Movies & Myths

Last month turned out to be a movie month. A friend who lives nearby was send a stack of Academy movies to screen and I also was able to avail myself of these videos - life is good!

At one point in the film feast we're watching Wonder Boys, when near the end the character played by Michael Douglas has something catastrophic happen to him. It wasn't physical damage, although the character does continually scrape and bang himself accidentally, poor sod is traveling a rocky patch. The catastrophe was of another nature involving a manuscript and mentally and emotionally painful. When the event occurred in the movie my youngest son and I both yelled "Oh No!" and then started laughing hysterically. My son's delicate, young, girlfriend, with a moon-sized heart, looked at us aghast and said, "You guys are so mean. Why are you laughing?"

My son and I had recognized that the Universe had called this character's number and when that happens you can only laugh through your tears. How could I explain, to this sweet, young-woman, who had learned with all the rest of us to always take it personally?

I've loved the movies since I was an eight-year old sitting through double-features, twice, at the old Hardy's Theatre, in Fresno, California. Along with the millions of other film fans and movie critics, I've always got an opinion when it comes to the movies.

Back in the 19th century, or as my son refers to it 'back in the day,' I took a screenwriting course at UCLA. I remember the professor boiling down script writing to the following:

Act 1 - You put your hero up a tree
Act 2 - You throw rocks at him
Act 3 - You bring him down from the tree

"Remember," the professor counseled, "at the end of the story, your Hero's has to have changed in some way - either he's better or worse."

This struck me as a nutshell version of what many of us experience in life. We're born into a body, have good and bad events hurled at us, and we die having learned and expanded our capacity to love or we don't learn and have become bitter. A bitter ending always slates us to come back and go through another version of it all over again until we get the loving picture.

Understanding the dynamics of movie plots, came easier after I read Christopher Vogler's book, which is rumored to be the bible of many scriptwriters, The Writer's Journey. The book provides a mythic structure for storytellers. The myth is the Hero's Journey, which is ultimately the story of each and every one of us. Here is how it works:

1.) Ordinary World
2.) Call to Adventure
3.) Refusal of the Call
4.) Meeting with the Mentor
5.) Crossing the 1st Threshold
6.) Tests, Allies, Enemies
7.) Approach to Inmost Cave
8.) Supreme Ordeal
9.) Reward
10.) The Road Back
11.) Resurrection
12.) Return with Elixir

On-screen, in the "reel world" the movie opens with the usual everyday happenings of the character's life representing the Ordinary World. Something happens in the story that opens the door to a different reality, which is the Call to Adventure. Dorothy gets blown to Oz, Eddie Murphy starts leading the life of a millionaire in Trading Places and in City Slickers, Billy Crystal leaves his Eastern urban life to take part in a Western cow-drive. Joan Wilder in Romancing the Stone, heads to Columbia to find her kidnapped sister. The list goes on and on!

Off-screen were living our "real" everyday lives and something happens, usually to warn us, that we need to change something about ourselves. In the movies, as well as our lives, this warning comes through another person, referred to mythically as the Mentor. In our off-screen lives, a higher aspect of us - the Higher Self, sometimes performs this part. We all know how the stories go; a brother warns an over-imbibing, man that he's drinking too much, a co-worker cautions a woman with sloppy work-habits, that the company is being restructured, the mother of a frugal, workaholic man, asks him to go to Mexico and bring back his 20-something sister, who he strongly disapproves of. A wife urges a husband to take his current physical discomfort to a doctor's office.

On-Screen, at this juncture, the Hero in the movie is asked to step into the great unknown and the usual response is, "No!" - or The Refusal to the Call Off-screen each of the people being asked to behave or respond differently is unwilling. The Universe has called their number, it's time to deal with some issues, and they are ignoring the call (we are never called on to accomplish something that we are not capable of). Most of us, however, do not see it that way and just like the movies we make no movement toward the kingdom of our own adventure -which, is calling us. We usually just feel annoyed.

