Vladimir Propp was a literacy critic and scholar he believed that the a certain type of character is used to structure the narrative. He realized that many Russian fairy tales had the same typical functional characters. His theory influenced many film makers around the world and help them create structured well produced films.
An example of the Propp theory can be seen evidently in the new Marvel movie 'Black Panther'. You can see obviously see that the Hero is Black Panther, the villain who struggles against black panther in trying to take the throne is Erik Kilmonger. The helpers in the movie is Black Panther's sister Shuri and Okoye they both act sort off like his side kick throughout the movie, but always seem to be not as powerful as Black Panther. The Prize/Princess in the movie is Nakia the love of Black Panthers life. The Dispatcher I feel is unclear it's sort off just life, as when the villain finally attacks due to history's sake the hero is made to defend his city. Shuri is both the helper and the donor as she creates/designs the high tech stuff that Black Panther wear which gives him an advantage over others. I don't think the story has a false hero in this case, but not all movies can perfectly fit every theory, or else they would be quite boring. |