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Movies, Myth and Magic,
By Dwight Longenecker
With the high priests and priestesses of Hollywood processing to the annual Spring ritual called Adoration of the Oscar, its worth asking whether the movies have anything much to offer seriously minded folks of a spiritual inclination.
A few weeks ago the Vatican announced that the Vatican cinema had been refurbished. Was that necessary? Aren’t movies just empty entertainments for the masses? What’s our opinion on cinema? Do we turn up our nose at the ‘big movies’ and seek out only the ‘tasteful’ films with clear messages? Do we suspect that popular films are at best harmless, but vulgar fun and at worst the devil’s own propaganda? Film is the dominant art form in our modern world. It attracts millions and we should be aware of its power and harness it for the transformation of our society.
The psychologist C.G.Jung observed that the health of a society is reflected in the health of its storytelling. Wherever human beings have got together they have crafted stories that have reflected their deepest longings, most difficult questions, wildest hopes and most beautiful dreams. The mythologist Joseph Campbell charted the stories of mankind. He spent a lifetime studying the religious epics, folktales, fairy tales, myths and legends of cultures around the world. In his famous work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces Campbell concluded that there was one story to rule them all: the Hero’s Quest.
Campbell claimed that underneath all our stories, from myths to movies and from anecdotes to epics, there was the powerful story of the hero’s quest. The hero is an ordinary person who hears the call to adventure, leaves his comfort zone and sets out into an unknown world to gain some prize. He then returns to his ordinary world bearing the prize in order to bring salvation, redemption and healing.
In a multitude of different ways this pattern is repeated time and again, either partially or completely in the great stories from every culture everywhere. In the 1970s a new breed of filmmaker emerged who had been very influenced by Campbell’s work. George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorcese and John Boorman used Campbell’s ideas to craft films with strong story lines that could not only hold audiences, but move them more powerfully than ever before. Lucas patterned his Star Wars epic on Campbell’s pattern and expressed a desire to ‘produce a myth for the modern world’. This echoes the same desire of someone as far from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood as possible, the tweed suited, pipe smoking philology don of North Oxford, J.R.RTolkien. Tolkien also wanted to produce a myth for the English, and thus succeeded in producing a powerful myth for the modern world.
Movies work their magic the same way the ancient myths did. In the opening moments of the story the audience make a pact with the hero. They sympathise with him and decide to go on the journey with him. As they do they share his thrills and spills, but they also share his moral choices. The hero may be trying to defeat evil aliens or find the Holy Grail or solve a murder mystery, but there is always a subplot which revolves around some inner quest to find a missing parent or a lost love or his real purpose in life.
When I left the Anglican ministry about ten years ago I wanted to be involved in this storytelling in our society. I trained as a scriptwriter and got a job with a little video production company. I had a young family and couldn’t afford to ‘starve for my art’ so I began writing other articles and books. However, I also took what I had discovered from Joseph Campbell and began work on a personal growth volume. I used the structure of the hero’s quest to help people make positive change in their lives. This grew into a business consultancy and training enterprise called Working Hero in which we show businesses how to make positive change through the use of film clips in interactive workshops.
In the first year we had excellent feedback, and last Spring I thought this same message and method ought to be available to the most disadvantaged people in our society. I started a charitable company called Ordinary Hero and within a few months I had met Simon Edwards, the founder of a charity called Believe. Believe helps prisoners in resettlement programmes, young people in drugs rehab and disadvantaged young people. Simon saw what we were doing with movies and the hero’s quest and asked us to work with Believe to pilot the programme in Bristol prison.
Through powerful clips from films like The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, Antwon Fisher and Jerry Maguire, Ordinary Hero provides the structure and motivation for positive change. As the participants share in the film hero’s call to adventure, his step into the unknown and the risks and difficulties of the quest they begin to see the cost of real and lasting change in their own lives. The sessions are mixed with film clips, discussion and creative learning activities. Then the staff from Believe complement the programme with active goal mapping, confidence boosting techniques as well as the practical help of professional long term mentoring and a range of assistance and advice as the men leave prison for the outside world.
Ancient myths brought the audience into a world of mystery, magic and adventure in order to show them how to set out on the adventure of their own lives. Modern movies do the same. Ordinary Hero and Believe are using this magic to help those in our society who have no sense of purpose and adventure to set out on the quest to find meaning and to reach their full potential.
If you would like to learn more about the work of Believe and Ordinary Hero log on to HYPERLINK "http://www.workinghero.com" www.workinghero.com or HYPERLINK "http://www.believe.org.uk" www.believe.org.uk
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