“Not all film heroes change: James Bond, Ace Ventura, Batman and other action figures are too busy effecting change, by saving the world or making us laugh, to undergo personal transformation. However, in the film stories we turn to time and time again, be it Casablanca, Witness, Moonstruck, Chinatown or In the Line of Fire, the hero solves a personal problem and undergoes change and endears him to us forever. We are grateful for their experience because most of us do not have the time in our busy lives to pursue self-transformation. Instead, we go to the movies. We pay movie stars a lot of money to show us how to change.”
Michael Chase Walker
Power Screenwriting
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P.S. Just last month I quoted Garry Marshall as saying, “Most good stories are Cinderella” and Blake Snyder once wrote that, “All stories are transformation.” Some transformation movies that quickly come to my mind are On the Waterfront, Toy Story 3, and most recently, Flight. What are some of your favorite transformation movies?
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Hey, Scott, this is something I have a different take on than most other writers on the craft. From my recent book, LATERAL SCREENWRITING:
If the protagonist fails to grow, the growth is still present, but it is solely in the understanding of the audience at the expense of the protagonist. FORREST GUMP is an example of a protagonist’s failure-to-grow. The audience, by the end, learns to accept an unchanging, though enduring, Forrest, with the world changing around him. In either case: growth, or non-growth in spite of a need for it, a transforming illumination is achieved within the audience, and the story’s structure emerges. The key to great story structure, then, is not merely what happens to the protagonist. Rather, it is that something transformational, from darkness to illumination, happens within the audience. This is true whether or not the protagonist transforms. For…story meaning lies within the audience.
Other examples of the unchanging hero range from pure action films like the James Bond movies to more serious works like DEATH OF A SALESMAN. In such a view, the Bond-ian hero stays intact, gets the girl, and defeats the evil-doers. The change occurs, as I have stated, in the audience, and in the case of this kind of action picture, the change is almost all on the plot level: the audience learns how Bond defeats the baddies. Instead of a transformation of meaning within the hero and/or the audience, it may only be a catharsis, a culmination of the emotion and tension built over the course of the story. On the other hand, it may be a transformation within the audience of new insight into the protagonist and his indomitable ability to endure. It has a power, when handled well, which can rival and even, at times, exceed the impact of a serviceable meaning transformation in a typical story providing a transformational arc of character. In the case of the catharsis, it is not often deep, but it is a fun ride when done well. But some “unchanging” protagonists actually do change in the better examples of the action film. The transformation is only hinted at, but it is, nonetheless, solidly present, appearing in otherwise little moments within the story wherein the character opens up and exposes his vulnerability. An example would be Indiana Jones in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, when he shows Marian where “it hurts.” And it’s present in Daniel Craig’s James Bond in THE QUANTUM OF SOLACE. With DEATH OF A SALESMAN, on the other hand, the point of the story is, among other things, Willy’s inability to change. But our recognition of it is the transformation in action.
Lee Matthias
LATERAL SCREENWRITING: Using the Power of Lateral Thinking to Write Great Movies
At Amazon:
http://tinyurl.com/bb5qe82
Thanks Lee for the detailed reply. I have heard of your book but haven’t read it yet. Walker did say that not all movies or hereos are about personal transformation. Though one could make the argument that the majority of movies that find an audience are about personal change. And those that aren’t —like “Forrest Gump”—the hero leads other people to personal change, or like you said, there is a personal change among the people in the audience. And often the change is only 2 degrees verses 90, or the radical 180 degrees. I imagine there are even some movies where neither the hero, or anyone else in the movie, or in the theater watching are changed—but I bet the number of successful “non transformation” movies are a pretty low percentage.