Story Crisis, Story Climax 1: Using Film Structure to Outline Your Novel

3rd Edition Foreword

My basic premise in Story Crisis, Story Climax 1 is that the compressed, focused approach to storytelling taken in film has much to teach novelists. As time goes on I find more ways we can benefit from such a study. In the 2nd Edition I supplemented the movie analyses with a closer look at the two stages present in any plot pressure point: the problem, and the decision that results. A story moves from the Act 1 opening problem, disruptive and inciting, to the Crisis and climactic solution in Act 3.

In this current 3rd Edition I have added a brief look at story arc in each film, which reaches from the Act 1 Turning Point 1 decision to the Act 3 Crisis decision. Stripped to its essentials the story arc reveals a greater or lesser change in the life of the protagonist. The Act 1 problem and the Crisis decision are chosen by the writer to produce a specific change, and this determines the content of Acts 2A and 2B.

In Story Crisis, Story Climax 2, the next book in this series, I look at thirty new films and conduct the same problem/decision analysis of the five plot points in a story’s four Acts, but with an emphasis on story momentum.

PART ONE

Introduction

In the pages that follow I present a detailed story analysis of forty recent Hollywood motion pictures, drawing on multiple theoretical sources. Primary among these are the practical ideas of the elements of screenwriting structure popularized by the renowned screenwriter, teacher, and theorist of writing for film, Robert McKee.

My object in this is to uncover how we can apply knowledge of film structure to writing a novel. An understanding of plot points and momentum gives a framework into which you can deploy your storytelling ability. Such a knowledge will tell you where and when to apply this.

In Part One I will briefly explore those elements of a formal film story that McKee identifies – the Inciting Incident, the two major Turning Points, the Midpoint, and the closing Crisis Problem, Crisis Decision, and Story Climax. In addition we will consider the role of theme (controlling idea). In Part Two I will analyze the films, one by one, to uncover how these elements work, or fail to work, in each film.

Let’s dive right in with a sample screen story analysis, demonstrating the approach to be taken in this book. I will analyze William Wyler’s Ben Hur, made in 1959, as it’s a compelling example of this kind of four-act structure.

Ben Hur (1959)

Director: William Wyler

Writers: Karl Tunberg (screenplay); Lew Wallace (novel)

Star Rating: 4.9

Early Action / Background

The story’s setup is familiar. The family of an aristocrat in Judea, Judah Ben Hur (Charlton Heston), at the time of Christ, is arrested on a pretext when he refuses to collaborate with the new governor, Messala (Stephen Boyd), in putting down an insurrection.

Theme

This movie’s overarching theme concerns moral decision-making when such a decision leads to an adverse outcome. The story’s controlling moral idea is the protagonist’s unflinching sense of moral duty placed opposite his one desire, a sworn oath to take revenge on Messala for his treatment of Ben Hur’s family. Ben Hur always chooses the virtuous course of action, except in this matter of revenge. Loving one’s enemy, not seeking revenge, is a difficult and vital element in the new teaching of Christ that forms the background of the story. Ben Hur’s own life is intended as an example of that teaching in action.

This analysis will now consider how the movie’s five plot points create the story’s deep structure: in Act 1 the Inciting Incident and Turning Point1, in Act 2 the Midpoint and Turning Point 2, and in Act 3 the Crisis Decision and Climax. Note in what follows how each interacts with the story’s theme, and how each produces a turning in the story, or reversal.

Act 1

Betrayed into Slavery

Inciting Incident

Most Hollywood movies register this plot element fairly early in the story. This incident presents a problem that disturbs the balance of forces in the protagonist’s life. It demands a response of some sort. At this point the protagonist usually just wants to restore things to how they were before, but it’s in the nature of this incident that going back to how things were – is either impossible or not a desirable solution. There is only going forward. The protagonist is forced into this first accommodation on his journey to solve the problem, and thus arrive eventually at a new balance of forces in his life.

Problem: This film’s Inciting Incident is in the scene of Ben Hur’s mother and sister being arrested and imprisoned after his refusal to betray Judean insurgents against Roman rule.

Decision: He must decide whether to betray his countrymen to help his family, or remain loyal to his countrymen and bring about a horrific outcome for his family. When he chooses the latter, he is sent to the galleys, and his mother and sister are enslaved. The theme postulates that this is the price of making this choice. The 1997 movie ‘Gladiator’ employed a very similar structure.

