Narrative Theory: The Crazies

Tvetan Todorov At the start of the film (Introduction), chaos is introduced at to engage the audience to the event. This immediately makes the audience think what has caused the event. The vent that caused the event was the plane crash, which then infected the water, which would then plague the citizens in the city that drank this water. This actually goes against Todorov’s theory as it states that a balance is present at the start of the film, clearly this is not the case. After showing the burning town which was caused by an infected citizen, the text continues to be superimposed. There is also a disruption to the balance of the film as we don’t actually get an idea of when the plane crash happens, we just see it happen. The crash of the plane turned out to be a complete accident as they didn’t mean to crash there, however the plane was carrying a virus which had been developed by the government. The plane was actually on its way to be destroyed anyway as it was posed to be a big threat. In the movie the first person to be hit by the virus was Rory Hamill who approaches the sheriff with a shotgun at the baseball game which is then abandoned; alcohol was the cause of his behaviour though. After this event, the disease continued to spread and all of the chaos with it, the balance between normality and chaos shifts immensely. No full re-equilibrium exists with this film, as a containment protocol that destroyed Ogden Marsh commences on the town that the couple approach. This is conventional of Horror films but also means that Todorov’s theory does not apply. Levi-Strauss Sanity/Insanity- The sane characters (The Survivors) try to fend off the insane characters Healthy/Unhealthy- The health of the normal people deteriorates as they cannot eat properly and the insane infected people are obviously unhealthy Alive/Dead- People are killed by the insane and the other people try to stay alive Male/Female- David is the male and Judie is the female. They are in a relationship and Judie is pregnant. The male has more power; therefore the female is targeted more. Military/Civilian- The military are seen as evil in the film as they hunt the packs of civilians and the civilians are seen as feeble and innocent individuals. Known/Unknown- The unknown is the infection, how it was made, where it came from. While the town and characters are the known Fear/Courage- Courage is held by the survivors that press on even when everyone is dead and those who sacrifice themselves and the fear are those who panic and get scared and then flee and be hunted by the military Vladimir Propp Villain: The U.S Army. They are the whole reason the virus is in the community because they crashed the military aircraft containing a dangerous chemical. The Hero: David (The town sheriff) as he rescues his wife and several others and escapes from the quarantine. He is also alive at the end of the film. Donor/Helper: Deputy Russell Clark qualifies as both the Donor and Helper. He is the donor because he gives his life so that David and Judie can get past the army without being shot. And he qualifies as the helper because he saves David’ life 3 separate times. The Princess/Father: Judie qualifies as the princess because she is married to David and he is trying to save her and create a new life. She also plays the role of the father as she tries her hardest to protect Rebecca from being killed. The Dispatcher: Rory counts as the dispatcher because he is the first townsperson to become infected by the virus. The False Hero: The Mayor is the false hero as he refuses to turn off the water for the town and by doing so he allows the virus to spread throughout the town. Bordwell and Thompson In the film we don’t actually see the plane crash which infects the water, this is what starts the chain of events throughout the film as the infection swarms round the city, which causes the chaos and rampage the citizens go on because of this infection. The whole event starts off at the baseball game when a drunk civilian carrying a shotgun enters the field, after this they discover the plane which is carrying this infection and realise that’s what caused the man to go psycho. In-between the beginning and end of the film, more civilians become infected and try to inflict damage on the civilians that are not infected, as this is the cause of the infection, many of the civilians encounter different settings and infected which they have to deal with, at the end of the film the main characters survive, this is typical of Horror films.