The short answer, I think, is that we have no choice.
I went to an early show Friday. In order to beat the crowd, I got there about 30 minutes before the trailers even started. As I watched the theater fill up, I saw lotsa single males, as you might expect, ranging from early teens to middle age. But I also saw lotsa girls, women, couples, old people—basically a huge cross-section of people.
The cinema was noisy and crowded with a lot of activity. However, as soon as the movie began, butts met seats and stayed there… This is 3 hour movie, and I’d say the vast majority of the audience did not leave their seats for anything—refreshments, restroom—for the duration.
At the end, when the credits rolled, this huge, diverse audience stood and burst into applause. It really shocked me… I mean, I’ve heard of this happening at movies before, but I’ve never experienced it. It seems clear that this movie moved these people on a very real, very basic level.
I think I know why.
When we covered myths and legends in Ancient World Lit, we covered Gilgamesh, The Aeneid, The Odyssey, Ramayana, but we also studied The Hero With a Thousand Faces…
Using Joseph Campbell’s work on comparative mythology (specifically the Hero’s Journey) we analyzed the common elements shared by these foundational myths from Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, and India…
Quote:
Campbell explores the theory that important myths from around the world which have survived for thousands of years all share a fundamental structure, which Campbell called the monomyth. In a well-known quote from the introduction to The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell summarized the monomyth:
“A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”
In laying out the monomyth, Campbell describes a number of stages or steps along this journey. The hero starts in the ordinary world, and receives a call to enter an unusual world of strange powers and events (a call to adventure). If the hero accepts the call to enter this strange world, the hero must face tasks and trials (a road of trials), and may have to face these trials alone, or may have assistance. At its most intense, the hero must survive a severe challenge, often with help earned along the journey. If the hero survives, the hero may achieve a great gift (the goal or "boon"), which often results in the discovery of important self-knowledge. The hero must then decide whether to return with this boon (the return to the ordinary world), often facing challenges on the return journey. If the hero is successful in returning, the boon or gift may be used to improve the world (the application of the boon).
So, after all this study we were supposed to take what we’d learned and write 10 pages on the Hero’s Journey as seen in modern film/entertainment. I picked
Batman Begins because (1) I’m obsessed with the Character and (2) I figured it would be easy to spot a few of Campbell’s elements and bluff my way through the paper (I had a huge work load that term and needed a “gimme”).
What surprised me as I watched the film with a remote in one hand and a chart of the hero’s journey in the other, was that
Batman Begins did not just contain a few of Campbell’s elements, it had almost every single one of them in just the right order and measure!
People credit Nolan’s gritty, realistic style for making
The Dark Knight trilogy such a success, and that certainly is part of it. However, the real secret to the movie series’ appeal is much more primal.
At some basic level, we are wired to respond powerfully and positively to stories like these… We can’t help it. It’s written in our cultural DNA.
Batman, Aeneas, Gilgamesh, Odysseus—their stories move us because
they’re the same and they matter to us… They are all part of the great human monomyth.
In a thousand years, nobody will be reading
Twilight, but I bet they will be watching/reading
Batman.
Those are my thoughts, anyway.
Your mileage may vary.
_________________
No man is free who is not master of himself.~Epictetus
21 Jul 2012, 7:46 pm
