couple of hours. Once the viewer knows whether
she has entered a world of talking dogs or wartime
chaos—or whatever the case may be—she’ll know
how to appraise and approach the events to come.
The viewer’s expectations of the story also depend
on learning the movie’s tone. Is she about to watch
a grim drama, a whimsical fantasy, or something
else altogether? It’s up to the events and situations
presented in the first act to let her know.
Character, which we already know to be the
linchpin of the story, must also be established. The
narrative will often begin by revealing something
about the protagonist’s current situation, often by
showing him engaged in an action that also reveals
some of those essential character traits we dis-
cussed earlier in the chapter.
For example, in the Coen brothers’ The Big
Lebowski (1988; screenwriters: Joel and Ethan
Coen), we first meet Jeff Lebowski (Jeff Bridges)—
known to his friends as The Dude—as he shuffles
into a supermarket dairy section dressed in sun-
glasses, pajama shorts, flip-flops, and a well-worn
bathrobe. The Dude scrutinizes the assortment like
a connoisseur in a wine cellar, then cracks open a
carton of half and half to sniff the contents. In the
next shot, he pays for his selection with a check for
69 cents.
Before we even learn his name, we know that
The Dude is a free spirit who plays by his own
rules. He’s a slob, is not necessarily smart, and is
certainly not ambitious—but he does have stan-
dards. Thus we already possess some of the essen-
tial information we’ll need to anticipate and
appreciate his particular response to the events
and situations the narrative is about to present. We
have been initiated into the story’s comic, absurdist
tone and are also becoming acquainted with the
movie’s normal world: Jeff Lebowski inhabits a
decidedly unglamorous Los Angeles sprawl of
dilapidated bungalows, strip malls, and bowling
alleys.
Now that the character and his world have been
established, it’s time to get the story started. For
this to happen, something must occur to change
that normal world. The inciting incident (also
known as the catalyst) presents the character with
the goal that will drive the rest of the narrative.
In The Dude’s case, the inciting incident hap-
pens the moment he gets home from the supermar-
ket. Two thugs ambush him, shove his head in the
toilet, and demand a large amount of missing
money. It turns out that it’s a case of mistaken
identity—they’re looking for a much richer Jeffrey
Lebowski. To demonstrate his displeasure with this
revelation, one of the attackers urinates on The
Dude’s beloved rug. The next day, our scruffy little
Lebowski goes to see the big Lebowski about get-
ting his rug replaced—and the story has begun.
Most inciting incidents and the resulting charac-
ter goals are easy to spot. In Black Swan, Nina the
ballerina is offered a chance at the lead role in
Swan Lake, so she resolves to dance the part to per-
fection. When Tom Chaney guns down Mattie
Ross’s father in Fort Smith, Arkansas, in True Grit,
the young girl swears vengeance. Dorothy, the
protagonist of The Wizard of Oz(1939; director: Vic-
tor Fleming; screenwriter: Noel Langley), realizes
that there’s no place like home after a tornado
deposits her among the munchkins.
Not all goals are this straightforward. Some goals
shift—Luke Skywalker sets off to rescue a princess
but winds up taking on the Death Star. The Dude132 CHAPTER 4 ELEMENTS OF NARRATIVE
Establishing the normal world The first scene of the
Coen brothers’ cult movie The Big Lebowskitells us what we
need to know in order to understand and evaluate the
narrative and its inhabitants. This offbeat comedy features
a protagonist (Jeff Bridges) who wears a bathrobe in public,
samples half and half in the supermarket, and writes checks
for 69 cents. We are now armed with an understanding of the
character that will help us appreciate The Dude’s particular
response to the situations the story presents to him.