Ben Affleck’s ‘Argo’ Latest Substory to Transcend Hollywood & History

This year’s Argo is the most recent example of a growing, modern storytelling technique. Director Ben Affleck avoids the traps that historical, larger-than-life stories are cursed with by employing the substory. This narrative style is used to investigate smaller unique stories that take place within the backdrop of a larger historical event. The stories themselves tend to be strong enough to stand alone, but are interlaced with a powerful historical landscape that intensifies their meaning. This eliminates nearly every issue an epic presents. It forces filmmakers to be focused and avoid drawn out backstories and contrived romances. Pearl Harbor and Titanic are just the tip of the iceberg (no pun intended) of these kind of historical films that while successful or even critically acclaimed like the latter, exist as long drawn out films, spanning around three hours, with a wide net of characters to catch the historical action at various times …