JCM412512/Narrative Form (Discussion)

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Classical Hollywood cinema

Television discusses seven principal characteristics of classical Hollywood cinema:

  1. G1: Single protagonist
  2. G1: Exposition
  3. G2: Motivation
  4. G2: Narrative enigma
  5. G3 & G4: Cause-effect chain
    • Story time versus screen time--in terms of duration and order
  6. G5 & G6: Climax
  7. G5 & G6: Resolution/Denouement--compare exposition and denouement

Each group: Be prepared to explain one aspect of narrative structure and provide an example of how Ordinary People does (or does not) exemplify it. Does Ordinary People qualify as a classical film? Why or why not?

Signs of character[1]

  1. Viewer foreknowledge
  2. Character name
  3. Appearance
  4. Objective correlative
  5. Dialogue
  6. Lighting and videography or cinematography
  7. Action

Each group: How are these signs of character used to construct the characters in Ordinary People? Explain, with regard to one character from the film:

  • G1 and G2: Conrad
  • G3 and G4: Beth
  • G5: Calvin
  • G6: Jeannine

Signs of performance[1]

  1. Vocal
  2. Facial
  3. Gestural
  4. Corporeal

Each group: How are these signs of performance used by actors to construct the characters in Ordinary People? Explain, with regard to one actor from the film (be as specific as you can):

  • G1 and G2: Timothy Hutton
  • G3 amd G4: Mary Tyler Moore
  • G5: Donald Sutherland
  • G6: Elizabeth McGovern

Cast

Ordinary People narrative

The Jarretts, an affluent family, try to return to normal life after the death of one teenage son and the attempted suicide of their surviving son, Conrad (Timothy Hutton), who has recently come home following a four-month stay in a psychiatric hospital. Alienated from his friends and family, Conrad chooses to see a psychiatrist, Dr. Berger (Judd Hirsch), who learns that the boy had been involved in a sailing accident in which his older brother, Buck, died. Buck, more outgoing and athletic than Conrad, came first in everyone's estimation (including Conrad's). Conrad now deals with posttraumatic stress disorder and survivor's guilt. Conrad's father, Calvin (Donald Sutherland), who awkwardly struggles to connect with his surviving son, is tormented by depression, guilt, and the lingering trauma of the accident. Conrad's mother, Beth (Mary Tyler Moore), who appears to have loved her elder son more, has now grown cold toward Conrad, fixated with maintaining the appearance of perfection and normality. In one telling scene, she overhears her husband telling a friend at a party that their son has been seeing a psychiatrist. Then, on their way home in the car, she berates him angrily for revealing something she thinks should be private.

As Conrad works through his minefield of emotions with Dr. Berger and learns to try to control his emotions less, he starts dating Jeannine (Elizabeth McGovern), a kind and nonjudgmental girl from his school choir. Conrad begins to regain a sense of optimism. However, the suicide of Karen (Dinah Manoff), a friend from the hospital who he had recently seen at a restaurant, threatens to send him spiraling back into depression.

Conrad struggles to communicate and re-establish a normal relationship with his parents and schoolmates. He gets into a fistfight with a loutish schoolmate at a minor provocation, and rejects the overtures from a former friend of his and his brother's because it re-opens the wounds of Buck's death.

In one emotionally charged scene, Conrad argues with his mother while Calvin tries to referee. In perhaps the movie's most revealing moment, Conrad confronts his mother with the fact she never came to the mental hospital to see him:

Conrad: "You would have come if Buck had been in the hospital."
Beth: "Buck never would have been in the hospital."

It isn't until later that Calvin realizes the full import of this exchange: that Conrad's fears that his mother doesn't really love him are probably well-founded.

Eventually, Conrad is able to stop blaming himself for Buck's death, and realizes his mother's frailties as Dr. Berger advises him to accept her as she is. Calvin, aided by a session with Dr. Berger himself, and his own observations, (culminated when Conrad tries to sincerely apologize for his behaviour and affectionately hug his mother and tell her he loves her, she freezes and refuses to return the hug or the sentiment), finally begins to recognize the degree to which Beth has emotionally isolated herself, not just from Conrad, but also from Calvin himself. Calvin confronts Beth about his new feelings, telling her that he questions his love for her, and inquires whether she is capable of truly loving anyone. As Beth packs to leave, her facade is momentarily shattered by a sob, but she struggles and successfully restores the mask, inadvertently proving Calvin correct.

As Conrad is awoken by a cab pulling away, he goes downstairs where his father tells him his mother has left. Conrad's first reaction is to blame himself. Calvin angrily rebukes Conrad for taking that attitude, but then regrets losing his temper. Conrad tells him not to apologize, that perhaps he needs his father to take him to task more often, as he used to do Buck. But now, both having achieved some level of understanding with regard to Beth's feelings toward them, father and son are finally able to truly connect with one another, and they embrace.

From Wikipedia.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Richard Dyer, Stars

Bibliography

  1. Jeremy G. Butler, Television: Visual Storytelling and Screen Culture (New York: Routledge, 2018).
  2. David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction, 9th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010).

External links

  1. Frame grabs from Ordinary People.