Today we watched "Ward 13" written and directed by Peter Cromwell. We watched it because it is more complex than the short films we've watched so far. The main character has two goals (instead of one, as we've been used to), and there are many turning points (rather than a single turning point, as we've been used to).
The protagonist (main character) starts low on the graph as he has just been hit by a car and taken to a hospital. However, things get worse when he wakes to find that his nurse seems a little demented.
The next time he wakes up he tries to ring the nurse, but discovers that the cord has been cut. This starts him into
Goal #1: to find out what is going on. He reaches his goal when he finds a man who has been turned into slime monster. As he runs away, the protagonist realizes that his fate will be the same. Which leads him to
Goal #2: to get out of the hospital alive. He finds a bottle of strength pills and a cane which gives us some hope that he'll be able to accomplish his goal.
But he is immediately apprehended and brought to a surgery theater (down on the story graph). Though he is able to escape (up), he runs into the slime monster (down). He defeats the slime monster (up) but runs next into the Jason Nurse (down). However, he is able to defeat the Jason Nurse (up), only to run into the crazy guy where he has a battle on a speeding gurney (down). After this victory (up) the protagonist must fight three people, including the head doctor (down).
The head doctor is, of course, the most imposing foe. In fact, as we look back over the line of opponents, we realize that they have become more intelligent and more difficult to defeat. Thus, the head doctor takes the longest to defeat. The story made good use of escalation.
In the end the protagonist escapes momentarily but is knocked unconscious and is taken back to the hospital. Since the protagonist put so much work into escaping the hospital, only to be brought back, we concluded that, structurally, "Ward 13" is a comedy. One of the hallmarks of comedy is that the character doesn't get anywhere after all the the conflict.
Some of us were emotionally unsatisfied with this ending. The reason was because we became invested in the protagonist more deeply than a comedy normally lets us. Comedy only works when we don't believe any real suffering is going on. As long as the coyote is able to pull himself back into shape after being crushed by a boulder, it's comedy.
However, at the beginning of the movie we see the protagonist weep when he comprehends his plight. Watching a character suffer usually makes us sympathize with that character and invest in him or her. We believe that what happens to that character matters.
Thus, when the protagonist fails to escape, someone who has invested in the character may feel a sense of loss rather than a sense of irony.
