Recorded by Bill Moyers at the end of Professor Campbell's life, this series explores the storeylines and ideas which are common to many of humanity's myths and religions.
Watching Campbell, who was approaching the end of his own life, talk about the mysteries of birth, maturation, love and death is an enlightening experience unto itself. You get the feeling the man thought deeply about the material — indeed he spent his whole life reading and studying the source material on which he was so erudite.
But then, sometimes in the first viewing, perhaps during the third time through, it may dawn on you that Campbell was himself fulfilling one of the major archetypal roles he discusses. As an aged man, appearing fearless before the void he was about to enter, he was behaving as the mentor, or wise man whose role it was to guide the hero[es] during the first stages of their journey.
Obviously, he wasn't doing it in the traditional, one-on-one manner, but it seems to me he was doing it in the way bred by our society - in front of the cathode ray fire.
In the years following the original broadcast [late 80s?, anyone?] there was an unfortunate rash of scriptwriting, books and instruction that determined to make every movie out of Campbell's template, The Hero's Adventure. And much has been made of George Lucas basing the first three Star Wars movies on Campbell's book, The Hero With a Thousand Faces.
Thankfully, this fad has died down, because Campbell's work is meant to be enjoyed and assimilated, not to be used as a coloring book. If anything, the complete failure of Lucas' recent Star Wars movies shows that the guy is less a creative mind than a technician who was able to capture fire a long time ago, in a ...
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