
Robocop – an example of chiasmus in Hollywood films
Anyone who writes a screenplay knows about the three act structure. Books have been written on it ad nauseum and it is considered the default writing device in modern film storytelling, if not storytelling in general.
There are, of course, other structures. Every once in a while a film appears that breaks all the rules of the three act structure because it has adopted a completely different one to get the message across. The Fountain comes to mind. That story driven by theme, and not plot so it jumps forward and back in time and context repeatedly. Pulp Fiction is another film that comes to mind. The film could have been told sequentially, but it would have been boring, so the director, Quentin Tarantino, cut the film up and moved all the scenes around as a series of related vignettes. As it turns out, another film is Robocop (the 1987 version). View full article »