Turning Point 1

Problem: The slave ship that Ben Hur is imprisoned on is sunk in battle.

Decision: In the heat of battle Ben Hur rescues the general, Quintus Arrius (Jack Hawkins), who held the power of life and death over him. When he saw that Arrius would die without assistance Ben Hur immediately helps his enemy, who would still hold that power over him if the Roman forces prevailed. He again chose against his own self-interest.

The turning: This action takes Ben Hur out of the galley and into a position in a Roman household – his servitude condemned to die on the galleys has ended. The momentum prior to this was down for Ben Hur; his rescue of Arrius is a reversal of fortune, turning momentum up.

Act 2

A Freedman’s Return

Midpoint

A movie’s Midpoint is important structurally because it invests the story with symmetry and coherence, which the audience feels subconsciously. It functions as a sort of hinge: until the Midpoint the story’s place-of-action, the protagonist’s circumstances or affiliation, and his state of mind and attitude are all of a piece, consistent, and this shifts so that what comes after this differs markedly from what came before. More importantly, the story’s thematic position usually shifts as well. Any psychological growth that unfolds in the protagonist would reflect the shift in theme.

Problem: This movie’s Midpoint is a large banquet scene in Rome, when Arrius announces his decision to give Ben Hur his freedom, and adopt him, thus bestowing on him Roman citizenship. Ben Hur has for several years been in charge of racing the Roman general’s chariots in competition.

Decision: He sincerely accepts this gift of freedom, but declines the offer of adoption.

Until this point in the story he was a slave and a Judean; after this Midpoint he is a freedman seeking his family, and briefly he was potentially a Roman citizen if he’d accepted the adoption. His first action as a free man is to inform Arrius of his decision to return to Judea to find and free his family.

Ben Hur’s theme concerns revenge. In the story’s first half the desire for revenge kept him alive, gave him a purpose when nothing else could. After this Midpoint, however, it prevents him from opening up and fully embracing life again.

Turning Point 2

Problem: Ben Hur meets Sheik Ilderim (Hugh Griffith) at a desert oasis, en route to Judea, and drives the Sheik’s chariot. He gives the team of four spirited white horses the best workout since they were last driven by the Sheik himself, years earlier. The Sheik offers him the post of trainer and charioteer.

Decision: This would have been in Ben Hur’s self-interest, but again he declines. He will continue on to Judea to honor his obligation to his family.

The turning: He declines yet another opportunity for advancement and security.

He arrives in Judea, sees his villa now fallen into near ruin, meets with his former betrothed, Ester (Haya Harareet), and her father. He asks the Roman administrator about his mother and sister, and is told they must be dead. His mother and sister are secretly released from prison when it’s discovered they are lepers.

Act 3

A Champion’s Revenge, and Penitence

Crisis Problem

Ben Hur arranges with the Sheik to be his charioteer in an upcoming chariot race in Jerusalem. The Sheik mentions that Messala always appears in such races, and hints that the racing Circus has no law.

Crisis Decision

Ben Hur realizes he can have his revenge on Messala in the Circus and suffer no reprisal. That is his Crisis Decision, to fulfill his desire for revenge in the Circus.

He does achieve this, and is shocked to learn how hollow it is. As mentioned earlier, this story is reprised in the more recent film ‘Gladiator,’ with important differences. In the latter for the protagonist, Maximus, redemption comes not as a religious gift, but as death itself, and an expected reunion with his dead wife and son. Maximus, like Ben Hur, scrupulously honored all his obligations, and took revenge for a great wrong. For Ben Hur there was a profound spiritual awakening, for Maximus there was none.

Story Climax

The strength of any story climax is determined less by the size and scope of the climactic action, and more by the internal intensity of the crisis decision that leads into that action. This is what makes the chariot race scene such a breathtaking climax. It does carry out his crisis decision to finally achieve a material victory over his enemy, but it also carries out and shows its emptiness. The theme comes full circle as well, from the dire outcome from choosing not to betray his countrymen (Inciting Incident), to doing the right thing by the Roman general, Arrius (Turning Point 1), to Ben Hur’s growth into spiritual maturity and the positive outcome this delivers (Climax). The ostensible climax of the chariot race is thus a setup for the deeper climax of Ben Hur’s awakening to the new message of forgiving one’s enemies. In achieving spiritual maturity Ben Hur invites an inner peace, and regrets and atones for the pride of desiring revenge. He feels a profound sympathy for Christ’s suffering which he witnesses, and indeed feels an order of spiritual awe – agape.

