Home Alone analysis

[mlucas]

Hey all, looking at the storyform I just noticed the very fitting position of IC Signpost 2: Memory -- forgetting Kevin!

The signposts for all the other throughlines look really good too, just kind of eyeballing them. Especially MC Kevin's -- from:

• his present unfair circumstances being punished,
• to how things are changing with everyone gone, including conflict from devolving back to a scared little kid,
• to feeling guilty over past actions ("I've been kind of a pain lately. I said some things I shouldn't have. I really haven't been too good this year.),
• to wishing for his family to be home on time for Christmas and setting everything up for their return, including buying groceries.

[jhull]

Hi @mlucas—

I haven’t read the whole thread yet, but I just finished watching it again with the family (love John Candy)

Kevin is a Changed Main Character. He goes from pretending to be violent to all out violence. Be-er to Do-er.

Marley is the sole Influence Character — You and I moment in the church.

And conflict in the OS is seen in Mind. Everyone, and I mean everyone, is a huge a—hole to everyone else in the narrative (and everyone suffers because of it)

Stop the activities and there would still be a problem. Stop the bad attitudes and all is right with the world.

Merry Christmas!

[mlucas]

Merry Christmas Jim!

Hmm. I've been thinking about your ideas and trying to keep an open mind, but I'm having trouble seeing things your way.

Regarding the OS... To me, it seemed that the "being an a--hole to each other" wasn't the source of conflict, it was more like the status quo that existed before the story starts, the "love-each-other-hate-each-other" of normal family life. It's even shown to be continuing at the end of the film (not something that was resolved) when Buzz yells "Kevin what did you do to my room!"

Whereas by ending the problematic activities (burgling and chaotic family travel), the story's difficulties are resolved.

On Kevin, I saw him as a Do-er from beginning to end ... he pushes Buzz at dinner, and one of the first things he does home alone is toboggan down the steps and out the door. We must be seeing his throughline differently? I saw all the traps and home protection and fighting the Bandits as mostly in the OS throughline, with a portion of MC woven in ("I'm capable of taking care of things"). The real personal stuff was conflict over whether he's capable of packing a suitcase (beginning) versus him buying Christmas groceries for the whole family (end), showing his Steadfast-Stop growth.

How would you describe Kevin's personal issues & perspective?

To me, Marley definitely seemed a Changed character at the end, with how he gives up his fear and worry based perspective about his son and rejoins the family for Christmas.

How do you see Marley influencing Kevin toward real violence?

Anyway, Merry Christmas again, and thanks for commenting!

[jhull]

The real question is how do you not see Kevin as having a Changed Main Character Resolve? He starts the story hating his family and wishing them to the cornfield, then fights to defend their castle. And he doesn’t feel like he has to explain himself.

That’s a complete 180 from the beginning.

[jhay]

I’m also having a hard time seeing the OS in Mind, but I do think (just to repeat something I said earlier in the thread) that Kevin is a change character of SOME kind.

He starts out clearly saying “I wish I had no family” and ends up really happy that they’re back home. It feels like a huge shift. I just can’t see that as a steadfast growth. It feels way too clear a reversal.

My question for Jim, which I think could clear a lot of our confusion up, is what do you think is the OS goal? It feels too external for me to see it any other way, so this might clarify it for me.

[jhull]

There’s a lot of underestimating going on—from everyone. The crisis prevention line, the cops, the headcount, the burglars and how “stupid” kids are, the scary guy next door, whether or not the scary’s guy son will welcome him home, whether or not Kevin can take care of himself (he can), Candy and his “bums” who aren’t there for Christmas, the stopping distance required to avoid hitting the lawn decoration, the cheapskate who didn’t leave a large enough trip, the amount of time it takes to make their flight, the value of a watch that looks like a Rolex, the amount of money needed to pay for 12 pizzas, the reality of Kevin’s house party, and eventually whether or not two crooks can beat a kid, and when they think they have him beat in the house he set them up in.

Also, the kid and the neighbor have one thing in common: they’ve both been physically abandoned by their families. And they both have different approaches towards facing that abandonment. (Though eventually one adopts the others approach).

