NARRATIVE STRUCTURES AND

Breck Eisner

DOES THE CRAZIES FOLLOW THE CHN? In short no. The film starts off with

the town up inflames and destroyed, then we go back to two days earlier before the destruction. There was no equilibrium to begin with.

After that there was no attempt to restore balance, apart from quarantining the town and killing all the civilians, which most would think as not the way to go about things. David along with his wife simply try to survive.

There was also no new equilibrium, as the army failed to destroy the virus, they simply move the containment protocol to the town that David and Judy entered.

PROPP’S CHARACTER TYPES INTHE CRAZIES The Hero – David Dutton, as the

sheriff of the town he is already quite heroic before the events of the film, however when the events start to unfold in the film he doesn’t shy away from the action. He goes back for his wife, Judy, and attempts to save his deputy and Becca, his wife’s co-worker. The Princess/ prize – Judy could be

argued as the princess of the film, despite already being married to David, he had to fight to get her back and keeps fighting to keep her, possibly making her the prize along side their survival.

PROPP’S CHARACTER TYPES INTHE CRAZIES CONTINUED The Villain: Could be argued as

either the crazies (the virus and people), or the U.S military/ Government as they created the bio-weapon, despite trying to take it to Texas to be destroyed.

The Helper - is Russell Clank. He fights for the same cause as David, but he becomes infected, despite this he saved David’s life 3 times and sacrificed himself to save it a fourth time.

The False Hero: The Mayor of the town could be argued as the false hero as he appears to care for the town but he refuses to cut off the water supply, although he has the best interests of the town in mind, he believed that David’s hunch wasn’t enough evidence.

BINARY OPPOSITIONS IN THE CRAZIES Sane/Insane – This is the difference

between the people who have contracted the virus and have gone mad. Despite this it could be argued that the two aren't that different especially as seen by the military who massacre everybody whether they have the virus or not.

Day/Night (light/dark) – During the film (as well as many other horror films) day and night are used to show us good and bad, during the day where there is light and we see clearly all around us we tend to not think of danger, but when night comes horror films use this as a weapon to get to the audience, as we can’t see as clearly, this is where most of the gore and deaths occur.

Living/Dead – This is pretty self explanatory, it simply draws the line between the dead and the living as in normal day life, however people with the virus aren’t zombies or undead, they are simply crazy. Although many people are still alive without the virus or have contracted it but haven't been killed yet, they would all be dead seen through the militaries eyes once again

BINARY OPPOSITIONS IN THE CRAZIES CONTINUED Military/Civilian - The army and

special forces deployed were very important, important they supposed to be the saviours of the civilians, they are usually seen as a force to be reckoned with. They should also have known what was going on this was then revealed to be false as they killed innocents people and had no idea what had happened only that there was some sort of virus outbreak.

Known/Unknown – This is one of the most clear opposites in the film, being shown multiple times through Judy. She is just a normal woman with a job who is about to become a mom. The first time that these two opposites are juxtaposed through her are the fact that she started to take the clothes from the drying line outside in the middle of the film, she also becomes quite hysterical when Russell shoots intelligence officer, showing she has never before seen someone shot from so close.

TIME FRAMES IN THE CRAZIES The run time of the film. This is roughly 101 minutes from the

time we see the opening scene of the town destroyed, to David and his wife escaping death and moving to the next town over.

The over all time of the film is difficult to estimate as we don’t know how long it to for the military to develop the virus and we don’t know what happened after David and Judy make it to the neighbouring city. It could be anything from a couple of years to a couple of decades.

The end of the film is roughly 4 days after the outbreak, this is revealed as the Military Intelligence Officer explains that the incubations period in 48 hours and David tells him they have been alive for 3 days, so they aren't infected. The plane that crashed and cause the water supply to spread the disease crashed the week before the events seen in the film, as told by Travis. David and Judy survive another day and make their way to the next city over. Making the events that we see in the film take about 2 weeks to go from start to finish.

EVENTS IN THE CRAZIES BEFORE THE FILM ‘STARTS’ The first event that we

are shown event is the plane that crashed and contaminates the town’s water supply and therefore sets the rest of events in the film in motion.

The second is the fact that David’s wife Judy, is pregnant, this leads to her having an elevated temperature and being taken away from David, he then decides to escape and go back to rescue and save her.

CONSEQUENCES OF EARLIER EVENTS IN THE FILM The first event from the 92min

film that is from a different time and space would be the shot of the town burning right at the start at the film, as the virus spreads and the town gets more and more destroyed David and Judy get away form the town and we never see it getting destroyed.

The second one is the discovery of Russell‘s car which he tells us that the military spiked the tires as he was driving down the road but we never actually see this happen, we only meet him back at the office where David went to get ready to take Judy back.