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Popular Motion Pictures are Imbued with the Center of All Truth

by Stan Williams

4/18/02

What is the most important ingredient for making a successful motion picture? If you answer a top named star and director you'd be wrong. Also relatively unimportant is the size of the film's budget, its genre, setting, or music. The most important ingredient is something called structure; or more specifically the story's structure.

Varieties of Structure

And while storytellers often use stories to tell us lies, the structure of popular movies inherently contains the center of all truth.

Story structure in a motion picture is comprised of two things: the story lines of characters in conflicting relationships, and turning points that force those relationships to change. Think of a well-structured screenplay like a well-constructed skyscraper. The skeleton of the skyscraper is made of steel girders held together by rivets. The architect arranges the girders and rivets in ways that create an aesthetically pleasing building that soars to a peak. Likewise the screenwriter arranges the characters' story lines and turning points to build an engaging story that soars to a climax.

Structure comes in a variety of models. Lately, films like The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and the Star Wars films are based on a 12-step Mythic structure by James Campbell where heroes cross thresholds, work through ordeals, and after a "resurrection" experience, return with the elixir. Other interesting structures include the five stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance, which is the basis for films such as Groundhog Day. Many Romantic comedies such as Return To Me are based on the Allison Fisher purchase funnel: Awareness, Familiarity, Consideration, Trial, and Purchase. But the age-old Three Act model: Set-up, Confrontation, Resolution, is so robust that it appears inherent in even the more sophisticated models.

The Three-Act model seems even more profound, if not providential, when we include the two turning points that occur between the acts. If we call the first turning point New Opportunity and the second turning point Major Setback our Three-Act model looks like Figure 1.

The All-Importance of Sacrificial Love

Now, here's the amazing thing about most successful motion pictures. In Act 1, the Set-Up, the filmmakers usually make a variety of promises, not only to the audience but also through the protagonist to the other characters. These promises become the hero's goal and the spine of the story. The first turning point or New Opportunity is really the birth of the protagonist's new identity that allows him to pursue his goal. That new identity is confronted and tested throughout Act 2 resulting in the protagonist's sustained suffering. The turning point between Act 2 and 3 usually involves a major sacrifice by the protagonist or someone close to him. This leads to Act 3 where the protagonist experiences redemption of his identity and attainment of his goal. Using these new terms, the diagram looks like Figure 2.

Does that look familiar? It should if you have any notion of Christian upbringing. It's the structure of the Gospel Story. In Act 1 (the Old Testament) Christ's coming is promised. The first turning point is Christ's birth, the new opportunity for the relationship between God and mankind. That propels Christ into Act 2 where he suffers greatly and at the second turning point sacrifices his life. In Act 3 Christ is resurrected and achieves the goal promised from the beginning — mankind's redemption.

As I sit here scanning a list of the top films of all time this structure is present in every one. For me, the pervasiveness of this structure is evidence that God has been mystically involved in the minds and hearts of Hollywood screenwriters from the industry's beginning. Especially evident is the Sacrifice Turning Point. Consider the critical importance of that turning point in these recent films.

In A Beautiful Mind, John Nash puts aside his medication and sacrifices his heath and reputation for the sake of his wife, Alicia, while she sacrifices her safety to help him overcome his illness. In Black Hawk Down, U.S. Rangers willingly sacrifice themselves at the gates of Mogadishu Hell to save the lives of their buddies. In Gosford Park Mrs. Wilson, the perfect servant, sacrifices her life for that of her son who doesn't even know her. In Titanic, Rose risks her life to save Jack from drowning only for the tables to be turned when Jack sacrifices his life to save Rose. In The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings Gandalf and others repeatedly sacrifice their lives for the safety of the Fellowship and peace for Middle Earth.

Why is this story model so popular? I think it's because it is a truth that is imbued in all nature, i.e., the sacrifice of one living thing for another. We cannot survive, for instance, without the sacrifice of plants and animals that provide us with food. They must die so we can live. When God decided to make mankind in his image, I believe he imbued on our psyche the all-importance of sacrificial love. So, when we see a true rendering of sacrificial love in a motion picture our approval encourages others to go see it as well.

True, Noble, Right and Pure

As Catholics we often hear that The Eucharist is the focus and center of our faith. That is because The Eucharist embodies the most important, pervasive, ubiquitous, natural truth of all creation: that through suffering and sacrifice for another, a greater good always results. In that way popular motion pictures, while not sacred, do embody a sacramental form of The Eucharist and demonstrate for us how we should live and love.

And yet, although the Gospel structure is inherently present, the explicit story and message of a motion picture can be distorted. So, when men of ominous intent control the storytelling process, we hear stories and get messages about gratuitous evil. The invitation, then, is for men and women of goodwill to get involved, learn the motion picture craft, and produce stories that are true, noble, right, pure, excellent and worthy of praise.

(Dr. Stan Williams is Executive Producer and Managing Director for SWC Films, an independent feature film development company seeking investment partners. He can be reached at Stan@StanWilliams.com.)