- A state of equilibrium at the outset.
- A disruption of the equilibrium by some action.
- A recognition that there has
been a disruption.
- An attempt to repair the
disruption.
- A reinstatement in equilibrium.
Todorov's narrative structure clearly does not relate to Halloween by Carpenter in 1978. We can tell this by the very first scene from Halloween where Mike Myers murders his sister- the film starts with a disruption of equilibrium. Furhermore, this theory does not relate to Halloween as there is no reinstatement of equilibrium as Mike Myers in never caught, even though he has been shot and stabbed many times, meaning the threat continues.
Theorist Vladimir Propp, looked at the characters in stories and stated there were eight basic characters in traditional narrative that we can again transpose to film. Here are the main character types according to Propp;
-The hero
-The false hero
-The villain
-The donor
-The princess
-The father
-The helper
-The dispatcher
These character types could be seen as quite similar to those in Halloween but not all of these are present in the film. The hero would be Laurie as she thwarts the killer only for him to come back to life however this could be disputed as The Doctor Loomis is needed to save Laurie from the killer towards the end of the film, so some may argue he could be the hero. In halloween there doesn't appear to be a false hero. The villain would obviously be Mike Myers who is on a killing spree after managing to escape from the institution he was being held captive in. I do not believe there is a donor in Halloween as Laurie doesn't really recieve anything for help from anyone, this shows Laurie is quite resourceful and handled the situation well with what she had. There isn't a princess in the film as there is no one for the hero to protect in this role; although Laurie is the villains target she is not the princess. There is no Father in the film as there is no one to reward Laurie or the Doctor for their barvery; there is nobody trying to guide or look after the heroes. The helper would be Doctor Loomis who aids Laurie when she is tyring to kill Myers, the doctor shoots Myers stopping him from killing Laurie. The police officer could also be seen as a helper although he is pretty useless and never seems to be around when there is danger to the public. The dispatcher is not evident in Halloween as there ins't a character who sends Laurie on a quest; Laurie recognises the danger herslef and acts upon it.
Levi-Strauss was a French anthropologist who lived in the early 1900s. His theory was that the way we understand certain words doesn't depend on the meaning it creates but more on our understanding of the difference between the word and its 'opposite' which is called 'binary oppositions'. Strauss realised that words purely act as symbols for society's ideas and the meaning of words, therefore, he believed that there was a relationship between opposing ideas.
Examples of binary opposition:
Good vs Evil
Dark vs Light
Past vs Future
Feminine vs Masculine
Human vs Alien
In the film Halloween there are a few binary oppositions such as Good vs Evil. Obviously, the good is Laurie and her friends who are law abiding citisens and the bad is Mike Myers- the serial killer. This binary opposition also links in with dark vs light as when we see the killer strikes he seems to always be in the dark, whereas Laurie and her friends are usually in the light. This shows there is opposition between Mike Myers and Laurie and her friends.
Bordwell and Thompson defined narrative as 'a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship, occuring in time and space' in their book 'Film Art: An Introduction. They decided a narrative typically begins with one situation, a series of changes occur according to a pattern of cause and effect; finally a new situation arises that brings the end of a narrative. Furthermore, they said narrative can use technical techniques to manipulate our awareness of the time and place for example, flashbacks, replays of action, slow motion, speeding up and jumping between places and times.
When we are watching a film we try to connect the events to make sense of what is happening, to see a line in cause and effect. Even if there is no obvious connection, we still try to make one.
In relation to Halloween it is difficult to associate with Bordwell and Thompson's theory however I think the best example would be whenever something goes wrong for the teenagers we always persume it's Mike Myers who has caused this. For instance when one of the girls gets locked in the wash room we make a connection that it is the killer who has trapped her in there so that he can kill her. This creates tension and excitement as we expect an attack from the killer.
