Film Courage: I'm loving this disunity-to- unity sort of transformation. Can we use this as an
example for a film? Scott Myers, Screenwriter and Blogger of Go Into The Story (Blacklst): Sure. Well there's so many
that's why I call the book The Protagonist Journey because it's you
know Hollywood loves happy endings and even indie films generally have a
happy ending and so that's that positive arc you know there are movies where
characters don't go through an arc they don't they refuse to change or they go
through a negative arc like Charles Foster Kane and Citizen Kane started off
in a state of unity in Colorado and he was yanked out of there and he always
just wanted to go back then it's with the snow globe represented right so he
ended up in this dissolute state and eventual despair and death but most
movies have a positive arc and so for example that this unity to unity those
four movements that's my language system there's other ways to refer to it and by
the way this alliance with what has become more and more popular now amongst
Pro writers that I know to thinking of the structure of four acts as opposed to
three if you look at the psychological journey of the character you know that
these four movements echo that so let's look at a movie like The Silence of the
Lambs so Clarice Starling is in a major state
of disunity at the beginning she her father was killed when she was 11 years
old so she was orphaned she was sent to her uncle's Montana farm where she had a
horrific experience where basically that all those negative associations of death
and whatnot were attached to an experience she saw when she witnessed
the spring the slaughter of the spring lambs and that's when she has these
dreams that's an example of the unconscious trying to come into the
light of consciousness her dreams right and so she's she did come a law
enforcement officer father was a losing you know Sheriff's Department but she
doesn't become a sheriff no she goes to the behavioral science you and FBI which
deals with like serial killers and the motivations and the mindsets of people
who are and assess evil she is drawn to that because she wants to understand how
these dyes could have killed her father so she's got all this going on she's
also a woman and the mail environment and she's trying to
hide her West Virginia roots as Lecter here says you know no more than three
generations and pull away trash right well that's good
so so she's in a state of disunity and when I've said that young quote you know
if the situation is remains unresolved it happens outside his fate it's when
Jack Crawford invites her in to go basically to tease and tantalize Lecter
to try and get clues about the Buffalo Bill case that had to happen she had she
could have met any other serial killer it had to be Hannibal Lecter why because
he's a psychotherapist and he could lead her into herself she's never going to be
able to move to unity unless she deals with that stuff that's deep deep down in
her unconscious so he's the perfect pert he's the mentor in Silence of the Lambs
even if he's a psychopath he's not the nemesis the nemesis is Buffalo Bill
right so she has to go on this journey and she's pulled out of being an agent
in training so now she's in the field with Jack Crawford
she's Jack Crawford tells her point-blank with the first meeting don't
let Lecter inside your head which is exactly what she does she lets Lecter
inside her head because she knows intuitively that that's where she needs
to be she needs to have this guy of course she's doing it ostensibly because
she's trying to get clues to save Katherine Martin who was a kidnap victim
Katherine Martin in my view is the attracter character because Clarice
identifies with her you know Lecter says he believed he's a Paul Katherine Martin
you can stop the awful crying in the land
she's a young single woman just like Clarice she's from the south just like
Carla Reese she's a victim just like Clarice was in terms of her parent
getting killed so you've got this journey of her becoming more and more
less and less afraid of being like a rookie and more and more embracing her
role as an FBI agent remember she does that autopsy where she finds that clue
with the with the moth seed in the one of the victims mouths so
by the midpoint she's really starting to become more proactive so he's
deconstructed her old ways being also deconstructed her fear about telling the
truth to elect her they make that deal quid pro quo you tell me things and I'll
tell you but nothing I don't hear about the case from you I want to hear about
your personal life and so she does start to talk about her personal life leading
to that big moment where she confesses the Montana farm to Lecter which is key
because she has to face that fear and so she's reconstituted she's you know
reconstructed now and much more proactive in fact once Lecter's gone he
escaped she says it's all over but then she realizes Lecter gave them a clue
again mentor figure we covet what we see and so she now realizes ah the first
victim was someone that Buffalo Bills saw so I'm gonna go to his hometown and
she does this on her own she's completely proactive now she's bending
rules she is doing what she needs to do you know embracing her power and all of
that is to set into motion the final struggle between she and Buffalo Bill
buffalo bill represents the boogeyman the guys who killed her father so she's
got to face them and if you look at that less that last act and is so great and
and the stylist don't laugh because she keeps going through doorways one
threshold after another she's got to go through deeper and deeper into Buffalo
Bills lair and so she faces down her nemesis and and she kills him you know
so that's a classic example of a character who goes from disunity toward
a state of unity through those four stages and so Lecter would not be the
shapeshifter chameleon check out there's accident the trickster characters Jack
Crawford who because he lies to her he's using her as bait to get Hannibal Lecter
he if there's a scene in the autopsy where she's surrounded by all these men
these male and he gets the head of the the sheriff's guy let's go talk in
private you know and he does this thing like he's saying let's get away from her
so he's in it he's an ally but he's also kind of an enemy and she calls him on
that and then even at the where she says she's found out that the
Buffalo Bills a seamstress and you know she's at the home and and in in Crawford
says no no we've got that we know areas he's in Joliet Illinois we're gonna go
we're gonna go get him thanks for all your help so she's not you see what I'm
saying enemy ally ally me also Alex Chilton who's the the head of the
psychiatric were the prison where Lecter is he's also a trickster
remember he hits on her like in the first scene he says you know Baltimore
could be kind of a fun town if you know and then he also plants a recording
device in there he's listening to her talking to Lecter and then takes Lecter
away from her to Memphis so those are your trickster characters I think lect
and Lecter cement or the attractor is Katherine Martin and and the nemesis is
Buffalo Bill
you