Kyle Johnson’s Quest 12 Research Pathfinder
he·ro (hîr“½) n., pl. he·roes. 1. In mythology and legend, a man, often of divine ancestry, who is endowed with great courage and strength, celebrated for his bold exploits, and favored by the gods. 2. A person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life (The American Heritage Dictionary).
Mes·si·ah (m¹-sº“…) n. 1. A leader who is regarded as or professes to be a savior or liberator (The American Heritage Dictionary).
When I began working on this thesis project, it was to be a project on epic films with my essential question being “what makes an epic film epic.” After being very confused with establishing a direction and a purpose, I met with a film professor from Temple, a personal friend of Mrs. Valenza’s. Together, we came to the consensus that attempting to establish the criteria for an epic film in a case study of five 20th century motion pictures would just be too difficult. The word epic itself is thrown around so loosely anymore. Just to differentiate between the original term “epic” used by literary greats such as Homer and James Joyce, versus what is now known as the “Hollywood Epic” or “film spectacle” would cause too much of an argument in comparing and contrasting, something I wanted to strongly avoid in the last paper of my high school years.
Dr. Paul Swann, Associate Film Professor at Temple University and I agreed that a much more provocative and less complicated topic to undertake would be a case study of the “hero” in film. To establish what a hero is, how different times and generations have seen different genres of heroes reflected upon the ideals of society at the time, and with the help of my advisor Mr. Wagman, developing the who the movie hero for the first part of the 21st century will be.
From that point I began researching new materials for my quest of the hero. During my search, I came across a book, The Hero and the Perennial Journey Home In American Film written by a professor at Villanova. So I contacted her through email, received a response, and began conducting a series of phone conversations with her. She thought that the project assignment I had at hand was too much of an undertaking, focusing on the many genres of heroes and how they reflected their times in a quest to establish the next movie hero. Instead, she thought it would be easier to overview the many types of heroes in film, establishing what a true movie hero is, and then focus on one genre of movie hero, truly delve and explore that category, on my way to predicting the next movie hero in that genre. With my love for the movie Braveheart, a reason why I began doing the project on epic film in the first place, Dr. Mackey-Kallis and I agreed that the best type of hero to delve into would be that of the Messianic Hero, the messiah type figure in the motion picture.
This is my pathfinder, outlining the various sources I will be utilizing and citing in my paper itself.
People
I have learned through this project, that as informative as books, guides and articles can be, nothing can help one more than a true individual person. I can always thank Mrs. Valenza and Mr. Wagman for their consistent efforts in helping me out. However, there are movie experts who’s advice I sought after and was extremely successful in receiving.
Dr. Swann was responsible for pushing me in the right direction of changing the paper topic into one on the hero in film. He allowed me to see that I got myself into a huge mess with attempting to do this project on epic films and provided a much better alternative for me.
Dr. Mackey-Kallis, or Susan as she wanted me to call her, was a huge help for me and will continue to be in this process. What’s special about it is that she wants to be a big part of this for me and is interested in hearing about my wants, needs, and answering my questions. The fact that I just picked up her book in Barnes & Noble, happened to see that she’s a professor at Villanova and emailed her out of the blue, commenting on her book, hoping that I could meet with her, amazed me all the more when she responded back and was so willing to be a part of things. It was her idea to narrow down the amount of information being covered, that to go in depth with the entire genre of heroes would be just too much, and to cover one would provide for a much better thesis and paper.
Books
By Susan Mackey-Kallis
\The book that I stumbled upon at Barnes & Noble, had to have, and introduced me to Susan Mackey – Kallis. This book does a beautiful job of describing many types of heroes in movies and documenting their journeys home, using Homer’s Odyssey as a base. In her “Grail Quest” section, the Messianic hero is explained and is a big help for the paper.
I originally found this book on Barnes & Noble’s online website and looked for it at three different Barnes & Noble stores before buying it at the Route 63 Willow Grove location.
2) The Hero With a Thousand Faces
By Joseph Campbell
The very famous manuscript outline of who and what constitutes “hero” and “heroic.” Joseph Campbell’s masterpiece is quoted very thoroughly in Dr. Mackey-Kallis work and his brilliance as a writer and quote maker will serve very strong in my paper.
Book was found at the Glenside library with the call number 291.13 C152 that was found on the Access PA library database website.
3) Six Guns & Society
By Will Right
Recommended by Dr. Swann, this book does a great job illustrating who the hero in the Western movie was and how society impacted it and how it made an impact on its society. As the Western movie was a pivotal part of film history in the United States, so is this book in helping me establish such a strong hero in the overview section of the paper.
Book was found at Penn State Abington’s library with the call number PN1995.9.W4 W7 that was found on the Access PA library database website.
Online Articles
I could never track down a website dedicated to the Messianic Movie Hero, or regular Movie Hero itself for that matter, however I did find a handful of articles throughout the web. Some happened to be random articles featuring the messianic hero on the web, others were extensive Internet databases.
When searching on various search engines such as Google, AltaVista, MetaCrawler, and others less frequently. The terms that I searched under consisted of hero, movie hero, messianic movie hero, film hero, motion picture hero, protagonist, all switched and jumbled around to produce different results.
The Journal of Religion and Film
The Messianic Figure in Film: Christology beyond the Biblical Epic by Mathew McEver
Coming from a contemporary religious journal critiquing items of everyday pop culture, this article was very interesting in providing examples of what they find as the messianic hero in film after the Ben Hur era.
Mad Max, Mythology and the Milennium by Mike Broderick
An incredibly interesting article focusing on the Mad Max
trilogy while at the same time outlining the characteristics of a ruthless
messianic hero who commands the hearts and trust of the people he leads. One of the stronger sources establishing the
fact that a martyr does not make one a messianic hero.
Internet Databases
Databases recommended by Mrs Valenza on the web. The terms that I searched under consisted of hero, movie hero, messianic movie hero, film hero, motion picture hero, protagonist, all switched and jumbled around to produce different results.
Provided lists of scholarly criticisms and movie critiques.
Provided lists of scholarly criticisms and movie critiques.
Provided lists of scholarly criticisms and movie critiques.
Magazine Articles
Though they were tracked down by the power of the internet, these articles found in magazines provided me with great sources that will be used in the overview of the many types of movie heroes over time.
“The executioners” Vanity Fair, April 2002 i500 p212(4)
Known as the “anti-hero,” marked by society’s
disillusionment during and after the Vietnam era, the Hollywood hero trend
setting was that of the good bad guys, “Dirty Harry,” “Bloody Jack,” etc. In terms of overviewing a genre of hero,
this article was perfect in finding the anti-hero and how he was created by his
society.
“Rocky and Rambo” Newsweek, Dec 23, 1985 v106 p58(5)
Examines the “hard body” hero of the eighties with the primary example of Sylvester Stallone in his roles as Rocky and Rambo. Very fitting for my overview in reflection to the American society in the 1980s.