CHAPTER EIGHT EXERCISES
1. List your top 10 film heroes.
2. List your top 10 film villains.
3. List your top 10 film mentors.
4. Using your knowledge of film, identify five movie characters who fulfill the function of the goddess archetype.
5. Identify five movie characters who fulfill the function of the shadow goddess archetype.
6. Identify five movie characters who fulfill the function of the anima archetype.
7. Identify five movie characters who fulfill the function of the femme fatale archetype.
8. Identify five movie characters who fulfill the function of the trickster archetype.
9. Identify five movie characters who fulfill the function of the shapeshifter archetype.
ADDRESSING ARCHETYPAL CHARACTERS IN YOUR SCRIPT
1. In order for your hero to develop in the mind of your audience, he must have a clear weakness or lacking in his character. In a Jungian sense, what element of the Self does your hero need to develop in order to be psychologically complete?
2. The physical presence of your hero is a big part of the hero’s persona. Try to conjure a mental image of your hero, and then brainstorm through famous movie stars. Pick a movie star that best fits the physical and psychological identity of the character you want to write, and use that star as a guide when describing your hero in your script.
3. The duality of persona and shadow in the Self is typically represented in movies by the hero/villain duality. This duality is most effective when the hero and villain contrast greatly, and are therefore psychologically complementary. If your script has a hero and villain, how can you structure their characters so that the hero must acquire a trait inherent to the villain in order to overcome him.
4. Often times, the hero has a shadowy backstory – a skeleton in his closet that he must face. Does you hero have a shadowy past? If not, how would including a shadowy past add to his character? If he has a shadowy past, does he deal with it and integrate it in a satisfactory way?
5. The Goddess and Wise Old Man archetypes represent mentor figures for both male and female heroes respectively. Does your hero encounter and integrate wisdom or guidance from a mentor figure? If not, think about how including this ancient archetypal element may add depth to your characters and plot.
6. Similarly, the Anima and Animus archetypes often play the role of love interest for the hero. Does your hero encounter and integrate a love interest? If not, think about how including this archetypal element may add romance or “heart” to your script.
7. The Trickster and Shapeshifter archetypes frequently embody the heroic attribute of intelligence, either by posing the hero with intellectual challenges that he must overcome, or by the hero using trickery or shapeshifting himself to outsmart his enemies. How can you use trickery or shapeshifting in your script to imbue the crucial element of intelligence in your hero?
ARCHETYPAL CHARACTERS AT A GLANCE
ARCHETYPE
FUNCTION
CHARACTER
EXAMPLES
Hero
The primary
symbol of the self
The Hero
The Band of Heroes
Luke in Star Wars
The Fellowship of the Ring
Persona
The public “mask”
of the self
Movie Stars
The Public Self
John Wayne, Clark Gable
Clark Kent in Superman
Shadow
The hidden, secret
or dark side of
the self
The Villain
The Alter-ego
Darth Vader in Star Wars
Green Goblin in Spider-man
Goddess
Mother and/or the
feminine mentor
Positive Mother Figure
Negative Mother Figure
Fairy God Mothers
Wicked Witches
Wise Old
Man
Father and/or the
masculine mentor
Positive Mentor
False/Negative Mentor
Obi Won in Star Wars
Darth Vader in Star Wars
Anima
The feminine side
of the male self
Female Love Interests
The Maiden in Distress
Lois Lane in Superman
Princess Leia in Star Wars
Shadow
Anima
The embodiment
of dark femininity
The Femme Fatale
Alex in Fatal Attraction
Animus
The masculine side
of the female self
Male Love Interests
The “Male” in Distress
Jack in Romancing the Stone
Alex in Lara Croft: Tombraider
Shadow
Animus
The embodiment
of dark masculinity
Psychopaths, Slashers
Monsters
Robert Downey Jr. in In Dreams
Dracula
Trickster
Challenging the
hero’s intelligence
Trickster Gods
Threshold Guardians
Trickster Heroes
Satan in The Greatest Story…
The Grail Keeper in Excalibur
Charlie Chaplin, Bugs Bunny
Shapeshifter
Personal
and physical
transformation
Transforming Heroes
Shapeshifting Tricksters
Physical Shapeshifters
Bud Fox in Wall Street
Burt & Jim in Blazing Saddles
Dracula, The Wolf Man
Chapter Nine
ARCHETYPES OF PLOT
As with the archetypal figures, archetypal themes are collectively shared by all humans. They represent universal life transitions such as birth, marriage, and death, and they also represent the universal need to develop, change, and grow through the archetypal themes of rebirth and transformation. By realizing the archetypal themes, we connect with other people through the “transpersonal” realm of the collective unconscious and become “whole.” Mythology allows us to transcend and resolve our personal conflicts. It is an essential element of both individual psychological health and collective social adjustment. Whereas mythology historically has been transmitted through stories, legends, religion, and art – all of these methods are now integrated in the modern mass medium of film. In contemporary society, people get their myths on the movie screen. Film, the communal dream, has become a primary process for expressing, transmitting, and integrating the archetypes of our time.
