The Sun-Herald

One word - Katzenberg. He was the Disney genius whose career took off after he found and adapted this formula to launch Disney's animation renaissance in the 1990s (Little Mermaid, Beauty & the Beast, Lion King, etc., all cut out on the same Campbell pattern). He then fell out with Eisner, head of Disney, and got his revenge by making Shrek with Steven Spielberg - the whole premise of that movie being the acidic mockery of the very formula that had turbocharged his career in the first place (and which many people at the time saw as a sneer at Eisner, in the character of Farquahr). Yes, people are atavistic and adore rituals about things bigger than ourselves, but we're also creative and sceptical of ossified good and evil (especially coming from people who hope to make money from us, be they cult leaders or Warner Bros). The idea of the hero isn't premised only on the psychological formula of Luke Skywalker, but on the transcendence of that formula by Maria von Trapp (whose always had the elixir), Shrek (the monster who restores order by defeating the hero) and Harry Potter (the relationship between whose magical world and the real one is built of too much irony and wit to turn him into a Jungian archetype). If we need a hero, we need even more to get over it. Heroes have been transcending, upending and tripping over the archetype since Oedipus. Thankfully, as long as people are people, they'll continue to do so.

• by Nicholas on May 25, 2008 at 01:54 PM

Unfortunately...Indiana Jones does not live up the legend for my friends and I...Now I truly uunderstand why Speil, Lucas and Ford didn't release any previews prior to it's release..it will be forgetable to say the least...for numerous reasons including..treating the audience as B-graders, UFO's [OMG!], weddings at the end! Stupid sidekicks...audiences are smart...don't mollycoddle us! Iron Man is a 150% better movie because it's smart, gritty, relentless..which is supposed to be what Jones is all about...Raiders set the precedent..but it slowly declined...I was VERY disappointed and sms'd everyone I know and told them not to see it!

• by Marcus on May 26, 2008 at 12:41 AM

Good call with the Vogler-Campbell reference... I think you're spot on that a lack of mythological resonance is why Indy 4 gets in to trouble, but not because he actually strays from the Jungian formula.

IJ4 sometimes feels like you're on a mythological travelator... your destination is inevitable, Indy's role as hero is never under threat.

All the other movies had a fork in the road - choices that the audience found equally appealing... fortune and glory, or actual heroism. I think Campbell says somewhere that its only after this internalised journey that the hero truly becomes one.

IJ4 lacked that choice, and therefore so did we. I loved Indy 4. But its time to hang up the whip.

But, man, i hope there's an Indy 5.

• by FijiDave on May 26, 2008 at 08:57 AM

Didn't Vladimir Propp do the original reductionist analyses of narrative? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_ProppHis work was based on Russian folk tales, not cinema, but the theory is all transferrable.

• by gavin on May 26, 2008 at 09:15 AM

I do not think Indy 4 will push the psychological buttons with the Australian movie going public. But then it is not meant to be rocket science people.

I saw the film yesterday - and many in our audience applauded at the end.

I do agree with Liz that it professes to be nothing but good old fashioned b grade movie fun (as is the Mummy franchise) ... Of the 4 in the series it ranks third with me but far superior than the Temple of Doom - which was just plain annoying.

I am in two minds as to whether Raiders or Last Crusade was the better film but I enjoyed both and would watch them again.

Given it was set in the late 50s what was on people's minds then were communists and UFOs and it did play to that - Although that said - the UFO bit was ridiculous.

I liked the tributes to Denholm Elliott (Marcus Brody) and also the parody of the Paramount Mountain - v v clever!

I heard too if the film is a success they will look at the spin off with Mutt... but they will need to think carefully about this.

I must say it reminds me of the Matthew Reilly books - 7 ancient wonders, 6 sacred stones - which are written in the astyle of the Indiana Jones formula and could clearly be made into films.

I also saw Ironman last week and thought it was great.

• by Cathy on May 26, 2008 at 12:23 PM

Personally I thought it was fantastic, as I left my brain at the cinema door.
I will agree that the ending was absolute tosh, but the majority of the film was very Indie. *SPOILER The part with the jeep chase in the middl was great, as was the first part of the movie. The creators obviously made the movie in a light hearted way, but still did the originals justice, I thought.
I didn't go for the plot either, and like most action movies, was merely something to fill in the gaps between action scenes. That said, the opening scene where he hides in the fridge is fantastic.

• by Dylan on May 26, 2008 at 12:55 PM

I thought IJ4 was fun. I enjoyed it as much as the previous Indies and was really pleased it kept true to the original series by not changing any of the original characters such as for example in "Charlies Angles". I was looking forward to see it for days before its release and tried on the 19th May to book a ticket for its release on the 22nd only to find it was booked out until Sat 24th. I saw IJ4 with a friend, we both liked it, and I was discussing it at work today during a break with with 3 20 something colleagues and they enjoyed it as well. For each of them it was their first
Indie movie on the big screen and they thought it was terrific and discussed various scenes in detail saying what they liked about them. One thing that might interest you is I live in Malaysia, I'm Aussie of English/Irish descent and my colleagues are Malaysian of Chinese, Indian and Malay descent. I think all the ideas about formula and the rest are a bit on the edge of reason as the movie clearly goes across cultures and appleals to anyone who wants to just relax and be entertained.

• by Geoffrey Hammond on May 26, 2008 at 03:45 PM

>>it was always deisgned to spoof the spaghetti western type films from the 50's and 60's.
What? Who? Who told you that? They were never designed to be spoofs...they were tributes to the old 30's and 40's serials.
This one has no idea what it's trying to be and the whole last reel belongs in a completely different movie.
So much for recapturing the magic with no CGI, eh?

• by John on May 26, 2008 at 03:59 PM

Great, only 2 women in the chart - one a nun, the other a hooker....

• by Shoopie on May 27, 2008 at 03:01 PM

Another film that fits the Hero's Journey that is a big hit is 'Finding Nemo'. It fits the purpose well. I've taught a blockbuster course before (basically, teaching students to analyse and decrypt the blockbuster film) and used Independence Day (or ID4, as it was commonly known), I've gotta say, surely some of the heroes from that film could possibly make it onto the list...?

• by Beckala on May 29, 2008 at 09:18 PM