Story and N arrative – Action

The main type of storyline used in the conventional action genre is the use of having a protagonist defeating the antagonist. This can be shown in a multitude of ways, by crushing the persons intentions by removing him from what he is good at, crushing his master plans which would not allow him continue on with his plans and sometimes this could be the protagonist changing the antagonists state of mind. I think that the next most conventional aspect of an action genre is having a potential love interest who is played by an attractive actress this is used to attract the male audience. In some action movies storylines that director may consider using is; somebody might get kidnapped and the protagonist goes out in search for them, this storyline was shown in the movie “Taken”. Somebody gets murdered and the protagonist goes looking for the murderer, Fast and Furious 4 used a similar storyline. The protagonist has done something to the antagonist in the past, an example of this was shown in the film Taken 2. The antagonist has done something to the protagonist, this example was shown in the movie The Expendables 2. In some movies the protagonist is an ex-cop, ex-soldier, and ex-agent. Also action movies use a specific colour scheme the main colour used is black and they also use dark colours which symbolise death. They also use the colour red which symbolises death and both. These colours appeal to males because they are not cheerful and happy but instead are strong, dull, and aggressive colours. This is the reason why all actions movies have a specific colour scheme but if they don’t, they would lose their target audience. For example if the character from fast and furious wore pink the audience would not take the movie seriously and would end up making a joke of it.

The main structure of an action movie would start off with the protagonist encountering a problem. The emotion the protagonist may face is anger, which may motivate him to jump to conclusions. As a result of his actions he fails to resolve the problem. He begins to take things slowly and tries to find a solution. He then comes across a piece of information that will help him reach his goal. As he digs deeper he finds more information. This leads the protagonist encountering the problem and eventually solving it. After solving the problem he then becomes a hero.

Levi Strauss was born in 1908 and pasted away in 2009. Levi Straus studied hundreds of myths and legends all the around the world, from this he learnt that humans make sense of the world, people and events by seeing binary

opposites. He then found that narratives are arranged around the conflict of binary opposites. Some of the binary opposites used in actions movies today are:

Good vs Evil Black vs White Peace vs War Civilised vs Savage Domestic vs Foreign/alien Young vs Old Man vs Nature Protagonist vs Antagonist Motivator vs observer Empowered vs victim Good looking vs ugly Strong vs weak Humanity vs technology Ignorance vs wisdom Solution vs Problem Information they need but don’t have

Levi Strauss theory is based around the binary opposites and that the binary opposites are the central climax of a narrative structure. Without binary opposites the target audience would get bored because there is no conflict for example if an action movie only had good character and no bad then there would be no action shown in that film. However if an action included a good character and a bad character then conflict would arise between

them and the audience would be interested. Every movie and television show that is made has got a binary opposite, this is to keep the target audience feeling interested. In conclusion Levi Strauss’s’ theory is very important in the film and television industry. It is the reason why people in the world today are enjoying films and television shows. Without binary opposites people would get bored very quickly however the binary opposites keep people interested.