ENCOUNTER AND INTEGRATION: THE TRANSCENDENT FUNCTION
Archetypes symbolize different parts of the self. When the different parts encounter each other and integrate themselves into the Self, they complement one another and create balance where there was conflict. The function of dreams (the personal myth), and the function of myths (the collective dream), is a “transcendent function.” By integrating the conflicting parts of the self, we become psychologically “whole.”
In East of Eden, Cal’s journey of self-discovery begins when he encounters his mother, who represents the shadow of his past and the conflict between good and bad within himself. After integrating the shadow goddess, Cal’s journey to become whole leads him to integrate his anima figure – represented by the romantic love of Abra (Julie Harris). In the final scene, Cal makes amends with the wise old man – his father. By encountering and integrating his shadow, anima, and wise old man, cal transcends the singularity of his own conflicted persona and becomes psychologically and emotionally whole.
QUATERNITY
An archetypal theme in Jung’s model is the complete whole comprised of four parts – the “quaternity” – which represents a balance between two opposing dualities. In the psy
che, the integration of the four primary archetypes of the Self represents a complete quaternity. The persona and shadow are the opposing dualities of the internal Self, and the opposite sex archetype, along with the same sex parent archetype, are the opposing dualities related to external figures. So, the complete quaternity in the male psyche consists of the persona, shadow, anima, and wise old man. And the complete quaternity in the female psyche consists of the persona, shadow, animus, and goddess. If we translate these figures into archetypal character roles in film, we have the hero, villain, love interest, and mentor.
According to this Jungian model, the hero must encounter and integrate some elements of the villain, mentor, and love interest figures into his character through the course of his story. More specifically, the hero must address his own shadow (i.e., problems, conflicts, challenges or weaknesses), he must learn something from his mentor (spiritual or existential wisdom), and he must win the heart of his love interest (romance). If these archetypes are encountered and integrated in ways that are significant to the hero’s identity, then a sense of psychological completeness should be achieved by the end of the film. Quaternal completeness in the hero’s story translates into a feeling of complete character development.
TRANSFORMATION
Each archetype within the quaternity has the ability to completely transform the hero’s character. An evil and menacing shadow-villain, such as the degenerate SS commandant (Ralph Feines) in Schindler’s List (1993), can inspire a very unlikely hero such as Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) to heroic action. Similarly, a wise mentor such as Gandalf the Wizard (Ian McKellen) in Lord of the Rings (2001) can inspire a tiny hobbit (Elijah Wood) to great heroism. And, of course, the love of a beautiful maiden such as Mary (Cameron Diaz) in There’s Something About Mary (1998) has inspired many regular guys such as Ted (Ben Stiller) to enter the adventurous realm of heroism. Transformation is an archetype in-and-of-itself, as it represents the universal propensity and need for personal change and development.
Tragic transformation occurs when characters are corrupted by their sudden changes in identity. Willy Starks (Broderick Crawford) in All the King’s Men (1949) Lonesome Rhodes (Andy Griffith) in A Face in the Crowd (1957), and Dirk Diggler (Mark Whalberg) in Boogie Nights (1997) are all naïve characters who experience a tragic fall as a result of their personal transformations.
Often times, the crux of the plot turns on the transformation of a supporting character rather than the hero’s character. In Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) Smith (James Stewart) starts out as a patriotic idealist and remains so throughout the film. Smith’s own idealism leads to his downfall, but he is rescued in the end, not by his own transformation – but by the transformation of Joe Payne (Claude Rains), the senator whom he inspired. Similarly, Calloway (Ben Johnson) in Shane (1953) starts out as an ornery cowboy who finds pleasure in ridiculing and harassing Shane and his homesteader friends. Shane stands up to Calloway, earning his respect. This seemingly tangential plot line becomes central when Calloway transforms himself in the 3rd act, just in time to warn Shane of the ambush awaiting his friend Joe (Van Heflin) at the saloon.
Transformation in your script can be upward toward heroism or downward toward tragedy. It can occur as a reaction to evil, as inspiration through wisdom, or as motivation for love. And it can occur within the hero, or within the supporting characters who affect the hero. In any case, transformation is a vital part of any story, and a critical element of character development. If one or more of the characters is not different by the end of the film, if a character does not change, then the story will feel incomplete.
LUCKY COINCIDENCES
Jung described “synchronicity” as a phenomenon that connects all people and all events through the collective unconscious. As a transpersonal “acausal connecting principle” that functions on a fourth dimension of human experience, synchronicity is as elusive and esoteric an idea as Albert Einstein’s “Unified Field” theory. But as mysterious as synchronicity may be as an intellectual idea, the archetypal phenomenon of synchronicity is a thematic mainstay in stories and films.
