What the movie missed

(Honestly, I wasn’t able to finish reading the book. So I’ll compare the movie and the book here, and write another journal about the movie instead of the book.)

I actually watched the movie long ago, so I was able to picture the main characters that appear in the movie in while reading the book. The biggest advantage that a movie has is, of course, the visual vividness. Despite the various features of characters a reader could recognize from the book – speaking habits, general appearances, personality, etc – just knowing how characters look in the movie really helps my reading. As most of the students in class agreed after watching the movie, the movie was better to enjoy in a light manner.

But there was one important thing that the movie missed – the voice of Red. There must be a reason why Stephen King used a person other than the main character Andy Dufresne for his novel. Just because an outside perspective depicts the main character more objectively and accurately? We already know that Red, uneducated and confined in a very small world, cannot be a reliable narrator. No, the author didn’t intend that.

Readers tend to empathize with the main characters. And sometimes, sharing hero’s emotions and thoughts may not be helpful. Let’s imagine that the author wrote Andy’s story in his own voice. The most important lesson the readers could get is to maintain courage and endurance all the time to eventually break out of the cell. For the readers, the “cell” would be something other than the literal cell. But how effective is this message? Isn’t Andy to great for others to learn from? How different would this story be from other typical hero’s journey, such as Superman? Do we learn something from Superman? All we get is simple excitement, not real-life lessons.

Like Junho wrote in his journal, everyone has his or her own confinements or limitations that they’re locked in. Some might try to break them and a few might succeed, like Andy did in the novel. But this is not probably what King intended. Through the viewpoint of Red, who knows everything that goes in the prison, the readers see not only a person who broke out of the cell, but one who tries to enjoy life in cell, one who is so institutionalized that he commits suicide after being set free, and like Red, one who waits patiently, learns valuable lessons, and finally getting out. Andy’s case is not the only way to succeed in one’s life. Andy gained his freedom, but he would have suffered so much in the prison because he missed the outside world. For some people, simply trying to accept one’s limitations, or waiting patiently for opportunities to break them come would be better solutions. Without Red’s narrative, these messages couldn’t have been conveyed. And the movie failed to keep Red’s presence.

The Hero's Journey - Spiderman

Group 1

Our Film : Spiderman

Why we choose it : We believe that the film fits quite well to the stage of the hero's journey and everyone has watched the movie.

ACT I

Ordinary World:

Peter Parker is an ordinary student who works as a photographer for school newspaper. Peter is a secret admirer of Mary Jane (MJ). One day, students including Peter and MJ get a chance to visit a biology lab.

Call to Adventure:

In the lab, students see the fifteen genetically designed super spiders. However, there are only fourteen of them. While taking a picture of MJ, peter is bitten by the missed spider. Peter then discovers that he has earned many superpowers from the bite. With the given abilities and his uncle saying “with great power comes great responsibility”, he starts thinking about his supernatural abilities.

Refusal:

However, rather than using his power with responsibility, Peter goes to wrestling match to win money. He finally wins the match but later finds out that he was cheated by the owner of the venue, so that he cannot receive the prize money. Peter gets mad and decides not to stop a robber who has stolen the owner’s money. All in all, Peter uses his powers only to benefit himself in this part of the story.

Meeting with the Mentor:

With an extremely low possibility, Peter’s uncle is murdered by the robber he let go. Meeting with the mentor (his uncle), Peter realizes that he should use his powers for others and have more responsibility for his actions.

Crossing the Threshold:

After Peter realizes that he could have saved his uncle from death, his inner guilt makes him use his supernatural powers to help others in danger and become a super hero.

ACT II

Tests, Allies, Enemies:

Peter begins to save citizens in danger and he earns a good reputation as Spiderman. Citizens and media gets interested about Spiderman and this led to the negative description of him by the local newspaper.

Approach to the Innermost Cave :

Despite the critical articles portraying him as a villain rather than a hero, Spiderman continues to save and help people of the town.

Ordeal:

A new villain named the Green Goblin appears in town. He claims to destroy Spiderman and take over the city. It is the fate of Spiderman to fight against this fatal enemy on his hero journey.

ACT III

The Road Back :

Peter Parker feels guilty after his friend, Harry, decides to revenge Spider-man whom Harry wrongly believes to have killed his father. Harry doesn't know Peter is Spider Man, so he tells his plan of revenge to Peter, making Peter feel guilty.

Resurrection:

Despite what had happened, Peter decides to leave as the hero and flies through the city, catching criminal and working as the hero.

Return With the Elixir:

Peter is able to keep the peace of the city - at least for this story.

Points of Contention

1. We had a contention on how to view Peter's uncle as a mentor. While some regarded uncle's previous advice(with great power comes great responsibility) as the real lesson, some thought that it is only after uncle's death that Peter's uncle finally becomes Peter's real mentor.

2. Most of us agreed that Spiderman approaches the innermost cave by rescuing people's lives, as he decides to become a hero. But some argued that Spiderman faces real challenge when he meets the Green Goblin, and that this stage must be the approach to the innermost cave

3. Spiderman doesn't return to ordinary life, so there were some disagreements on which is the stage of "the Road Back." Some pointed out guiltness of killing his friend's father as the trigger of Peter's inner struggle, while some thought the relationship with MJ was the key factor.