Claude Levi-Strauss was a French anthropologist who believed storytelling is used as a means of coping with the basic challenges and irresolvable problems. Levi-Strauss said that the elements of a story (or a narrative) has two main characteristics: that it is made up of units that are put together according to certain rules and that these form a relationship with each other, based on binary pairs which provide the foundation of the structure.
Levi-Strauss' theory of binary opposites can be applied to many aspects of a film narrative for example the hero and the villain, fear and happiness, the rich and the poor etc. Below I have applied the theory of binary opposites to the openings of Pale Rider (Eastwood 1985) and Die Hard I (McTierman 1988).
Pale Rider (Eastwood 1985)
- forest/ desert/ mountains
- silence/ noise
- nature/ civilisation
- domesticated animals/ wild nature
- peaceful village/ warlike horses and riders
- civilised/ uncivilised
- frantic riders/ slow moving villagers
- music/ no music
- moving shots/ still shots
- shadow/ light
- dangerous horses and riders/ safe environment of village
- rivers/ plains
- victims/ attackers living/ dead destruction/ organisation
- nature/ guns
- helpless villagers/ riders with power
- fire/ water, plains, rivers
- disturbed/ undisturbed surroundings
- nature (paganism)/ christianity
- thunder, rain/ good weather
- country folk/ town folk
- being accepted/ being victimised
Die Hard I (McTierman 1988)
- nature/ machinery
- ground level/ in air, in flight
- suspenseful music/ normal, everyday situation
- caucasian people/ asian, Japanese people
- woman walking forwards/ man walking backwards
- office party/ home life
- absent father/ present mother
- single man/ married man
- wife with husband's surname/ wife with maiden name
- HA/ LA
- empty elevator/ crowded party
- rap music/ classical music
- Holly's husband/ Holly's suitor
- confrontation with husband/ speech to troops
- party/ motorways, vans, cars. Heavy industrial work
- tense music/ man humming
- enclosed space/ wide open space
- man/ machine
- American/ German
- photos/ real people
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