Film analysis The Crazies

Film analysis: The Crazies

The Crazies was directed by Breck Eisner and produced in 2010, the film is remade from the old The crazies film back in 1979. The film follows a story based in a old town in Iowa which slowly becomes plagued with insanity and death after the water supply to the town gets contaminated by a unknown virus.

Todorov narrative theory The crazies follows Todorov’s narrative to an extent but at the start of the film the audience sees the town in flames which can be seen as the equilibrium . We then get three days later which then becomes the setting for the disruption to take as the audience get to meet the main characters and see what is happening to people as Rory walks out with a gun and the sheriff shoots him. It gets blamed on alcohol but we quickly learn that it's not the case.The film is 100 minutes along and is set across three weeks but we only get to see three days during the film as we learn about the events while we watch it.

There is not a resolution of the equilibrium as at the end of the film the main protagonists are seen walking to a new town but we see that the army has not been able to contain the water so they plan on bombing the new town as well, this leaves it open for a squeal to take place which goes against the narrative theory as Todorov stated that it should have an ending and a reinstatement of the equilibrium. The setting for the film however fits in with horror conventions as it's a quite,isolated in which everything can be contained in which suggests to the audience isolation as they can reach out to know one.

Propp's character theory Hero The hero and main protagonist in the film is the sheriff David, he risks everything to save his wife and his friends. He is also the one of the only characters to notice that something is wrong with the people in his town.

Damsel in distress Judy is the main damsel in distress as she needs to be rescued by David when she taken away by the army, she can also be seen as the father as she is rewarding the protagonist by having his baby. But she breaks the stereotypical female role as she is not virginal or androgynous even though she is the final girl.

Another damsel in distress would be Becca as she needed saving as well, but she does die halfway through the film.

Villain We can’t be sure who the villain really is in the film as there are many characters who show the same characteristics. But the main villain seems to be the government and US army as

they were the ones who made the virus to kills a whole population but they are also killing civilians that aren’t ill just to contain what happened. Another villain could be the people that are infected as well as they enjoy the killing and enjoy the hunt of finding victims.

Helper/ dispatcher Rory would be the helper in the film as he saves his life 3 times but also in the end sacrifices himself so David and Judy can live. Even though he gets the virus himself he fights it to get his own nature back and help David.

So overall all the characters stick to props character types apart from the villain as it isn't on singular person committing the

Levi­strauss­ binary opposite theory In the film there are many binary opposites that can be seen while watching it. The main one would be good vs evil, the good being the sheriff and his friends trying to get away from the town and the bad being the government for killing all the civilians. Another binary opposite would normal vs abnormal, this shown by the characters who are healthy and haven't contained the virus and the characters who have the virus and are killing everyone, this makes the audience feel bad for the good and normal characters as they have to try to escape the craziness.

Bordwell and Thompson The film is 100 minutes long which is based In 3 weeks but as the audience we only see 3 days, we slowly get to find out what has happened through those three days as we discover new information as the characters do.

During the film there are moments where actions happen at the same time but in different place for example when Rory escapes from the compound and goes back to the police station to find David, we don't see he escapes but we know he did. Another two things would be the plane crashing and the water being contaminated as in the film it happened three weeks before anyone noticed it.

Overall the film mainly sticks to the main theories but slightly subverts them in some ways as well. It also sticks to most of the horror conventions as well for example having the setting I'm a small, isolated village and also and having the women in the film as the damsels in distress who need saving by the hero.