The American Scholar

"Each philosopher, each bard, each actor, has only done for me, as by a delegate, what one day I can do for myself."

This quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson's speech The American Scholar drew me directly to another of his quotes; that of "defer never to the popular cry." In context, both of these quotes exemplify his argument to see the world through your own eyes, not the eyes of another human, and to interpret all other knowledge through your own mind rather than taking it at face value. These are both integral components of a constructive thought processes which aims to achieve more than regurgitate past knowledge. In essence, I believe Emerson is also alluding to the belief that no matter how great the man promoting an idea, it will only be as well received as it is understood - ie: the proverb of a chain being only as strong as its weakest link. This spin on his quote then interprets it as meaning that no other human's knowledge can be absorbed without fully understanding the logic behind it - that some ideas cannot be absorbed by those who cannot fathom them - which I truly believe.

Emerson states how fragmented and independent society will forever be and attributes this to uniqueness of mind - of thought. Another man's thought does not resound with you unless you understand it - unless you can make meaning of it yourself.

Phone Booth (Narrative Structure & Synopsis)

Joel Schwartz

2-6-2012

English 258

Phone Booth

"Isn't it funny? You hear a phone ring, and it could be anybody

...but a ringing phone has to be answered, doesn't it?"

For me, what makes a plotline scary is weather the situations which arise are plausible, and thus, relevant in their foreboding for one’s own life.  Joel Schmacher’s 2002 film Phone Booth is scary in this sense.  A successful New York publicist played by Colin Farell is walking around town the same he would any other day when he enters a phone booth on the side of the street.  First, he calls a woman he’s considering cheating on his wife with and before he finishes his conversation, he’s interrupted by a pizza delivery man who wants to use the phone.  Colin Farrel’s character, Stu, rudely dismisses him.  After finishing his conversation and as he’s about to leave the phone booth, the phone rings again - he answers it.  The unidentified man on the other line says he’s set up men in situations like this before, which confuses Stu.

The man on the other end of the line tells Stu he’s watching him through a high powered rifle scope and that if he leaves the phone booth or hangs up, he will be shot.  He asks the man on the other line what he wants with him, and the caller responds that all he wants is the truth - for Stu to admit to his wife that he was about to cheat on her, and that after accomplishing this, he’ll be allowed to leave unharmed.

By this point, Stu has been in the phone booth for quite some time and a group of prostitutes yell at him to let them use the booth, then disappear.  Stu believes the man‘s bluffing at this point, but after the sniper shoots a toy on the sidewalk near the phone booth, Stu’s gripped by fear.  The women return with their pimp and the man begins to beat the glass on the phone booth in with a baseball bat.  In fear for his life yet simultaneously unwilling to put the phone down for fear of the sniper, Stu asks for help, which is when the unidentified man shoots the man assaulting the phone booth dead on the spot.  

At this time, police officers and reporters arrive on the scene and are told by the prostitutes that Stu has shot the man.  The sniper tells Stu to feel around in the glass enclosure above the photo booth, where he finds a pistol the sniper has planted there.  Forrest Whitaker arrives on scene as Police Detective Ramey who wants to get Stu out of whatever situation he’s found himself in, but police are unable to tap the phone line or remove him from the booth safely.  Stu’s wife and would-be mistress, Pam, arrive on scene, at which point he’s told he must tell them the truth right there, live on TV, which he does.

Stu uses his cell phone on speakerphone to alert his wife, and eventually Ramey, of the situation he’s found himself in, at which point they begin combing the surrounding skyscrapers looking for the sniper - unbeknownst to him.  The sniper tells Stu to confess his sins over the years to the crowd which includes his friends and television cameras, and after this, to use the hidden pistol to kill Detective Ramey or the unidentified man will shoot his wife or Pam.  Stu rushes out of the booth and exclaims “it’s me you want” before being shot in the shoulder by a rubber bullet from a police sniper covering the scene.  The police backwards trace the phone call the sniper made to Stu’s wife and break into a upper-story hotel room, discovering a high-powered rifle and a body.  As he’s recovering in an ambulance about to be sent to the hospital, Stu demands to see the body of the sniper, which turns out to be the pizza man who originally tried to use the phone booth hours earlier.  As Stu’s passing out, the sniper approaches him and compliments him on his shoes before warning him to stay a moral person or he’ll be visited again.  Stu passes out and another man answers a phone to talk to the sniper.  “Hello?”

This is such a great movie.  It’s scary because it’s plausible, yes, but it’s also so dramatic it’s amazing.  I picked this film as my narrative because the main character, once the action begins, moves less than 5 feet the entire movie - yet is clearly the protagonist.  The action all revolves around him, with his “original life” being before he enters the phone booth and his changed life being once he leaves it.  Stu’s transformation is one of selflessness, of first being a manipulative liar and ending the film as a man who will probably take nothing for granted ever again.

Upon entering the phone booth, the rising action of the film begins when the man on the other line names the woman Stu’s considering cheating on his wife with.  The true action begins after the pimp is shot dead by the sniper, and the climax of the film is likely when Stu grabs the hidden pistol and begins waving it around, endangering his life at the hands of the nearby police.  Due to the police department’s inability to tap into the phone line due to a measurement taken by the sniper, the conversations in this film occur between Stu and people on the phone with him separately than they occur between him and the world outside the phone booth - an interesting duality.  The journey Stu takes over the course of this film is introspective - it’s about revealing himself to others - rather than himself learning anything new the whole film.  The sniper is never caught and the audience walks away from the film thinking of how they would react with a similar situation.  That’s what great stories accomplish though, self-realization, not mere fantasy exposition.  Bravo.