Catch the Plot If You Can

          Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Catch Me If You Can directed by Steven Spielberg documents the life of Frank Abagnale Jr. as a teenage con artist.  By forging checks as a pilot, doctor, and lawyer, Abagnale collects millions of dollars until he is finally caught by Detective Carl Hanratty, played by Tom Hanks.  Catch Me If You Can is a critically acclaimed blockbuster of 2002 that follows the Hollywood 3-act structure. 

                                                                                                                                  Catch Me If You Can

Catch Me If You Can does not conform to a traditional linear plot, rather jumping back and forth between parts of Frank Abagnale’s life, but can be broken up into 3 acts.  The first 28 minutes shows his turbulent childhood with loss of their family’s money and his parent’s divorce, as well as his incarceration years later.  The first plot point is Abagnale at seventeen running away from home, without knowing where he will live or make money.  The next 73 minutes explains Abagnale’s journey posing as a pilot, doctor, and lawyer, with the stakes raising at every venture.  He creates counterfeit checks for thousands of dollars and fake degrees to further his “career.”  After every new job, Hanratty gets a little closer to Abagnale, until the second plot point when Abagnale must leave the country to barely escape the detective at his own engagement party.  The next 39 minutes lead up to the climax when Dectective Hanratty finally tracks down Abagnale in France and must arrest him.  The remaining 28 minutes shows the resolution of Abagnale’s fraud scheme with a twelve-year jail sentence and his release requiring him to assist Hanratty busting other swindlers.  Catch Me If You Can obeys Hollywood’s 3-act structure following Frank Abagnale’s rise and fall as a “successful” bank fraud, and ultimately concluding with a happy ending of Abagnale starting a family, becoming an affluent businessman, and remaining friends with Carl Hanratty. 

How I Know It's a Sitcom

          Sitcoms are one of the earliest forms of television programming, and continue to be the most popular today.  They are defined typically as funny, half-hour programs, with limited amounts of character or plot growth.  Sitcoms tend to have simpler story lines and the characters often find themselves stuck in ridiculous predicaments, but always are resolved by the end of the episode.  While the characters do not have problems that carry over into more than one episode, there is often one larger theme around them.    

                                                                                                                             How I Met Your Mother

          One of my favorite aspects of sitcoms is being able to watch an episode from any season and being able to follow the plot line and not have missed any information from previous episodes.  One of my regular TV shows is “How I Met Your Mother,” a classic example of 30-minute sitcom.   It follows the dating life of Ted Mosby and his four friends in New York City.  While there is some minor character development with Lily and Marshall’s marriage and all of their relationship and career changes, for the most part they are static characters.  The main theme is Ted’s desire to get married and have a family, and the show begins every episode with Ted narrating the plot to his future children.  

Shots of The Dark Knight

          The Dark Night directed by Christopher Nolan, stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne and Heath Ledger as the Joker along with Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent and Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel Dawes.  The movie was critically acclaimed and awarded two Oscars, but also has a very defined film language similar to many films.  

                                                                                                                                        The Dark Knight

When first being introduced to Bruce Wayne outside of Batman, the audience follows his butler Alfred to Wayne’s underground lab and the first shot of Wayne is a long shot.  It is very zoomed out and all we can see is Wayne working at his desk surrounded by the “Batmobile” and other machines and firearms.  This orientation shot emphasizes how lonely Wayne and Batman are, and how isolated from the rest of world, spending the whole night alone in his secret workshop.  As Alfred approaches they begin discussing the Joker’s actions and Harvey Dent as new district attorney.  The medium shot reveals information about Alfred and Wayne’s relationship and more about Dent and the current turmoil facing Gotham.  Alfred then asks Wayne about his relationship between Dent and Wayne’s best friend Rachel, whom he has feelings for.  The camera zooms in on Wayne’s face as he pretends to not care about who Rachel dates.  Wayne’s emotions are the focus of the shot and how he wishes Rachel and him could be together.  The Dark Knight utilizes many different shot angles and progression to show the characters’ personalities and their relationships, and breaking them down as an audience tells us the director’s true vision.  

The Golden Age of Hollywood

Hollywood’s “Golden Age” from the 1920s to the 1940s is one of the most infamous periods of all time.  Studios were able to create a desirable and aesthetic product while using industrial and assemble-line techniques.  Through vertical integration, Hollywood studios like MGM, Paramount, 20^th Century Fox, Warner Bros., and RKO, also known as the “Big Five,” were able to control every step of the process of making movies from production, distribution, and exhibition.  Studios had all writers, directors, and actors under contract and shot all scenes on their studio sets, making production faster and cheaper.  Studios also owned their own movie theaters where their movie could be screened, often for an entire year. 

                                                      Casablanca, Meet Me in St. Louis, Citizen Kane & Gone With the Wind

From vertical integration, Hollywood studios turned into money machines and limited the types of genres they created, often to one.  Warner Bros. became known for detective and gangster pictures and with Humphrey Bogart under contract, made Bogart synonymous with crime-thriller movies.  MGM also narrowed their genres to musicals with actors like Judy Garland and Gene Kelly.  Actors in staples would often make up to four movies a year and paid a yearly income, compared to today where actors make millions of dollars for one few every few years. 

             While for the most part house-style studios have disappeared, some aspects still remain today.  Many actors are often type cast into characters or genres of movies.  Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis are slap stick comedians, and Sylvester Stalone and Jason Statham are action heroes, and are often linked to the same studio or director.  Hollywood’s Classical Era may be over, but heads of studios continue to reinvent the industry hoping to make the same impact as the “Golden Age.” 

Traditional vs. Modern Family

          While television programming as evolved greatly over the last 50 years, the traditional family-based TV situation comedy still remains relevant.  “All in the Family” of the 1970s and “Modern Family” of today reflect many attitudes and feelings of their times.  Both TV shows share the basic foundation of a family, with a patriarchal bringing them all together.  Carroll O’Connor as Archie Bunker in “All in the Family” and Ed O’Neil as Jay Pritchett in Modern Family” share similar views of traditional family values and hesitant of change.  Both characters have experiences of friends and family opening up as gay individuals, and neither is completely comfortable with the situation, but do their best. 

                                                                                               "All in the Family" and "Modern Family" Cast

“All in the Family” fails to go in depth into the topic, as homosexuality was still taboo for the 1970s; Archie Bunker is very crude and offensive in his beliefs, even after learning his friend is gay, while the rest of his family is accepting.  “Modern Family” on the other hand, depicts a gay couple who adopt a child and face many obstacles even in 2010.  Jay Pritchett is father to Mitchell and continues to come to terms with his son’s sexuality, but loves him nonetheless.  “Modern Family” portrays a more realistic representation of a gay couple and opens the door for more discussion, while maintaining the comedy.  “All in the Family” and “Modern Family” are excellent reflection of their time periods and hopefully future TV shows will continue to explore complex situations, and adding in laughs.