Claude Levi-Strauss' built upon philosopher Aristotle's statement that "all drama is conflict" with his Theory of Binary Oppositions. Strauss' said that all stories are accelerated forward by conflict which is caused by opposing characters or events.
Opposites within a storyline are extremely important in a successful story, as drawing two different worlds or characters together inspires conflict and interesting narrative. Theorist Strauss' was fascinated with a famous Swiss linguist called Ferdinand de Saussure and so went on to develop Saussure's work on the "culturally constructed" meaning of words rather than the meaning ascribed being inherent from within the word. Cultural beliefs or dominant ideologies are built into texts and so the way we understand a word is directly reinforced by the existence of its binary opposite.
Therefore the presence of binary opposition in film is an important one, as the differences within the world of the story collide and create a disturbance for which a solution must be found. It also helps to create and distinguish between character roles, for there cannot be a hero without a villain.
Roland Barthes proposes that there are codes within film which serves to engage audiences.
The Enigma Code generates and controls what information a viewer is aware of within a narrative and holds their interest throughout the film. It introduces problems or puzzles which must be solved as well as mysteries which must be uncovered.
The Action Code refers to events which occur that the viewer immediately can identify as being significant to the development of the narrative. Resolution may be achieved through action also.
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