4 Narrative Theories Applied to The Crazies

The Crazies IMDB LinkTodorov
At the beggining of the film there is a shot of the town in flames and buildings destroyed so straight away the theory is defied. Todorov's theory states that a movie starts with a state of equilibrium, and obviously it does not in this movie. There is a state of equilibrium after this as it goes back in time from the flashforward, where everything is ok, then there is the disruption of equiilibrium in the form of the infected crazy people, then the death of the infected people except two, which is not a real restoration of equilibrium.

Levi-Strauss
the binary opposites are:
Sane/Insane - The 'Crazies' are the insane zombie people, and they are the main enemy of the uninfected, sane humans.
Living/Dead - There are a number of people that are killed by the crazies and a number of crazies that are killed by people. The story centres around the living survivors.
Day/ Night - The danger of the dark and shadowy locations at night and the limited view as opposed to the safety and security of being able to see well in the day time.
Military/Civilian - The army and special forces deployed were important and in the know as opposed to the ordinary people who dont know what is going on and are expendable in the view of the military
Known Unknown - The secret surrounding the appearance of the crazies and the crashed plane carrying a bio weapon, we dont see much of this in the movie, rather we are similar to the main civilian characters who dont know anything about it but are just caught up in it.
Infected/Uninfected - The crazies are infected and go insane and the uninfected people have to survive and defend themselves against the crazies, also the element of infection at the end when the two main protagonists are walking to a nearby city and the recon plane shows a message which basically says to contain the threat the same way they did the last time by nuking it.

Propp
The Hero: The hero is David the main character as the story follows him and he stands up for what is right and good.
The Villian: Could be argued that the main villian is either the crazies or the U.S military as the military created the crazies but the crazies are bad
The Donor/Helper is Russell the Deputy of David. He fights for the same cause as David but is not as influencial as him, he is almost a sidekick.
The False Hero: The Mayor of the town is the flase hero as he appears to care for the town but he refuses to cut off the water supply for what seems to be a logical reason in expenditure but he is revealed to be ignorant because he doesnt listen to David who warns him of the infectious water. 

Bordwell & Thompson
The cause and effect relationship of events in the movie:
the plane crashes in the town's water supply, people get infected, people go crazy, the crazy people kill the normal people, the crazy people get destroyed by a bomb.
most of these events have screen time, we do not however see the plane crash, the development of the bio weapon or what happens to the city they go to at the end.