ListenHub
0
5-15Mars: You ever watch a blockbuster and think, Wait a minute, haven't I seen this movie before? I mean, the hero gets the call, meets the wise mentor, hits rock bottom, and then, bam, saves the world. It's like Hollywood found one perfect recipe and just keeps hitting repeat. So, uh, why are so many films basically the same story?
Mia: (Laughs) Right? It's almost spooky. What you're describing is what Joseph Campbell called the Hero's Journey, or the Monomyth. Think ordinary world, inciting incident, quest, mentor, crisis, transformation, return. Aristotle was messing with this stuff ages ago with his three-act structure, and Hollywood just ran with it. They took that old map, added a few explosions, and sell it as the new thing every year.
Mars: So it's not laziness, it's... tradition? But sometimes it feels so formulaic, you know? I want to be surprised, not just see a checklist being ticked off.
Mia: Exactly! The magic is in making it feel real. If that first push feels organic – like Neo swallowing the red pill in *The Matrix* – it hits hard. But if you see the plot points lining up, it loses its punch. That's why story gurus like Robert McKee and Christopher Vogler teach writers how to hide the seams.
Mars: Okay, I get it. But here's what gets me: Do these hero saves the day stories actually *change* anything? Or do they just make us feel good for a couple of hours and then send us back to our same old lives?
Mia: That's the million-dollar question, isn't it? These classic stories can be kinda… comforting. They promise change, but often just deliver a *fantasy* of change. The hero gets the girl, saves the kingdom, has a new outlook – we clap, but our own lives? Same old. Real change, the messy, gritty kind, rarely fits neatly into three acts.
Mars: So Hollywood's giving the audience what they *want*, not what they *need*?
Mia: Bingo! Campbell's original idea was about facing your deepest shadow, your worst fear. The inciting incident should force the hero to confront something they've been hiding. It's less about winning a sword fight and more about surviving, you know, inside your own head.
Mars: Interesting. But that doesn't exactly scream box office hit, does it?
Mia: Not really. Studios want safe bets – franchises, sequels – they want to squeeze every last drop out of a winning formula. Real storytelling should be more like life – messy, tangled, full of detours. Ursula Le Guin talked about stories as containers – little spaces that reflect what people actually do and feel, instead of trying to fit everyone into the same mold.
Mars: Sounds more like real life than a fairy tale, huh? Less neat, more… jagged.
Mia: Totally. Think about modern art, or even modern literature. It tore down all the old rules to show the scars of war and how society was changing. Today’s art needs to reflect our crazy times, our short attention spans, our mixed-up world. But people still want hope, some sign that things can get better.
Mars: So, to wrap up, we love the Hero's Journey because it's familiar and comfy, but maybe we need a new map – one that embraces the mess, the real struggles, and the actual growth?
Mia: Exactly! Stories need to do more than just entertain us for a few hours. They should wake us up, challenge what we think we know, and make us want to change our own stories. That's the kind of change that matters.