'The Fly' Analysis

'The Fly' Analysis: Narrative Theory

'The Fly' is a short film that was uploaded to Short of the Week in 2015. The film focuses on the getaway driver for a bank robbery, whose paranoia manifests in the form of obsessively trying to kill a fly that is bothering him in the car, as he waits for his team to return from the bank.

The film only really features two of Propp's seven character types; the hero, in the form of the getaway driver, and the villain (the fly). The film does fit Todorov's 5 stages of conventional narrative. The film begins at a state of equilibrium, with the characters entering the bank as the driver waits calmly. There is then a disruption of the equilibrium as the fly appears in the car. There is a recognition of this disruption as the driver becomes agitated. Next, we get an attempt to repair this as the lead character tries to kill the fly. However, the reinstatement of the equilibrium does not come with the conventional ending of the fly being killed, but with the sound of the police sirens, as the driver will inevitably be arrested. In similar fashion, the film also falls into Freytag's dramatic structure. The exposition comes in the form of the driver shouting at the men as they enter the bank, which is also the only dialogue featured in the film. The driver trying everything he can to kill the fly acts as the rising action. The climax comes as the driver accidentally stabs his lip with his toothpick. The fly escaping acts as the falling action, and the sound of police sirens (after the driver's gunfire has alerted them) signals the resolution, or catastrophe in this case, with the driver presumably being arrested.

Everything stated also ties into the idea of binary opposition, as suggested by Levi Strauss, as this film's narrative is driven by the constant creation of conflict between the driver and the fly. Although, this film does not end in a conventional resolution of the conflict, as previously mentioned. 'The Fly' is also strictly linear throughout, with no deviation from this technique. 

In terms of technical code, the film features the standard techniques that would be expected of a film within the crime thriller genre. Towards the beginning of the film we get close up shots of the lead character's face, also displaying his hands on the steering wheel. During this we can also hear the sound of the car engine, with this being the only sound featured after the opening. This all serves to create tension as the driver awaits his partners returning, and the audience await the arrival of the fly. This short film would be considered a closed text as their is only one obvious narrative thread for the audience to pull on.

Regarding narrative modes, the action-based events of the film are all that really need to be structured, as there are no scenes of dramatic dialogue. This is obviously due to the short run time. The events of the film are structured as follows: Men exit the car to rob the bank, the driver spots a fly on the windscreen which he believes he has killed, the fly then enters the car, the driver attempts to kill it, we hear the car horn sound without end due to the driver hitting it while trying to kill the fly, he then gets a toothpick stuck in his lip, exits the car and starts firing his shotgun, and then finally we see the bank robbers reappear as the police sirens sound. At no point throughout the film do we actually see the events that took place inside the bank. Therefore, the plot has led us to infer other story space that we never got to witness, but we know has featured.