terça-feira, outubro 13, 2009
MacGuffin
An object, event, or character in a film or story that serves to set and keep the plot in motion despite usually lacking intrinsic importance.
The first person to use "MacGuffin" as a word for a plot device was Alfred Hitchcock. He borrowed it from an old shaggy-dog story in which some passengers on a train interrogate a fellow passenger carrying a large, strange-looking package. The fellow says the package contains a "MacGuffin," which, he explains, is used to catch tigers in the Scottish Highlands.
When the group protests that there are no tigers in the Highlands, the passenger replies, "Well, then, this must not be a MacGuffin".
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The first person to use "MacGuffin" as a word for a plot device was Alfred Hitchcock. He borrowed it from an old shaggy-dog story in which some passengers on a train interrogate a fellow passenger carrying a large, strange-looking package. The fellow says the package contains a "MacGuffin," which, he explains, is used to catch tigers in the Scottish Highlands.
When the group protests that there are no tigers in the Highlands, the passenger replies, "Well, then, this must not be a MacGuffin".
