How to Analyze Archetypes in Film

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Laura Turner, and today I'm going to talk to you about how to analyze archetypes in films. Almost every film has basically the same archetype, archetypes in them. And what I'm going to talk to you about today, is actually from Joseph Campbell's book, "The Hero With A Thousand Faces", and the journey of the hero that he talks about therein. First of all, of course, we have a hero in our film. And, I'm going to use "Lord of the Rings" as my example today. So, the hero of, "The Lord of the Rings", is obviously, Frodo. Frodo goes on a journey, if you want to tie in another movie, we have, "Star Wars". Luke is the hero. Usually the hero is reluctant to go on this journey, especially if we're talking about adventure films and journey films, like "Star Wars" and "Lord of the Rings". So, the hero decides that he wants to refuse to go on this journey. Frodo, decides, you know, I can't take, I can't take the ring. And, and, he decides that he "wan", that he does not want to go on the journey. The second archetype that I'm going to talk about is the herald, or the person who actually calls the hero to go on his journey or adventure. And, in this case, the herald would be Gandolf. You have to take the ring to mortal, and throw it in the fire. And, Frodo says, you know, of course, I can't do this. The mentor gives the supernatural aid to the hero. In this case, with "Lord of the Rings", it's the same person, it's also Gandolf. The only character that can not be another archetype in a film, is the hero. The hero is himself, other characters can double. So, Gandolf gives the supernatural aide, or the supernatural thing, the ring, to Frodo. This sort of sets him on his journey. Along the way, the hero always has helpers. In, "Lord of the Rings", there are more helpers than you can possibly count for Frodo. Sam, Mary Pippen, Aragorne, Gimley, Legaless, you know, you can just name so many. And, if you think about "Star Wars", as Luke Skywalker, he has Hans Solo, and Chewie, and all these other people that come to help him. Next, the hero along his journey and towards the end of a journey, usually will meet a goddess figure, another, the next archetype, who is usually terrible, but timeless. So, in the case of "Lord of the Rings", this goddess would be Gladreill. And, if, you think about the goddess in "Star Wars", it would probably be Princess Leah. She is terrible to the hero because he was once in love with her, in a way, and she is his sister. So, you can get all sorts of mixing up with that stuff. And, finally, at the end of his journey, the hero will meet with the father, who's our final archetype. Who is like the hero, but is destructive, and punishing. So, in the case of "The Lord of The Rings", the father ends out to be Gulem, who is very much like Frodo, in his lust for the ring. So, that's just my little introduction on how to analyze archetypes in film."