On-screen, in Finding Forrester, Sean Connery, the reclusive writer, doesn't want to have a relationship with the young, Jahmal until he reads his writing. Mel Gibson, a skilled soldier, in Patriot, doesn't want to go to war until his son is killed. In Star Wars, Luke refuses Obi Wan's call and returns to his aunt and uncle's farmhouse to find them barbecued by the Emperor's Storm-troopers. Suddenly Luke is no longer reluctant, now he's motivated to answer the call. In the wonderful, chop-socky adventure, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Wudan, swordsman-for-hire, Chow Yun Fat is giving up his mystical Green Destiny sword in order to live a peaceful life.

All of the above are classical resolutions to the Refusal to the Call. Off-screen and on-screen, by this time the Merlin like character has been introduced who is the Hero's Mentor. In James Bond films it's Q, in Rocky it's the grizzled, old, boxing coach, in Jaws it's the crusty Robert Shaw character who knows all about sharks and in The Wizard of Oz, it's Glenda the Good Witch. The Merlin person is symbolic of supernatural aid.

Crossing the 1st Threshold is when the Hero enters the belly of the whale so to speak. He makes a commitment or is forced to undertake the journey into the unknown, this is when Dorothy's only way home is to find the Wizard, so she sets off on the Yellow Brick Road, or when Tom Cruise takes Dustin Hoffman, from the institution in Rainman. The Hero has now irrevocably entered a Special World.

Off camera the sick husband collapses and is rushed to an ER, the man with the drinking problem, wrecks his car, and gets one more DUI, the employee who's company is being reorganized is fired. The sister in Mexico wires her reluctant brother that she's in jail and needs help. Now, these people who could not respond earlier are forced into dealing with a Special World that they've now created for themselves.

On camera the Hero will encounter Tests, Allies and Enemies and begins to learn the rules of the Special World. Lawrence of Arabia learns the ways of the desert. Whoopee gets to know which nuns to trust, in Sister Act and on The 13th Floor, the young Hero navigates the world in the computer program, while he looks for the message his employer has left for him.

Off camera the man with the wrecked car and DUIs is on the phone with lawyers and insurance companies. The fired woman is dealing with resumes, employment agencies and financial pressure. The reluctant brother is resentfully flying to another country to deal with foreign laws in a language he doesn't speak in a hot place where the ice is toxic for him. The unwell husband is facing a hospital stay and the fear of a possible cancer.

The Hero then comes to the Approach to the Inmost Cave. Which is the edge of a dangerous place. Often there is a pause in the action here to prepare, plan or outwit this fearful place.

For Indiana Jones it's the Temple of Doom, in Star Wars it's being sucked into the Death Star, in Wizard of Oz, it's when Dorothy is kidnapped to the Wicked Witch's castle.

Now the Hero is in the midst of the place where he'll face his Supreme Ordeal. Generally this is the part of the film that's packed with suspense or tension.

The secret of the Supreme Ordeal is the Hero must allow a part of himself to die, so he can be reborn as a more balanced person.

Off-screen a judge decrees our drinker has to go into rehab and revokes his driver's license for two year. The unemployed woman is forced to move out of her cherished city-apartment to a more affordable place in the suburbs, The sick husband is told he has cancer and must have chemo, the brother is doing the Mexican two-step between the bathroom and his hotel bed as the temperature soars to a record 120 degrees while his sister dehydrates in jail. Once the Supreme Ordeal is faced the Hero can step forward and seize his reward - sometimes referred to as the Sword. Oft times, on and off camera the Sword is new knowledge.

Spielberg's ET dies before our eyes but is reborn through alien magic and a boy's love. Sir Lancelot, remorseful over having killed a gallant knight, prays him back to life. Patrick Swayze's character, murdered in Ghost, learns how to cross back through the veil to protect his wife and finally express his true love for her.

