Myth & the Movies: Discovering the Myth Structure of 50 Unforgettable Films

Excellent book, recommended to me by my writing coach. I am a huge film buff, and an aspiring novelist, so this book was a very natural read for me. It does a great job of translating the inner workings of plot in film to various literary archetypes, making it very easy for me to understand how these archetypes can be applied to writing a novel in almost every genre. I definitely recommend this one. I do wish that the book provided a better summary of the archetypes in the prologue or first chapter, so that was this book's major drawback. I read this a few weeks ago, so I cannot recall the name of the author's previous book that does provide these definitions. So, you may want to do some research into this aspect of the author's previous works and read other reviews to obtain that title, as this book seems to be a companion piece to its predecessor. Still, the author does provide enough information here to make this book a valid stand-alone reference.

The "information" contained in this book as well as itsclose relative, Vogler's 'The Writer's Journey, may be of use to some readers and aspiring writers, but it should not bemistaken for "knowledge"--the internalized recognition ofpatterns and archetypes acquired as a result of experiencing theoriginal texts. It was only AFTER I had noticed repeated themes andstructures in The Odyssey, The Aeneid, Beowulf, The Divine Comedy,Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, Heart of Darkness that the similardiscoveries of great teachers like Freud, Jung, Weston, Frazer, andCampbell confirmed a sense of the unity (despite the arguments of thepost-structuralists) of human experience and great literature. Soonit became impossible not to see "It's a Wonderful Life" and"The Maltese Falcon" as anything other than variations ofthe same story.And now we've got these patterns codified andreduced to skeletal formula, empty maps practically offered assurrogates for the actual experience itself. I seriously question ifthe consumer of these reductive catalogs and outlines will, likeColeridge's Mariner, emerge "sadder but wiser" or, likeConrad's Marlowe, glimpse the underlying "horror" ofcivilization in all its irony and mystery.In sum: Reader's Digestculture for the new age.

I am quite disappointed with this book. The analyses are not very true to Campbell's ideas at all, which are used as a Procrustean bed to squeeze every movie into a hero journey, whether it fits or not. Using ALL CAPITAL LETTERS to name each REFUSAL and MENTOR and THRESHOLD gets very annoying, and adds little value to the explanations. I have my students do analyses of popular films using Campbell's ideas, and many of them are more insightful than this book. I was hoping that this would help me locate more movies that will work for my class, but since he completely omits the concept of Atonement with the Father, it doesn't seem to get the concept of what the hero journey is really about at all. Not helpful.

I am currently studying "Screen History and Research" as part of my Degree in Communications and Arts, and i have to say that this book coupled with Christopher Vogler's " The Writer's Journey" has given me a definite edge in my studies.It could never cover all the movies ever produced nor does it aspire to but it does depict and analyse the movies which broke new ground or set the standards that others followed.When used as a road map one can easily follow the mystic journey of any film, allowing you scope to understand all genre's.This book is in my humble opinion a must have for students of film, aspiring writers and screen writers alike.

This book was required for a producing class I took. Stuart Voytilla has broken apart the structure of 50 movies (many of which you've probably already seen) and packed them into this rather long book. This isn't a book you can just sit down with and read in an afternoon, but best absorbed in chunks. I really do second Voytilla's advice and suggest that you try to watch each movie before reading the section about it. It makes the read even more interesting!

The author's attempt to force so many micro hero's journeys into each movie becomes more distracting than informative. That said, if you've read Campbell and Vogler, it's possible to cut through the noise and enjoy the overall journey patterns in his examples

:)

I have bought this book 3 times because other writers keep "borrowing" it. It is extremely helpful for understanding structure and genre.

Brilliant book for fans of Chris Vogler. Voytilla tries to go further than Vogler. For fans of and writers of screenplays seeing a different take on paradigms is refreshing. Not necessary saying I agree with all of Voytilla's conclusions but a nice dissection of many popular feature films from the point of view of act structure and plot points.

Just great.

Great eye opener!

...for a great audio book: manageable chunks, but very easy to put down and never pick up again.

Quand on écrit, je pense qu'il y a un avant et un après avoir Christopher Vogler. Ce qui ne veut pas dire que l'on ne s'éloigne pas de sa méthode au bout d'un moment. Mais elle permet de faire avancer les scénarios de manière nettement plus intéressante et crédible. Quel plaisir