Everybody Arcs

I read the rest of SAVE THE CAT last night over two glasses of Malbec at Don Pistos and I totally loved it.  (This was after watching the finale of “It’s A Brad, Brad World” with Susan and Belle which was somehow intensely moving and silly all at once –– although I had tremendous Déjà vu in the episode, and would have sworn certain scenes had already been used previously but were presented as “fresh.”)
Anyway, for some reason I was very drawn to the phrase “Everybody Arcs” in SAVE THE CAT.
To quote Snyder’s book:
“Don’t we all want to jump into the swim of life after seeing a good movie?  Don’t we want to get out of our ruts, try something new, and be open to the healing power of change after experiencing a movie in which everybody arcs?”
His example, by the way, is PRETTY WOMAN and it’s true that except for the villain, (a pre-Seinfeld Jason Alexander), everyone from Julia Roberts to Richard Gere to Laura San Giacomo and Hector Elizondo all grow in varying degrees
The only problem with the book is that he gives his email in it, inviting the reader to stump him with a movie that doesn’t fit into one of his 10 classic story frameworks, but unfortunately, he mysteriously dropped dead two years ago while in his 40s.  I’m sympathetic –– but I really do have some genre-related questions about his system I’m dying to ask.
Beyond this, I actually felt that his book brought enormous clarity to me on several levels.
First, his insistence on starting with the log-line –– that thing you see on a movie poster that tells the story –– completely dovetails with all my branding/elevator pitch work.
Second, what I think is really brilliant about the book is how he classifies movies beyond traditional genres but by structural identity.   That’s why Die Hard, Titanic, and Schindler’s List all fit into the same category –– “Dude with a Problem” — and so do Rain Man and Dumb & Dumber — “Buddy Love.”
And although I’m not going to say what just yet, I realized the perfect structural movie role model for my story is actually one I’d never thought of before (or probably would have in a million years.)
It is a little sad though that I can’t share my discovery with Blake Snyder –– or the new or at least sub-genre I feel I’ve discovered –– given that he’s moved on to other dimensions.
As deep as I am into the crackpot universe –– Dan sent over two hours of audio files yesterday of Channeled Material from the Pleidian Galaxy (and I swear I’m not making this up) called “The Alchemy of Sound” –– I definitely believe he’s merely transitioned into another plane of existence.
As Snider himself said … Everybody Arcs.