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There are exceptions to every rule, and visual mediums of fiction are no, err… exception.
I’ve been watching The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney Plus and I feel like I’m really starting to sound like a broken record regarding Marvel Studios’ track record because damn if it hasn’t been far better than I expected. I figured I’d watch it just ‘cuz but now much like WandaVision I’ve been eagerly looking forwards to Fridays again.
Anyhow, spoilers to a minimum but the most recent episode has some heavy scenes, one of which is has an elderly black man talking about his past. And that’s it, just him talking, with a few reaction shots and props spiced in. No flashbacks, no ghostly sound effects… it’s about as minimalist as it could get, and also of course breaking the rule of “show, don’t tell.”
Talking heads can easily be boring, or a sign of budget limitations and nothing more. And yet, I found it riveting and all the more effective for leaving things up to the imagination. I was reminded positively of Quint’s speech in Jaws about his time on the final voyage of the ill-fated U.S.S. Indianapolis. The speech in TFATWS was not nearly as pure as that one unbroken tracking shot, but it reminded me of the exception. Sometimes, just sometimes… tell can be better than show.