Story Sorting

I used to enthusiastically flounder my way through many conversations about The Godfather. I often said something like, "Al Pacino is a great actor" or, "It's a classic" or the awkward, "What scene was that? It's been so long, I don't remember the details". A couple of years ago, I decided to "refresh" my memory and watch it "again". To my shame, I realized that I had never seen it! I had just taken part in so many conversations about it, that I had convinced myself of my watching it as a child. Instead, I couldn't recognize a single scene. Needless to say, I was completely blown away by it.

Photo Credit: dailypaul.com

My favorite scene has to be after Michael returns from hiding and he's trying to win Kay back. He relates Kay's concerns about his family's business to that of any system involving power:

Michael: My father is no different than any powerful man, any man with power, like a president or senator.   

Kay: Do you know how naive you sound, Michael? Presidents and senators don't have men killed. 

Michael: Oh. Who's being naive, Kay?

There's this underlying ethical conflict that is carried through-out the movie. It deconstructs your ideas about good and bad by developing Michael's character to the point where you start to relate to him. At the end of the movie [spoiler alert], you'll find yourself fond of a new Don that just had the heads of all the other families killed, and ordered for his brother in law to be choked to death only to lie to his wife about it. It speaks both to how well the story was told and how complicated human nature really is.

While movies (and to a similar extent, books) are categorized by genre, I've found that it can be just as useful to categorize them by how they're told--as opposed to what they're telling. Consider my storytelling approach typologies:

• Storytelling Using a Moral: This is probably where a lot of the movies that reach the box office would fit in. These movies focus on very simple and basic concepts like "good guy always wins" or "forgiveness is good" or "family is important". There's a moral or lesson in the story. Stories in this category also tend to be (while not always) very easy to follow and have nothing too complex in how they play out. Tyler Perry movies are a quintessential example.
• Storytelling Using a Character: Some stories work primarily on character development. It's not so much that they don't have a "moral of the story" but it's more that it's not the ultimate focus. The Godfather is a perfect example. A lot of time is spent on showing the various elements to Michael Corleone's personality and motives. At the end of it, we don't have a clear idea of what we've learned but we're blown away nonetheless.
• Storytelling Using a Philosophy: My brother helped me coin this one. These are stories that unfold to explore a concept. They don't have a strong focus on a lesson or a character. A great example is Cloud Atlas. I would also argue that The Matrix would fit well in this category too. Similar to the first two categories, it doesn't mean these stories are clear of any lessons or character developments but that its not the core of what they're about.

Like genres, there could be great overlap here but there's always one approach that will outshine the others. Many action movies tend to have elements of romance and/or drama, for instance, but they are labeled as action movies because that is the more prominent element. In some cases, romance might even be what is driving the action but we are still in agreement that the movie belongs in the Action aisle. In much the same way, the story telling approach is easy to detect because one--a moral, a character, or a philosophy--always stands out more.