The 3-Act Paradigm at Work: American Graffiti
written by George Lucas and Gloria Katz & Willard Huyck
American Graffiti has become a classic. The
story follows four teenagers on a night in 1964, as two of them prepare to
leave for college the next day.
Structural Analysis
- Hook (1 min.)
- Curt and Steve are leaving for college the next day. This is their
last night in town.
- Complication (2 min.)
- But Curt, despite winning the Moose Lodge Scholarship, has decided
not to leave town after all.
- Call to Action (12 min.)
- "I saw a goddess," Curt says, a blonde driving a white T-bird, and
the vision answers his earlier question, "Where's the dazzling beauty I've
been waiting for?" He will find her.
- Act One Plot Point (40-3 min.)
- Seeing the white T-bird again, Curt becomes obsessed with meeting
the mystery woman.
- Midpoint Plot Point (54 min.)
- For sitting on a stranger's car, Curt is taken "hostage" by some
gang members.
- Act Two Plot Point (97 min.)
- After being released by the gang, Curt takes a record request to
the local radio station, where the DJ says he just plays tapes, that
Wolfman is on tape. It looks like his radio message to the blonde won't
happen that night.
- Climax and Resolution (101-6 min.)
- But the DJ is Wolfman and makes the dedication. Curt has
a brief phone conversation with his goddess at a phone booth. He decides
to go off to college after all.
Notes
American Graffiti is an ensemble story, with each of the four characters
having fully developed story lines. Steve, for example, decides not to
leave to college and to stay with his high-school girlfriend instead. In the
credits, Richard Dreyfuss (who plays Curt) gets top billing and his story
also presents the central issue of the story: should he leave his small town
to move into the world at large by going off to college? His character arc
moves his decision from "no" to "yes."
MODULE 4:
SCREENWRIGHT: the craft of screenwriting
[BACK TO TEXT]
12/99