In his book Hero with a Thousand Faces, the master of mythology, Joseph Campbell, pointed out that there is only one story, and although the form is constantly changing, the theme is unchanged. Campbell summarizes the myth of the world hero in a variety of forms but consistent in content into a single mythological model. The theories he studied not only reverberated widely in academia, but also penetrated more into the production of many commercial films, especially in Hollywood.
These stories show us the growth and deformation of individuals, and through Campbell's theory we find that these "modern myths" still follow the "ancient myth" of the thinking structure, which satisfies the mind of all human beings who have gradually acquired defects since the beginning of life. Disaster movies stand on the modern perspective, for us to continue the story of human destiny, the history of human civilization is accompanied by disasters, and every disaster is a revelation of mankind.
Therefore, when we look at the meaning of the disaster from the mythology again, we can find that the performance of the disaster in the film actually has human thoughts about existentialism and the dignity of life, and those heroes who have grown up are the symbols of the image of divine creation and atonement hidden in each of us, and this image is just waiting for us to know and make it alive.
The movie "Gravity" tells the story of two male astronauts and a female astronaut on the Space Shuttle Explorer who went out of the capsule for Hubble telescope repairs, encountered debris attacks that caused the spacecraft to crash and wandered into space, and finally returned to Earth safely through unremitting struggle. The story itself is simple and simple, but vividly and powerfully shows the heroic image of women fighting for their fate, it creatively uses a single mythological model, and the heroine Ryan Stone's heroic adventure is roughly divided into three parts: departure, enlightenment and return.
I. Departure: Cowardly Heroes and Dark Calling
"The adventure begins with a mistake that reveals an unknown world, a relationship between the individual and a force that he does not yet know very well." In fact, mistakes are not accidental, they are the result of a conflict of repressed desires. Ryan has the shortest training time as a technical astronaut among the three, so she appears inexperienced and confident in the face of unknown space. When the danger of space debris suddenly hits them, the hero's mutilated side is immediately exposed, and she appears to be in a hurry, and her panicked behavior causes her oxygen content to decrease rapidly, forcing herself into a more dangerous situation.
Campbell proposes that summoning always begins with the miracle of transfiguration, the ritual or moment at which the soul undergoes a transformation, and when they are completed, it means death and birth. We can think of the spaceship as the womb of life, they have become babies who have just cut off the connection with their mothers, the familiar range of life has been broken, and the time is coming to transcend the threshold.
In the disaster film, this dangerous summon has no choice for the hero, so the protector appears for the hero who does not refuse to call, and this person is Matt Kowalski, who is like the male guide Mephistopheles in Faust, who is both maternal and paternal to give the hero guidance. Ryan is thus rescued from the floating environment, Matt saves her with his life, and gives her soul comfort, guiding her to the door of hope, like a naughty and frizzy child crossing the first threshold of life under the guidance of the leader to meet the upcoming life experience.
Enlightenment: The Path of Trial and the Ultimate Gift
After losing her final connection with Matt, Lane will continue her fateful adventure alone, which is the test of the hero, and lane is in a space full of dangers and unknowns, which is also the inner universe that human beings face in their growth. After entering the space station, she escapes from the fire-set cabin to another cabin, and even if she finds a seemingly safe space, danger ensues, loneliness and the possibility of death's blade invading Ryan's spirit.
Campbell writes in the book, "The child who rules his destiny must go through a long stage of introspection. This period has been fraught with extreme dangers, obstacles and humiliations. He is thrown into the depths of his own heart or into undiscovered outer realms; whether inside or into the outside world, he is exposed to uncharted dark areas. ”
Space disaster is undoubtedly the most intuitive appearance of this heroic myth, and Ryan finally has to face and think alone, surviving in the dangers of passing shoulders. Eventually, she reached the darkest moment before becoming a hero on the Shenzhou, which had the opportunity to return to Earth. Feeling that the last glimmer of hope had been dashed by the loss of fuel, Ryan showed in front of the radio's FM the fragility, alienation, and despair of humanity before facing death, and at some point she finally fell asleep in a cabin where the temperature was gradually dropping.
"Everyone's dream is a pantheon", in the dream Matt returns to Ryan's side again, using optimism and humor to soothe her pessimistic and restless shortcomings, which is undoubtedly a mythical guide, the opening of individual spiritual potential and the mysterious fusion of saving the world, Ryan finally broke through the pessimism about life that he once carried and the knot of his daughter's death, trying hard to survive, the hero's adventure is a journey of spiritual detachment, when the Shenzhou satellite is pulled back to earth by gravity, The flames burning outside the cabin and the fragments that crack are like the mythical phoenix reborn from the fire, which is a moment of greatness, symbolizing the hero's completion of his own redemption.
Return: The Returning Hero and the Freedom of Life
In Campbell's mythological interpretation, the hero's return has to cross the threshold of return again, which is often the confusion of returning to reality in the heart, and the film does not provide a longer follow-up to the hero's return, but externalizes this obstacle as the last difficulty of the ship sinking into the water, where Ryan has embodied the heroic skill she has acquired after spiritual growth - the radiance of calm and brave humanity.
Space adventures, this is a legendary story that humanity has been fantasizing about since exploring the universe. Ryan not only represents the victory of the heroic individual, but also the inner desire of human beings to fight against fate for dignity, and when she stands again on the land of this planet, we seem to smell the air of freedom together, which is the common encouragement and inspiration that myth gives to all people.
epilogue:
Modern disaster movies have the genes of traditional mythology, which are rewritten on the basis of language texts and thinking, and their structural essence is still a heroic journey of combining the dual merits of self-spiritual salvation and saving the world. This more Western-style approach has also easily penetrated into the production of genre films, and "Gravity" uses fantastic audio-visual pictures to shape Ryan's heroic journey from darkness to light, becoming another excellent model in modern disaster films.