Todorov's Narrative Theory: Shaft Opening

1. Who are the agents: the protogonist and antagonist.

• The protagonist is Shaft, a detective. From the opening scene we get sense that he is very good at his job, as he spots the waitress and reads her body language to finds the suspect. He also spots the blood on his finger and on her face. We also get the sense that he is ruthless, by the way he punches Walter when he makes a racist remark about the victim. He also seems to be unpopular, as another detective detective says "Please tell me he's not running this case".



• Walter is the antagonist, the son of a rich property developer. He murders the victim in a racist attack, and then continues to mock him racially as he is dying, suggesting that he is a racist. He seems very cocky because of the wealth and power of his father, as if he knows for sure that he will not be caught for his crime.

2. Describe the Equilibrium. How is it represented? What kind of camera shots can you identify?

• The film begins in equilibrium, with Shaft attending to another case as he would every day.



• The scene begins with a large pan of the city and his car coming into shot, which cuts into an MS of the car pulling up and Shaft getting out, immediately introducing him as the main character. A forwards track behind him shows him almost swaggering to the crime scene, and his long black leather coat and the music in the background emphasises that he is a very smooth character.
  

3. Is the Disruption or Disequilibrium introduced or hinted at?

• The equilibrium is disrupted when Walter murders the victim. The murder would just be like any other case, but as this is a racial attack, and Walter appears so smug, Shaft takes this case personally.


• The one witness to the crime disappears, so Shaft needs to find her.
  

4. Are there any visual/verbal/aural clues that hint at what the hero's journey might be? (e.g having to solve the murders within a time-limit of seven days in "Seven")

• You can tell by the wealth and arrogance of Walter that he is not going to be easy to convict, and also the witness has gone missing. This implies that Shaft will spend the rest of the film trying to convict Walter of the murder, and he will need to find the witness in order to do this.

5. From your knowledge of the film, how will the equilibrium be restored and what will be the new equilibrium?

• The new equilibrium comes at the end of the film when, after two failed court hearings, Walter is convicted. The witness is found and she testifies against him.
• The new equilibrium is the same as at the beginning; Shaft will still have more cases to solve. Walter is now dead, having been shot outside the courtroom.