Thriller Conventions

Using Vladimir Propp's (a Russian critic who examined hundreds of folk tales and wrote a book named 'Morphology of the Folk Tale) theory of narrative functions and character roles within stories, there are several character roles which occur multiple times within Thrillers which I have investigated.

Propp stated that there were 8 character roles:

- The Villain
- The Hero
- The Donor (who provides an object with some magic property)
- The Helper (who aids the hero)
- The Princess (the sought person) - a reward for the hero and object of the villains schemes
- Her Father (who rewards the hero)
- The Dispatcher (who sends the hero on his way)
- The False Hero

'The Villain' such as 'Le Chiffre' (Mads Mikkelsen) from the James Bond film 'Casino Royale'. This character is a middle aged man (common convention of villains in thrillers) with a slash across his face connoting danger. He is seen as an equal match for James Bond, because he has high status within his profession, he's male, got a lot of money and attracts the opposite sex, this equal match makes thrillers interesting as the result of the conflict is unknown.



In the American thriller 'Se7en' Detective Mills (Brad Pitt) is the helper who aids the hero to achieve his goal, they are often on the 'right' side of morality and are usually the same gender as the 'hero' as to not create conflict between the 'hero' and the 'princess'.



Claude Levi-Strauss looked at narrative structure in terms on binary oppositions such as 'Good v Evil', 'Moral v Immoral' and 'Earth v Space'. These are opposites that reveal the structure of media texts and Levi-Struss looked at specific genres such as Science Fiction films where binary oppositions (Earth v Space) are created by the narrative. Within the film 'Face/Off' directed by John Woo, there are the binary oppositions of 'Black v White' in the opening titles and 'Police v Punishment' as there is a covert anti-terrorism team facing a terrorist organisation.



Tzvetan Todorov was a Bulgarian structuralist linguist commenting on narrative form from the 1960s onwards. Toderov suggested that plots began with an equilibrium (a happy scenario) where potentially opposing forces are balanced. This is then later disrupted by an event (eg. an extreme crime such as murder), this is then solved in some way so that order can be restored and there is a revised equilibrium.
In many thriller openings including 'Face/Off' and 'Se7en' a disruption has occurred in the beginning of the film, sometimes to create a motive for other characters later on in the film. (In 'Face/Off' the hero's son was killed in his arms by a terrorist, this provided a personal motive for the 'hero' to capture the villain, however personal attachment to a job may be a potential flaw to the character).