Narrative Structure - Essay Example

 Introduction In film, a narrative structure is the informative network, which defines the way in which the film has been created. In short, it tells us what the film is all about, and how that has been made up. There are several elements making up the narrative structure such as plot, characters, conflict, and themes to mention but a few. All these elements have to be interconnected in constructing the film. The plot is made up of repetitive patterns of effects, causes, or conflicts. These causes, conflicts, or effects are constructed from the characters, whereas the themes are driven by all these elements combined. In evaluating films, these elements can be revealed in addition to how they correlate in driving the plot. In this study text, the films City of God and Goodfellas will be evaluated to highlight the core narrative elements, key opposition structures of the films and finally the similarities and differences as offered by these elements. ‘City of God’ Film The City of God film was produced by Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund in 2002. Its storyline was adopted from the 1997 novel City of God by Braulio Mantovani. The storyline is based in Rio de Janeiro’s Cidade de Deus suburb in which organized crime in the 1960’s is on the rise. The crimes involve drug dealing cartels and a small boy (Rocket) who dreams of being a photographer as he strives to keep the city’s rot away. Rocket narrates the unfolding events in Cidade de Deus from his point of view which is that of a poor black youth. He is seeking for means of surviving in the harsh and violent life of Cidade de Deus. Although rocket seeks to be on the right side if the law, he does not agree to live a low, sulky and insatiable life. As such, he struggles with his life of a photographer. In the same suburb, Rocket grew up with a fellow age mate, Lil Ze who took to the life of crime. He sells drugs, moves with gangs, and deals with firearms (Meirelles 2002, n.p.). As is evident here, the plot is driven by patterns which differ thus a story is created. The setting of Rio de Janeiro is typical of the settings applied in most crime films in which the atmosphere is usually dark, clustered, and shows signs of madness associated with crime (Flory 2008, p. 302). Gangs run the city at night while gun fights and murder are nothing new in the Brazilian city. The causes of crime are usually economic inability, and that too is shown in Cidade de Deus; the typical houses are set in an urban setting in long rows. The houses are poorly constructed and the streets are dotted with youth who look desperate and idle. Generally, the introduction of the film hints poverty and crime, and these two elements work perfectly in creating a setting for thriving crime and violence. The main theme in the City of God is violence. Although much of the activities revolve around Lil Ze’s life of crime, they usually lead to violence. Lil Ze’s gang takes advantage of the rotten (corrupt) police force to exercise his rule in the city. He uses guns to enforce his crime and drug-selling activities. For instance, he uses his might to make a stranger to take off all his clothes in front of a crowd (Meirelles 2002, n.p.). Additionally, Shaggy, who is a member of the Tender Trio, is killed for no sufficient reason. The other form of violence observed is gender violence. For example, Shorty beats his wife to death using a shovel after he finds out about her affair with another man. The other pattern observed in the City of God is moral decadence which is usually a part of gangster activities (Emerson 2011, n.p.). Apart from the youth who seem to be the most affected lot, children and law keepers are not spared. There are children as young as five years old that can use guns. This is seen in the scene where Lil Ze forces a young boy to shoot his friend (Lil Ze only forces him to shoot, but not to use the gun). The police too, as all gangster movies paint them, are decayed morally as they are seen taking bribes from criminals (Diken & Lausten 2008, p.60). After this, they allow the gangs to conduct their activities. In another instance, they are seen planning to kill some youth, claiming they are just “niggas” and ‘thieves”. They were also discussing on how to share the stolen loot from the youth (Meirelles 2002, n.p.). The main driving conflict of the film, which also doubles up as the binary opposite is the contrast between the two characters’ Rocket and Lil Ze’s lives. Rocket’s life represents the dilemma which faces most of the dwellers of Cidade de Deus. They are usually torn between living poor lives struggling to live, or turn to the life of crime which seems to provide an extra comfort but does not usually end well. Lil Ze represents the lives of criminals who take advantage of the poor living conditions and immoral authorities to sell drugs and arms, and also commit crime whenever they feel like it. These two contrasting (opposite) sides create the conflict which creates the storyline (p. 284). This is so because the bad events collide with the good events and from the differences which appear, the storyline is developed further. ‘Goodfellas’ Film The Goodfellas film was directed by Martin Scorsese. It was adapted from Nicholas Pileggi’s 1986 book, Wiseguy. The storylines are based on a crime family named Lucchese, in which their associate, Henry Hill together with his friends feature majorly in the film. The film is majorly about organized crime in New York. The film is non-fiction, based on the life of Henry Hill, also known as Liotta. In his young life, he wanted to be a gangster and decided to start his dream by quitting school. He later joined the Lucchese Crime Family who taught him to keep secrets and defend his friends. His entry into crime sees him spiral up the social ladder and even brings the mistress he marries, Karen, into his drug trade. Later into his life of crime, Henry finds himself haunted by the law and has to live his life hiding from both the authorities and fellow drug lords. When he lands in jail, he continues with his life of crime, selling drugs so that his family survives. While in prison, his wife flushed all the cocaine they had to avoid being arrested by police, and that makes them poor again. This places him in a rival position with the drug lord Jimmy, and has to quit his life of a gangster after leaving prison. In the end, he has to live a life suffering