The Hero’s journey is a model, it does not have to be follow in any particular order and the outcome will be the same. It is used to increase the effectiveness of the story but each step is interchangeable with the next. The story does however need a structure. Beliefs, priorities, characters, themes, style, tone, and mood all help shape a structure for a story. The audience, time, and the place also dictate what kind of story you are telling and the most effective way to use the arquatypes and steps of Voglars heros journey. It is also important to relate the story to a common event or step in human life so that your audience can relate and get meaning from the story. Depending on what kind of story you are telling you can have any element of the journey appear at any time. Voglar gives four examples of the elements of the journey used differently to tell three different stories. The Titanic, The Lion King, Pulp Fiction, and Monty Python give a taste of how the journey is applied to the four different genres. The Titanic is given as an example and how the universal wish for meaning speaks to the reader. People of any age and cultural background can understand that want to know how life should be lived and at the same time uses many elements of the journey to convey this message effectively. The Lion King is a fictional cartoon that also has all the elements of the journey. Simba is the hero who constantly refuses the call and is distracted by his shadow figure Scar. He is later encouraged by many mentors to go on fight for what is rightfully his. Pulp Fiction is a post modern film with three heros. Voglar describes todays modern world as seen through a shattered mirror. The end can be at the beginning giving it an intellectual feel. This way of interpreting a film shows the ordinary world last and begins with the end of the journey. Monty Python shows how nothingness can be interpreted as questioning the world around them. This classic story has no point or appeal yet it is effective in the way the viewer questions why the heros never accomplish anything and weather that is a classic hero.
Reflection:
The four film types show that all stories follow the same basic principles. They all contain elements of the journey which make them effective to the viewer. Even though they are not in order the viewer picks up on them and uses them to analyze the film. If films had no point people would not watch them so their has to be a point or a reason to questions the basic foundations of the story.
Questions:
- Why in a movie like Monty is the viewer still interested regardless of the fact that the heros are failures?
- Why are post-modern movies like a shattered mirror and what does this say about our culture?
- How are the basic universal themes established?
Terms:
- Epic Scale- where two stories run parallel and both unfold at the same time.
- Sardonic humor- unorthodox subject matter and uncompromising style that is entertaining.
- Postmodern- unusual structure which disregards the conventional cinemas respect for linear time.
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