The crazies
1. Does the crazies follow classic hollywood narative? why?
- The crazies doesn't follow this narrative described by Todorov as the film starts with a disequilibirum opposed to the traditional 'equilibrium at outset'. The disequilibrium is the houses being burnt down, this is said to have happened 2 days after the story begins. Furthermore, the crazies has no happy ending or 'reinstatement of equilibrium' as the final scene shows us that the town that David and Judy are escaping to also get the virus.
2. How many of Propp's character types are evident in the crazies?
- The hero- David
- The villains- The military, the government and possibly the crazies themeselves
- The donor-
- The helper- Russell
- The princess- Judy and Becca
- The false hero- Russel, the military
The hero is David as he is the character who tries to come up with the answers to solve the prediciment and he is also the one who is the first to realise there is a problem with his town. The villains are the military as they are trying to exterminate everyone who has so far survived the virus and this includes David, Judy, Russell and Becca who we want to survive. The government are also the villains as they were the people who started the virus and allowed it to spread to the people in the town. The helper would be Russell who is David's assistant. He saves David several times but is not the hero as ultimately he is the second sheriff and he is told what to do by David, however until towards the end of the film we seem to have a feeling of reasurance when he is present. The princess' would be Judy and Becca who David and Russell seem to be continuously saving. David is especially keen to protect Judy as she is carrying their future baby. In my eyes the dispatcher would be the mayor as towards the start of the film he tells David that the water supply will not be turned off even if it is the cause of the virus spreading. He doesn't directly send David and Russell on their misson but his decision means that they have to try and save their town on their own. The false hero would probably be Russell who we believe to be good through the film until he becomes quite sick when he seems to try and put David and Judy in more danger by doing foolish things. However he does ultimately sacrifice himself for David and Judy to get to safety beyond the army camp. The military could be seen as a false hero as usually you think of the military as being on the good side however they are actually killing people of the public including trying to kill David and Judy.
3. List 5 examples of binary opposition in the crazies:
-Good vs Bad
-Night vs Day
-Moral vs Immoral
-Safe vs Unsafe
-Innocence vs Guilt
4. Identify the three 'durations' and give an of how long they are
- The story is said to have happened over meaning the plot duration is 3 days: the first day we see the first example of the virus in the old man carrying a gun accross the baseball field. Two days after we see the burning of the houses and then the next morning is when Judy and David have nearly reached where they are escaping. We also know incidents occurred even though we weren't shown them in the film; we know Russell had previously tried to escape from the town because when they are in the school bus being transported to the high school he talks about his car bieng spiked to stop him escaping. The story duration is about 2 years as we know from the film that incidents have occured before what is being screened, such as the crashing of the plane that carried the virus. When the soldier in the trees is discovered we are told that he has probably been there for about a year. The government had also been prepared for the virus to strike as they knew it would happen. The actual screen duartion is 92 minutes, meaning we have been made aware about all of these events and incidents in the 92 minutes so we understand the story.
5. Give two examples of events that cause events later in the film but which occur before the film 'starts'.
- Judy becoming pregnant is an important event that occurs before the film begins as this is what made her get seperated from David at the school. This in turn makes David leave the group of people, where if he had of stayed he would've been shot dead, to go and save her. Judy falling pregnant is also important because this seems to give even more of a reason for David to look after Judy. Furthermore, we also desperately want them to survive so they can have the baby together.
- Another event would be the initial spreading of the virus when the plane crashes into the towns river and into the people's drinking water. This is obviously the cause of the virus and it spreads to different people creating fear for the people who do not have this contageous disease.
6. List 2 events from the 92 minute film that happens in another time or space from the ones we see.
- We find out at the very end that this horrific disease has spread to other neighbouring towns. We never actually see this but we see a news report stating that the new town, Cedar Rapids, now has the virus.
- We also learn that Russell tries to escape before being captured by the miltary. We know this because he tells David and Judy that the police spiked his trucks wheels when he was trying to get away from the town. Also, we see his truck when he is with David and Judy on the road. He goes inside his car and we see he had a cool pack with supplies to escape from the town.
No comments:
Post a Comment