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My POV
Brian A. Wilson
BOOK REVIEW: Myth and the Movies: Discovering the Mythic Structure of 50 Unforgettable Films
Here's a cool book that should be getting much more attention that it is.
Think of this as a companion piece to Chris Vogler's "The Writer's Journey." Here, Voytilla follows Vogler (and, by extension, Joseph Campbell's) storytelling structure to analyze half a hundred movies.
"Journey" and "Myth" use the same phrases, the same templates, to describe what happens in a script or, in the case of "Myth," in the finished film. The book offers a brief review of Vogler's concept and terms, then spends it's 290 pages breaking down movies.
This book is nicely arranged. The Table of Contents lets the reader search by genre, covering action adventure, western, horror, thriller, war, drama, romance, romantic comedy, comedy and scifi/fantasy. A light index at the end lets one search by film, director, or (what a concept!) writer.
I like this book because it works in at least two ways: it really drives home the "Writer's Journey" concept, giving great illustrations of the terms in action, and it helps you apply great mythic structure to your own work by understanding how it has been used before.
What Georges Polti's "36 Dramatic Situations" did for plays and literature, "Myth" does for movies.
Ask Santa to stuff this gem in your stocking. Next year's writing will be the better for your having read it.
Keep writing.
BW
LA
Transtexan@hotmail.com
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