OBJECTIVES TO UNDERSTAND
The importance of a strong (and easily identifiable) thesis THAT TIES TO THE PROMPT
Topic Sentences: your friends (and mine)
Using films as your body of evidence (rather than just citing literature, as you’re used to) USE TIME STAMPS
The Preface to the prompt
In the middle module of our course, we examined a series of myths and legends that center upon heroes, often with respect to their importance for local cities and regions in Greece. One of the heroes that simultaneously belongs to nowhere and everywhere in Greece was Heracles. Although we can understand him as defined in many ways against his struggles with Hera, he was far more than the sum of his struggles. He was a destructive force, at once a strongman and a berserker, and yet a family man whose fits of inflicted madness caught not only him, but also his family and friends into his punishments. In our imagination, we can see him as the infant innocently defending his brother or as the irresistible force who violated xenia and every other societal norm. The Heracles stories, then, could be many things to many people in ancient Greece (and Rome). However, Heracles has also been many things to filmmakers over the last century of cinema. As we seek to make our own myths in the form of film, writers and directors make conscious decisions to focus on and omit portions of the stories with which you are now familiar. Why is that? Is it simply budgetary restrictions? How does the plot narrative reflect the culture within which it was made? Why were certain portions omitted? Why were certain portions emphasized? What new portions of the plot were invented, and why do you think these were chosen as the “filler” given how many different Heracles myths there were to select from?
THE PROMPT
Over the course of 6-7 full pages (double spaced, Times New Roman 12 pt. font; you may write more if you so desire), I want you to address how the movie was adapted from the Heracles myths that you have studied in Powell and then try to explain what was going on in the filmmakers’ minds as they formulated the plot. Keeping the above series of questions in mind, what contemporary cultural and historical developments might have informed the choices that were made (i.e., why might a Heracles movie in the American 1960’s include or omit X item?)? That is to say, how did storytellers in each historical moment fulfill the role of the Greek aoidos and compose new myths to enthrall audiences? I don’t want this to be a checklist, e.g. Seidelman’s Hercules in New York omits the Nemean Lion, Hydra, or girdle of Hippolyta; nor do I want everything to be ascribed to the fact that production budgets and special effects could not represent the myths properly. I want you to engage with historical moments and see if you can’t find a bit of our own history in how the movies tell stories you now find familiar.
MOVIE CHOICE
(2014) Hercules Directed by Brett Ratner, LINK TO MOVIE: https://hdtoday.tv/watch-movie/watch-hercules-hd-19123.5298412
•Recall the key elements of the plot: “I want you to address how the movie was adapted from the Heracles myths that you have studied in Powell and then try to explain what was going on in the filmmakers’ minds as they formulated the plot” (via the historical moment)
•Good example: Hercules (1957) omits and refashions many of the traditional elements from the Heracles myth cycle in a manner consistent with the saccharine family values that characterized popular tropes in entertainment in Post-WWII American society. These can be most clearly seen in the flattening and combination of the love interest into one character, the dialogue that emphasizes family first (while ignoring Heracles’ violent episodes with his own family), and the reduction of Heracles’ character from a swashbuckling adventurer into a stoic and resigned warrior for peace.
•Bad example: In this essay, I will argue that 15 episodes from Powell were omitted from the movie about Heracles. They were left out because of the budget and because they weren’t nice.
•For the bibliography:
•To cite a film in MLA, include the title, the director, any other relevant contributors, the production or distribution company, and the year of release. If there are multiple versions of a film, you also need to identify the version.
•Brazil. Directed by Terry Gilliam, performances by Jonathan Pryce and Katherine Helmond, director’s cut, Embassy International Pictures, 1985.
•To cite a movie from Netflix (and similar online streaming services), add the name of the website or app (e.g. “Netflix app”). If you watched the movie on an unofficial website or video-sharing platform like YouTube, add the website name, the uploader, the date of upload, and the URL.
•Night of the Living Dead. Directed by George A. Romero, Image Ten, 1968. YouTube, uploaded by American Film Institute, 26 Aug. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZy6P72Uu3Y.
•For in-text citations:
•In the MLA in-text citation, include the title (or a shortened version of it) and the time range.
•(Brazil 29:45–32:37)
•(Night 18:25–40)
•Don’t start an essay with “Throughout the history of humankind…”
Have fun with this! (A LITTLE) latitude with the formality of the writing if you just saw the movie you really enjoyed and wanted to gush about things that you found interesting.
Link to the Powell reading: Screenshots provided in case the link doesnt work for any reason.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mM4lIQ_RyRzJvRhHglVIR_Zj-5eSm7cJ/view
