The Hero’s Journey
March 23, 2010 at 10:38 am Leave a comment
For easy reference, here are the basic beats of the Hero’s Journey:
- ordinary world
- call to adventure
- refusal of the call
- meeting with the guide
- crossing the first threshold
- tests, allies and enemies
- preparation
- ordeal
- reward
- road back
- final battle
- return with the elixir
My favourite Hero movie right now is Blood Diamonds. Bourne Identity is also good with his amnesia causing him to develop his ordinary world in his relationship with the woman he just met, Marie. The best examples for learning to find the beats are Star Wars (first one), The Matrix, and Beverly Hills Cop. 
Vogler enthusiasts may notice that these beats are slightly modified from the beats he uses in The Writer’s Journey which looks closely at the beats of this archetype. My book gives an overview of the Hero and shows how the Virgin and the Hero archetypes are polar opposites of each other, each making the other more vivid. As a result I modified the beats slightly.
Entry filed under: Archetype theory. Tags: Archetypes, Blood Diamonds, Joseph Campbell, Star Wars, THe Matrix, Vogler.
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