Trying to track down a sensible and clear explanation of the 7 (or 8) basic script writing plot points I found this very clear example printed in The Guardian. The writer is basing his examples on Casablanca. To me its much more satisfying than the other stuff around. The letter follows and expands on 8 points delineated by Rory Johnston, London NW3 CONSIDER the following application of Mr Johnstons eight prototypical plots: 1. Cinderella. Rick, an expat Yank bar-owner in wartime Morocco, begins as a drunken cynic but his essential goodness is at last celebrated. 2. Achilles. Like the Greek warrior, the proud, fatally flawed Rick - once a doer of great deeds - spends most of the story sulking in his tent. He is forced into selfless action only for the sake of the refugee Elsa, the woman he loves. 3. Faust. Ricks good looks, fame and wealth may be parochial but they are Faustian and gratuitous. Inevitably, Ricks debt is called in and he gives up his business, his girl and everything he has lived for. 4. Tristan. Manly Rick (Tristan) loves and is loved by sultry Elsa (Isolde) but she is already married to wimpish Victor Lazlo (King Mark). 5. Circe. Elsas wiles entice Rick into her service only to destroy him. 6. Romeo and Juliet. Once, in Paris, Rick and Elsa loved and lost each other. Here, in Morocco, they get back together but are finally parted again. 7. In a concrete sense the gift taken away is a Letter of Transit which would enable Rick to go back to America but which he is forced to give up to Lazlo. More symbolically, the gift is of personal happiness and is sacrificed to political necessity, since to save Lazlo is to save the world for democracy. 8. The Irrepressible Hero is Rick personified. There is also a ninth archetypical story-line, The Wandering Jew, which is bafflingly excluded from Mr Johnstons list. Rick is, of course, the persecuted traveller who will never return home. Thus, instead of eight (or nine) stories, there is only one, and it is called Casablanca . Robin Blake, London WC1.
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 07:31:21 +0000
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