- Pitch Perfect
- Identify the Climax: The climax of the movie was the part wherein the protagonist, and the other members of her band, the Barden Bellas, made it into the intercollegiate a capella competition’s finals to fight once again after suffering from an embarrassing and devastating loss the previous year. In the climax, the Barden Bellas came in to fight, once again, their long-time rival, an all-male a capella singing group from the same university, in the competition’s finals. The outcome of the climax was a win for the Barden Bellas in the singing competition.
- Protagonist of the Play/Movie: The protagonist in the story was Beca, a newbie a capella singer who just joined the Barden Bellas.
- Identify the Basic/Major Conflicts in this Play/Movie (e.g. Man v. man; man v. society, man v. natural; or man v. himself). In this movie, the major conflict was Man v. man because all the other conflict models are not applicable to it.
- Was there new or old stasis in the end? There was an old stasis in the end as evidenced by the resolution of the original conflict that was portrayed in the beginning.
- Was the dramatic action linear or non-linear? The dramatic action was mostly linear considering that the story only revolved on one conflict which remained to be the focus on the entire movie.
- Was the dramatic action continuous or non-continuous? The dramatic action was mostly continuous because there were no switching of conflicts or plots in the story.
- What were the major motifs, symbols, and or images? The following are some of the major motifs, symbols, and or images portrayed in the movie: talent, singing, friendship, teamwork, and professionalism. These five variables were so evident in the film that one can almost remember all of the things that happened in the movie just by holding on to these five variables.
- What is the theme statement? Be sure to phrase as an if/then statement, for example in talk radio movie: if Barry loved himself then people will fight him.
The theme statement for the movie Pitch Perfect would be: If Beca failed to lead her team, the Barden Bellas properly, they will not be able to win the championship, and the main conflict in the story would fail to be resolved .
- What was the function of the play/movie: What did the writer of the play try to say, or the purpose of the play or movie? The purpose of the movie was to show how fierce professional group singing competitions can be. In fact, the director may have had the thought of portraying how fierce all competitions, and life can be even for a normal person and how important it is to hold on to the people that surrounds you, or in the case of the movie, your teammates, in times of need.
- Talk Radio
- Identify the Climax: The climax of the movie was when Barry, portrayed by actor Eric Bogosian, realized that what could be an important few days because of the nationalization of his radio-based talk show, would turn into a complete mess upon learning that his talk show would end up being picked up by a nationwide network of radio stations, coupled with problems with his love life and that the management in charge of the airing of his show would force changes in the content of his supposedly highly successfully and peaceful radio talk show.
- Protagonist of the Play/Movie: The protagonist in the movie was Barry. Barry was a radio talk show host who had his radio talk show ready for an upgrade to national broadcast when suddenly a set of challenges came his way.
- Identify the Basic/Major Conflicts in this Play/Movie (e.g. Man v. man; man v. society, man v. natural; or man v. himself). There can be two major conflicts portrayed in the story: man v. man; and man v. society.
- Was there new or old stasis in the end? There was an old stasis at the end of the movie.
- Was the dramatic action linear or non-linear? The dramatic action in the movie was mostly linear, although there were some significant scene transitions that may have been interpreted as a non-linear set of dramatic actions.
- Was the dramatic action continuous or non-continuous? The dramatic action was mostly continuous.
- What were the major motifs, symbols, and or images? The major motifs, symbols, and or images portrayed in the story include but may not be limited to: radio talk shows, neo Nazi ideologies; technology; work issues; suicide; torture; and self-destructiveness.
- What is the theme statement? Be sure to phrase as an if/then statement, for example in talk radio movie: if Barry loved himself then people will fight him. The most appropriate theme statement for this movie would be: if Barry cared less about the issues he was facing at work, he would surely make a lot of enemies even though he was just trying to earn a living, just like what happened in the movie.
- What was the function of the play/movie: What did the writer of the play try to say, or the purpose of the play or movie? The function of the movie was to portray how toxic or relentless the life of a radio talk show host who basically just tries to earn a living could be. Another function may be to portray the dangers of working in the media and journalism industry .
- Doubt
- Identify the Climax: The climax of the movie was when Father Flynn, the charismatic priest whom the sisters of St. Nicholas school in the Bronx, practically declared war with Sister Aloysius, the iron-handed principal of the school firmly believes in the effectiveness of fear-based discipline when the latter decided to be locked into a battle of wills to finally expose Father Flynn’s alleged relationship with Donald Miller, a student whom Sister Aloysius Father Flynn has a relationship with.
- Protagonist of the Play/Movie: The protagonist of the story was Sister Aloysius Beauvier, the St. Nicholas at the Bronx school principal.
- Identify the Basic/Major Conflicts in this Play/Movie (e.g. Man v. man; man v. society, man v. natural; or man v. himself). The two major conflicts in this movie were based on the model of man v. man and man v. society.
