The 3-Act Paradigm at Work: Cradle Will Rock

written by Tim Robbins


Cradle Will Rock is one of those non-Hollywood movies that only the energetic backing of a star (in this case Tim Robbins, who wrote and directed the script) can make happen. I love the results. The story, based on a true incident near the end of the Federal Theatre Project during the Great Depression, is developed episodically with an ensemble cast, without the usual hero-focused storytelling strategy. Despite this, coherent three-act structure is at work here, which once again shows how flexible, and therefore how central, this foundation of storytelling is in our culture.

Structural Analysis

  1. Hook (0-2 min.)
    • A homeless wannabe actress wakes up behind a movie screen in a theater, where she's spent the night, and is chased out onto the street.
  2. Complication (10 min.)
    • Congress is investigating the Federal Theatre Project, amidst rumors that it is staffed with communists.
  3. Call to Action (18, 26 min.)
    • A writer (playwright, composer) sees a labor rally in the park and gets inspired to do a new work, a musical about labor issues. A steel strike is pending. Later he is visited by the ghost of Brecht and the show's first song comes to him. He's going to write this musical with a social conscience.
  4. Act One Plot Point (38 min.)
    • The Federal Theatre Project greenlights the new musical, called "The Cradle Will Rock," considering it ground-breaking work, a musical that deals with social issues (in this case, a steel strike, mirroring what is really happening in the country). Orson Welles will direct.
  5. Midpoint Plot Point (66 min.)
    • The Project administrators get a big budget cut because of the controversy surrounding some of its projects, in particular a children's play called "Revolt of the Beavers." Cradle, set to open the following night, is cancelled.
  6. Act Two Plot Point (78, 91 min.)
    • The government closes down the theater where Cradle is scheduled to open, putting armed troops outside. When the company finds another theater in which to perform the play, the union bans its members from participating. Clearly this is considered a very dangerous play!
  7. Climax and Resolution (95 min.)
    • The playwright/composer is talked into presenting the play by himself, and a large crowd fills the theater to watch. As he begins, one by one members from the cast rise from the audience to participate, despite the union ban, and an almost full ad-lib performance results. The crowd goes crazy over it, and the performance is a great hit. But the central issue in the play -- that people sell out, even artists sell out -- takes an ironic twist with the closing image of the film, as the 1930s New York landscape changes to a contemporary one where corporate neon fills the sky (126 min.).

Notes

Many critics disliked this film because of its episodic development, in which not enough time is spent with any one character to make a full character development. In fact, this approach reflects a Brechtian dramaturgy consistent with the approach of the historical "The Cradle Will Rock" musical. Brecht believed that too much sympathy for a theatrical character diminished the impact of social ideas in a play, which he believed should be foremost. So it is here. We follow half-a-dozen character arcs but the real focus is the play itself, the struggles to perform it, and in this sense it can be said that the protagonist of this movie is the play, most closely represented by the writer/composer. I consider what results a powerful, engaging story with social content that is even more relevant today than it was in the 1930s.


MODULE 4: SCREENWRIGHT: the craft of screenwriting

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