Narrative Theories Research Task

Narrative is used for story telling to engage the audiences attention so it gets them hooked so much that it makes them want to keep on watching the movie from start to finish. Narrative are important becuase if you dont have narratives, it wouldnt make the storyline as interesting as it can possibly be. A mass number of people AND stories start with the classic line "Once Upon A Time". The films that usually start with this line are usually fairytales or fantasies. This makes is magical and easy to under for young children and also makes it more interesting for them.
Once Upon A Time is not just a way to start of a magical fairytale. It also has plenty of meanings behind it. It is filled with loads of secret connotations. For example, "Once" makes us think about the past and all the memories and everything else that may have happened in the past. "Upon A Time" can lead us to our own world and all of our wishes and wants. This creates our own vision of whats going on and is like a dream compared to our own world. At the end of most fairytales, good mostly always gets the better of evil, which is always told at the end of the story to keep the audience watching/reading on.
Narratives can put characters from films into character types, which makes it a narrative theory.
The character types are as follows:

• The Hero: Leads the narrative and is usually looking to solve something (Puzzle, Problems etc.)
• The Villain: Conflicts with the hero
• The Heroine: Is usually some sort of prize or reward that the hero
• The Father: An authority figure who offers a reward to the hero for completing their quest
• The Helper: Helps the hero; often acts as a sidekick
• The Donor: Gives the hero something; a clue, a talisman, a weapon; which helps them complete their quest
• The Mentor: Teaches and guides the hero

Another narrative theory is Binary Oppositions. Binary Oppositions are a pair of related terms or concepts that are the total opposite in meaning. For example, Truth/Lies, Black/White, Love/Hate, Strong/Weak etc. Binary Oppositions can help to show who are the good and bad characters in a particular film. Another narrative theory is the Equilibrium theory. Equilibrium is basically the start of the film, before the character starts his quest which will carry on the rest of the story. Disequilibrium is practically the middle of the story when the character has set off on their quest and has found the problems that is stopping them for completing their quest. Finally, the new state of Equilibrium is the ending and how the character has changed after they completed the quest.
An example of a film that uses ALL of the narrative theories is Johnny English Reborn.
Firstly it uses character types with the hero being Johnny English (Rowan Atkinson), the villain being the evil gang Vortex, the heroine being Kate Summers (Rosamund Pike), the father being Pegasus (Gillian Anderson), the helper being Agent Tucker (Daniel Kaluuya), the donor/s being the Scientists (the ones who made all the weapons for Johnny English to use and Agent Tucker, and the mentor being the Shaoulin Monk. Also the Binary Oppositions was used in the storyline because the story was based on good fighting against evil with good coming out on top at the end of the film. And lastly, it also used the Equilibrium theory. The Equilibrium was when Johnny went to mountain camp. The disequilibrium was when Vortex disrupted everything and started killing high powered people, and the new state of Equilibrium was when Johnny defeated Vortex and then leaves mountain camp to pursue his career.