Levi Strauss Theory: 'Pale Rider' & 'Die Hard'

Levi Strauss Theory states that the narrative of a story can be explained in a series binary opposites. Many of these are clear from just wastching the opening sequence, such as in 'Pale Rider' and 'Die Hard'.

'Pale Rider'

Safety/Danger: The start of the opening sequence show a happy, calm mining village, but the calm is interupted by a group villainous horsemen who come and destroy the town.

Horsemen/Village People: The village people are quietly going about their daily lives but the horsemen are violently galloping with malice and purpose.

Quiet/Noisy: The tranquility of the town is partially depicted by very quiet, mellow sounds, while the horses are galloping very loudly towards the town.

White Horse/Dark Horses: The horsemen all ride dark brown or black horses, while Clint Eastwood, the 'Pale Rider', riders a white horse.

Group/Lone Man: The bad guys always appear in a group, while the 'Pale Rider' always appears on his own.

Faith/Doubt: The girl is praying over her dogs grave, but asks questions of the existence of god, as she cannot understand why the people are suffering so much.

'Die Hard'

California/New York: He has just flown over to California from New York, and upon arrival complains about the noticable difference, for example he laughs to himself when he sees a young, scantily clad young blonde woman run pat him to embrace her boyfriend at the airport.

Intruders/Partygoers: The people are at a party on the top floor of the building, and the intruders come into the building from the very bottom, trapping everybody on the top floor.

Life/Death: The intruders kill the security guards on the ground floor, letting the audience know that the partygoers' lives are now in danger.

Safety/Danger: Everyone is upstairs in the safety of the party, but the intruders come in, putting everyone in danger.

Together/Apart: Bruce Willis and his wife have been driven apart by her desire to move to California and his desire to stay in New York, but now he has come over to California for Cristmas, they are together again.

Prepared/Non-Prepared: The people at the party are completely unprepared for the attack, while the intruders have planned the attack and are very prepared

Propp's Theory Analysis: Finding Nemo

Characters:

• Hero: Marlin
• Villian: People
• Helper: Dory
• Victim : Nemo

Functions:

• No. 2. : Marlin warns Nemo never to swim over the drop off out into the ocean
• No. 3: Nemo swims out over the drop off into the ocean and is captured
• No. 11: Marlin leaves the reef to find Nemo
• No. 14: Marlin meets Dory who reads the adress on the goggles and they leave for sydney
• No. 15: Marlin and Dory are swallowed by a whale, who transports them to Sydney
• No. 25: After failing to swim out of the tank, Nemo manages to be flushed down the dentist's sink and escapes to the ocean
• No.26: Marlin and Nemo are reunited
• No. 30: Humans lose all of their fish

Criticisms of the theory

• The theory is based on folklore, and may not be as relevant to more recent stories
• There are very few stories that feature all 8 characters and all 31 functions
• It follows a very rigid structure. Most stories are much more complicated than the theory suggests, for example in Always Outnumbered, instead of the film ending with him getting a job, it ends with his best friend dying of cancer on a public bench while he gets on a bus to go and contiue his life as normal
  

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.