Reversal of the Week #1
Fast Times at Ridgemont High has a beautiful (and efficient!) reversal we can all learn from.
Older brother & car lover Judge Reinhold is stopped at a light. He's on a delivery, and is wearing his fast-food pirate uniform. A girl in a convertible beside him giggles. He thinks she’s flirting and smiles back. She giggles again; looks embarrassed. He realizes she’s laughing at his giant pirate hat. She drives away.
As we watch his car pull away, we see him toss the pirate hat out the window. Then every box of fish he was supposed to deliver. He’s done.
A reversal -- in 3 acts, and 3 minutes -- and all in a funny scene with no dialogue.
That's visual storytelling, people!
Labels: reversal, visual storytelling
posted by Jennica at 10:02 a.m.
5 Comments:
but isn't part of a reversal actually falling for the ploy as an audience member, not just the character? we never believed she was flirting with him.
not a film, but emily posted what i thought was a brilliant multiple reversal even though she was simply illustrating how people lie:
"It's all in the details. Specific details too. The name of the mall for instance, instead of just "the mall". It makes the story sound more true if you use specific names.
Look at men who cheat. I used to know one. Let's call him "Dad" just for the hell of it. Dad came home one night and his wife locked him out and told him she knew about his affairs. He convinced her to come outside, then grabbed her hand and dragged her to his car, opened the trunk-
And showed her the bouquet of flowers he had been out buying her. She felt like a major bitch. He was hurt and indignant and refused to accept her apology.
Only the thing was, he'd bought those flowers for his girlfriend and was planning on giving them to her the next day.
That's what the great manipulators do. They make you think it was your fault for being fooled by their intricate web of lies."
whoops. forgot to link to emily's post.
Hmm. Cool post, DS, but not at all what I was referring to as a "reversal".
I'm not talking about "things we think are one thing that turn out to be something else". I'm talking about character reversals-- the things arcs are built on; decisions and actions; reversals of fortune or a change in strategy; the things this blog is named for.
I'm not so much interested in the fact that Judge thinks she's flirting with him and then realizes she's not. I'm interested in his response to that-- the action of the scene.
In 3 minutes he went from grudgingly delivering the fried fish in that ridiculous costume to a man who just wasn't going to take it anymore.
damn. all this time i've been reading your blog and missed that entirely!
however, given that i would argue that "reversals" is the wrong term to use. it's not a reversal for a character to change course in life. reversal implies going back on something, "a change from one state to the opposite state." [my emphasis]. simply making a decision to do something different wouldn't qualify as a reversal.
Well, I'll continue to respectfully disagree!
Reversal is a term used the way you used it in your initial comment-- a kind of twist or revelation.
Reversal is also a term used synonymously with "turn" or "turning point" for a character & their larger story. I.e. if a story is built on the most conventional 3 act structure, it hinges on 2 major reversals at the act breaks. These tend to be character reversals; decisions made, new directions followed.
While I think most of the time it would be ideal if (as you say, DS) the reversal has the character doing a 180, that's just not always true. Sometimes a huge turn for them is a 90 degree turn.
Regardless, I think the Fast Times example *does* fulfill what I said, and also what you said! For that particular character, up and quitting his job and virtually saying "fuck you" to the man, when he was THE fast-food yes-man in the beginning... abandoning all that is the equivalent of a huge turn for this character.
(Okay, whatchoo got? :)
Post a Comment
<< Home