Blog 9: Hero's Quest and The Crow Part II

The Hero's Quest by James Campbell is an idea that all movies have certain elements in them that make up the Hero's Quest. The Hero's Quest has a total of 3 major Categories; Departure, Adventure and Return, with a total of 17 elements. Campbell believes that all movies follow this form. The movie I chose to write about, The Crow, follows these elements that are used in The Hero's Quest. While most movies only use some of the elements, I was able to find almost every element in this movie.

The first part of the Hero's Quest is the Initiation with 5 elements in this category. First, call to adventure is when Eric, the main character, and his girlfriend Shelly are attacked in their apartment. Eric is killed by getting pushed out of the 5th floor apartment building and his girlfriend Shelly is raped and beaten and later dies in the hospital. Second is the refusal of the call which there was none in this film. Next is the supernatural Aid which is the crow who follows Eric around and initially awakens him from the dead. The crow is a major symbol in this film. Fourth, is the crossing of the threshold which is when Eric is first woken up from the dead by the crow and back into present time. Eric wakes up and has no recollection of what happened and does not know where he is or whats going on.
Last is The Belly of the Whale. The belly of the whale happens after Eric wakes up and he goes back to his old apartment and finds a mask which Shelly had painted. When he touches the mask it triggers flashbacks of their past and starts remembering the attack and starts his journey for revenge on their attackers.

The Next part of the Hero's Quest is the Adventure. The adventure has six elements in it and starts with the road of trials, which usually occur in threes as stated by Campbell, but was not the case in this film. The road of trials in The Crow happens
after seeing the flash backs of Eric's past and Shelly, he leaves his apartment and enters a local pawn shop to search for Shelly's wedding ring. When he touches Shelly's ring he instantly has a flashback of the attackers. He then has to find out who the attackers are and does so by questioning the pawn shop owner. After finding out who the attackers are and realizing the the pawn shop owner is somehow involved with them, Eric kills him and begins his search for the attackers. The next element is meeting with the goddess, which actually happens during the belly of the whale element. When Eric has his initial flash back in the apartment, he remembers Shelly and their unconditional love, and wants to then seek vengeance on their attackers and go back to rest next to where Shelly is buried. The next element in the movie is woman as a temptress. During the movie Eric meets with Sarah, a young girl that who was friend with Shelly and Eric who used to take care of her because her mother was reckless, irresponsible and was a heavy drug user. Eric strays away from his quest after killing FunBoy (one of their attackers) and coincidentally finds Sarah's mother with him. Darla cuts Eric with a razor out of fear and these wounds do not heal because she is not involved with his quest. Eric sees the marks on her arm from the needles and is able to push the drug out of her arm and tells her that her daughter is out on the streets and to go to her. Atonement with the father happens when Eric finds out where the attackers headquarters is from one of the attackers that he killed. When he goes to their base he finds the last attacker that he must kill, he finds another man named TopDollar, who is the boss of the gang and is the one who ordered the attack on Eric and Shelly. Fifth, the apotheosis, happens after Eric kills all the attackers from the night they were killed, he knows about the boss and although did not directly attack them, he was the one who ordered the attack and wants to kill TopDollar also. But because TopDollar was not directly involved in the attack, Eric loses his supernatural powers and is now mortal. Eric still pushes to go after TopDollar knowing that he has no powers against him. Last, the ultimate boon is when Eric and TopDollar have a battle on the roof of a church. Eric kills TopDollar and makes him "feel Shelly's pain." After he kills TopDollar is goal of revenge is complete.

The last part of the Hero's Quest is the Return, which has 6 elements and starts with the refusal of the return, which is none in this film because all Eric wanted most was to able to be back with Shelly in afterlife. There is also no magic flight in this movie. After Eric kills TopDollar, he walks down the church steps and into the cemetery where him and Shelly are buried. Third is the rescue from without which happens when Eric enters the cemetery, he lays down by Shelly's grave. Eric and Shelly are then reunited when Shelly appears at the grave dressed in white (white is also another symbol) to take him back to the afterlife. The crossing of the return threshold happened after Eric and Shelly are reunited and at peace, Sarah visits their graves and the crow gives her the wedding ring. Sarah takes the ring and knowledge of what has happened with Eric and Shelly that true love lasts even through death. Fifth, master of the two worlds; once Eric and Shelly are reunited, Erik is happy that he can now rest in peace and that he can now leave the present world. Last is the freedom to live, but in this movie, it is more the opposite; freedom of death. After his mission is complete, Eric accepts what has happened in the past and can now rest peacefully in death.

I thought the concept of the Hero's Quest was actually very interesting. I think seeing the film with having knowledge of the Hero's Quest gave me a different perspective of it compared to when I watched the film not knowing about the Hero's Quest. After watching it knowing about the Hero's Quest, I started to see Eric in a new light. The Hero's Quest made Eric a more defined hero; I didn't exactly see him as a hero before, more so someone who wanted to seek revenge.

As Joseph Campbell would say, this film gives us a "Myth to Live By." Just as in most other films there are lessons to be learned in this movie. One thing that the movie does tell you for sure is that true love will conquer even through death. Even though Eric and Shelly were killed, Eric was able to come back from the dead (with the help of the crow) and was able to avenge Shelly's death. Another lesson in this film is to be careful what you do to other because it will come back to you. In the end, karma is what killed the gang that murdered Eric and raped and killed Shelly. Eric came back from the dead and gave the gang what they had coming to them and deserved.

Works Cited:

Campbell, Joseph. "The Hero's Quest." Web. 03 May 2010http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth

Schow, David. Shirley, John. "The Crow" Film 1994. Web. 03 May 2010.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crow_(1994_film)