Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero’s Journey”

Ran across this post from the blog What’s In My Manvelope, hosted by John T. Trigonis whose About page reads: “Published poet, indie filmmaker, & freelance professor by day … & pretty much the same things by night.” In the post, Trigonis discusses writing and rewriting (six drafts) his current script project “A Beautiful Unlife.” He also discusses various screenwriting books he’s read and concludes this:

Write from the soul of your story and you’ll never go wrong. And in terms of books, the only book every screenwriter needs to fully digest is one that’ll teach you nothing about screenwriting but everything about story (no, not Aristotle’s Poetics, although it comes in at a close second!) It’s Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Every character goes on the same journey, from King Oedipus to Luke Skywalker, from Bill and Ted to Basil in A Beautiful Unlife. It’s a pretty safe bet that this model is never going to change.

Then provides this lovely visual summary of The Hero’s Journey

As longtime readers of this blog know, I’m a big fan of Joseph Campbell. I first discovered his work as an undergraduate at the University of Virginia as I studied mythology in depth as part of my honors program in religious studies. That’s why when I first broke in as a screenwriter, I was so surprised to find “The Hero With a Thousand Faces” in the offices of Hollywood movie execs and producers: What in the world were these people doing with an academic book? Then I discovered that George Lucas had suggested he had been inspired in part by Campbell’s work when he wrote the original Star Wars.

Indeed it’s not just Star Wars: A New Hope which seems to hew closely to The Hero’s Journey. How about The Matrix? Here is a comparison of the two movies per Campbell’s theories from the site Star Wars Origins:
Campbell Star Wars The Matrix I: Departure The call to adventure Princess Leia’s message “Follow the white rabbit”Refusal of the call Must help with the harvest Neo won’t climb out windowSupernatural aid Obi-wan rescues Luke from sandpeople Trinity extracts the “bug” from NeoCrossing the first threshold Escaping Tatooine Neo is taken out of the Matrix for the first timeThe belly of the whale Trash compactor Torture room II: Initiation The road of trials Lightsaber practice Sparring with MorpheusThe meeting with the goddess Princess Leia (wears white, in earlier scripts was a “sister” of a mystic order) The OracleTemptation away from the true path1 Luke is tempted by the Dark Side Cypher (the failed messiah) is tempted by the world of comfortable illusionsAtonement with the Father Darth and Luke reconcile Neo rescues and comes to agree (that he’s The One) with his father-figure, MorpheusApotheosis (becoming god-like) Luke becomes a Jedi Neo becomes The OneThe ultimate boon Death Star destroyed Humanity’s salvation now within reach III: Return Refusal of the return “Luke, come on!” Luke wants to stay to avenge Obi-Wan Neo fights agent instead of runningThe magic flight Millennium Falcon “Jacking in”Rescue from without Han saves Luke from Darth Trinity saves Neo from agentsCrossing the return threshold Millennium Falcon destroys pursuing TIE fighters Neo fights Agent SmithMaster of the two worlds Victory ceremony Neo’s declares victory over machines in final phone callFreedom to live Rebellion is victorious over Empire Humans are victorious over machines Common Mythic Elements Two Worlds (mundane and special) Planetside vs. The Death Star Reality vs. The MatrixThe Mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi MorpheusThe Oracle Yoda The OracleThe Prophecy Luke will overthrow the Emperor Morpheus will find (and Trinity will fall for) “The One”Failed Hero Biggs In an early version of the script, Morpheus once believed that Cypher was “The One”Wearing
Enemy’s Skin Luke and Han wear stormtrooper outfits Neo jumps into agent’s skinShapeshifter (the Hero isn’t sure if he can trust this character) Han Solo CypherAnimal familiar R2-D2, Chewbacca N/AChasing a lone animal into the enchanted wood (the animal usually gets away) Luke follows R2 into the Jundland Wastes; The Millennium Falcon follows a lone TIE fighter into range of the Death Star Neo “follows the white rabbit” to the nightclub where he meets Trinity
Note: This graph uses 17 steps which historically are associated with Campbell’s original theory whereas the first graph has only 12 steps, a common distillation of The Hero’s Journey.

As much as I admire and have studied Campbell, and acknowledge the universality of The Hero’s Journey, I am concerned when a writer’s focus on this paradigm is so absolute because it’s possible to write a script that follows its every jot and tittle, yet not succeed as a story.

First, for readers to connect with a script, they need to have some level of emotional resonance with the story and its narrative elements. When a writer uses mostly left-brain muscles to craft a script that fits specific plot requisites — and frankly this pertains to any screenplay structure / paradigm — what can result is an inert object, a story bereft of a heart or soul.

Second, it is — in my view — more important to delve into and develop the story’s characters. That work should have primacy over everything else if for no other reason than that is where the emotional, psychological, and spiritual life of your story lies.

This is one of the reasons I’ve been devoting so much time to studying Carl Jung. What I’m discovering is that there’s a way of approaching character development, namely through character archetypes, which enables the writer to tap into and discern their story’s plot through their characters. And doesn’t it make sense that plot should emerge from the characters. After all, it’s their story, so who would know best about what’s going on than them?

Besides it’s possible to go beyond what Campbell’s theories have to do with the story-crafting process by studying Jung. At least that’s what I’m discovering.

So how to sum up this post? Story structure is hugely important when writing a screenplay. After all, a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie. However it’s your story’s characters with whom a reader will (hopefully) connect, it’s your characters who give the story its emotional, psychological, and spiritual meaning. And I believe by developing characters first, the plot of your story will emerge organically, thereby infusing it with the vitality and personality of your characters, ensuring your story will have a heart and soul.

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