RPC Chapter 6

In Creating the Myth, Seger explains how to create a myth within film. She walks the audience through the steps of the Hero Myth, which is the creation of a successful and lovable hero in a movie or series. After reading all the steps, it is easy to apply them to many of the major films we have today, like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and the movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This is sort of correlated with Seven Steps to the Perfect Story. It talks about the different factors that go into making a story that is worth viewing. The call, challenge, conflict, growth, and solution are all part of the plot and very necessary outlets for good story telling, but none of that means a thing if the hero does not have the character traits of a real hero. In many biracial, buddy action stories, there are a lot of white actors being paired with actors of other races, whether it's on TV or a movie. It started mostly with black and white characters having to deal with each other, and it was good that black actors were given chances to be a part of entertainment since representation of races other than white were minimal back in the day. This eventually led to Asian roles being put in storylines as co-stars and supporting characters. Bruce Lee played Kato in the Green Hornet series in the 60's with a white actor being the main character, and later on Rush Hour was made with a black and Asian man as the main stars, which was a big step in cinema. The lead actors were black and Asian, but it wasn't labeled a black film or Asian film, it was just an American movie. Susan Sontag, the author of The Imagination of Disaster, talks about the structure of sci-fi movies being the similar to some degree, and that technology is associated with danger or destruction. In the Batman movies, Batman always has these gadgets he uses to protect himself and fight the bad guys. His advances in tech are always interesting, but are only displayed when being used against an enemy. It encourages violence in a way even if it is against bad guys. Movies today are not as great as they used to be because originality doesn't seem to be of importance to the Hollywood directors. Today we get a lot of sequels for movies that shouldn't have more than one installment, and it seems like all the good ideas have already been done. David Denby writes about these problems in his essay and I couldn't agree more with him. In Hollywood's Love Affair with Surveillance, Osterweil covers the interest in movies centered around being watched by a 'Big Brother.' Eagle Eye is a movie in this category because the main character is being watched and forced to do tasks by an artificial intelligence program his brother worked on for the government. He manages to be sneaky and figure his way around the program, which is the thrill of this subgenre of movies.