the most fantastic chocolate factory in the world.
The attraction of science-fiction films such as
George Lucas’s Star Wars (1977; screenwriter:
Lucas) and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner(1982; direc-
tor’s cut released 1992; screenwriters: Hampton
Fancher and David Webb Peoples) is often attrib-
uted to their almost totally unfamiliar settings.
These stories about outer space and future cities
have a mythical or symbolic significance beyond
that of stories set on Earth. Their settings may be
verisimilar and appropriate for the purpose of the
story, whether or not we can verify them as “real.”
Scope
Related to duration and setting is scope—the over-
all range, in time and place, of the movie’s story.
Stories can range from the distant past to the nar-
rative present, or they can be narrowly focused on
a short period, even a matter of moments. They can
take us from one galaxy to another, or they can
remain inside a single room. They can present a
rather limited perspective on their world, or they
can show us several alternative perspectives.
Determining the general scope of a movie’s story—
understanding its relative expansiveness—can
help you piece together and understand other
aspects of the movie as a whole.
For example, the biopic, a film about a person’s
life—whether historical or fictional—might tell the
story in one of two ways: through one significant
episode or period in the life of a person, or through
a series of events in a single life, sometimes begin-
ning with birth and ending in old age. Biopics
remain one of the great staples of movie produc-
tion. Think of the variety of subjects in these recent
movies: the notorious Australian criminal Mark
Brandon Read in Chopper (2000; director and
screenwriter: Andrew Dominik), the British anti-
slavery advocate William Wilberforce in Amazing
Grace(2006; director: Michael Apted; screenwriter:
Stephen Knight), gay activist Harvey Milk in Milk
(2008; director: Gus Van Sant; screenwriter: Dustin
Lance Black), English poet John Keats in Bright Star
(2009; directors and screenwriters: Robert Epstein
and Jeffrey Friedman), King George VI in The King’s
Speech(2010; director: Tom Hooper; screenwriter:
David Seidler), or Marilyn Monroe in My Week with
Marilyn(2011; director: Simon Curtis; screenwriter:
Adrian Hodge).
Many war films have been limited in scope to the
story of a single battle; others have treated an
entire war. Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan
(1998; screenwriter: Robert Rodat) covers two sto-
ries happening simultaneously: the larger story is
that of the June 1944 D-Day invasion of Normandy,
involving the vast Allied army; the more intimate
story, and the one that gives the film its title, pres-
ents what happens from the time the U.S. govern-
ment orders Private Ryan (Matt Damon) to be
removed from combat to the time it actually hap-
pens. Both stories are seen from the American
point of view, perceptually and politically.
By contrast, Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, and
Bernhard Wicki’s The Longest Day(1962; screen-
writers: Romain Gary, James Jones, David Pursall,
Jack Seddon, and Cornelius Ryan) relates the
D-Day invasion to what was happening in four
countries—the United States, France, England,
and Germany—though also from the perspective of
American politics. Thus, its scope is broader,
enhanced by the viewpoints of its large cast of
characters. Although Terrence Malick’s The Thin
Red Line(1998; screenwriter: Malick) focuses on
the American invasion of the Japanese-held Pacific156 CHAPTER 4 ELEMENTS OF NARRATIVE
Setting in science fictionBased on Philip K. Dick’s
science-fiction novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
(1968), Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner(1982) takes place in 2019
in an imaginary world where cities such as Los Angeles are
ruled by technology and saturated with visual information. In
most science-fiction films, setting plays an important part in
our understanding of the narrative, so sci-fi filmmakers
spend considerable time, money, and effort to make the
setting come to life.