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.