information aesthetics.
The always surprising xkcd has released a collection of quite sophisticated charts [full resolution, xkcd.com] that show the interactions between individual movie characters in famous movies like The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, 12 Angry Men and Primer.
The horizontal axis represents time. The vertical grouping of the lines indicates which characters are together at a given time.
If you like this, be sure not to miss the fabulous infographic of Time Travel in Popular Film and TV by Information is Beautiful. And yes, this is an ideal time to pre-order his book!
Thnkx Tim.
Published with 
Content protected by 
Designed and Maintained by 
Time and Date follows 
It's like Minard meets Hollywood!
Check out Daniel McClaren's interactive time-line for the xkcd comic at http://danielmclaren.net/2009/11/03/experimenting-with-graph-visualizations-on-a-timeline
You can scroll back and forth through the timeline and the various characters group together.
I like your comparison Marty, well observed! Tufte should/could be happy!