One story: The arc reinvented
There is only one story. We keep on retelling it. Here it is. A hero is called to adventure, away from normality. He/she resists the call. They meet a wise guide. Then they decide to cross the threshold into the unknown. They fight dragons, experience romance. Then they are down and close to failure. They get a lucky break. They find the elixir of life – the magic potion, the secret recipe – and they return back home with this elixir, triumphant and honoured. Content with psychology stability and the secret of wellbeing.
It’s the heart of every story from Homer’s Odyssey to The Wizard of Oz, to Star Wars. It’s the story of Buddha, Moses, Mohammed, Christ, and Harry Potter. Joseph Campbell outlined this story arc in his influential book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, in 1949. Campbell studied religious, spiritual, mythological and literary classics. The book dissects the similarities of the stories, as he breaks down the structure of this “monomyth.”
Reboots
Every generation needs its refreshed version of the story. I have 7 versions / translations / adaptations of Homer’s Iliadand Odyssey. I have 15 translations of Sophocles’ play Antigone. I can count 9 incarnations of The Batman*. Artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger’s story “The Case of the Chemical Syndicate,” published in Detective Comics, in 1934, first introduced the Dark Knight to the world. Originally priced at 10 cents, a mint condition first edition copy of the comic was sold at auction in 2021. The winning bidder paid $2.2m.
Twelve Angry Men, directed by Sidney Lumet (1957), is a perfect film. It’s relentlessly gripping, exploring the deliberations of a jury, deciding the fate of a teenager accused of murdering his abusive father. At the beginning, they are nearly unanimous in a guilty verdict. One man dissents, and sows a seed of reasonable doubt. Eventually he persuades the other jurors to support a unanimous “not guilty” verdict.
Every element is brilliantly designed and executed: claustrophobic cinematography, an array of characters each with their own distinct personality, the tight and engaging writing, the pitch-perfect performances which are never melodramatic. The film is equally cinematic and theatrical. A man convinces a mob to listen to reason, and question their prejudices and preconceptions. The message of compassion over convenience is timeless, universal, and inspiring.
Different readings
I have been watching the film since I was a teenager. I’ve discovered that I identify with a different character each time – depending on the station of life that I’m at, when watching. I have my own reboot, each time I watch the same film.
Originally, like everyone, I was rooting for Juror 8, played by Henry Fonda. Idealistic, listening to reason, questioning, doubting. Then I started identifying with Juror 12, the advertising executive. Distracted, indecisive and easily led. The last couple of times I saw the film, I was taken by Jack Warden as Juror 7, a wisecracking salesman who just wants to get home for the baseball game and is indifferent to the case.
The Japanese film Rashomon, directed by Akira Kurosawa, tells the same story four times, each recounted from the perspective of a different character. Agatha Christie and Quentin Tarantino used this device, for ‘And Then There Were None’ and ‘The Hateful Eight’.
The last word to Homer. He and Marge are on a plane, and he doesn’t want to travel.
– Marge: C’mon Homer. Japan will be fun. You loved Rashomon.
– Homer: That’s not how I remember it.
(* – Original comic, Adam West, Keaton, Kilmer, Clooney, Bale, Affleck, Lego, Pattinson).
James Neophytou
Leave a Reply