Tuesday, August 14, 2012

The Black Knight

Before we saw the Black Knight Rises at the Silver Spring IMAX theater, I said to Bernie "now let's watch it the way that Joseph Campbell would."

It was a fun film which I watched chuckling all the way through.

Here are some of the great mythic themes and I am sure that Professor Campbell would have found many more.

  • Good and Evil as cosmic or absolute and as personal between and within the hero and antihero.
  • The City as both holy and degenerate place (Babylon and Jerusalem)
  • The Woman as creator and destroyer.
  • The Hero of a thousand faces (Prophet, Christ, God)
  • Rite of passage, the heroic trial, struggle
  • The Mask--revealing and hiding truth.
  • Redemption, Resurrection, Re-Creation

And some of the lessons of the Myth:

  • Rule of law over the Mob.
  • Liberation from within (not from outside) the city/community.
  • Freedom with and from the state (political institution).
  • Importance of non-governmental organization.
  • Wealth as destructive and useful, wealth as secondary.
  • The individual as ultimate moral being.  
  • Responsibility to the City/Public over self-preservation.

Black is beautiful!  Black Power!  And don't piss off a woman.  

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