Week #8: Necessity of the Character Arc

As the observer, whether partial or impartial, we witness change in everything. Sometimes the change occurs in ourselves or in others, often manifesting itself outwardly, thus allowing us to truly understand the change that is occurring. It might be a change in our awareness, our dedication to something, or even our reluctance to change can take on its own form. As Vogler asserts, and as he is absolutely correct in his assertion, the internal journeys that our characters take in any given film directly correlates with how compelling or not the given film will be.
   In "The Writer's Journey" Vogler uses the seminal film "The Wizard of Oz" as one of the main examples in order to further develop his points. What I realized was that "The Wizard of Oz" is probably one of the best stories ever adapted for film since it literally follows each and every one of Vogler's Journey points, while showing how the character arc changes each time these points are met. Our hero, Dorothy, is thrown out of the Ordinary World where her Awareness immediately increases, and after meeting with the Good Witch, she understands that she must GET HOME and does everything in her power, despite totally being  at the disadvantage throughout the entire film, to overcome each and every obstacle, make some friends (which also despite their disadvantages manage to breach obstacles) and grow from a young, naive, girl into a master of adventure and hero for all those under the control of the Wicked Witch.
     Now there are films, such as (500) Days of Summer, which we screened briefly in class, where I feel there was a huge character-relationship arc.   Presented in a nonlinear format, they stuck to their same beliefs, same idiosyncratic behavior, and I felt that this was very much necessary to create the perfect climax of the film. Tom changes emotionally countless times in the film, thus his character arc follows a more complex route than that of his "soulmate" Summer.
  Obviously, there are exceptions to Vogler's assertion since not all movies even require true concrete, somewhat relatable, characters for a story to exist. Then again, these films aren't quite compelling either. In essence, the character arc is what allows the hero's external journey to flow. If our two detectives in Se7en didn't change in response to the external world as it was laid in the plot..then we would simply be watching two 2-D stoic characters act on screen, devoid of emotion and human qualities, and as the audience our willing suspension of belief would cease to exist and would make Se7en dead and uninteresting. Vogler understands the value of purpose. In film, the purpose is to do one of the following: inform, entertain, or persuade...but if our hero or supporting characters don't change internally or in anyway for that matter..that will leave the audience to watch an uttering boring film where all they do is simply Walk In and Walk Out.