RTF Blog 8

Hollywood's 3 Act Structure consists of an introduction complication and a resolution also known as the  beginning, middle, and end. Each act also has a plot point in each act, plot point 1, plot point 2, and the climax; each plot point has it's own mini climax and leads into the next act leaving a question of what is going to happen now. The  movie that I will be using to show how the 3-act structure works is "The Punisher" (2004).

    In act 1(which is 31min. and 59 sec. long), the introduction, we are introduced to Frank Castle who is the protagonist in this story, his family, and Howard Saint and his family who happen to be the antagonist.We are first introduced to Frank when he is playing the part of a drug dealer trying to make a deal with one of the people that works for Howard Saint. There is a big shoot out andHoward Saint's son how happened to be there ends up dying in this shoot out and we find out Frank works for the FBI. Howard Saint finds this out about Frank Castle and his wife orders that he send his men to take revenge and kill  Frank and his family at a family reunion in Puerto Rico. This is where the the plot point occurs (mini climax) all of Frank's family is murdered,when they attempt to kill Frank, they blow up the pier after beating him up thinking that they killed him. This where act 1 ends and leaves the question of what is going to happen Frank now.
     In the second act the question of what will happen to Frank is answered, we see Frank washing up on the shore of the beach and taken care of by a man. In this act we see Frank figuring out a plan to get back at the Saint's for what happened and we see him go through a type of depression  drinking problem. This act shows him spying on Howard's wife and best friend (Quentin), it doesn't explicitly show what Franks intentions are but show him setting things up. This is what the main focus of act 2 is, the plot point of this act occurs when Howard Saint sends a man by the name of "The Russian" to go to Frank's apartment and kill him. The Russian beats up Frank, though Frank is able to finally kill the Russian he is extremely exhausted. As his neighbors (Joan, Dave, and Bumpo)  try to stitch up his wounds some of Howard's thugs show up to the apartment. His neighbors then hide him in a bunker that he has in his apartment, when the thugs get to the room the begin to ask dave and Bumpo questions about Frank when Dave refuses to answer the questions they rip off all of this facial piercings and leave. Once Frank recovers and tells them to take dave to the hospital he begins to pack his guns and and leaves his apartment, leaving us asking what exactly his he going to do to the Saint's now. the act was 60 min. long.
   In the third act, the question of what is Frank going to do now is answered when we see his whole plan unfold. Howard ends up killing his wife and Quentin because he thinks that they were having an affair when indeed they weren't, because Quentin is gay. But Frank set it up so that he would do this. Frank then is seen going to Howard Saint's club and plants bombs under cars and in the building, he then kills everyone in the building including Howard's other son. Once Frank finds Howard he shots him and ties him to a car, he thens tells him how he made him kill his best friend and his wife. Frank turns the car on and puts it in drive which drags Howard into a car dealership that has other cars with explosives on them and the are all blowing up and the rolls in to the dealership. Frank then goes back to the apartment and drinks and attempts to kill himself but all the good memories of his family flood his mind and he does not kill himself.This is theclimax of the film where the problems where resolved (the saints and Franks depression.) The movie like most 3-act structure films has a happy ending, where Frank took care of his problems and leaves his neighbors a large amount money, this act lasted 32 min. leaving the movie  to be a total of 124min.