[mlucas]

Let me be clear that I'm open to the idea that I'm seeing it wrong and Kevin is a Changed main character. For now I'll argue for Steadfast because I still think that position deserves some advocacy ...

The real question is how do you not see Kevin as having a Changed Main Character Resolve? He starts the story hating his family and wishing them to the cornfield, then fights to defend their castle.

I didn't see him as hating his family from the beginning. His very first line is "Mom, Uncle Frank won't let me watch the movie, but the big kids can. Why can't I? ... It's not even rated R." He goes on to complain about "nobody'll let me do anything". Just after that is the suitcase bit, which I think is crucial. Kevin admits he doesn't know how to pack a suitcase because he's never done it before, and politely tries to get advice on how to actually do it. But no one will help him, they just repeat that he's helpless and incompetent.

Even when his mom singles him out and punishes him, he doesn't start out saying he hates them; it's the other way around: "Everyone in this family hates me". Only at her suggestion does he wish for them to disappear:

KATE: Then maybe you should ask Santa for a new family.
KEVIN: I don't want a new family. I don't want any family. Families suck!

I thought his personal issues were well established prior to that. Not about hating his family but about being stuck being a little kid, who's a lot more capable than everyone gives him credit for. It's that "I'm more capable and grown-up than you think" perspective that he's steadfast on.

[jhull]

So if he wasn’t a little kid, all his problems would disappear?

[mlucas]

Yes. (At least his personal problems; he'd still have to defend the house etc.)

[mlucas]

Jim, I don't want to be a roadblock here ... and I can see the view you and @jhay are espousing, with Kevin as a Changed main character. To do so I have to shift my thinking about the narrative, and look at Kevin's "little kid who's seen as incompetent" issues as just a piece of a bigger personal issue, that of hating his family. Almost like they're the reasoning behind (or justification for) his personal issues, rather than the issues themselves.

There are still some things that confuse me in that shifted view (esp. IC throughline and IC resolve), but I'd be interested in exploring it further. So if you don't think there's any more to be gained by use each advocating different MC Resolves, I'm happy to step back and explore the storyform further with Kevin as Changed MC.

(My biggest curiosity is around Marley -- I definitely agree about the You and I and same abandonment issues, but to me it seems like Marley was influenced by Kevin to take a different path.)

[jhull]

The thing with Kevin is that he wants everyone to treat him like an adult—and he wants everyone to know it. At the end, he’s asked what happened, and he answers, “oh, you know, stuff.”

Now he is thinking like an adult. Not needing validation anymore. He just takes care of business and doesn’t care what people think of him.

In the beginning, “Everyone hates me”—and they do. They actually hate him and don’t waste anytime telling him. But he takes it farther—he wants them all dead and gone. He’s being “childish” about it.

The reason why it feels like Marley and Mom “change” is because you’re looking at problematic attitudes. They used to hate him—now they think he’s cool.

Resolution is a change of attitude—not shooting a laser missile into an exhaust pipe. So that change of attitude feels like a subjective change—when really it’s an objective look at how a change of mind can “fix” things.

Marley still believes what he tells Kevin in the church—there’s just been a change in attitude that resolves his relationship with his son. Subjectively—what he told Kevin still applies.

[mlucas]

The thing with Kevin is that he wants everyone to treat him like an adult—and he wants everyone to know it. At the end, he’s asked what happened, and he answers, “oh, you know, stuff.”

Now he is thinking like an adult. Not needing validation anymore. He just takes care of business and doesn’t care what people think of him.

Okay, this makes a lot of sense to me. Thanks for communicating it so clearly.

Darn, I feel like I need to watch this movie again now. It's always felt a lot like Star Wars to me, but now you're giving good reasons why it may actually be more like Zootopia (I know Zootopia has MC Physics, but I actually have not seen a single analysed film that has OS Mind, MC Psychology!).

Come to think of it, in your mentorship program I never got to the OS Mind assignments section. So having less experience there might be biting me.

