The term 'Classical Hollywood Narrative' means the overall structure of a Hollywood movie during the 1920s to early 1960s. According to the Wikipedia article about Classic Hollywood Narrative (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_Hollywood_cinema), the story has a structure of beginning, middle and end, with a direct conclusion to the end of the story, meaning no cliff-hangers, and the story was explainable in a reasonable fashion. One theorist, Tzvetan Todorov, who came up with the theory called the "Todorov Theory". Todorov came up with a small chart showing how a film works, using the term "equilibrium" and "disequilibrium", and it goes a little like this chart shows:
(Chart made by me, information from Narrative Theory handout, used similar chart design from the handout. Picture of Todorov found here: http://www.yenra.com/quotations/tzvetan-todorov.jpg)
The usefulness of the 'CHN' helps us a lot with defining a story and following along with the narrative with ease. This is also helpful when trying to define certain characters, like in a Fairy-Tale movie, it helps to define who the villain is, who the hero is and shows us how the hero will defeat the villain. CHN can also be used for understanding media text for the same reasons, as again, we can see who is good or bad etc. Unfortunately, Halloween does follow this CHN (Todorov's Theory) but then Halloween decides not to kill Michael Myers, the main villain of the franchise. As the writers did not want Michael Myers to die, it disobeys the new normal equilibrium, and the story does not end, leaving the story unfinished, ready for more sequels and ultimately getting the viewer to want to see the next Halloween film, which this works to help sell more at the box-office etc.
Vladimir Propp, a Russian folklorist and scholar, decided to analyse hundreds of Russian folk tales to see whether the stories follow a basic narrative structure. Propp was able to identify 8 different (main) character roles and also found 31 narrative structures within these folktales. The character roles consist of:
The Hero- The main protagonist, usually being the winner over the villain.
The Villain- The 'baddie'... usually creates disequilibrium.
The Donor- Provides the hero with a weapon/object with magical property
The Helper/Sidekick- The person who aids the hero (sometimes being the Donor as well)
The Princess- The 'reward' for the hero, and usually the ransom for the villains schemes
The Father (of said Princess)- Who rewards the hero, usually with the princess
The dispatcher- Who sends the hero on their quest.
The False Hero- The double-agent... ends up hindering the hero instead of helping the hero.
The usefulness of this theory helps us analyse and decipher the different character roles more easily, as most films follow this rule, with the exception of a few characters missing. The film Halloween features some of these characters. The villain being Michael Myers, as suspected early in the film. The main hero is Laurie as she ends up surviving Michael's attacks, even though Myers is now on the run. The Donor is not found in the film Halloween as the actual story of Halloween is more surreal than it is fairy-tale. The Princess, Father and Dispatcher are also absent in this film, unlike the Helper/Sidekick. The helper can be shown as the two children that help Laurie to try overthrow Michael, but end up calling for help as requested by our hero. Another helper could be the doctor of Michael Myers, as he stops Michael from killing Laurie by shooting Myers several times. There is not really a False Hero, but Laurie's friend Annie comes into this category slightly, as Annie is an irresponsible friend who smokes and does everything Laurie would not really do.
Binary opposition is the contrast between Good and Evil, Dead or Alive etc. Basically two things that are the exact opposite to each other. This theory was thought up by Claude Levi-Strauss, who talked about how everything has a binary opposition, like exampled above. Binary opposition is useful in media texts to help the viewer understand who is good/bad etc, which helps the audience to follow on with the story, make story predictions and be engaged in the film.
I will now list 5 binary oppositions seen in Halloween.
Good/Evil- Laurie being good and Michael Myers being "pure evil".
Sources: http://wiki.halloweenmovies.com/images/5/5f/Laurie_Strode_Halloween_1978.jpg
http://wiki.halloweenmovies.com/images/1/15/Michael_Myers_Halloween_1978.jpg
Responsible/irresponsible- Laurie being responsible and Annie being irresponsible.
Death/Life- Dead teenagers laid out on the bed and hung in the room while Laurie is investigating.
Child/Adult- Laurie takes responsibility and tells the kids to run and find help while she tried to mind 'dead' Myers
Virginal/Sexually Active- Laurie being a 'virginal girl' and her friends being sexually active.
Bordwell and Thompson as they are most famously known, came up with a theory of "a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship, occurring in time and space." What this means is that when we watch films, we link different events to make the film more understandable to us. We link flashbacks/flash-forwards to certain characters who are involved with the flashbacks, we also link replayed action and also slow motion moments. Connecting several scenes together in the movie, the viewer will also try make sense of the situation at hand, coming up with conclusions etc. This is useful in media texts as it helps the viewer fully understand who, what, when, where, why and how. We can use this in several ways to decipher a film to make a full understanding of it. One example of this cause-effect theory in work is when Laurie runs away and Michael Myers chases Laurie to try and kill her. Myers chasing Laurie is the effect of Laurie running away, by the cause of Myers wanting to kill her. Another cause effect situation is when Laurie tells the children to run outside to call for help, ultimately leading the Doctor of Myers into the house to help Laurie when she is being attacked. Two events end up having an effect, though we don't see the events happening. One of them being when Myers runs away after getting shot and falling off the balcony. We don't see this happen, but the next scene is different shots of the places Myers has been in the film with his heavy breathing over the top, implying Myers ran away. Another event that we don't see but we know about is Myers setting up the dead bodies in the room of Annie's house. This then causes Laurie to scream and run after seeing the bodies, but we don't see when the bodies were set up like they were in the bedroom.
