared and a fellow student named alana to start the connor project a group meant to keep conor's memory alive since evan's conversation with conor is on his mind when evan states he fears conor being forgotten he is in a way talking about himself he sees a part of himself and conor thus making his motivation for creating the connor project on some level self-serving but for some reason the film completely warps this entire plot point the conversation evan shares with conor is cut it is alana who approaches evan with the idea to form the connor project and instead of evan having the desire to keep conor and by proxy himself from fading into obscurity he goes along with it sort of just because he's awkward as [ __ ] and is really bad at saying no to people in both of these scenarios the film tries to downplay evan's culpability framing his actions more as if he is being compelled instead of having any sort of autonomy this is in large part why the stage musical works better than the film evan is framed as a very flawed individual who was doing some very morally questionable things similar to how lance is portrayed in world's greatest dad but the film strips evan of any complexity whatsoever i assume this was meant to try and make us sympathetic towards him but it actually comes off as condescending even if evan isn't the one primarily initiating his actions he can still come clean at any time but he doesn't his actions are still morally questionable but the film doesn't hold him accountable what's even more confounding is that the film downplaying evan's culpability is completely blown the [ __ ] out when it comes to zoe see zoe was the one member of the murphy family who saw conor the most clearly while conor was dealing with severe mental anguish he also made zoe's life a living hell even once threatening to kill her as much as she loved her brother she is slowly coming to terms with the fact that he caused her a lot of suffering and she's trying to make progress to reconcile her conflicting feelings about him well not if evan has anything to say about it and what is perhaps the sketchiest scene in the film evan expresses to zoey all the things he loves about her under the guise of conor being the one who noticed them so he's like yeah conor thought it was cool that you dyed your hair but like but obviously he's like he's talking about himself yeah it's really really weird and also kind of incesty like i i love my little sis but i don't think i've ever noted how wonderful her smile made me feel ew aside from the [ __ ] upness of evan using zoe's dead brother as a proxy to spit game evid is giving her a version of conor that never existed a conor that actually secretly loved and cherished her which probably only makes zoe feel even more guilty and conflicted about her disdain for him bra is seriously [ __ ] with her head right now for [ __ ] sake evan the least you could do is foot the bill for the four extra years of therapy she's going to need to sort all this [ __ ] out you scrawny lunatic and to make matters worse the film once again tries to downplay evan's sketchiness in the stage musical after telling zoey about all the things he loves about her under the guise of it coming from conor evan goes to kiss her but she obviously recoils and is like what the [ __ ] dude this is not the [ __ ] time but in the film it's reframed as a mutual kiss that gets cut off bro like what the [ __ ] whose idea was this evan's like so yeah those are all the reasons that i i i mean your brother loved you and zoe's like oh my god that like really gets me going like stop [ __ ] oh my god so we see a major difference in how each character is framed lance is framed as empathetic but in the wrong but evan never seems to be framed as if he is in the wrong or at the very least the film tries to downplay his culpability in what he is doing what makes this incredibly ironic is that all things considered the severity of evan's actions is objectively like a thousand times worse and world's greatest dad while what lance is doing is framed as clearly selfish there are a number of factors that soften the blow if you will the biggest being that kyle is perhaps one of the most obnoxious unsympathetic awful individuals ever put to screen i unironically think daryl sabara should have been nominated for an oscar for just how amazing he is at making kyle such an absolute [ __ ] stain with no redeeming qualities he's verbally abusive to his father his quote unquote friend andrew other classmates he's misanthropic sexist homophobic oh yeah and just to drive the point home when kyle dies in the auto erotic asphyxiation accident he is pleasuring himself to an upskirt shot he secretly took of his dad's girlfriend not only is the audience given no reason to sympathize with kyle his death ultimately was an accident so when lance uses his death for his own personal gain well it goes down a bit more smoothly not so much in dear evan hansen while conor is shown to have aggressive tendencies the audience can't help but sympathize with him given that he has been suffering from severe mental turmoil for years which ultimately led to him taking his own life the fact that evan is using an exploiting said tragic situation for his own benefit adds an element of grossness and disgust to the whole situation now one could argue that world's greatest dad only makes kyle entirely unsympathetic in order to make lands taking advantage of his death an easier pill to swallow and to that i say yes that is 100 correct and it 100 works that might sound strange coming for me since i often champion nuanced characterization but that is completely dependent on the film's context world's greatest dad is not trying to be some deep existential drama it's a dark satirical comedy a genre that employs exaggeration and humor to deliver its contentions thus kyle being an over-the-top douchebag works this is actually the same deal with the stage musical of dear evan hansen the vibe and tone of the musical while still dramatic is inherently comedic but for some reason the film plays it as a dead straight drama which which is ridiculous the absurdity of the concept does not lend itself well to a melodrama beyond the contrasting characterizations of kyle and connor there is also the contrast as to how others are affected by the actions of the protagonist in world's greatest ad lance making kyle's fate diary while deceptive doesn't really have any direct negative effects on anyone else the only one who seems to be messed with is andrew since he was kyle's quote unquote friend but yeah well we're not in european i don't like that kind of stuff yeah i know it's cause you're the way what are you gonna cry [ __ ] [ __ ] well yeah that's why i put friend in quotation marks evan on the other hand holy [ __ ] conor has a