Directing, 4th Edition

C H A P T E R 1 3

SUBTEXT, GENRE, AND

ARCHETYPES

The fiction film, the documentary, and the short story all are consumed at a sit-ting, and thus continue the tradition of oral storytelling. In former times, this con-stituted, along with religion, most of the common person’s education. Today, the cinema’s preeminence is arguably due to its unparalleled power to make us see and feel from another’s point of view. Through the screen, we can temporarily become braver, funnier, stronger, angrier, more beautiful, more vulnerable, or more beset with danger and tragedy. A good movie sends us out energized and refreshed in spirit.

This cathartic contact with the trials of the human spirit is a need as funda-mental as eating, breathing, or making ...