I am having a most amazing adventure as I seek to learn more about “Joe” and the Hero’s Journey. I stumbled upon this link that talked about Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero with a Thousand Faces.”
Seems that the driving force behind that site, Ms. Kristen Brennan, has done a lot of work drilling down into the origins of Star Wars. Please spend time there. You will pick up a lot.
Here’s what caught my eye. She has what I’m calling a “Journey Chart” that ties Star Wars and The Matrix together and to Joseph Campbell.
The thread is the work Christopher Vogler in his book titled “The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers.”
Apparently, George Lucas had already written two drafts of Star Wars when he rediscovered Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With a Thousand Faces in 1975 (having read it years before in college). This blueprint for “The Hero’s Journey” gave Lucas the focus he needed to draw his sprawling imaginary universe into a single story.
>> Note that the Wachowski Brothers’ wonderful film The Matrix is carefully built on the same blueprint.<<
You can learn more about Vogler’s work here.
Powerful stuff! — Ness
This is a good read too: http://www.greenmanreview.com/film/film_matrix.html
Green Man Review does a nice job in his discussion about “new mythology.”