Introduction
A film is a visual medium, which makes an adaptation of a vignette of stories rather difficult to implement. Therefore, novels such as “Big Fish” by Daniel Wallace tend to pose a challenge to movie directors, not because of the lack of interesting visuals, but due to the unique purpose that narration serves in the story.
“Big Fish” is particularly interesting in this regard since it is intertwined with the identity of the main character. The fact that most of the narrative elements exist in an entirely different reality than the one in which the rest of the movie takes place makes the distinction between the narrative and narration in “Big Fish” even more evident.
Nevertheless, the two concepts are connected inseparably in the movie. Although the narrative of “Big Fish” is tied intrinsically to the character arch of the two main protagonists and blurs the line between diegetic and non-diegetic elements, it still helps the narrative develop, thus, becoming inseparable from it.
Narration and Other Devices
“Big Fish” is one of the movies in which a narrative and a character merge into a single entity, thus, creating a surreal environment to keep the audience invested. The movie represents a situation in which the veracity of the story does not matter. Instead, the movie bends the laws of reality to show the progress that its protagonist makes (Goscik et al. 26).
Consequently, the narration needs to represent a stark contrast with the fantastic elements of the narrative in order to stretch the suspension of disbelief and help the audience remain engaged in the story. As a result, the narration takes place in a rather mundane manner, the voice of the narrator being very down-to-earth to contrast with the surreal narrative elements of the plot.
Narrative Structures
There are several ways of establishing key events in a story within a context of a movie. Depending on the stylistic choices that a director uses to build a rapport with an audience, a moviemaker can deploy a chronological structure, a fractured one, a framed one, or an epic one (Carruthers 92). The choice of an approach toward a narrative hinges mostly on the style and meaning with which a director wants to imbue a movie.
In “Big Fish,” the narrative might seem non-linear, yet the film flows very naturally and chronologically when viewed through the lens of the only character that gets a development, namely, Edward’s son. In the specified perspective, each of the stories about Edward Bloom becomes another step toward helping William understand his father (Big Fish). Thus, the narrative structure of the movie can be seen as chronological. Scrutinizing the movie from the point of view of Edward Bloom, however, leads to multiple bends and vignettes in the plotline, thus, turning its narrative into a fractured one.
Plot: How It Constitutes Narrative
Despite the seeming disagreement between the plot of the movie and the narrative thereof, there are numerous points of contact between the two. Although the concepts of a plot and a narrative are often conflated, the former is mostly a tool for structuring the latter, which becomes especially clear in “Big Fish.”
The unique representation of the relationships between Edward and William, in turn, makes the narrative and the character a single entity, thus, reducing the plot to a series of events that mark the lead character’s journey. Therefore, “Big Fish” can be deemed as one of the movies that break the mold and challenge not the traditional film structure but the purpose thereof. “Big Fish” uses a narrative as a medium for telling a simple yet powerful story.
Works Cited
Big Fish. Directed by Tim Burton, performances by Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange, Helena Bonham Carter, and Alison Lohman, Columbia Pictures, 2003.
Carruthers, Lee. Doing Time: Temporality, Hermeneutics, and Contemporary Cinema. SUNY Press, 2016.
Goscik, Karen M., et al. Writing About Movies. 4th ed. W.W. Norton & Company, 2016.