Rocky

Sylvester Stallone wrote the script for Rocky, then famously used the script as leverage to star in the movie as well. It's one of the films created by a member of the Boom generation that was seen as the start of a new generation of filmmakers. It's also the first of them that has a story that works with the associated Prophet archetype.

If you haven't been here before, please take a look at the Introduction to Generations, the Generational Attributes and the Four Stories in order to get up to speed on how all this works, and the terms being used.

“Rocky” appears at first to straddle the line between the Doomed/Damned Artist movies of the New Hollywood  period and the Good Guy Wins paradigm when Boomers started taking over. After all, Rocky doesn’t really win, does he? It’s a split decision, leaving Apollo Creed as the undisputed heavyweight champion. There was even an original ending, as seen on the poster, of Rocky and Adrian walking quietly away from the fight, humble but happy. It’s not the absolute victory seen in Jaws and Star Wars nor in the dozens of sports underdogs movies that followed over the next 20 years.  

Still, by the given criteria, it’s rather clear that Rocky belongs with the Boomer movies rather than Silent Generation (Artist) ones. First: Are the protagonist and the other main characters either Doomed or Damned? If not, is there a good guy and a bad guy with the good guy winning? For Rocky, it’s much more the latter than the former. While Creed wins the bout - except that, really, he doesn’t lose - Rocky succeeds at his goal, to go the distance. He even surpasses it, by managing a split decision against the World Heavyweight Champion himself. Creed’s victory doesn’t neutralize Rocky’s, doesn’t make anyone’s life worse, doesn’t mean Rocky gets his fingers broken. (If it was a real New Hollywood picture, that twist could easily have found its way in: Rocky’s big break gets the unwelcome attention of his bosses, and he has to lose in order to stay alive, or completely annihilate Creed in order to “win.”)

There is - like Jaws and Star Wars, unlike The Godfather or Network - a definite Win for the protagonist that doesn’t lead to death or damnation. Still, Rocky doesn’t manage to be as audience-friendly as those which came after. It’s a long, slow drama that builds to an intense but not lengthy (under ten minutes!) fight sequence, which fight is the only real “action” in the whole film. (If you think the “Gonna Fly Now” montage is an action sequence...he slurps eggs, runs, gets to the top of the stairs, and raises his hands over his head. Stirring, excellent, not action.) Rocky gets to know the “pet shop dame,” argues with Micky and his boss, negotiates with Creed’s manager - almost all of the film is him talking with other people, and not always in a way that puts him in the best light. While it resembles New Hollywood's Artist movies in this way, it clearly is, and was, another stepping stone to Blockbuster Hollywood.

Purple Rain

As an investigation of changes in stories over time, this isn't the sort of blog that gets to be topical, usually. The death of Prince has naturally brought up his best-known narrative work, one that could not be escaped upon its release.

If you haven't been here before, please take a look at the Introduction to Generations, the Generational Attributes and the Four Stories in order to get up to speed on how all this works, and the terms being used.

In 1984, the movie Purple Rain played at movie theaters, the soundtrack was ubiquitous, the videos seemed non-stop on MTV. And people were still playing 1999 and Little Red Corvette. All. The. Time. 

It's watchable, well-produced,  worth having on in the background at a party, not the worst way to spend a afternoon. It's not quite a long-form music video, although it does feel at times like the narrative is just there as a way to tie the music together. For anyone who has dealt with difficult family situations while trying to get their own life started, it probably resonates, and returns a message of hope and possibility. 

How does it work in the generational model, then? It's been called semi-autobiographical, and is it ever a slice of its time, so it should be safe to use the people involved for this analysis. 

Characters: Prince, born 1958, is a late -wave Baby Boomer. Most of his peers in the movie, from Morris Day to Apollonia to Lisa, are also born around that time. (One unexpected exception is Wendy, a GenXer born in 1964.) The man playing The Kid's father was born in 1939, which makes him Silent generation. The actress who played his mother was born in 1947, so she's a bit young for the role - another Silent generation actress would have been old enough to actually have been his mother.  Still, the film primarily stars and represents  Baby Boomers, a Prophet archetype generation.

Setting: The early 1980s, late in the Awakening period that Strauss & Howe call the Consciousness Revolution. Which is fitting, considering the name of the Kid's (and Prince's) band. 

