About this episode

The episode explores various movie structures, including the three act and five act structures, and how different filmmakers approach storytelling.

Aristotle in his POETICS made a simple yet incisive claim-good dramatic work has a 3 act structure-a beginning, a middle, and an end. Horace in classic Rome expanded this to a 5 act structure. In the age of cinema, a slightly modified three act structure has been the dominant approach in American screenwriting. Yet many, if not most movies, actually deviate from this structure. And filmmakers like Kurosawa and Kubrick embrace other structures like the symphonic structure-4 movements. Yet, ultimately, many variations can still be harmonized to a progression of 3 distinct parts. Secret Movie Club programmer.founder Craig Hammill looks at Pulp Fiction, Memento, The Thin Red Line, 2001, Mad Max and many others to discuss all the different kinds of successful and discovered structures. And what that might say about an even more profound structure in successful cinematic work.

More episodes of Secret Movie Club Podcast

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• SMC Pod #222: 2025 Movies Pt 2 & Disclosure Day · June 26, 2026 · 36 min
• SMC Pod #221: Internal vs. External Horror: Monsters Without and Within · June 19, 2026 · 42 min

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