The Hero's Journey

Over this weekend I say a film. A film that I absolutely feel in love with. It's a Gonzo Space Opera called "Guardians of the Galaxy". I know you know what that is. It's the one with the Tree dude and the Raccoon with a machinegun.

After watching it twice and planning my third and fourth watchings (SPOILER ALERT: I liked it) I read a series of articles talking about the show. Like you do. And one really stood out to me. In an "Art and Entertainment" article in the LA Times Steven Zeitchik states that Guardians is an example "Post-plot cinema". He asserts that there is no plot. Just a bunch of confusing stuff that happens. There's so much going on that you could not explain it to somebody else.

Now, I don't agree. But I think he does have a point. If you're looking for a clear Aristotelian plot structure or to be beaten over the head with the Hero's Journey he's dead on. There isn't a clear hero who's journey the story revolves around. Because it's not about any one character.

It's about the group.

This is a story about a group of head strong individuals who collide and become more than they could singularly be. There's isn't one character who the story is about. It's about all of them. And that's not generally something that this format handles well. Multiple heroes aren't well handled when you're trying to follow this structure.

Which for me highlights one of the issues with the thought that "All stories are the Hero's Journey". What I took from my study of it was that most of the great stories fell into this same structure. However, I have never believed that just because you can ramrod and hamfist every story into the structure that they are all "Hero's Journeys".

Now, I realize that many of my writerly friends will disagree. There is a worship of the Journey in many writer's circles that I think misses the entire point and at its very worst creates some truly soulless stories. The movie "Pleasantville" was a movie I truly loved, but the insistence at the end that he return from the "Special world" in the TV back to his mother felt pointless, disingenuous, and like the writer was actively catering to the Journey. It sincerely ruined for me a film that I otherwise truly loved.

When these plots come up as a natural extension of a well crafted story it's amazing and really does work well. However... many times a "well-crafted" story is overworked for the artform it relies in. We think of all movies as Hero's Journey's and so they all are. And we say things like "Love is the Special Realm" to make it all happily fit into the preconceptions.

I think that it's a powerful tool that everybody should learn. But, by the same token we need to write our stories and then look for the themes and Monomythic elements.

And sometimes just sit back and enjoy the story.

In summation:

I am Groot.