from his previous life in crime (Scorsese 1990, n.p.). These occurring events which seem to conflict between themselves create the plot, thus storyline of the film. Goodfellas is set in two distinct settings. The first is thus associated with gangster activities such as darkness, shabby environments, unkempt clothes by the characters, and gun battles (Shadoian 2003, p. 29). For instance, Henry’s gang has its headquarters inside a taxi garage in a street near his house. The settings can be described as “rough”, and match the life that the gang lives. The second type of setting is the lavish one which Henry and Karen (his wife) lived. It is evident that the two came from able and rich backgrounds, and also that the drug dealing business had attractive returns for them. An example is their outing to the Copacabana Nightclub which has lavish settings. These two settings tell us about the gang, and the good life that the drug lords enjoyed. Most importantly, they tell us that the two were not pushed into crime, but had chosen it on their own. The gangs and drug dealing activities in Goodfellas cannot be separated by violence. The violence begins at the domestic level when we see Henry getting slapped by his father for skipping school, and several beatings because of the teenage choice he made. The violence increases intensity as the film progresses. Cars are torched; there are gun battles, police chases, and other scenes of physical conflict. One of the most brutal acts of violence is seen when a man in a car’s trunk is stabbed and shot severally. The camera captures the resulting wounds clearly (Scorsese 1990, n.p.). In general, the film is concentrated on the central character, Henry, who believes that violence is the only way to rise on top of the game in New York. Apart from the crime, there is the issue of betrayal which leads to furthering of the plot. One, after Jimmy tells his accomplices that they should not spend their loot of cash in large sums to avoid suspicion, they do not heed his advice but go on to do the same. This prompts him to murder them. In another instance, Henry engages in an affair with Janice. This is also a form of betrayal. At the end of the film, Henry has reformed, and has quit the drug business. His friends are looking at this as betrayal, and he in turn works closely with the authorities under the witness protection programme for him and his wife’s safety. Finally, the source of binary opposite is Henry’s way of life. In the reflection provided of his early life, he was an innocent schoolboy. The slightest mistakes he did saw him punished by his parents. He, however, creates a point of conflict when he quits school and joins the Brooklyn gang. This occurrence sees him turn into a hardcore criminal running deadly gangs participating in drug dealing and violent activities. After his many years of crime, he is apprehended by the authorities and gets thrown into prison. During his rehabilitation from a cocaine addict and the hardcore gang leader, he changes into a different person. This is another point of binary opposites. He turns away from the life of crime and even assists the authorities in curbing the vices (Nightingale 2012, n.p.). This in turn opens another twist of events, that is, being hunted down by his former allies. Evaluation The Goodfellas and City of God films have several similarities and differences. The first similarity is that the settings are made to camouflage with the activities that take place in the films. For instance, the gangs are based in shabby areas. Again, they live in poverty-stricken areas such as in the City of God. In the Goodfellas, Henry, his wife Karen, and the other drug dealers live posh lives which represent the wealthy life they get from their activities. The directors of both films used the match to make the events as realistic as possible (Kerrigan 2010, p. 46). The other similarity is that in both films, the events were all related to violence, crime, and drug dealing cartels. Each of the central characters had groups which they operated with. The violence included the use of guns to kill as well as soft violence, such as domestic or gender confrontations. Still of the issue of the main characters, they were used as the sources of the binary opposites, thus creating channels for the development of the storylines (plot). In short, each activity by the characters led to the emergence of another. The main difference between the two was in the representation of gender. In the City of God, the presence of female characters was minimal, and when they did appear, they were offered “weak” roles. For instance, Shorty’s wife was killed simply because she had an affair. In the Goodfellas however, the females were given more power. First of all, Karen was a close aid of her criminal husband and participated in most of his activities. In another case, Karen was brave enough to confront Henry’s mistress at her apartment as well as point a gun at Henry. This was the varying face of femininity representation as presented by gangster films (Neroni 2012, p. 42). Conclusion As the discussion above reveals, narrative structure has been used to create two films offering almost the same themes, plots, and binary opposites. This can support the fact that in as much as they were from different directors, they have the same structures. This in turn suggests that they are similar with respect to the cultures and periods within which they were set, that is during the reign of gangster activities, drug dealings, and gun crimes. Bibliography Diken, B, & Lausten, C 2008, Sociiology through the Projector, Routledge. Emerson, J 2011, “Goodfellas & Badfellas: Scorsese and Morality”, Rogerebert, available at http://www.rogerebert.com/scanners/goodfellas-and-badfellas-scorsese-and-morality [21 August, 2014]. Flory, D 2008, Philosophy, Black Film, Film Noir, Penn State Press. Kerrigan, F 2010, Film Marketing, Routledge. Meirelles, F 2002, “City of God”, Video. Nelmes, J 2012, Introduction to Film Studies, Routledge. Neroni, H 2012, The Violent Woman: Femininity, Narrative, and Violence in Contemporary American Cinema, SUNY Press. Nightingale, D 2012, “Tag Archives: Goodfellas”, DarringNightingale, available at http://darrinnightingale.com/tag/goodfellas/ [21 August, 2014]. Scorsese, M 1990, “Goodfellas”, Video. Shadoian, J 2003, Toward the 21st Century” in Dreams and Dead Ends, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Read More