Save the Cat Goes to the Movies (20 page)

ROP Type: Adolescent Passage

ROP Cousins:
American Graffiti, Breaking Away, Risky Business, Sixteen Candles, Lucas, American Pie, Porky’s, Pretty in Pink, Dazed and Confused, Thirteen

NAPOLEON DYNAMITE

Written by
Jared Hess & Jerusha Hess

Opening Image:
Titles are displayed on shag rugs, plates of junk food, high school library cards, Chapstick, and pencil drawings on three-hole-punch binder paper. Then we see our dorky hero, outside his house, waiting for the bus — alone.

Theme Stated:
“What are you gonna do today, Napoleon?” the hero is asked by a little kid. “Whatever I feel like I wanna do, gosh!” he yells. The conflict between what Napoleon wants to do, and what he
can
do, is what this ROP is about. He lives in his own world, but will he ever succeed in the real world? We’ll see.

Set-Up:
Between doing reports on the Loch Ness monster (“our underwater ally”) and playing tetherball alone (in a snapshot that will have a bookend in the Final Image), Napoleon invents stories about wolverines and gets beat up at his locker by Don the bully. After a particularly rough day at school — when his brother Kip (Aaron Ruell) refuses to pick him up — Napoleon reaches a Stasis = Death moment.

Catalyst:
Napoleon is introduced to the new kid in his school, Pedro (Efren Ramirez). And at Minute 11, a knock at Napoleon’s door: School crush Deb (Tina Majorino) is selling her glamour photography services. When Deb leaves her sample case behind and runs, Napoleon’s much-repressed quest to win her love begins.

Debate:
Will Pedro and Deb be a way out for Napoleon? Will the friendship of these newfound commiserants change his life? To remind us of where he still is, Napoleon meets the local Tae Kwan Do teacher and learns that self-respect is key to winning the girl; Lyle, Napoleon’s farmer neighbor, shoots a cow; and Napoleon’s grandmother — and surrogate parent — leaves their home to go motorcycling out on “the dunes.” Later, over “tots” in the school
cafeteria, Napoleon secures Pedro’s friendship and is prompted by him to speak to Deb. We also meet prom queen Summer (Haylie Duff). But what lucky girls will the two friends take to the school dance?

Break into Two:
At Minute 21, Grandma has a motorcycle accident and calls Napoleon’s Uncle Rico (Jon Gries) to watch the two brothers. The sudden loss of this parental authority gives Napoleon an unnerving freedom. There’s no real adult in charge as Napoleon steps into a brand new world.

B Story:
The “false mentor,” Uncle Rico, is a former high school football player, perpetually longing for 1982. At the moment, Rico is selling Tupperware and breast-enlargement cream door-to-door. Despite his emotionally challenged moxie, he is the Sears catalogue version of the best Napoleon can hope for in his family. Rico enlists Kip to help in his schemes, but a wary Napoleon has his number from the get-go.

Fun and Games:
Let loose to try new things, Napoleon and Pedro bond as they work together to help Pedro ask Summer to the dance. Napoleon looks on as Kip brings Uncle Rico to Deb’s photography service, and we see her trick to relax subjects by imagining they’re “floating in the ocean surrounded by thousands of tiny seahorses.” When Pedro scoops Napoleon and asks Deb to the dance first, Napoleon must use his “skills” to ask Trisha (Emily Tyndall), a friend of Summer’s. A and B stories cross as Rico urges Napoleon to get a job (“Do the chickens have large talons?”) and buy a suit for the dance.

Midpoint:
Trisha agrees to go with Napoleon, then abandons him at the prom. Napoleon has a “false victory” when he dances with Deb. There are sparks between them, but neither is “there” yet. At the dance, Pedro sees the sign that will change his life: a poster announcing elections for student president. Pedro decides to “raise the stakes” — for himself and for Napoleon.

Bad Guys Close In:
The two challenge Summer in a campaign they are sure to lose. The biggest challenge to Napoleon’s goal occurs when Pedro shaves his head. Not even Deb’s wig stylings can help his chances now. Pressure builds on Napoleon. Uncle Rico is embarrassing him by hawking his breast-enlargement cream to the girls at school. Kip has an Internet girlfriend, LaFawnduh. When she visits, Kip blooms. Why can’t Napoleon? Tired of “the wrong way,” Napoleon turns inward and, using a dance video he found in a remnant store, begins to learn new moves in the privacy of his bedroom.

All Is Lost:
When Uncle Rico speaks to Deb and implies Napoleon wants her to use his breast cream, Napoleon’s life crumbles.

Dark Night of the Soul:
Deb calls to let Napoleon know she’s mad. Napoleon’s life is “worse than when this movie started.”

Break into Three:
Napoleon fights back. He attacks Uncle Rico for ruining things with Deb. And when he sees Uncle Rico videotaping yet another rendition of himself throwing the football, Napoleon realizes his uncle is no role model. A and B stories cross.

Finale:
The election campaign requires a speech from Pedro, but when the two friends get to the assembly, they discover they have to put on a “skit,” too. Pedro’s speech promises students that “all your dreams will come true.” The audience expects more, but Pedro has prepared nothing. To save the day, Napoleon takes the stage and begins to dance. He’s good! Amazing, actually. And all, including Deb, are impressed. A nerd’s fantasy becomes real.

