hero char arc : overrated / necessary?

mburgh said:
Marge is polite to everyone. Don't mistake that for trust. Consider how she talks to criminals: The two truckstop whores and Shep, and how she talks to her fellow policemen (who are too stupid to know that DLR signifies Dealer plates). She's a cop from the first frame we see her to the last.
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Yes, she is still a cop. But her method of police work has changed. Throughout the film she changes how deeply she looks into leads and chances are that realization stays with her for the rest of her career.
 
TimCollins said:
Yes, she is still a cop. But her method of police work has changed. Throughout the film she changes how deeply she looks into leads and chances are that realization stays with her for the rest of her career.
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Maybe so - I just don't see that happening. I mean, her first conclusion, played for comedy, is that the murderers didn't come from Brainerd. She follows up leads throughout the film. Her first lead brings her to the truck stop, then on to Minneapolis, then the house on the lake, which another cop found out from a bartender.

I'm teaching Fargo in a screenwriting class this semester, so I'll look at her a little more closely.
 
Being a Minnesotan of 30+ years, 20+ years in northern MN (Duluth), I sure hope you will let your class know that people in MN do not talk at all like that thick hick accent used in the film Fargo! We have an accent, but nothing near the overkill used in the film. Of course that is the nature of film, drama.
End of story, =)
randall

mburgh said:
...I'm teaching Fargo in a screenwriting class this semester, so I'll look at her a little more closely.
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Has anyone seen the new film "Choke" with Sam Rockwell? If so, would you say there's a character arc here?

-TC
 
mburgh said:
A great film, play, novel, etc, often, but not always, tells the story of a character who cannot change, or believes that their way is not only the best way, but the only way of doing something, which is Greek Tragedy is called "hubris."
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"There Will Be Blood" is a classical tragedy. Plainview is the same from beginning to end. The tension in the film is how Plainview reacts to the betrayals and humiliations visited on him by Sunday. Both are utterly immovable characters who are locked in battle. When Sunday weakens at the end, Plainview sees his chance to take him down.

See also "Othello" where Iago gets a chance to take down his rival. The play is how he does that. Neither Iago nor Othello change at all.

"TWBB" really spoke to me, a truly great film. :beer: Jeff
 
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