Narrative Theory In Relation To Halloween 1978 & The Crazies 2010

Todorov: 3 point structure


Tzvetan Tovorov suggests that stories begin with an equilibrium and follows a 3 point structure known as 'Classic Hollywood Narrative'. Todorovs believes that the film starts off with normality and then theres a disruption. This is clearly not relatable to Halloween because the film starts off with a disruption and then we see a brief glimpse of reality and then back to disruption. So the film doesnt follow the structure and theory that Todorov suggested and is more of an disequilibrium.

Propp: 8 characters

Propp studied hundreds of folk to to see if they shared any structures. In 1928, he published his book 'Morphology Of The Folk Tale'.
After watching these folk tales, Propp identified 8 character roles and 31 narrative structures. These 8 characters were:
1. The Villain "the baddie"
2. The hero "our main protagonist"
3. The donor "provides an object with some magic property"
4. The helper "who aids the hero"
5. The princess "reward for the hero"
6. The father "who rewards the hero"
7. The dispatcher "who sends the hero on his/her way"
8. The false hero "the double agent who hinders the hero rather than helping"

Halloween follows and doesn't follow Propps theory.

1.) The Villain- Michael Myers
2.) The hero- Laurie Strode
3.) The donor- ?? But could be looked into further as the donor being the mental hospital for letting Mike free, causing Laurie to become to hero.
4.) The helper- Doctor Loomis
5.) The princess- The children Laurie is babysitting
6.) The father- Shes given no reward
7.) The dispatcher- ? Possibly the mental hospital again
8.) The false hero- The mental institution

Claude Levi-Strauss- Binary Oppositions

Claude Levi-Strauss came up with the theory of binary oppositions. Strauss said the binary oppositions are are sets of positive values against negative values. For example GOOD vs EVIL. The series of binary oppositions that Levi- Strauss came up with for a science fiction film were:
1. Earth/ Space
2. Good/ Evil
3. Humans/ Aliens
4. Past/ Present
5. Normal/ Strange
6. Known/ Unknown

Halloween does follow Levi-Strauss's theory in a way because we do
recoginse some of binary oppositions.
Binary oppositions for Halloween:

1. Good/ Bad - Laurie/ Mike
2. Past/ Present - We see Mike in the past as a child killing his sister and we see him in the future killing people.


Boredwell and Thompson- Cause and effect

Boredwell and Thompsons never did come up with a narrative theory but did however come up with some interesting ideas. The believed that a chain of events cause effect on a relationship occurring in time and space. This can be portrayed through using effects to show the time and space by flash backs, forwarding time, slow motion and speeding up. 
Their theory does apply to Halloween because we see Mike as a little boy and then it skips 15 years to him escaping the mental asylum.


                                The Crazies

1.) Does 'The Crazies' follow the CHN? Why or why not?  
The Crazies does not follow the typical CHN because start with an equilibrium and starts with a disruption and then followed by the equilibrium.

2.) How many of Propp's character types can be identified in the film?
Villain: The government for creating the virus in the first place and for also killing the healthy innocent people.
Hero: The hero in the film is David.
The Donor: There are 2 donors in the film; David & Russell. They both provide equipment and weapons. For example, David has the car but Russell puts on the wheels.
Helper: Judy and Russell are the helpers in this film. They both help David in some situations to escape and survive.
Princess: Judy
Father: Julie & David because they both want to survive. They re both rewarded with each other being alive.
Dispatcher: The government for releasing the virus.
False Hero: Russell because he starts off helping David and July but then we see him start to turn against him letting us know that he's going to become a crazie. The Government could also be seen as a false hero because they make it seem like they re saving and helping the uninfected people when they re actually killing them.

3.) List 5 examples of binary oppositions in the film and explain them briefly?
-The first scene that we see if the town on fire and its evident that something disastrous has happened and then it flashes back to 2 days earlier where we see the town looking very idyllic and normal. Past/present
-The main binary opposition through out the film is Good/evil. The evil is represented by the crazies and the government because they try to kill to heroes and the good is represented by David & Judy.
- Innocence/ guilt. Yes the crazies are bad because they kill but they re also innocent because its not actually there fault. Guilt comes from the government for creating the virus that made the innocent people crazy.
-Human/aliens. The humans are represented by David and Judy. Human instinct is to help someone when they're hurt or in trouble which David does when Judy is taken away by the military. The crazies obviously represent the alien part. They're bodies are taken over by the virus and they're no longer in control of their body.
- Normal/strange. This applies the most to the scene where they've escaped from the hospital and go back to Judy and David's house for the car to escape. When they reach their house, we see Judy frantically take the washing off the line. This is normal for Judy because shes used to a routine and her idyllic life but its strange considering the circumstances. Her town is has been destroyed and near enough everybody she knows is dead but she still insists on taking down the washing.   

4.) Identify the three 'durations' and give an estimate of the time each duration covers.
-Screen duration: 92 minutes
-Plot duration: 3 days
-Story duration: Judy being pregnant & the plane crash. Even further, the virus being created, tested and then sent for incineration.

5.) Give two examples of events that cause later events in the film but which occur before the film 'starts'. 
- Judy getting pregnant. If Judy had not been pregnant, she wouldn't of had a high fever which meant that her and David which have been sent off together in the trucks to 'safety; which we later find out that, that isn't the case and everybody has been destroyed whether or not they had the virus. So this meant that they both would have been killed. But because Judy was pregnant, she had a fever which caused her to be taken away to the hospital because they thought she had the virus and separated from David. The leads to David escaping to find Judy and surviving. 
-The plane crashing. We never see the plane crash but we know that this is the reason for the virus being spread. If the plane hadn't of crashed, the virus wouldn't have been leaked in the river which lead to the towns drinking water. 

6.) List two events from the 92 minute film the happens in a different time and space to the one we are shown.
- Russell tells David and Judy that the military slashed his trucks tyres but we never see this happen. We know that this is the truth because later on we see his truck and his tyres have been slashed.
-Another event that we don't see happen is the military killing the healthy, innocent people but we know that they do it because when Judy and David are in the gas station, Judy finds the military trucks full of burnt bodies.