The 3-Act Paradigm at Work: The Graduate
written by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham
The Graduate is a comedy that is filled with
plot twists and extended sequences. It's a wonderful movie to study for
three-act structure form and for the various paradigms that spin off of it.
It also is one of the more interesting movies to compare with the "final
draft" of the screenplay to see how the process of tightening the story
doesn't stop with finishing the script but continues into the editing room.
- The Hook (2 min.)
- Father asks Ben, "What's the matter?" Ben's concerns about his
future.
- Complication (7 min.)
- Mrs. Robinson to Ben, "Take me home."
- Hero's call to action (14 min.)
- Mrs. Robinson undresses, says to Ben, "I'm available to you.
Give me a call."
- Plot point: Act I (23-37 min.)
- Ben calls Mrs. Robinson, gets room, ends up staying with her. Starts
the affair.
- Plot point: midpoint (45-69 min.)
- First fight, Ben promises Mrs. Robinson not to take out her daughter,
Elaine, but his parents put him up to it. Ben likes Elaine and tells her
about the affair with her mother. Elaine: "Get out!" Ben loses both Mrs.
Robinson and Elaine. Then he announces he plans to marry Elaine.
- Plot point: Act II (92 min.)
- Mr. Robinson learns about the affair, bans Ben from seeing Elaine
just after he has successfully wooed her back. All appears lost.
- Climax & Resolution (103 min.)
- Ben rescues Elaine from church right after she is married. They
take the bus into the sunset.
Big Sequences
One of the wonderful things about the structure of The Graduate is
that several of the big sequences lead directly to plot points. Here are
some major moments:
- Ben's swimming pool scuba diver's
birthday present. (21 min.)
- Ben starting affair with Mrs. Robinson, leading to Act I plot point. (23 min.)
- Ben's comic courtship of Elaine in Berkeley. (73 min.)
- Ben learning of and trying to stop Elaine's wedding, leading to the
resolution. (97 min.)
Notes
Some other lessons from The Graduate:
- The screenwriter as architect:
- Someone once said that a screenplay is not a work of art but the invitation
to the collaboration of a work of art. The screenwriter begins the process by
putting down the dramatic structure of a story. But look at this movie and
consider how important the music by Simon and Garfunkel is in the entire
effect of the film. There is no mention of this in the script. The screenwriter,
by nature, is a collaborator and a team player, closer to the architect than
to the novelist or poet.
- Visual storytelling:
- Motion pictures = pictures in motion: to tell
a story with pictures is the task of the screenwriter. Here there are long
wonderful sequences without dialogue, as when Ben goes to Berkeley to find,
and then to stalk, and then to woo, Elaine.
- The ticking clock (again):
- If you can get the sense of a ticking clock into your third act,
you have done something that will establish the growing jeopardy and
tension at the climax of your story. Here it is Ben racing against time
to find Elaine before she is married. And even when he fails, standing
up behind the glass in the church, wailing and pounding the window - when
Elaine sees him, she is able to yell, "Ben!", and bring the movie to its
happy ending.
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MODULE 4:
SCREENWRIGHT: the craft of screenwriting
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