- Was there new or old stasis in the end? By the end of the movie, there was nothing but an old stasis.
- Was the dramatic action linear or non-linear? The dramatic action was mostly linear-- which is actually the reason why the story was kind of easy to understand.
- Was the dramatic action continuous or non-continuous? The dramatic action was mostly continuous.
- What were the major motifs, symbols, and or images? The major motifs, symbols, and or images in the move include religion, ethics, morality, professionalism, and of course, the power of doubt.
- What is the theme statement? Be sure to phrase as an if/then statement, for example in talk radio movie: if Barry loved himself then people will fight him.
If Father Flynn did not really start a relationship with Donald, then there would be nothing for Sister Aloysius to doubt.
- What was the function of the play/movie: What did the writer of the play try to say, or the purpose of the play or movie? The function of the movie was to expose some of the common irregularities in the world’s largest religion, Roman Catholicism. The author may have decided to expose that the world’s largest religion is not a perfect one .
- The Princess Bride
- Identify the Climax: The climax of the movie was somewhere around the scene near princess Buttercup’s rescue and all the major hurdles and challenges that prince Humperdinck and his friends did to save her and to prevent the occurrence of a war.
- Protagonist of the Play/Movie: The protagonist of the story was Westley, the Main in Black. At some point Inigo may also be considered as the protagonist .
- Identify the Basic/Major Conflicts in this Play/Movie (e.g. Man v. man; man v. society, man v. natural; or man v. himself). The main conflict model used in the movie was based on man v. man, and man v. society.
- Was there new or old stasis in the end? By the end of the movie, we could only see an old stasis.
- Was the dramatic action linear or non-linear? The dramatic action was mostly non-linear as the story kind of focused on the story of each of the character which can be a reason for the viewers to deviate their attention from the main plot.
- Was the dramatic action continuous or non-continuous? The dramatic action was mostly continuous as all characters’ stories still contributed to the main plot.
- What were the major motifs, symbols, and or images?
Some of the motifs, symbols, and images used in the movie include but may not be limited to: chivalry, castles, and kidnapping, love story between the prince and the princess, true love, heroism, and a thorny love affair.
- What is the theme statement? Be sure to phrase as an if/then statement, for example in talk radio movie: if Barry loved himself then people will fight him. If Prince Humperdinck did not do anything to help rescue Buttercup, then there would be no adventure and they would not have lived happily ever after.
- What was the function of the play/movie: What did the writer of the play try to say, or the purpose of the play or movie? The purpose of the director in the movie may be to demonstrate how far true love can push a person to go.
- Paris I Love You
- Identify the Climax: The movie does not really have a climax because it is a collection of short films or stories that are so short, that the author of this paper does not consider any events within them climactic.
- Protagonist of the Play/Movie: There were numerous characters in the story and so it may be difficulty, if not impossible to find, who the real protagonist is.
- Identify the Basic/Major Conflicts in this Play/Movie (e.g. Man v. man; man v. society, man v. natural; or man v. himself). The movie’s conflict was mainly about man v. man. The major conflicts in this movie would fit the description of man v. man; man v. society, and man v. himself, at least after watching all the short stories included in the film.
- Was there new or old stasis in the end? There was a new stasis in the end. This may have been caused by the numerous transitions in the film and the different characters.
- Was the dramatic action linear or non-linear? The dramatic action was non-linear
- Was the dramatic action continuous or non-continuous? The dramatic action was non-continuous because the storyline gets interrupted every time a new story gets introduced.
- What were the major motifs, symbols, and or images? The major motifs, symbols, and or images used in the story include love, tourism, film making, Paris, and emotions.
- What is the theme statement? Be sure to phrase as an if/then statement, for example in talk radio movie: if Barry loved himself then people will fight him. It would be hard to locate a central theme statement for the movie because of the presence of numerous stories in the film and so the author of this paper decided to focus on Paris instead. If Paris was not named the city of love, then people looking for love, adventure, and romance, would not have flocked into it.
- What was the function of the play/movie: What did the writer of the play try to say, or the purpose of the play or movie? The author’s main purpose in the movie perhaps was to show to the audience how it is like to live or be a stranger in Paris, the city of love, how people park out their cab, meet other people, start a conversation, and basically do any set of simple things, and most important of all, how people meet and fall in love in this spectacular a city .
Works Cited
Bernabe, A. "The Princess Bride Full Review." IMDB (1991).
Ebert, R. "Talk Radio Summary and Analysis." Roger Ebert Loved Movies (2014).
Meselo, T. "Paris I Love You." (2010).
Pink, S. "Pitch Perfect Analytic Review." (2012).
Wright, S. "Doubt: Film Summary and Analysis." Rotten Tomatoes (2000).
