Joseph Campbell – The Hero’s Journey + Sukhavati
(Special
Interest/Philosophy/Myth)
Picture:
C Sound: C+ Extras: D Episodes: C+
Joseph
Campbell is best-known by many as the modern thinker on mythology and fantasy
of the past who inspired George Lucas to make Star Wars possible. However,
he is a best-selling author with many top selling videos to boot. Acorn Media has issued two programs from
about 20 years ago. The Hero’s Journey (1987) was made just before his passing and is
part biography, part summary delving into his school of thought fitting nicely
in about an hour.
Sukhavati (1988) is a longer compilation
piece (78 minutes) that crossed archival and indirect footage with audio of his
various lectures and readings. Both are
decent programs, but unless you are deeply interested in the subject, these
shows will seem repetitious and uninteresting.
Since we have been swamped with nothing by myth and fantasy product,
especially in the last seven years, this does not all seem as surprising,
shocking or informative.
Campbell
was an original in his time and most Fantasy genre fans are clueless as to his
contribution to all the happenings he recently inspired. Now that the Fantasy cycle is in decline in
the classical sense Campbell describes, you can see at least how successful his
efforts really were.
The 1.33
X 1 image on both discs are on the soft side, with older analog video
recordings, particularly noticeable in film-to-tape transfers. Color is a little muted and off, but it is
watchable otherwise. The Dolby Digital
2.0 sound is mono hat stereo boosting barely helps. Needless to say the combination shows its
age. There are no extras.
- Nicholas Sheffo
