2. Does The Crazies follow the CHN?
Why or why not?
The film does not follow the Classical Hollywood Narrative structure as
the film starts and finishes with a bad event (disequilibrium). At the start
of the film there is a scene of the town on fire and burning, Rory then
gets shot meaning that the initial equilibrium is disrupted, at the end
there is also no equilibrium due to the next town, Cedar Rapids, getting
infected.
Rory walking onto the
pitch at the baseball
game
End credit scene showing cedar
rapids getting infected
Classical Hollywood
narrative structure
3. How many of Propp’s character types
can be identified in the film?
Within the film many of Propp’s narrative types can be identified. These are as follows: The Villain/s are the Military, the government and
the Crazies; these are classed as the ‘villains’ as the military are meant to be helping the people who are ‘clear’ evacuate however instead
they kill everyone, the government are the villains too as they were the ones who created the biological weapon and created the problem
in the first place and the crazies are the villains as well as they are killing people too.
The princess is Judy as she acts almost as the ‘damsel’ in distress and David protects her throughout the film.
The hero within the film is David as he protects Judy and helps her to escape the town alive.
The false hero/es are Russell and the military. These are the false heroes as the military were expected to help people however they ended
up killing them even if they were clear of the virus. Russell was also the false hero as he helped David and Judy to escape however he did
almost kill them by holding a gun to their heads.
The helpers within the film were Russell and Judy. Russell helped Judy and David to escape by sacrificing his life to help them and Judy
helped David to escape.
Russell Judy David The military
4. List five examples of binary
oppositions in the film and explain
them briefly.
Normal/ Crazy – This is an example of a binary opposite within the film as there were the
people who were ‘normal’ and clear of the virus and then there were people who were
crazy. This also links to the binary opposite of human and non-human as the people who
were crazy had animal like characteristics/ behaviour.
Known/ Unknown – This is binary opposite within the film as the known is what everyone in
the town is used to and then everything changes and becomes unknown as they do not
know if they are going to survive or not. This links to the binary opposite of past and future
as the past is what everyone knew and the future has become unknown.
Innocence/ Corruption – Innocence and corruption is a significant binary opposite as the
crazies have become corrupt and characters such as Judy show innocence.
Good/ Evil – This is a very strong binary opposite that is featured within the film as the
characters who are clear of the virus, such as Judy and David are ‘good’ whereas the crazies
and even the military are ‘evil’.
Safety/ Danger – This along with good and evil is another very important binary opposite
as quite often, certain characters within the film believe they are safe then danger strikes
and over rules the safety they felt.
5. Identify the three ‘durations’ and give
an estimate of the time each duration
covers.
The three durations within the film are the plot time, story time and
screen time. The screen time is 92 minutes, the plot is roughly 4 days and
the story time is unknown but could possibly be more than a few
months/ years, this is because we do not know how long the planning
took to create and move the biological weapon that caused the events
within the film.
6. Give two examples of events that
cause later events in the film but
which occur before the film ‘starts’.
The plane crash causes the majority of the events within the film as that
was what was carrying the biological weapon which contaminated the
water and made the town go ‘crazy’.
Judy’s pregnancy also effects events within the film as her and David are
separated during quarantine as they believe she has the virus and David
is clear. David gets sent to quick phils gas station along with everyone
else who is clear and is being evacuated. However, he escapes and goes
back to find Judy which means that he escaped being massacred by the
military at quick phils.
7. List two events from the 92 minute film
that happen in a different time and
space to the one we are shown.
Two significant events that happen within the film in a different time and
space to what we are shown are: Russell’s tyres on his truck are spiked, we
are not directly shown this event however later on it becomes apparent
that this happened. The other event is: the military killing everyone at
quick phils. At the beginning we believe that that is the place where
everyone is being sent to evacuate Ogden marsh, however late on when
David and Judy return it becomes obvious that the military went in and
massacred everyone who was there, regardless of if they were clear of the
virus or not.
