Monomyth Spreadsheet

I was absent the day that my group filled out the spreadsheet for The Last Samurai, but I made notes of my own while I watched the film, and I have several conflicting opinions that I think should be shared. First off, I think the belly of the whale is undoubtedly the Japanese Samurai village. Practically the entire film takes place here, including his road of trials (learning the ways of the samurai) and several other key occurrences. I also believe the great boon is when he rides into battle with the samurai and tells his former comrade that he will kill him on the field (which he does). He decides he would die for the samurai, but he ends of surviving the battle. After the battle, for the return portion of the monomyth, I think it is colossally important that he goes to meet the emperor to present him Katsumoto's sword. This kind of represents his mastery of the two worlds because he is a free American but still wants to help uphold the culture of the samurai in Japan. Then the "freedom to live" part is when he tells the emperor that he will gladly take his own life, but the emperor thanks him for what he has done and tells him not to. If anyone who has seen the film agrees or disagrees with this analysis, I would be interested to here your opinions.

Now onto other films. Looking through the spreadsheet and examining the films that I have seen, I definitely have some strong opinions both in agreement and disagreement with several observations, including my own film, The Last Samurai. No one seems to have any trouble determining the "call to adventure," "refusal," or "mentor." Those are typically the easiest to figure out, and I do not have any disagreements with any of those. What I find interesting is that, with the exception of American Sniper, the Goddess in every film (or at least the ones I have seen) seems to be the main character's love interest. All of us seem to think that the Goddess must be someone that the main character has a deeper connection or relationship with.

I agree with what most of groups said about their films, but I also have some pretty serious disagreements with some of the observations some groups made:

Lego Movie: nailed it.

The Interview: nailed it.

Get Him to the Greek: you also nailed it.

The Dark Knight: Okay. I understand this one was pretty hard without being able to technically cover all three films, but I still disagree some things, mainly in "the return." First off, in The Dark Knight Risis, you have it completely backwards. Once Bane becomes known, Wayne, who has been in hiding and crippled, tries to restore his body and returns to the BatCave for the first time in years. He decides he wants to be Batman again, and Alfred tries to stop him. Alfred literally quits because Bruce won't listen to him. Also, I don't think Bruce is ever really able to balance being Batman and a regular person. Rachel saw that, and that's why she did not want to be with him. At the end of The Dark Knight, he really doesn't have freedom to live as Batman. Everyone thinks he killed Dent and the police are on a manhunt for him. The only real freedom to live he gets is at the end of The Dark Knight Rises, where he fakes his death and moves to another country to live a normal life. Okay I'm done.

Gladiator: This like my favorite movie ever. The only problem I have with this analysis is that there is no mention of his real motive in most of it, which is the murder of his family. I think the story really starts after his family has been murdered, and he wants revenge. Other than that I think you did a pretty good job with the majority of the analysis.

Casino Royale: well done.