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The Modern Myth
3
Modern Myths in Film
Margaret Rose
Movies & Television
Film Mythology
We all watch movies and T.V and all of them always have a plot or it's a series and new things happen every week to get further in each story. Usually, all of these movies or TV shows have many similarities to myths regarding the actions or plots of each show. I believe this is because no matter what time you live in we will always go back to our original stories that we have ever told in myths. We often retell stories but many of the tales that have already been told have potent themes. I believe this is why we can compare movies and television to ancient Roman and Greek Mythology
- Most myths have a template for how they are organized and when you use more modern stories you can break down these templates. The most common and well known is the hero's journey. This template is used in many contemporary stories and because of this we can better understand mythology and even some more modern words that we may not have looked as closely at.
- However this template can be used to analyze almost all stories because you can easily use it to see how characters fit into specific categories and what their role will be in the modern movie or the myth you are looking at
Myth templates
From all the stories we have studied during this class, it is clear that mythology has powerful and precise themes that are used to tell stories with the goal being to teach a lesson. These themes include fate, pride, heroism, love, transformation, and a few others. These themes are common in most all entertainment making them universal to everyone around the world. Thus, it makes sense that in movies and television you can draw parallels between myths and films. Not only are the themes clear and universal but now even certain gods are prevalent in film because they have been portrayed differently in a more modern take for example our favorite hero from Marvel Thor.
Themes
literal vs. metaphorical
Examples
- The two examples of how myths are used in both literal and a more symbolic way include comparing Breaking bad to Oedipus and Breaking Bad and Thor in comparison to how he is depicted in myth vs. film.
- Everyone knows and loves Thor as shown in a new and upcoming Marvel film however none of the movies take literally after any of the ancient myths that the god is in and take more after the comics. The Myths are more there for the writers to create his home of Asguard for creative purposes.
- However, when you compare Oedipus and Breaking Bad you can look at both Oedipus and Walt and see how they both struggle to have a fate they cannot escape and both meet a terrible end.
Fate is Fate
Fate
The theme of fate is relatable to movies, television, and Mythology all leading to an often tragic ending. In both the stories of Oedipus and Breaking Bad I will explain how fate took part in both of their sad stories and how this theme is used in a diverse way for both stories.
Oedipus
In the story of Oedipus, he knows from the gods what his fate will be, and because of this, he does all that he can to avoid his fate. However, he learns at the end of the story that not only has he unknowingly killed his father and married his mother that no matter what he did he fell victim to his fate. Because of this he gouges out his own eyes and lives the rest of his life in exile. Although some view Oedipus as a hero I find his story to be more tragic than anything. Although he did everything he could to avoid his fate he could not stop himself from doing precisely what he was told would happen and that he genuinely had no power. This is the most tragic part of the story and that he genuinely thought he deserved to gouge his own eyes out.
Walter White
Walt has a similar story in that he learns very early in the series that he is most likely going to die of cancer. He will die because not only is it advanced but he cannot afford any of the treatment. Not willing to accept this he does what he thinks is the only thing he can do. Walt being an unsuccessful chemist starts to make and sell meth to pay for his treatment and to help his family when he dies. However this all changes when he starts to be in remission and he had more than enough money to stop making meth however he continues and he not only rips apart his family but the lifestyle he chooses ends up killing him. He dies at the end anyway not of cancer but his lifestyle.
Conclusion
I believe that there are even more comparisons that could be made about myths and movies and that this is an excellent way for us to get a better understanding of more ancient practices and how we can use their teachings today. And although we use their stories to make often a new hit series like the next Thor movie we also have been able to use their more complex themes to expand on storylines. I believe that what I have learned in this class will better help me analyze many stories not just movies and television and be able to relate them to mythology.