Final Image:
Life returns to normal. Grandma is back home, Kip’s girl and Rico leave, Pedro is “El Presidente” — and Napoleon has found his true tetherball partner: Deb. One is now two.

A boy and his dog … I mean whale … I mean
horse/
But does it matter?
The Black Stallion
proves what “Buddy Love” movies are really all about: My life changed for having met another.

Love is a many-splendored thing, or so the ballad goes. And aside from the fear of being eaten by sharks, the topic we most relate to, good cavemen that we are, concerns stories that deal with our primal need for this very special gift.

All stories are about transformation. Usually, a hero is changed by a key moment or event. But in the genre of movie I call “Buddy Love,” the thing that most transforms the life of the hero is … someone else.

There are many variations on the “Buddy Love” story. Whether it’s a traditional love match of “boy meets girl,” two cops on the trail of a crook, or a couple of goofy pals who just like to hang out together, the same dynamics apply. Beneath the surface of all those Laurel and Hardy, Butch and Sundance, or Buddy Cop movies are the same elements found in
Bringing Up Baby, Pat and Mike
, and
Two Weeks Notice.
The only difference is that in the latter examples, one buddy is missing a Y chromosome. While sex is at the heart of a lot of these films, they are more about “completion, “the slow realization the buddies are not as good apart as they are together. And though we often get confused due to the fact so many movies have a “love story” in them, the true “Buddy Love” is that film in which the main story is about two individuals whose lives are less without the other.

Be it a “Pet Love” fable like
Lassie, Air Bud
, or
The Black Stallion;
“Rom-com Love” like
You’ve Got Mail
and
When Harry Met Sally …;
“Professional Love” like that found in
Lethal Weapon
and
Rush Hour;
“Epic Love” in which sweeping events bring our lovers together, such as
Titanic
or
Gone with the Wind;
or “Forbidden Love” like that found in
Brokeback Mountain
— and even in the animated fairy tale,
Beauty and the Beast
— what these stories have in common is a lesson we can all identify with:

My life changed for having known another.

Buddy Love movies seem vast and unwieldy but have three simple components: (1) an “incomplete hero,” (2) a “counterpart” he or she needs to make his life whole, and (3) a “complication” that is keeping them apart — even though that force is actually binding them together!

I know that Danny Glover is the “incomplete hero” of
Lethal Weapon.
Why? Because despite the fact we probably all think of Mel Gibson as the star of that film, it’s
about
Danny. What
I
remember is that scene at the movie’s beginning: It’s Danny’s birthday and he’s sitting in a bathtub depressed about his gray hair, imminent retirement from the police force, and general middle age exhaustion. Here is a guy who needs help he can’t get from his loving wife and family — or his job. Danny needs something else to resurrect him.

He
needs
Mel Gibson.

Picture Danny in the bathtub (well, not for too long) and you have roughly the starting point for many a Buddy Love hero. The hip, slick, and cool Tom Cruise in
Rain Man
may be on top of his game as a Ferrari importer, but something is missing from the weigh bill of his soul. Likewise, when we meet her in
Titanic
, Kate Winslet is shackled to her mother and her fiancé without hope or a solution. Billy Crystal in
When Harry Met Sally …
is like this, too. Though Billy may not know that he’s superficial in his relationships with women, we do — and so does Meg Ryan, the Sally who will fix his Harry and make him true. Yes, the adventures Tom and Kate and Billy go on are exciting, and you’ll cite scenes of action and fun when you recount the movie to friends. But what these movies are “about” is the incomplete hero who can only be fixed by a special other, and who must have the other or “die.” Despite all the cool scenes,
that
is our hook.

It’s what all “love” stories teach us.

And who is that other? Odds are “the counterpart” is unique — and often bizarre. Think Katharine Hepburn in
Bringing Up Baby
, Dustin Hoffman in
Rain Man
, Mel Gibson in
Lethal Weapon
, a horse called Black, or a dog named Lassie. These are catalyst characters that shake the bathtub-sitters from their lukewarm malaise.

The prototypical catalyst character does not do much changing, but affects change in another. The perfect example is Dustin Hoffman in
Rain Man
who, by definition, is incapable of change. This is not to say the other half of the Buddy Love equation doesn’t need help too, or does not have to evolve in order to fit into the life the two will find at the end. If both characters change and grow, the movie’s called a
two-hander
, meaning that each of the buddies has a set-up and a pay-off. You will spend pages in the set-up to meet
both
buddies — and their problems — like in
Two Weeks Notice
, where smart and funny Sandra Bullock as an anti-capitalist lawyer meets Hugh Grant, as the foppish destroyer of the very buildings she’s trying to save! We know right away that each of these opposites must take one giant step forward if they want to be together.

So what is keeping the two parties from doing that? Scratch the surface of most BLs, especially those of the “rom-com” (romantic-comedy) kind, and find “the complication” — often something bordering on the ridiculous. “For God’s sake, Matthew,” we yell at the screen during
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.
“You
love
Kate, just tell her about the bet!” But such are the requirements that must be crowbarred in by the screenwriters to keep our two lovebirds apart: geographic distance in
Sleepless in Seattle;
personal ethics in which two people believe in such different things that their core beliefs must change to be in love (Two
Weeks Notice);
and even a slowly sinking ship in
Titanic.
(talk about
romance us interruptus!)
The ironic thing is: Each of these complications is actually what is keeping the two together!