READING REVIEW: LESSON 03

This Reading Review is based on the Lesson 03 reading from Robert McKee’s Story.

There are 10 questions. The Review is not graded.

  1. Which is more important according to McKee—plot or character?
  • Either can take precedence depending on the screenplay.
  • Neither is more important. Plot is character, character is plot.
  • McKee agrees with Aristotle, asserting that story is primary, character secondary.
  • McKee defends the novelist’s model—Audiences want fascinating characters.

Hint: McKee asserts that “the argument is specious.”

Correct: From page 100 of Story: “We cannot ask which is more important, structure or character, because structure is character, character is structure. They’re the same thing… Yet the argument goes on because of a widely held confusion over two crucial aspects of the fictional role—the difference between Character and Characterization.”

  1. Which of the following reveals character?
  • Style of speech and gesture
  • Values and attitudes
  • Choices made under pressure
  • All of the above

Hint: McKee makes a distinction between “character” and “characterization.”

Correct: From page 101 of Story: “True character is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure—the greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation, the truer the choice to the character’s essential nature.

  1. McKee asserts that by the first sequel, the title character in the Rambo movies had devolved into one with “less dimension than a Saturday morning cartoon.” What went wrong?
  • There was no contrast between what Rambo seemed to be and what he was.
  • He went from being a representation of Every Man to being a superhero.
  • He developed a muscular body that only a pampered actor would have time to maintain.
  • Two writers from the animated series Battle Charge were hired for the sequels.

Hint: McKee says, “The revelation of deep character in contrast or contradiction to characterization is fundamental in major characters.”

Correct: On page 103 of Story, McKee says, “Minor roles may or may not need hidden dimensions, but principals must be written in depth—they cannot be at heart what they seem to be at face.”

  1. According to McKee, what must one do to build a compelling character arc?
  • Lay out the protagonist’s characterization and reveal his true nature
  • Establish that this true nature is in contrast to the character’s outer characteristics.
  • Apply pressure, forcing the character to make difficult choices that change him or her.
  • All of the above

Hint: “The finest writing not only reveals true character, but arcs or changes that inner nature…” (Page 104, Robert McKee’s Story)

Correct: “The finest writing not only reveals true character, but arcs or changes that inner nature, for better or worse, over the course of the telling.” (Page 104, Robert McKee’s Story)

  1. The function of STRUCTURE is to:
  • Build the story to a believable and satisfying climax.
  • Provide progressively increasing pressures that force character-revealing choices.
  • Avoiduninvolving, wandering storylines.
  • Provide tent poles on which the events of the characters’ stories can be supported.

Hint: “Structure and character are interlocked.”(Page 106, Robert McKee’s Story)

Correct: “Structure and character are interlocked. The event structure of a story is created out of the choices that characters make under pressure and the actions they choose to take... If you change one, you change the other. If you change event design, you have also changed character; if you change deep character, you must reinvent the structure to express the character’s changed nature.”(Page 106, Robert McKee’s Story)

  1. The function of CHARACTER is to:
  • Provide background information to keep the story involving.
  • Maintain audience engagement between major story events.
  • Bring the ethical underpinnings of the story into sharper focus.
  • Bring characterization that makes the character’s choices convincing.

Hint: “…bring to the story the combination of qualities that allows an audience to believe that the character could and would do what he does.” (Page 106, Robert McKee’s Story)

Correct: “…a character must be credible: young enough or old enough… worldly or naïve, generous or selfish... in the right proportions. Each must bring to the story the combination of qualities that allows an audience to believe that the character could and would do what he does.” (Page 106, Robert McKee’s Story)

  1. If a writer reinvents a character, he must also reinvent the story.
  • True
  • False

Hint:“Whether our instincts work through character or structure, they ultimately meet in the same place.” (Page 107, Robert McKee’s Story)

Correct:“Whether our instincts work through character or structure, they ultimately meet in the same place.

“For this reason, the phrase ‘character-driven story is redundant. All stories are ‘character driven.’ Event design and character design mirror each other.” (Page 107, Robert McKee’s Story)

  1. Action/Adventure and Farce genres demand simpler characters.
  • True
  • False

Hint: “…complexity would distract us from the derring-do or pratfalls indispensable to those genres.” (Page 107, Robert McKee’s Story)

Correct: “…complexity would distract us from the derring-do or pratfalls indispensable to those genres. Stories of personal and inner conflict, such as Education and Redemption Plots, demand complexity of character because simplicity would rob us of the insight into human nature requisite in those genres.” (Page 107, Robert McKee’s Story)

  1. According to McKee, why did the comedy BLIND DATE fail while the drama KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN succeeded?
  • Movies are about their last twenty minutes.
  • Dramas can get away with less of a climax than comedies.
  • BLIND DATE’s great first 80 minutes created expectations that couldn’t be satisfied.
  • KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN “hit hard and kept hitting hard.”

Hint: “…the last act and its climax must be the most satisfying experience of all.” (Page 109, Robert McKee’s Story)

Correct: “The last act and climax must be the most satisfying experience of all. For no matter what the first ninety minutes have achieved, if the final movement fails, the film will die over its opening weekend.” (Page 109, Robert McKee’s Story)

  1. How does McKee suggest one makes sure one’s climax is satisfying and believable?
  • In the climax, the facts of the character must fit his or her actions in a credible way.
  • The structure must have created successively-greater emotional and/or physical violence.
  • The climactic events should fall within the realm of possibility.
  • Ignore concerns about shattering “the suspension of disbelief.”

Hint: Remember McKee’s example of a writer with a character who is 75 years old, on crutches, allergic to dust and battling his foe in the searing heat of the Mojave Desert.

Correct: “GREED’s brilliant ending is created out of ultimate choices that profoundly delineate its characters. Any aspect of characterization that undermines the credibility of such an action must be sacrificed. (Page 109, Robert McKee’s Story)