Narrative Structures and The Crazies

      1. Does The Crazies follow the CHN? Why or why not?

The Crazies doesn’t properly follow the classic Hollywood narrative but between the 30 second scene at the beginning of the town being on fire and then end scene showing that it’s all going to happen again. The CHR is in-between these things for this film. So in some aspects it doesn’t follow the CHN slightly.

      2.  How many of Propp’s character types can be identified in the film?

In this case the “villains” is the government because none of this would have happened if it wasn’t for them. The hero in this is David as he tries to protect the whole town by turning off the water and going back to try and save his wife. The “baddie” is essentially the government in this case because none of these events wouldn’t have happened if the government hadn’t created the chemical that poisoned the water. The helper would be Russel as he helps David get his wife back, escape the village and sacrifices his life to let them escape form the army. He would also be the dispatcher as he sends the hero on his way to try and get to safety. The princess is usually the person that needs help and protecting which can slightly be seen as Becca. The helper could be seen as Judy because although she gets David in a lot of tricky situations she helps him on his quest for safety. So in The Crazies we can identify 5 out of the 8 character roles.

3.  List 5 examples of binary oppositions in the film and explain them briefly.

-          Dark/Light, these are opposites because in the light usually represents the good and sage and the dark being the evil and danger. But in this film its opposite because the dark it’s more to their advantage as they can hide but out in the light they can be seen easily.

-          Infected/Not infected,

this is the different between the people with the virus and not having it. but because it’s everywhere around the people who don’t have it, it can make them slightly crazy and they feel the need to get away from it

-          Known/Unknown, this is very important in the film and the characters fear a lot of the unknown as there is a lot of it and they don’t really know much of what is happening.

-          Nature/Science, science in this film is the whole results of people turning insane. If it wasn’t for the creation of the bomb then no

thing dramatic would have happened and nature would still be on course.

-          The Government/Everyone else, the government made the virus and by attempting to get rid of it they killed even more people than they intending to in the first place.

       

      4. Identify the 3 ‘durations’ and give an estimate of the time each duration covers

1.       From when the virus/bomb was created by the government till they time the main characters made it to the new city. The whole story duration which probably lasted about 5 years roughly

2.       The actual length of the film so everything us as the audience hears and sees it. This films lasts 92 minutes

3.       The actual plot so from when the man walks onto the baseball pitch and gets shot to when they get to the new city is roughly about 3 days and they make it to the city on the start of the 4^th day.

      5.  Give 2 examples of events that cause later events in the film but which occur before the film ‘starts’

1.       When the plane crashed in the river

2.       When the virus was first created 

      6.  List 2 events from the 92 minute film that happen in a different time and space to the one we are shown.

1.       Everyone getting rounded up into fences by the military to be transported supposedly to safety.

            2.      All the non-infected people being shot in the trucks we know this because Judy finds all the empty bullet shells.