Slow Curtain

In the deeper climax, quieter, almost contemplative after the noise and excitement of the Circus, Ben Hur finds and releases his mother and sister from the leper colony, knowledge of which Messala spitefully gave him as a last parting vindictive act. Ben Hur takes his leprous mother and sister into Jerusalem just as Christ’s trial is finishing, and whom he sees and tries to help on the climb to Golgotha. He is truly at this point more devastated over this stranger’s suffering than over his own family’s pain and loss. But then he realizes too that he knows this man, who had once given him water years before on his painful way to the galley. Ben Hur is rising out of himself, out of his preoccupation with his own suffering.

At the moment of Christ’s death, as thunder and lightning fill the night sky, Ben Hur’s mother and sister are cured of their leprosy. He sees them on the staircase restored to full health, and runs to embrace them. They look to the sky, to a new world they have seen arise.

It still rocks, after all these years!

Summary

The structural elements discussed above involve first, an Inciting Incident problem, followed by corollary problems that arise later, near the end of Act 1, Act 2A, Act 2B, and before the Crisis Decision of Act 3. Next, following each problem a decision is made by the protagonist which usually produces a turning (in momentum direction). Also, the Inciting Incident, major Turning Points, and the Crisis/Climax all bring the audience back time after time to the story’s cluster of controlling ideas (on revenge, doing his duty, and not acting in his own self-interest).

I will now consider each plot point, coming next.

Plot Pressure Points

Writing this book has brought home to me the paramount importance of a story’s theme. The controlling idea, as McKee calls it, does not inevitably percolate to the surface as a story is written. It is usually necessary to excavate the primary idea among many such competing ideas that help shape the story. The story focuses on some specific issue in the human condition, and gradually isolates a critical moral premise implicit in that issue. The theme and its moral premise then is the central issue behind the characters, places, and events of the story. It manifests tangibly in the story as a series of unspoken questions that one or more of the characters struggle with, especially the protagonist. As the story unfolds key dialogue (often) turns on these questions, and the answers provided in the story action do evolve.

The moral premise is implicitly introduced in the Act 1 Inciting Incident. In many stories the position taken on it shifts radically during the Act 2A Midpoint. Also, it’s returned to in either or both of the Act 1 and Act 2B Turning Points. The Crisis Decision is the last occasion the protagonist faces it. When the theme is clear to the writer it is much easier to turn the story – create turning points. Lastly, knowing your characters means knowing where they stand on that moral premise, and why.

The basic unitary component in a story is the scene. How does a scene work? First, a scene’s point of view character has a desire. He or she takes action on that, and meets opposition from a character or an inanimate force. Several action / opposition beats occur as a scene unfolds. This conflict results in a change. That is how McKee defines a scene: desire, action, opposition, change. The building-up of such pressure occurs as readily over a sequence of scenes, and over a series of sequences to form one Act, as within a single scene. Whenever such pressure (cathexis) reaches the breaking point, a turning occurs (catharsis), whether at the level of a scene, a sequence of scenes, or most importantly at the end of an Act. This discharge of pressure also changes the story’s momentum direction. Every scene thus turns the story. The five major points of catharsis, or plot pressure points, turn the story’s basic direction.

Everything in the writing process flows from an understanding of these two elements: the scene, and theme. This will become clear as you read through the story analysis of specific movies. When you understand scene dynamics then its various applications in Turning Points, Midpoint, and the Crisis/Climax becomes much easier. In effect planning your story’s events becomes much easier. Moreover, knowing your story’s theme will tie that process together, and facilitate the decisions that characters reach. If you change the story’s theme you change the forces the protagonist faces, and thus the decisions he makes, and thus the story itself.

I will now go into more detail about each of these pressure points, and theme.

Inciting Incident

The first important structural moment in a story is its Inciting Incident. McKee defines this as an event that radically upsets the balance of forces in the protagonist’s life. It turns the prevailing momentum in place at that point. Momentum is defined as the direction of the protagonist’s fortunes. Positive or up momentum refers to an improvement in his (or her) fortunes, and a negative or down momentum to a worsening. Thus a ‘reversal of fortune’ is when the prevailing momentum is turned, as in a turning point. Even the Inciting Incident qualifies as a turning point, the story’s first, in the sense that it turns Act 1 momentum, however briefly.

The incident in the Inciting Incident is not an internal event in