mother father and sister by fabricating the friendship with connor he is giving them a version of conor that never existed thus actively hindering their ability to reconcile his passing as we have already discussed with zoe then there is cynthia who is clearly coping in an unhealthy way latching on to anything she can to warp her image of her son and evan is serving it up like a drug she is hooked on despite both lance and evan taking morally questionable actions they are not even close in terms of their severity anyway both films see their protagonists continuing their respective charades and enjoying the spoils of the deception in world's greatest ad the release of kyle's journal leads to lance finally receiving the adoration he is always wanted he is given the respect of those around him makes an appearance on a national talk show and is approached by publishers who not only want to publish kyle's journal but one of lance's own novels and dear evan hansen the speech evan gives at conor's memorial goes viral resulting in countless people resonating with connor's story the connor project starts a fundraiser to restore the apple orchard evan begins dating zoe gross and he is finally noticed by all of those who once shunned him but of course at some point the charade must come to an end and our protagonist must face the consequences of their actions however how each film gets there and how it holds its protagonist accountable could not possibly be any different and world's greatest dad while lance enjoys the success and adoration he has always wanted it comes at a cost instead of the release of kyle's suicide note and journal leading to those around kyle sincerely connecting with him it's made very clear that it's basically all [ __ ] after kyle's death all of those who suddenly connect and resonate with him are the same ones who bullied and detested him his death didn't make them have some personal epiphany they are simply hopping onto the bandwagon using his death to signal their virtue and fit in with their peers the film stands as a satirical deconstruction of the sort of insincere eulogizing of say celebrities so like when someone dies and all of a sudden everyone was like their biggest fan they didn't actually know the person or care they're just doing it to you know kind of suck their own dick a little bit lance is disgusted at seeing everyone using kyle's death for their own selfish reason but of course he then realizes he is doing the exact same thing and thus an internal conflict rages within him lance finally receives everything he has always wanted but to keep it he must stomach the fact that everyone around him is a phony and pretend to be someone he is not at a ceremony naming the school library after kyle lance can no longer bear the charade and comes clean about kyle's death and that he was the one who wrote the suicide note and journal though lance is now viewed as a pariah and he will probably be fired from the school he decides he would rather be an honest outcast than someone who must put on an act to fit in in the end he accepts that he is a flawed person but does the right thing and finds happiness with those who accept him for who he truly is as for dear evan hansen yeah not so much in contrast to lance's internal struggle between doing the right thing and reaping the benefits of his deception evan shows basically no remorse for anything at all ever even after he completely abandons the connor project to spend time with zoe even after he prefers to spend time with the murphys than with his own mother oh yeah that's a whole other like subplot that is really weird the film tries to imply that part of the reason evan is so lonely is because his mother is never around like oh yeah sorry she has to work extra hours to support your scrawny ass despite this she is still incredibly attentive and empathetic so like the film tries to make it seem as though like like the mother has to have to learn to you know appreciate evan when clearly it should be the other way around no you are the best thing you're the best thing that's ever happened to me sorry i can't give you anything more than that it's not my fault if other people can what the [ __ ] but yeah evan shows like absolutely no remorse for his actions in the film or acknowledgment of the damage his lie is causing which is a far cry from the stage musical in which there is an entire number where evan's conscience bombards him with guilt and shame for his actions and he even briefly decides to come clean but then the imaginary conor tells him that if he does he will lose everything and things will be even worse than they were before evan's internal struggle is explicitly demonstrated in the stage musical yet is hardly present at all in the film however like lance shirley evan will have a change of heart and it will be his conscience that makes him eventually come clean right absolutely not alana confronts evan with inconsistencies in the fake emails and asks him straight up if he was ever even really friend with connor oh so this is when evan comes clean right absolutely not instead he shows alana the dear evan hansen letter which everyone assumes was conor's suicide note as proof that they were friends evan then asked her not to show it to anyone so alana naturally immediately posts it online to raise money for the connor project the [ __ ] this results in everyone turning on the murphys as they assume conor killed himself because of their neglect evan arrives at the murphy house where the family is falling apart and then finally evan comes clean rather than evan finally realizing the error of his ways and deciding that he has to bring the deception to an end for the benefit of others he basically has his hand forced had none of this happened he probably would have kept that baby going indefinitely and then to add insult to injury the film despite removing any trace of evan showing remorse for his actions tries to make us sympathize with him even more as it is revealed that evan had attempted suicide himself before the events of the film i've spoken before about how the timing of when information is revealed can both affect the audience's emotional response and communicate the writer's intentions see in the stage musical it's implied evan attempted suicide before he comes clean to the murphys by putting the reveal after like it almost feels as if the writers are trying to once again make a sympathize with evan rather than reflect on his morally [ __ ] up actions it comes off as more poor evan rather than holy [ __ ] this dude messed with a lot of people's heads for really really selfish reasons in world's greatest dad not only is lance's selfishness on full display but he ends up putting an end to his deception due to his decency winning out over his own ego and dear evan