My feelings, before I go read through any of the other posts about this, is that it satisfies certain narrative and political goals in the movie format.
The narrative satisfaction is that it's a very traditional narrative. It's about the lone hero who finds the truth and brings it to the masses -- it's functionally a bunch of aristocratic tripe, the hero making the passage into the other world and back, carrying with them a mystical secret. It's very Campbellian, and thus it is easy and resonates with a lot of people.
Secondly, it satisfies people politically. The AUDIENCE is allowed to feel that the problem is just that they don't have the proper information, that what prevents "them" from "doing the right thing" is that some superhero hasn't come along and spoon-fed them the truth. It enables them to lull themselves into feeling that they're not responsible for understanding the world around them -- they are never the problem, after all.
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Date: 2007-04-30 08:23 pm (UTC)The narrative satisfaction is that it's a very traditional narrative. It's about the lone hero who finds the truth and brings it to the masses -- it's functionally a bunch of aristocratic tripe, the hero making the passage into the other world and back, carrying with them a mystical secret. It's very Campbellian, and thus it is easy and resonates with a lot of people.
Secondly, it satisfies people politically. The AUDIENCE is allowed to feel that the problem is just that they don't have the proper information, that what prevents "them" from "doing the right thing" is that some superhero hasn't come along and spoon-fed them the truth. It enables them to lull themselves into feeling that they're not responsible for understanding the world around them -- they are never the problem, after all.