The plot of Changing Lanes (2002) is driven forward when two men (Samuel Jackson & Ben Affleck) happen to have a car accident on the exact morning in which both of their lives depend on being somewhere on time. And in Back to the Future (1985), Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) can only return to his future existence if he can recharge his time machine with a massive amount of electricity. Fortunately, Marty was given a flyer before he traveled back in time. The flyer told the story of how the town clock tower was struck by lightning – providing the exact time and date. Marty coincidentally kept the flyer in his pocket, so he could realize later on that the lightning could help him get back to the future. The preposterous preponderance of lucky coincidences stretches even the wildest of imaginations, yet the synchronicity in the plot line hardly even tugs at the audience’s suspension of disbelief.
Though dubious as a psychological theory, synchronicity is a tried-and-true archetypal plot line in movies. It is accepted by audiences without a second’s thought. When the hero needs it most, a lucky coincidence comes into play to save the day. Though synchronicity should not be overused or invoked willy-nilly, when adopted with wit and style, the extremely lucky coincidence is a perfectly acceptable way to advance your plot.
HEALING
Healing is a universal human issue. At some point in all of our lives, we suffer wounds or traumas. Wounded hero plot lines typically involve the death of the hero’s wife and/or child. For Kersey (Charles Bronson), murder becomes motivation for revenge when his wife is killed and his daughter raped by a gang of burglars in Death Wish. Wounded heroes are driven by grief and vengeance. Mel Gibson is extremely adept at playing the vengeful wounded hero, having done so as Max Rockatansky in the Mad Max films (1979, 1981, 1985, and 2004) and Sgt. Martin Riggs in the Lethal Weapon movies (1987, 1989, 1992, and 1998). Gibson’s character is also motivated by tragedy and vengeance in Hamlet (1990), Braveheart (1995), Ransom (1996), Payback (1999), and The Patriot (2000). Healing for this brand of hero is almost always achieved through violence.
Heroes in need of healing are also frequently wounded in battle. Sean Thornton (John Wayne) in The Quiet Man (1952) and ‘Prew’ (Montgomery Clift) in From Here to Eternity (1953) are ex-prizefighters who are racked with guilt for destroying other men in the ring. For these heroes, being wounded is a motivation against violence.
In essence, the wounded hero is missing a part of his soul. He is looking to become whole again. The wounded hero’s challenge is to overcome the shadow of pain, betrayal, or tragedy in his past. By facing his shadow and dealing with the past, he integrates this part of his Self into his character and becomes whole again. In Casablanca (1941), Rick (Humphrey Bogart) heals his own wound by encountering his shadow of lost love. He allows himself to care for Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) once again, an act of integration of both shadow and anima that erases his loss and makes Rick’s character complete.
FATE
Rick’s infamous line in Casablanca: “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she had to walk into mine–— epitomizes the “love as fate” theme in movies. Belief in ideas such as “love at first sight” and the existence of “soul mates” presupposes the notion that love is a force controlled by destiny, perhaps in that same transpersonal fourth dimension in which synchronicity exists. The ultra-romantic notion of “fated lovers” is an ancient archetypal theme that is still extremely popular in fairy tales, myths, and movies. But the archetype of fate or destiny is not just relegated to love.
Death is another existential force that many people believe is controlled by fate. In The Time Machine (2002), Professor Hartdegen’s sweetheart, Emma (Sienna Guillory), is killed the moment after he proposes marriage to her. Hartdegen (Guy Pearce) goes back in time to change this unfortunate coincidence, but every time he goes back, Emma is somehow killed on that same night. Fate had deemed that Emma should die that night, and
no mere mortal, no matter how ingenious, could alter that fate. Similarly, in Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001), even super-aliens from thousands of years in the future cannot help David (Haley Joel Osment) resurrect his mother (Frances O’Connor), because every life takes up an individual “time/space pathway” – another sci-fi interpretation of kismet, karma, or fate.
As a plot device, fate should be used sparingly. Unlike the lucky coincidence, fateful occurrences carry an existential gravity that should be reserved for the most meaningful aspects of life: love, death, birth, and rebirth.
THE LOVE SCENE
The final union of the hero and his anima (love interest) represents a unification of the opposite sex archetypes. “Hieros Gamos” is a sacred copulation or holy marriage. It is a consummation of the love between the hero and his love interest, and it is a physical embodiment of psychological unity, (i.e., Shakespeare’s “beast with two backs”). In the sex scene or love scene, the two archetypes become one. The product of Hieros Gamos is the “birth of the divine child” – a being that embodies the unification of the opposing sex archetypes. The hero is reborn as a psychologically androgynous being. In Jung’s model, androgyny is the epitome of mental health, because the androgynous individual retains the strengths of both the masculine and feminine archetypes.
In terms of the hero’s character development, the love scene infuses the traditional male hero with the emotional power of the anima. This newfound power symbolizes a moment of spiritual rebirth. The hero is 10 times stronger after the love scene, imbued with the awesome power of love. In The Royal Tennenbaums, one forbidden kiss from Margot, the love of Richie’s life, heals Richie’s suicidal wound and motivates him to reconnect with his estranged father (Gene Hackman), and rescue his best friend (Owen Wilson) from drug addiction.
Psychology for Screenwriters Page 16