hansen evan shows basically no remorse for his actions until after he is forced to come clean and even then the film refuses to frame him in a negative light or even make him face any significant consequences for his actions so in both the stage musical and film the murphys decide to keep evan's secret so as to not completely ruin his life despite its acclaim and my contention that the stage musical is executed better than the film this is one of the biggest gripes many had with the musical that evan never really ends up facing any larger comeuppance for his terrible actions the film tries to rectify this by having evan publicly admit to his deception to the world well i mean hey at least that's better than how it plays out in the stage musical right and it even results in him redeeming himself and facing the consequences of his actions right absolutely not while evan's deception never being fully revealed is a bit of an odd note to end on in the stage musical i understand why they did it because it actually is the better of the two options consider in world's greatest dad the reason lance telling everyone the truth at the end works is because he is revealing them all for the hypocrites they are like i said none of them actually give a crap about kyle they were just jumping on the bandwagon thus it is satisfying to see them get called out for it but in dear evan hansen when evan's memorial speech goes viral and leads to a bunch of people coming together over his message of hope and not being alone it is framed with complete sincerity with that in mind what do you think would happen if evan told everyone the truth like hey everyone uh remember that whole story about friendship and not being alone that inspired thousands of depressed folks across the country um yeah it was all fake um i wasn't even friend with conor and actually he died saddened alone uh but uh but yeah stay strong xoxo evan hansen no like that would probably like i feel like that would lead to a lot of really negative outcomes you dumb bastard what's even more [ __ ] is that the entire reason zoe says they don't want to reveal evan's deception is to not ruin his life but then when evan does reveal the truth like nothing happens he becomes an outcast at school but like whatever he isn't expelled he still graduates the connor project still raises the money for the orchard which which wait what you're telling me a mental health awareness group that raised over a hundred grand is revealed to have been based on a complete fabrication and nothing happens no scandal no backlash no refunds sort of strange how the entire plot point of evan revealing the truth is meant to rectify him not facing any significant consequences in the stage musical but at the end of the film when he reveals the truth his actions still don't result in him facing any significant consequences the one saving grace in the film is the sequence where evan decides to truly learn about conor talking to people who knew him and he finds a video of conor singing a song he wrote and sending it to his family finally giving them a pleasant memory with which to remember conor this finally shows evan showing true remorse for his actions and doing right by the murphys for selfless reasons however this is just simply too little too late evan has pulled so much [ __ ] throughout the film this just isn't enough to rectify that but all in all it is a nice scene however then there is the ending sometime later zoe and evan reconnect at the now open apple orchard where they reconcile evan apologizing for his actions and zoe forgiving him in so many words stating that it all turned out for the best and like in the stage musical seems to imply that it actually brought their family closer together and i'm sorry what the [ __ ] this is such disingenuous [ __ ] to try and sanitize what evan did again realistically evan's actions probably would have [ __ ] with the murphys and others pretty extensively but we have to end the film on a positive note with a happy message well actually come to think of it what exactly is the message of the story in world's greatest dad it's pretty clear find those who accept you for you instead of acting like someone else to win the affection of others i guess the lesson of dear evan hansen is um sometimes deception and manipulation is kosher because it might inadvertently lead to some positive results how wholesome i know this video sort of veered into just straight up [ __ ] on dear evan hansen but in all fairness a lot but hopefully by comparing and contrasting the films you can see just how much execution matters in making a concept work beyond just thinking up a really interesting concept as a writer you have to ask yourself what genre will the story be comedy drama satire etc how is your protagonist frame as a hero villain or somewhere in between are we invested in the character because we truly understand them or do we just feel bad for them what are the motivations of your character's actions and how do said motivations as well as the peripheral effects of their actions affect the audience's view of them is your protagonist making decisions that reveal their character whether virtuous or selfish or are other characters making decisions for them is your protagonist held accountable for their missteps or not and finally what is the point of the story you are trying to tell these are all questions that are just as important if not more important than the concept of your story i have seen many great ideas and concepts fall flat due to lackluster execution if you have a marketable or clever idea or concept that's great that's an important first step but just know the work is far from over storytelling isn't just about your concept but how you execute it the sign of a truly skilled storyteller is being able to take any concept any idea no matter how ludicrous or seemingly insane and find a way to make it work to make the audience root for someone they should despise to end a ludicrous tale with a touching and uplifting finale to take a seemingly absurd idea and make something great out of it as opposed to um yeah now get out there and tell a [ __ ] story so [Music] you

Channel: Macabre Storytelling

Views: 192,158

Keywords: dear evan hansen, hansen, dear evan hansen movie, dear evan hansen trailer, dear, evan, dear evan hansen trailer 1, dear evan hansen trailer 2021, dear evan hansen movie trailer, evan hansen, dear evan hansen official trailer, dear evan hansen 2021, ben platt dear evan hansen, dear evan hansen you will be found, dear evan hansen cast, dear evan hansen film, dear evan hansen review, dear evan hansen problem, dear evan hanson, dear evan hansen animatic, macabre storytelling

Id: bwQASuRkcNg

Length: 33min 7sec (1987 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 16 2022