Vogler 10

Vogler, Christopher. The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers. 3rd ed. Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese Productions, 2007. 231-290.
Summary
In this very long section, Vogler “looks back on the journey” and discusses how the journey is used in various films. Before he begins, he makes sure that the reader understands that the hero’s journey is only a guideline for stories and that they don’t always need to follow these strict rules. He also says that typically these stories are a “metaphor for life”.
Vogler starts with his analysis of the movie Titanic. He talks about how the Titanic story was sure to fail. It takes place in an era long ago about an event that the whole world is not familiar with. However, the movie ended up being a big success, and became a huge part of pop culture. Titanic follows the hero’s journey guidelines for the most part. It has two story lines going on at the same time; that of Old Rose, an older version of one of the main characters, and the events on the actual ship. Both of the heroes, Jack and Rose, start out in their ordinary world. Jack has won his tickets and is ready and eager to start on an adventure while Rose is hesitant. Rose feels captive to her family’s wishes. Vogler says that this, along with many other ways, makes Jack and Rose “polar opposites” and helps to add to the meaning of the film. Each character goes through each stage of the hero’s journey, as Vogler explains in much detail. Vogler also discusses the abundant symbolism in the story, most of which come from the “Heart of the Ocean” jewelry piece that belongs to Rose. It symbolizes the love that Jack and Rose shared on a ship on the ocean. It serves as a reminder to Rose and when she throws it off the ship she is allowing herself to let go and move on.
Next, Vogler goes into the movie The Lion King. First he “toots his own horn” and tells the reader how involved he was in the project. Then he discusses how the story came to be. Again, the filmmakers were worried about how the audience would react, but like the Titanic it came to be a huge success. The story is largely based on Hamlet, and has a lot of father-son elements involved. The story also follows the hero’s journey pretty closely. Simba, being the hero, has a mentor in Rafiki, Timon, and Pumba and his uncle Scar serves as the shadow of the story. His elixir is kingship. Vogler says that the story resonated with the audience so much because it shows the challenges of growing up, which everyone can relate to.
Vogler also briefly mentions the film The Full Monty, which also follows the basic hero’s journey format. A man (Gaz) trying to win back the trust of his son decides to put on a show with his friends. They all experience their own downfalls, but in the end everything turns out alright and each man has found his elixir. Vogler incorporates the themes in the Star Wars series into his hero’s journey as well. Vogler sums it up pretty well in this quote, “It entered the language of pop culture, providing useful metaphors, symbols, and phrases that expressed how we all feel about good and evil, technology and faith”.
While all these movies pretty much follow the standard pattern, Vogler discusses one movie which does not: Pulp Fiction. Pulp Fiction is about several different heroes that are all on their own journey. They each go through the different stages, but at different times. The movie is also mixed up as to the order of events. For example, Vincent dies at one point during the film, but a later scene depicts him doing being involved in something that happened before he died. In this way, the film creates a sort of resurrection for Vincent. The film creates odd situations like this one throughout.
Reaction
I felt this was a very interesting section and I enjoyed reading it. Although I have not seen all of these films, I did not notice many of the things that Vogler talked about when I saw the ones I did see. Looking back and thinking about these films, a lot of the things he says make sense and I see a deeper meaning in the movies. Although I liked The Lion King, I feel like it is not very original, as it just follows the same story as Hamlet and stays true to the hero’s journey path. I prefer movies that are more complex, like Pulp Fiction, and make the audience think a little bit. Pulp Fiction, while I haven’t seen it, reminds me a bit of the movie Memento. Memento is a bit different in that the story is played backwards; each scene ends with the beginning of the scene before it. This leaves the audience guessing and literally trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. That is more my type of movie.

Questions
1. Do you like stories that “stick to the path” of the hero’s journey and are straight forward or do you think it’s more useful to get the audience involved by mixing up the pieces?
2. Why do you think that Disney often uses the hero’s journey model? They don’t usually change it up.
3. If a movie doesn’t “connect” with the audience can it still be a good movie?