Creative Screenwriting: Hero's Journey and the Apotheosis
The Hero's Journey is the template upon which the vast majority of successful stories and Hollywood blockbusters are based upon. Understanding this template is a priority for story or screenwriters:
The Hero's Journey:
• Attempts to tap into unconscious expectations the audience has regarding what a story is and how it should be told.
• Gives the writer more structural elements than simply three or four acts, plot points, mid point and so on.
• Interpreted metaphorically, laterally and symbolically, allows an infinite number of varied stories to be created.
The Hero's Journey is also a study of repeating patterns in successful stories and screenplays. It is compelling that screenwriters have a higher probability of producing quality work when they mirror the recurring patterns found in successful screenplays.
Consider this:
• Titanic (1997) grossed over $600,000,000 – uses the Hero's Journey as a template.
• Star Wars (1977) grossed over $460,000,000 - uses the Hero's Journey as a template.
• Shrek 2 (2004) grossed over $436,000,000 - uses the Hero's Journey as a template.
• ET (1982) grossed over $434,000,000 - uses the Hero's Journey as a template.
• Spiderman (2002) grossed over $432,000,000 - uses the Hero's Journey as a template.
• Out of Africa (1985), Terms of Endearment (1983), Dances with Wolves (1990), Gladiator (2100) – All Academy Award Winners Best Film are based on the Hero's Journey.
• Anti-hero stories (Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990) etc) are all based on the Hero's Journey.
• Heroine’s Journey stories (Million Dollar Baby (2004), Out of Africa (1980) etc) are all based on the Hero's Journey.
Hero's Journey and the Apotheosis
The Apotheosis is the core of any story - it is where the hero becomes has his epiphany, his insight, the seminal illumunation.
In Casablanca (1942), Rick's insight is that if you love someone, you sacrifice yourself for their happiness. That sacrifice can include selling your most prized material possessions (he sells his bar), allowing your love to find happiness in another's arms (he ultimately allows Ilsa to be with Victor), physical suffering (it is likely that his ultimate actions will see him to a concentration camp), leaving dear friends (he will have to leave Sam behind) and forced exile from home and heart (he will have to leave Casablanca). He learns this insight from both Ilsa and Victor, who are prepared to do the same for each other.
In Al Pacino Scarface (1983), Tony Montana's insight is that the rewards of the path he's chosen are not worth the spiritual price he is paying, expressed with the words (in the restaurant scene): "is this it? Is that what it's all about Manny? Eating, drinking, fucking, sucking," "no free rides in this world kid," "I lost my appetite," "is that what I worked for? With these hands? Is that what I killed for? For this?"
In The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Andy Dufresne's apotheosis is that you either get busy living or you get busy dying. He reaches that insight in the scene by the prison wall with Red (Morgan Freeman), but it is preceeded by the earlier insight that he will never get out of prison (Warden Norton will never let him go). The apotheosis is preceded by the physical processes of submersion (being locked in the hole for two months; the Belly of the Whale of the Ordeal) and rebirth through death (symbolised by the death of Tommy). The apotheosis is preceded by the crossing of the First Threshold and the Ordeal in general.