TYPES OF STORY CONFLICT

TYPES OF STORY CONFLICT

CHARACTER VS. CHARACTER

Two characters want something and believe only one can have it, or one character has something (or is about to have it) and another wants to get it from her (or prevent her from getting it)

Often this involves a good protagonist and an evil antagonist, but not always the case.

The audience wants the protagonist to succeed and antagonist to fail.

Almost every Hollywood movie has this kind of conflict.

Most love stories are example of character vs. character conflicts.

Driving Miss Daisy
What About Bob?
Ordinary People
The Terminator


CHARACTER VS. SOCIETY

In this story when an individual decides to challenge society against all odds, it creates conflict. The hero faces the obstacle of organizational opposition.

A happy ending proves the theme that an individual can make a difference.

An unhappy ending, the protagonist may be crushed for his efforts, proving a darker theme that one person cannot defeat the system.

Society can mean many things: another government, our government, the military, the IRS, the CIA, aliens from outer space – in short, “them.”

The antagonist must be given a face, a character or group that personifies the faceless threat. The antagonist represents all of society’s dreaded power and brings all its resources to bear against the singular protagonist.

Dead Poets Society
All the President’s Men
Silkwood
Three Days of the Condor
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Erin Brokovich



CHARACTER VS. NATURE

This kind of story traps the protagonist in a battle with the environment. The geography or natural disasters become the obstacle or antagonist. The hero tries to make it from point A to point B, to safety.

It creates a test of the protagonist’s courage and abilities, but the question whether a human being can succeed against the irrational forces of nature is seldom enough to sustain and entire movie.

Often the environmental threat motivates CHARACER VS. CHARACTER conflicts among a group who must make the journey together.

Most dangerous-trek stories involve this conflict.

Alive
White Squall
Jurassic Park
Into Thin Air
Volcano
Twister
Homewood
Bound
The Poseidon Adventure



CHARACTER VS. FATE

To the ancient Greeks, Fate was a real force in the world, and most classical tragedies fall into this model.

Oedipus couldn’t outrun his fate even though his parents heard the prophecy.

Drama ensues when humans, seeking to express their individuality and free will, come into conflict with the preordained plans of the gods.

Hollywood has made a few movies with old-fashioned character vs. fate conflicts, but they are almost entirely based on ancient stories

Jason and the Argonauts
Hercules
Troy

Contemporary films replace fate with other innate limitations: the characters’ own fears and the limitations imposed by their sex or race or age or the constraints of the world in which they’ve grown up.

Some succeed others fail. Unlike the ancient Greek tragedies, in modern moves fate is ultimately determined not by the gods, but by the protagonist’s actions.

American Graffiti,
Norma Rae
The Last Picture Show
White Heat
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid


CHARACTER VS. SELF

Internal conflict involves a character’s struggle with an inner flaw (like fear, alcoholism, mental illness), a moral doubt, or a psychic wound (responsibility for the death of a loved one)

Most protagonists have internal conflict that gets externalized but some films focus primarily on internal conflict.

But internal conflict can be harder to demonstrate.

In theatre, Hamlet and Willy Loman can express their internal struggle through long soliloquies or monologues, but film has little patience for this.

The conflict can be externalized by creating additional characters to reflect the inner conflict.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Days of Wine and Roses
How to Make an American Quilt
Leaving Las Vegas
Groundhog Day