Movie Analysis

LM 1471

Characters

Individuals
in a
story

There are different ways of

looking at a character in a
story.

Characterization
The process
by which an
author
reveals the
personality
of a
character.

Direct characterization
tells us what the character is
like (humble, ambitious, easily
manipulated).

Indirect characterization
requires readers to exercise their
own judgement, to put clues
together.

Indirect Characterization

 Static(dont change much)

Dynamic (change in some important ways)
Flat (1 or 2 personality traits)
Round (complex, more dimensional

personalities)

Plot Line
Crisis/Climax: The turning point. The
most intense moment (either mentally or
in action).
Complication/Rising
Action: develops and
intensifies the
conflict; the series of
conflicts and crisis in
the story that lead to
the climax.
Exposition: The start of the story.
The way things are before the action
starts.

Falling Action: the tension

subsides and the plot moves
towards its conclusion.

Resolution/Dnoument: The
conclusion, some new
equilibrium is established.

Conflict

The journey

An example: Homer's Odyssey (the story of the

return of Odysseus from the Trojan War; it took
ten years.)
The journey is not so much a physical one as a
personal one (all the adventures that Odysseus
undertakes are stages in his personal progress.)
The reader is constantly reminded that he is
coming home and we are invited to judge his
conduct as he deals with various temptations
along the way.
The physical journey is therefore a means for his
moral and developmental journey.
The man who eventually reaches the end of the
journey is not the same man who started it.

THE HERO
The hero's
journey is both an
actual event and a
metaphor for the
emotional or
psychological
development of
the hero
character. Thus,
the journey is
what causes the
hero to change.

Joseph Campbell

The Hero

Other
important
terms . . .

 Foreshadowing: early clues about what will

happen later in a piece of fiction.

Flashbacks: an earlier event is inserted into

the normal chronological order of a narrative

Irony: a difference between what is expected

and reality.

Style: a writers individual and distinct way of

writing. The total of the qualities that

distinguish one authors writing from another
s.

Setting: time, place and circumstances in

which a narrative, drama, or film takes place.

Symbols: something that stands/suggests

something else.

Assignment
Analyze each of the characters in the movie

Personal Velocity by describing each of the

following aspects:
Physical description
Names
Attitudes
Dialogues
Thoughts/feelings
Actions/reactions of others