Section 2;
How does the start exemplify a common technical code of the horror genre?
The start of Halloween consists of Low Key lighting, high pitched parallel music to build suspense. A P.O.V of Michael Myers, and ambient sounds that can be hear like bushes rustling.
How does the setting fit the horror genre?
The story is set in a small town where everyone knows each other, and the towns history. Creepy abandoned house is introduced and strange sightings from our main character, Laurie. Most of the story is set at night on the day of Halloween, where kids dress up as ghosts and ghouls.
What iconography of 'innocence' do we hear or see early on?
When Myers kills his sister, you can hear her scream, but women are usually seen as delicate and innocent. Also when Myers' mask is taken off, he is just a child with a trick or treat outfit on, and an innocent look on his face.
What was the main industry impact of Halloween?
Halloween was a huge success, though the film budget was very low, the popularity lead to the films studio making large profits. Halloween was a simple film to make, and it didn't require too much money to make.
Name some slasher films that followed on from Halloween.
Friday the 13th Pt.1 and Pt.2, Prom Night, Terror Train, Bloody Valentine, Night School, The Burning, Graduation Day, Happy Birthday To Me, Hell Night, The Slayer, The Prowler, and more. The films listed all came out in a couple of years span. (1979-1981)
What are the four plot rules of the Slasher film sub-genre which Halloween began.
1. A traumatizing experience that created the main psychopath killer, in this case, Myers' doctor mentions Myers was born evil, thus having no remorse for his actions.
2. The killer returns to the site of the event, usually on a specific date which allows the film directors etc. to use a name like Halloween or Friday the 13th. In this case, Myers returns to his old house where he murdered his sister and begins to kill on the same night.
3. The killer stalks and graphically kills a group of obnoxious and stupid teens of both sexes, usually with a blade, sometimes a gardening/farming equipment. In Halloweens case, Myers has a large kitchen knife.
4. A 'final girl' survives. The final girl is usually tomboyish/virginal, and she tries to overcome the killer, though the killer never really dies. In this case, Laurie is the girl who survives because of how reliable and organised she is, and how she is unlike her irresponsible friends.
Give three ways in which Laurie is androgynous.
Laurie is presented formally, usually revealing little body skin, and staying closed off in a fashion sense.
Laurie is responsible. She babysits two children and takes action into her own hands, and she tries to kill Myers more than once. She even cares about her work, and wants to go back to get her school work.
Laurie's name is also unisex, and can be used to call both boys and girls.
What does the extract mean by "a reactionary sexual agenda"?
Because Laurie does not follow the norms of a typical female, as she is tomboyish, she is reactionary to the typical female, thus she doesn't really follow any of the stereotypes women are given, unlike her friend Annie who is sexually active and only cares about herself and sex. This leads to Laurie surviving
How does the director, John Carpenter, counter the suggestion that Halloween had a reactionary sexual agenda?
John Carpenter uses the sex in the film as a distraction for the teenagers. John basically said the teens were not ready for an attack because of how they were distracted by each-others presence. Because Laurie was not sexually active, she survives, and people speculated that John Carpenter was only killing off the characters because they were having sex, but he says the sex was only to make the teenagers not pay attention.
Why does Mike Myers kill his sister?
Why not? Myers' doctor explains that Myers was born pure evil, and that all the therapy could not stop him from being pure evil.
Section 3;
Does 'The Crazies' follow the CHN? Why or why not?
In a sense, yes, but the film shows the new Equilibrium before it shows the normal one, though I think this is used to build suspense in the film, and get the viewer to think about how it happened.
How many of Propp's character types can be identified in the film?
The hero; The sheriff of the main town in question.
The Sidekick/False Hero; The Deputy helps through the film, but turns slightly crazy, before coming round forced upon by the Sheriff, and then helps the Hero again.
The Princess; In some sense, this isn't applicable, though the villain is absent, The hero still has to save the Princess from the Army and escape with her.
The Dispatcher; the sheriff himself, as he stumbles upon the plane and then takes action into his own hands.
The Villain; somewhat, is the government/army. They cause the Disequilibrium, though by accident.
List five examples of binary oppositions in the film and explain them briefly.
Sane/insane; the sheriff and the crazies
Good/evil. Normal human to spreading 'virus'
Sheriff/Deputy; How the sheriff's role is much more important than the Deputy's.
Military/Public; Military have much more power to detain and order the general public.
Prey/Predators; in a metaphorical sense, the Sheriff and his group are the prey, and there are two predators, the infection and the military.
Identify the three 'durations' and give an estimate of the time each duration covers.
Looking for the plane in the lake- The time looking for the crashed plane must have taken 2-3 hours from traversing the forest and getting the boat.
Being walked around by the deputy- 2 hours tops. Being forced to walk around while the Deputy points a gun at the Sheriff and his wife.
Getting to the new city. Taken probably a few days in a montage, change of clothes and locations, large fields, suggest a long distance.
Give two examples of events that cause later events in the film, but which occurs before the film 'starts'.
The development of the biological weapon and the transfer of it.
The plane crash. Causes the people to go crazy by the chemical transfer through the water.
When and where the water is drunken/received
List two events from the 92 minute film that happen in a different time and space to the one we are shown.
The ending. The two end up in a new place, but the military believe that the two may be infected, which in turn, makes the whole thing happen again (the contamination protocol).
The infection spreading from the two main characters, as opposed to the water supply being the speader.
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