The 3-Act Paradigm at Work: Atlantic City

written by John Guare


Atlantic City is a beautifully crafted script written by one of the best playwrights in the U.S. Few scripts so tightly weave the interplay of main and subplots, the latter informing the former. There's not a wasted beat in this fine film.

Structural Analysis

  1. Hook (1-2 min.)
    • The movie opens with a "soft hook," the image of the elderly Lou spying on his neighbor Sally as she washes her breasts with lemon juice (to remove the smell of fish from her work at a restaurant). The quick cut is to a story driving a subplot, Dave (Sally's husband, who ran off with her sister Crissie and has gotten her pregnant) picking up drugs dropped off at a phone booth just a step ahead of their intended recipient.
  2. Complication (5 min.)
    • Dave and Crissie come to Atlantic City, looking up Sally. She is furious to see them.
  3. Call to Action (22 min.)
    • Lou, who runs numbers and cares for Grace, a woman as old as he is, likes to pretend he's a big shot. He intercedes on Dave's behalf when Dave asks to use the phone in a bar. Dave befriends Lou by flattering him, in order to get the use of his apartment to prepare the drugs for sale on the street. Lou's kindness, then, thrusts him into the drug subplot that will drive the story.
  4. Act One Plot Point (40-2 min.)
    • While Lou helps out Dave by dropping off drugs (for $100), Dave is tracked down and killed. Now Lou is left with $4000 and the rest of the drugs.
  5. Midpoint Plot Point (68 min.)
    • The drug dealers rough up Sally, trying to get their drugs and money back, and Lou can't protect her. He has just made love to her - but he can't protect her. He feels defeated.
  6. Act Two Plot Point (83-4 min.)
    • The next time the dealers track them down, now aware that it is Lou with the drugs, Lou shoots them. He and Sally escape, Lou finally feeling like a big shot, the famous criminal he has always strived to be.
  7. Climax and Resolution (94, 98 min.)
    • Lou lets Sally escape with the money. He has set aside a small bit of the drugs, and at film's end he watches as Grace makes the delivery and collects the money. They walk off arm-in-arm, as happy as in the good old days.

    Notes

    Atlantic City is about a man trying to recapture and glorify his past against changing times. Everywhere are images of the rebirth of Atlantic City as buildings are leveled to put up a casino, and as Lou loses numbers customers to those doing better playing slots.

    Lou is a wonderful character, and his personal arc works in counter-point to the arc of the story. He is at his low point at the midpoint and at the end of act two, when he puts himself in greatest jeopardy by murdering the two drug dealers, he feels on top of the world. This is a wonderful and skillfully executed variation of the usual arc that finds the protagonist at his lowest point going into act three. Lou ends up doing something noble, letting Sally get away with the money to begin her new life, and the movie ends before we see what consequences may await him - he has his moment of glory, a big shot bad guy at last, and we leave him proud and grinning.


    MODULE 4: SCREENWRIGHT: the craft of screenwriting

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