Screenplay Contest: Bagdad Cafe (1987) Deconstructed

From our deconstruction of hundreds of Hollywood blockbusters....

The Hero's Journey is the template upon which the vast majority of successful stories and Hollywood blockbusters are based upon. In fact, ALL of the Hollywood movies we have deconstructed are based on this template.

Understanding this template is a priority for story or screenwriters.

The Hero's Journey:

a) Attempts to tap into unconscious expectations the audience has regarding what a story is and how it should be told.

b) Gives the writer more structural elements than simply three or four acts, plot points, mid point and so on.

c) Interpreted metaphorically, laterally and symbolically, allows an infinite number of varied stories to be created.

Sample Movie Deconstructed: Bagdad Cafe (1987)

FADE IN: Introduce Hero in her Ordinary World: Jasmin not getting on with her husband.

Symbol of the Transformation: the coffee maker.

Call to Adventure: Jasmin leaves her husband.

Journey to the First Threshold: Jasmin walking along the Mojave desert freeway.

Foreshadow of the Journey: the sky; the barman stops.

Resisting the pull back to the Ordinary World: hubby comes looking for her; Jasmin hides.

New World of the First Threshold: The Bagdad caf