Off-screen, the cancer victim, facing possible death, comes to appreciate what he has in life, the drunk finds a new love of cycling, the woman employee finds a position at a plant nursery and discovers a joy in the work, and the brother realizes he loves his sister and spares no expense hiring lawyers who get her out of jail.

Once the lessons and rewards of the Great Ordeal have been celebrated and absorbed, Heroes face a choice, whether to remain in the Special World or begin a journey home to the Ordinary World. Do Jack Lemon and Sandy Denis as the Out of Towners, take the position in NYC, after their ordeal, or do they return to living in Ohio? Does Homer return to the orphanage in Cider House Rules? Does Private Benjamin re-enlist?

Some films end here but others continue with the full Hero's journey and rev-up the action. This is a popular spot for a chase scene, which is what you'll find in Gone, in Sixty Seconds, with that spectacular car jump, on the bridge, this is also where our Hero Michael Douglas, in Wonder Boys has that unexpected happening to his manuscript. At this juncture in the story the Wizard fires up his hot-air balloon to take Dorothy back to Kansas. Heroes gather up what they have learned, gained, stolen or been granted in the Special World and use it. They set themselves a new goal, to escape, find further adventure, or return home.

Off-screen, the cancer patient is creating a new life, with less stress and more attention to diet and nutrition. The drinker trains to enter a cycling race, the woman at the greenhouse grows happier with each plant, that blooms, under her care. The brother dispatches his sister home, and takes his first vacation in ten years at a beach resort in Mexico.

But, wait - it's not over yet. There is another test to pass, the final exam of the journey - Resurrection.

In the Resurrection scene the Hero proves his new knowledge by using it in another dangerous situation. The Special World has forged the Hero into a new self. In a James Bond movie it usually means a race with the clock to disarm the bomb that will blow up the world, using one of the devices provided by Q. Tragic heroes can find themselves cornered in an adobe building like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. In the Witness, Harrison Ford's character puts down his gun at a point where his old self would've had a shoot-out. The Resurrection is the Hero's final attempt to make major changes in attitude or behavior. Dorothy, near the end of the Wizard of Oz, is asked by the Tin Man, what she's learned? Her reply is that she's learned to look "for her heart's desire" in her "own backyard." And Joan Wilder in Romancing the Stone graduates from a "hopeless romantic" to a "hopeful romantic."

My off-camera Heroes also learn: The drinker becomes a mentor at an AA Chapter, the cancer patient becomes involved in a telephone tree to support other cancer victims, the nursery worker bends over backward to help her new boss when he has difficulty with his business and our man in Mexico, reaches out to help another tourist in trouble, without being asked. The last phase of the journey is known as the Return with the Elixir. The Hero returns to the Ordinary World, but the journey is meaningless and doomed to be repeated if he doesn't bring back a treasure or lesson or power to heal from the Special World.

Off-camera and on-camera the Hero is moving toward becoming the Master of Two Worlds - you live in this world but you are no longer of this world - due in part to successfully learning the lessons of the Hero's Journey. Dorothy returns to Kansas with the knowledge that she's loved and that "There's no place like home!" ET returns home with the experience of friendship with humans.

Modern heroes may not be going into caves and labyrinths to fight mythical beasts, but they do enter a Special World and an Inmost Cave by venturing into the spaces of their own hearts. The Hero's Journey is infinitely flexible, capable of endless variations and it was here, as an Archetype, when we arrived and will outlive us all. We can take this journey many times in one lifetime, and each time we successfully travel the path we become closer to being the Master of Two Worlds.

Studying the Hero's Journey in the movies and our own lives is actually a study of consciousness. We all come into this world with an agenda to grow in our capacity of compassion. As this agenda is programmed in our DNA we will eventually attract the issues we need to deal with into our reality - and then we deal with it - or we don't. If we don't - catastrophe will generally hit and force us to deal with ourselves and the learning comes in how we go about doing that. Once we take on our issues, we have begun the Hero's Journey - once again. Bon voyage!

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