3. Narrative Structure Analysis

For this blog post, I have decided to write about the 1996 comedy, Happy Gilmore. Happy Gilmore is one of my favourite films even though it’s as old as I am. I will be applying it to Todorov’s theory and Propp’s character types.

Firstly, here is Todorov’s Cycle. In regards to Happy Gilmore, these 5 stages can be applied quite well.

1. Equilibrium: The main character, Happy is an ice hockey player, and with his ice hockey mentality comes his aggressive nature. He lives alone and has a close relationship with his grandmother who raised him as a child.
2. Disruption: Happy goes to visit his grandmother one morning to find that the IRS are repossessing her house as she hasn’t paid any taxes in years. Happy is told he needs to come up with $270,000 in order to get the house back.
3. Recognition: That day, Happy discovers he has an extraordinary golfing talent. He realises he could make money out of it by entering tournaments and hopefully be able to buy his grandmother’s house back.
4. Repair: Happy begins winning multiple golfing tournaments and earning large cheques. With a few ups and downs along the way, it all builds up to the Tour Championship, the final competition that can get Happy enough money to get his Grandmother’s house back.
5. Restoration: Happy days, he wins the championship and is able to get his Grandmother’s house back so she can move back in and get out of the torturous nursing home she had been staying in. And hey look at that, Happy also somehow managed to get a girl along the way.

Propp’s Character Types in Happy Gilmore:

The Hero: The main character, Happy Gilmore.

The Villain: Shooter McGavin, Happy’s rival who threatens to buy his Grandmother’s house only to burn it down. He was also constantly scheming to find ways to sabotage Happy’s golf play.

The Donor: Chubbs befriends Happy and offers him golf training. He is one the first people to believe in Happy. He didn’t just share his wisdom with Happy, he also gave him a gift of a putting club in the shape of a hockey stick. This is right before Happy gives him the alligator’s head that bit his hand off many years before which lead Chubbs to fall out the window behind him and die.

The Dispatcher: I guess in this case the dispatcher would be Happy’s grandmother. She is trusting him to get her house back so Happy’s mission or quest is to somehow get enough money to do this for her.

The Helper: Since Chubbs is already the donor, I’ll give the role of the helper to Virginia, the sports journalist who actually ends up with Happy. She is always there to help and support him and give him a few tips on how to win. Happy is eaily adgitated and Virginia is able to calm him down in situations where his anger takes over.

Prize: The prize is his Grandmother’s house. This is won at the end when Happy wins enough money to get it back which was the whole reason he started playing golf in the first place.

False Hero: From the beginning we are rooting for the main character and hero of the story, Happy Gilmore. The villain, Shooter McGavin is an obvious villain for us as the audience however the characters within the story are generally rooting for Shooter i.e. the public and media and the sports fans coming to the tournaments because Shooter is the number 1 player. His true colours are well and truly shown at the end where he loses the golf competition and steals Happy’s golden jacket and tries to run away with it. This is where he lost any remaining respect he had left from other people in the story.