The Heroes Journey and Film

What the following movies have in common; they are the top fifteen highest grossing movies of all time.

What these movies share in common besides their popularity: All revolve around heroes and their journey. All but 4 involve epic battles between good and evil.

What these movies tell us about the collective consciousness of the majority of our human population is that the heroes journey resonates with our species. The majority among us want to see stories where heroes partake in fighting in and then ending epic battles between good and evil. What this usually entails is a massive series of unfortunate events that lead to a worst case scenario the hero must overcome. The paradox is that we want to see good defeat evil but evil is needed so that good can be tested, fight and eventually triumph in the end. The harder it is for the hero to do this, the greater the capacity of the audience to enjoy the story. Artists are considered the myth makers of our day and thus, students of the heroes journey. In order for filmmakers to make new myths that resonate with audiences, they have to understand the subtle details that build the most attractive heroes journey, capturing the imagination of the masses. These stories tap into the human hunger for a larger purpose to life by being connected to forces greater than the self. Furthermore, ordinary people love stories of ordinary heroes becoming extraordinary. If it can happen to them, it can happen to anyone. Some examples of unassuming and unlikely heroes from our movies: Frodo a country boy from the Lord of the Rings, Neo, an office worker in The Matrix, Luke, a farm boy in Star Wars, Ellie a loner scientist in Contact, Peter Parker, a nerd along with Harry Potter. These are ordinary characters who become extraordinary. The heroes journey or mono myth, transcends race, economics, culture and religion. It taps into our primordial being. Theaters help facilitate this in darkness where a projector's light flickers on the screen much like our ancestors experienced the flicker of the campfire light on their faces during story telling sessions. Story telling is an art that captures the response of our humanity to the dramas of life. This has always been the inspiration behind our movies. All over the world, there are millions of real dramas unfolding, all worthy of the theater but only need artists and story tellers to capture them in a format presentable for the big screen. Some examples of our movies inspired by real events: Malcolm X, A Beautiful Mind, Jerry Maguire, Titanic, Schindler's List, Sea Biscuit, October Sky, Amadeus, The Elephant Man, Remember the Titans, Gandhi, American Splendor, Hotel Rewanda, Antwone Fisher, Kundun, etc. Do the highest grossing dramas we like to see on the big screen have something to do with the dramas we create for ourselves in the world? In the drama going on now, America is presented to us as hero facing a great sinister axis of evil. After viewing the devastating destruction of the World Trade Center during 9-11, many thought the news footage felt unreal; like it was just a scene from an action packed Jerry Bruckheimer movie. Are the tragedies that unfold in the world just giving us more of the same thing we like to see in our movies; a massive series of unfortunate events that lead to a worst case scenario the hero must overcome? We are all actors in this massive cosmic drama. Our eyes are like super high definition cameras giving us a perfect seat in the everyday action of our lives. The dramas that play themselves out for us are formed by written and unwritten scripts shaped by ourselves and society. The scripts our culture have been following, are setting the stage for a great test humanity must undergo as collective hero. The full capacity of the human spirit must respond in order to avert the disaster outlined by our prophetic scripts, moving us towards a drama with a worst case scenario in our near future. One of the most well known examples of these scripts we are taught in the west, is the Biblical paradigm. In it, the human race as we know it, is a doomed entity. The worst in our nature manifests through our reckless leaders who compel us to wage a final battle of apocalyptic and cataclysmic proportions. The only hero who saves us from ourselves is a super Jesus who returns to unite the world and establish a new kingdom of eternal peace because we utterly failed to do this on our own.

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