Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Assignment for Thursday, 10-20-16

Dear Mythologists,

For Thursday, October 20, please do the following:

(1) Watch The Legend of Hercules (Renny Harlin, 2014). The movie is available on DVD via closed reserve in Scribner Library, and is also streaming on Amazon. The film is one of two big-budget Hercules productions from this year.

NOTE: There's no scholarly resources on this film, but you might recall Gideon Nisbet's line of thought about Hercules being imported to Rome quite easily.

(2) Read pp. 121–57 of Looking at Movies Chapter 4 ("Elements of Narrative"). This will be one of our last assigned readings in LAM, so I hope you've enjoyed the book. Remember, it is a resource for you in your analyses and semester projects.

(3) Speaking of the semester project, please review the Project web page and come to class ready to ask questions, if necessary.

(4) Remember by noon on Thursday to comment on this post with your choice of sequences from our film to view in class.

DC

12 comments:

  1. I'd like to watch the scene where Alcmene visits Hera's temple, followed by the conception of Hercules. It begins at 0:06:05 and ends at 0:09:33. This is a very different interpretation of how Hercules came to be. This is the first film we've seen which explains the meaning behind Hercules' name. And, by having Hera acquiesce to the impregnation of Alcmene, the film doesn't have to deal with Hera's curse. Also, and this may be a stereotype, but I figure these movies usually jump at the chance to depict a sex scene. Maybe it was to keep the rating low enough for pre-teen boys to see it, but I thought the choice to depict Zeus as...orgasmic wind(???) was very unique, considering contemporary peplum films have mostly been depicting the gods with human actors.

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    1. I also really liked the scene of Alcemene goes to pray for Hera's help. It's the first time we see Hera play a role in Hercules' birth where she's not trying to kill him but still hates him. It's shocking to see Hera putting her personal strong negative emotions towards Hercules aside for the sake of mankind.

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    2. I would also like to watch this scene since it is such a different depiction of Hercules's origin than we've seen before, where both Hercules's mortal father is the villain while Hera is supportive of him. I think it is interesting that Hera plays a large part in the traditional myth, and in most of the other modern media, she either remains antagonistic to Hercules as in the television series and the 1983 film, or is largely absent from the film with the rest of the gods. In this film, Hera is changed to a more benevolent goddess, and even more so in the Disney Hercules, but with the removal of her antagonistic role, her part in the films are significantly reduced, and the relationship between Hercules and Zeus is much larger aspect of the myth.

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    3. I would also like to view this scene because it shows Hera. The way they display Hera on screen is so interesting because she looks so gloomy and ghostly. She looks less tough than some of the humans in the film when she is a goddess. It reminds me of the way the gods were portrayed in the first clash and how plain they looked.

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  2. I like the scene starting at 1:11:00 because its a surprising homage to the very first Hercules Peplum.

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  3. I'd like to see the passage battle again, from about 28:30 to 32:20. I think there are some very obvious similarities to 300, especially the slow-mo on action shots (not confined to this scene), not to mention the costume and battle type. Not that I'm looking to a Hollywood movie on myth for historical accuracy, but there's no way Greeks would have fought in such an organized fashion in 1200 BCE (as the movie claims). The use of the phalanx instead of hand to hand unorganized combat is an interesting choice.

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  4. I would like to revisit the sequence from around 1:14:00 to 1:16:18. This segment shows a flash-back to the pepla movies that we have already watched, and again integrates the biblical aspect of the sword-and-sandal genre. I particularly found interesting his invocation of Zeus in such a biblical moment. And then, of course, the special effects that clearly were made for a 3D viewing when he's whipping around the stones at the end of the chains. This harkens back to most versions of Hercules movies, where he has to have a pivotal moment of pure strength - but it's also the first time in the movie that we see the more god-like features of Hercules at work.

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  5. I would like to watch the opening sequence (00:00:00-00:03:00). I thought it was interesting that this was one of the first times that a mythical movie does not start with a spoken prologue. I think it sets up the audience to "learn as they watch" rather than coming in with knowledge about the plot. Also, the director throws the audience right into the movie by having it open with a battle. I think this is an attempt to hype up the adrenaline earlier since the audience does not sit through a calm, spoken prologue. The scene also sets the tone of the rest of the movie - it will focus on war and fighting as we see later in the movie when Hercules goes from an excellent soldier to a gladiator...to a warrior king. Every great accomplishment Hercules has in this movie is focused around fighting.

    ~Sophie Heath

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  6. I want to take another look at the scene when Hercules challenges Amphitryon (starts around 1:21:30). At first it seemed as if it would be a nice parallel between this scene and that first scene; two armies watching as their best battle it out one on one. Then, in a strange twist, Hercules can suddenly wield a lightning whip. If the movie hadn't already been named Hercules, this turn of events would tell audiences that this scene will have a very different end with Amphitryon as the loser.

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  7. I would like to watch (00:32:00-00:34:50) the scene of here Hercules gets captured in the battlefield. This scene is extremely important because it underlines the moment during which hero realizes himself. Prince Alkides is now dead in a symbolic level and it is time for Hercules to appear in flesh and bones.

    -Frini

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  8. I would love to watch the first war scene, about 29 minutes in. I think it is exceptionally poorly handled, but is also perhaps the most telling about the modern Peplum, and how important several other films were in setting up that standard. Most notably, 300. This scene is the most obvious indicator of the influence that film had, and really drove home how 300 was a progenitor of the modern peplum.

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  9. I'd like to watch the scene where Alcemene reveals to Amphitryon the truth about Hercules (0:42:50-0:44:30). It's the culmination of Alcemene's character arc (ending in her death) and somewhat of a turning point for Amphitryon, and as such, is an interesting launching point for discussing their characters. I think that the film maker's were attempting to give Alcemene a degree of agency by having her so defiantly oppose her husband, but the manner in which this attempted isn't really successful, because her defiance is contingent relies on waiting for the actions of male characters. Of course, this is Hercules' story, but Alcememe's ultimate purpose at the end of the day is to be a womb for Zeus' child, and for a film coming out in 2014, that's really shameful.

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