Story: The Kid is dealing with troubles at home, dissension in his band, an outside agitator in Morris Day and the Time, and a career that isn't quite moving as he had hoped. While he's a mercurial jerk at various times to almost everyone around him, it isn't a fundamental flaw he is working through. He succeeds instead when he is able to recognize in his father's music the same strivings that animate him.  From there he's able to integrate the various issues he's having by accepting Apollonia's love, acknowledging his bandmates' contributions, and allowing his own personality to come through on stage. It's a story of becoming the person he should be - aptly, a Prophet story. 

Some people really like this film, some do see it as a long-form music video. If the resolution is unsatisfying, this analysis might suggest that the Prophet arc needs to be clearer. The Kid starts off with troubles, some improvements happen, then bigger difficulties, then somehow he manages to pull himself out of it. Based on the goal of this archetypal story, it might be that accentuating his starting difficulties could help, particularly as they are tied together by the music that resolves them. Maybe the secret of The Time's success is how they throw their excitement out there, and The Kid has to learn how to do the same. Perhaps the similarities between the Kid and his father could be more obvious, at least to the audience if not the characters. Any of these would help the audience to understand why his Purple Rain set frees him, allowing him to become the star he is.. 

Macbeth

The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare raises more complex questions than the previous stories investigated. The possible answers for the three main viewpoints aren't as clear, and it points up a weakness of the Four Stories as described so far.

Setting, at least, is obvious: like King Lear, Macbeth actions destroy King and country, invite invaders, and cause total war. It's Crisis time. 

Characters like Macbeth and his wife that are morally ambiguous or outright bad - what I've started calling mal - are Nomads often enough that 's easy to start with that and see where it leads. For the first few scenes of Macbeth, though, even knowing where things are going, this looks like an exception. Macbeth is called "noble," he has helped his king eliminate a traitor, and is being granted a grander title by this grateful sovereign.

Maybe he's not a bad guy.

Then, in the third scene, the witches tell him that he will be king.  Almost the first thing that comes to mind is "I could do it by killing King Duncan."  

Which doesn't mean the question is answered, or going to be answered with other options.  The generational attributes end up all over the place. Macbeth is ruthless but not  principled, pecuniary (insofar as the crown has inherent wealth) and practical,  indecisive and arguably neurotic.  On balance he does seem like a Nomad, although one could push the characterization in any direction. Which might explain why it is popular, if any generation can show the lessons they prefer to see:

• Artists: Fate can't be avoided; 
• Nomads: Evil is repaid, no matter how certain you are of success; 
• Prophets: Beware of ambition, or careful what you wish for;
• Heroes: Even a tyrant can fall to the strength of the team.  

This leaves little choice but to look at the Story, and the observation that the Four Stories have a bias towards uplifting results, of triumph over different sorts of adversity. Only the Artist story of Doom and Damnation is intrinsically tragic. (Which isn't the same as being a tragedy - Annie Hall, Doctor Strangelove, and The Producers all work as comedies and also as Artist stories.) Artist generations certainly aren't the only ones with tragedy in their lives. Still, their narratives seem to have this tendency. Since Macbeth is a tragedy, seeing it as an Artist story of Doomed and Damned is tempting. The problem is that the end result is triumphant in its way - the unequivocal bad guy is taken down. If we see the main character as Nomad, it would make sense for him to have a Redemption, but clearly that doesn't happen.  What does that leave?

Aristotle saw Tragedy as involving a tragic flaw that the main character is unable to avoid. In the generational view, people cannot escape the circumstances of birth. They get laden down with the events they experience, and the attitudes of adults during youth. What if that's the same, that tragic flaws are inherent in the same way? Then tragedy could be seen as either a) negative attributes that drag people down or b) positive attributes that are insufficient for salvation. Indeed, people can be dragged down by positive attributes as well, as Lear's desire for peace and fairness leads to his downfall. In general, then, tragedy becomes a reversal of the usual story,  happening through the failure of these fundamental attributes.

If this works, then what happens with Macbeth? His flaw seems to be a willingness to do bad things in order to improve his own situation. Trying to be practical leads him to additional murder, but doesn't set him on the path. If he'd stopped trying to fix things, though, there might not have been an opposition for Macduff to rally against him. In any case, it seems like an anti-Nomad story, where amorality and pragmatism lead the tragic figure to his inevitable end. Which further suggests that other generations have their own anti-stories, as well.