I had thought Kevin's going from "everyone hates me" to "I wish them gone" was actually the influence of the mother, making him react like an impulsive child (IC Concern: Preconscious). There was something that bugged me about that though, something not quite IC-like, but I thought it was just because it's only a 100-minute film so maybe something was missing.

Wondering if @jhay or @Gregolas have any thoughts at this point? I think Jay was hoping you'd offer ideas on the OS Concern & Goal... Unless you'd rather one of us take a shot at that? Is it something like "everyone needs to be more considerate" (Conscious)?

[jhull]

Zootopia is a great example. Marley’s “change” is a lot like Nick’s “change” to a cop.

And I really like the Goal encoding—Everyone ends up more considerate—all across the board.

The boogeyman next door genre was my first clue. Marley felt a lot like Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird. Everyone bring a jerk to everyone else was my second lol.

[mlucas]

Everyone bring a jerk to everyone else was my second lol.

Funny how the phrasing can really make a difference. When you earlier said everyone was a being an a--hole / jerk, that meant nothing to me, like background noise. Maybe I have a blind spot there, growing up with 4 siblings and probably being the jerk myself sometimes? But needing to be more considerate -- suddenly I can see how that fits the cops hardly bothering to check the house "tell them to count their kids again", the airline staff and other passengers who won't help (at least until they get every last bit of jewelry), the bandits leaving the water on, etc.

---

It's weird, I haven't totally given up on the previous storyform we had yet, like I can still see both working. But I'm willing to admit it's probably due to a blind spot of mine. It might be a danger of writers doing analyses -- faced with a blind spot, we make up a different but still-valid narrative that matches on the surface. Like I (along with Jay & Greg) told myself a story that wasn't actually Home Alone, but fit a lot of the surface "stuff" in Home Alone.
(Perhaps the same thing has happened before with a talented novelist and a superhero movie? If so, I'm in good company... )

[jhull]

Hah!

Oh, and I also think it’s a Decision Story

[mlucas]

Actually that doesn't surprise me. When I tried really hard earlier to picture your OS Mind, MC Psychology narrative ideas, the only way I could do it was to shift the story drivers!

[jhull]

Yeah, isn’t it:

• I wish you all were dead (gets banished to room)
• local authorities dismiss panic call
• waiting for someone to give up their tickets (no takers)
• polka guy offers a seat in his van
• Kevin decides he wants his family back
• burglars choose Kevin’s house “this is the one”
• everyone decides Kevin is ok
• Kevin decides not to tell anyone what happened

I’m sure I missed one or overinflated a couple but it does feel like a Decision Story with a Willing Be-er in the driver seat.

All the fun Macaulay Culkin stuff is Be-er stuff, the pretending to be a mobster, pretending to be an adult in the checkout line, being or acting like an adult.

Also I think this is a case of a Changed character whose Resolve changes gradually over time, not a Leap of Faith kinda thing. Once he meets drunk Santa he basically has already made up his mind (before the OS is done).

[Hunter]

I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get to really participate in the discussion above, as I would have loved to help in an analysis. (I didn't have time to watch until tonight.) I wanted to add, though, that the quote below is exactly what I was thinking and feeling when I was watching it tonight.

Also I think this is a case of a Changed character whose Resolve changes gradually over time, not a Leap of Faith kinda thing.

However, I disagree with when he has completely made up his mind. I felt like he was still wavering, be it ever so slightly, with drunk Santa, and the final part of the change manifested in the church while talking with Marley.

[mlucas]

The only problem is, isn't the storm and the power going out an important event that turns the plot? Was there any decision shown that would leave them especially open to sleeping in? (I don't recall one)

Or are we saying author's intent is that Kevin's decision to wish everyone away actually did cause (force) that power outage?

[jhay]

That's definitely cleared things up for me, Jim. I always struggle to envision internal OS domains in movies, so a tangible goal makes it a little clearer for me.

As for the Decision driver, I could go Action OR Decision, but there's no doubt in my mind that Kevin is 100% willing throughout. So if he's a Be-er, as Jim has convinced me he is, it has to be Decision.

I watched it again on Christmas Day, but still struggled with seeing it as a Mind OS. However, I may revisit it with the new knowledge of this goal and try to see it from a new perspective.