Paradigm Shift
Like many film students, and those just interested in film, I read the book the hails Chinatown as being the best movie script ever. I couldn’t figure out just quite why. Chinatown’s actually a pretty great movie, especially if you love the crime noir, hard-boiled detective type stuff. Which, if you’re a Batman fan like me – you do.
It’s a good film, but I couldn’t figure out what made it so special… so Jack Nicholson gets his nose cut because its a symbol of how he’s really nosy? Yeah, that’s subtle, guys. There’s symbolism in the old Silver-Age Superman tales that’s more subtle and clever… no wait, those stories didn’t have symbolism…
In any case, the book Frizz is talking about is Syd Field’s infamous screenplay book, where he outlines the paradigm of all movies in an incredibly formulaic fashion, laying out 3-act structure in all it’s glory, albeit with a few twists (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, this link explains it further). What’s interesting is to see how, even though I disagree that every story and especially every movie has to be structured in strict 3-act, that paradigm is good, and time tested, and just about everybody follows it–even when they try not to. Zach Braff claims to not follow Field’s formula in “Garden State,” but he does, without realizing it.
Now that I’ve put myself on the spot, I’m having a REAL hard time thinking of movies that don’t follow the 3-act formula. Maybe “Lost in Translation”? “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”? Those are arguable… so argue with me – can you guys think of any movies that AREN’T in the 3-act paradigm? What about good an bad examples of it?
And for those of you who think I think too much (most of you, probably) just tell me some films you like – I want to get to know my readers! Maybe I’ll list my official top 20 movies list later… I need to revise it… hmmm… is “That Thing You Do” better or worse than “Star Trek II”? This needs pondering…
April 25th, 2008 at 8:28 am
All I know is that I kept hearing from film-type people how Blade Runner was the greatest sci-fi flick ever. Maybe I was expecting more, but I didn’t think it was all that great. Maybe my expectations were too high. I liked Dune better. Maybe because it had Patrick Stewart.
You young pup!
April 25th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
I agree… although here’s an interesting bit I always found confusing about BladeRunner… The first time I saw it, it was the Director’s Cut, which was pretty good, but I saw it on TV one day, and I guess it was the normal cut, and it had TONS of SUPER CHEESY voice over work from Harrison Ford! I couldn’t believe it! It was like someone had taken an ok movie, and then just taken a crap all over it. Man, that voice over was weird, and stupid…
Otherwise, yeah Bladerunner was kinda fun, but ultimately dated and not nearly worthy of Philip K. Dick (he wrote the book the film was based on). But Dune… man, I better not say anything about that… wasn’t Sting one of the baddies in that? That makes it worth it alone, I think…
April 27th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
I just think that “Lost in Translation” was one of the worst movies ever made, regardless how many acts it had. For me, the worst movie ever title goes to either “Lost in…” or “Copland”. They both sucked.
April 28th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Oh – “worst movie ever” is one of my favorite games to play! I didn’t much like “Lost in Translation” either, although something about it makes me want to give it a second chance. As far as actual worst movie ever, I’m gonna say it’s a tie between “Avengers” (w/ Sean Connery & Uma Thurman), “Windtalkers,” and possibly “Eragon.” Although you could toss up pretty much anything the Wayans brothers have ever been involved in as well…
April 29th, 2008 at 7:28 am
Worst movie ever = One Night with the King
April 29th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Man, Raychel, that movie is so bad, I haven’t even heard ot it! What is it? Tell of its badness, that I might revel in it…
April 30th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Worst movie ever= Fantastic Four (1994)
basically a big bowl of suck
April 30th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Wow, Pat, I didn’t even know that this movie existed, so I had to look it up. This quote sums it up best: “Fantastic Four creator Stan Lee said that, unbeknown to the cast and crew, this movie was never intended to be released, and was made only because the studio who owned the rights to make a Fantastic Four movie would have lost the rights if they did not begin production by a certain date.”
Oh, my head, the movie business…
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:30 am
i know how ya feel man, i know how you feel.
May 5th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
I can’t…I can’t describe One Night with the King. It must truly be experienced. If I have to give you any clue to its horrindousness (is that a word?), I can only say that Christian audiences around the world (or northern Kansas) thought it should win some Oscars. I’m just saying…Christian movies are not usually good.