my film journal: My Film Reviews

What people have said about my film journal

My film journal has been around since 2008, and has been prolifically and regularly updated for the past five years or so. JP’s got a lot to say about movies, and film in general and provides very thorough reviews. His reviews are the coolest part in my opinion, as they deal not just with the usual info (good, bad, etc.) but with the origins, history, similar titles, and various tangents which tend to be very interesting. JP really dives into a movie, giving it the same treatment one might expect of different art forms in a museum tour. The content itself is high-quality and well-written, unsurprising given some of his work is in print. Really, if you’re curious about a movie, or interested in what’s probably going to be worth finding out about down the road, this blog is absolutely worth stopping by to see what JP has to say.

- Cities of the Mind blog review

The hero's journey

"The hero, setting forth from his common day hut or castle, lured, carried away, or else voluntarily proceeds, to the threshold of adventure. There he encounters a shadow presence that guards the passage. The hero may defeat or conciliate this power and go alive into the kingdom of the dark, or be slain by the opponent and descend in death (dismemberment, crucifixion).

Beyond the threshold, then, the hero journeys through a world of unfamiliar yet strangely intimate forces, some of which severely threaten him (tests), some of which give magical aid (helpers).

When he arrives at the nadir of the mythological round, he undergoes a supreme ordeal and gains his reward. The triumph may be represented as the hero's sexual union with the goddess-mother of the world (sacred marriage), his recognition by the father-creator (father-atonement), his own divinization (apotheosis), or again - if the powers have remained unfriendly to him - his theft of the boon he came to gain (bride-theft, fire-theft) ; intrinsically it is an expansion of consciousness and therewith of being (illumination, transfiguration, freedom).

The final stage is that of the return. If the powers have blessed the hero, he now sets forth under their protection (emissary) ; if not, he flees and is pursued.

At the return threshold the transcendental powers must remain behind; the hero re-emerges from the kingdom of dread (return, resurrection). The boon that he brings restores the world (elixir)".

Joseph Campbell

my film journal

Pages

My Film Reviews

No comments:

Blog Archive

The hero's journey