Yes, totally, it's the one book every screenwriter should read. I actually just did a big 19-part post about Campbell and Jung, which I called "The Hero Project", over at my blog.

What I concluded was that, though Campbell himself preferred Jung, the journey he describes is very much a Freudian journey, in which the hero has to want to change, but there's another journey I call the Jungian journey in which the hero merely has to learn to accept himself.

Click on my name if you want to check it out. The Hero Project entries are listed first in the sidebar. I go specifically in Campbell and Jung in entries 1, 9, 10, and 13.

Just wanted to point out --

"Wearing Enemy's Skin

Luke and Han wear stormtrooper outfits & Neo jumps into agent's skin"

It's not so much about "wearing the enemy's skin" as it is a visual costume change marking when they enter the new world.

In ACT ONE -- Neo wears the clothes of your avereage late 90s business yuppy.

Once he takes the pill, he wears something akin to sweatpants in the real world and slick black leather in The Matrix.

Joseph Campbell talks about elements of change and transition on the hero's journey. And wardrobe is part of that.

We're learning about this book in my Religion class at BU!

Some things I noticed:

I. Crossing the threshold starts before leaving Tatooine. It starts when Luke and Obi-Wan arrive at Mos Eisley Cantina - this liminal place between sort of reality (Luke's home) and fantasy.

II. Haven't fully read Campbell's book yet, but isn't he missing something like "The Cost"? I'm coming up with my own name for it, but doesn't every hero suffer from a loss of family or friends on the journey?

@Scott: Your points reflect my concern about writers sticking so closely to their perceived sense of what each beat should be in a script per the hero's journey. Stories are different, it's not like this stuff is codified.

Per my own screenplay paradigm / language system:

* The Hook: Ends the sequence where Luke learns about his father with Obi-Wan.

* The Lock: Ends the sequence when he discovers his aunt and uncle dead, plunging him out of the Ordinary World of Tatooine and into the Extraordinary World once he enters the Millennium Falcon.

Your point about the Mos Eisley Cantina is spot on: When Luke crosses that threshold, he gets a taste of what is to come. Per Campbell, he needs to learn how to suss who is an enemy / who is an ally. The fact he does so poorly here shows how far he has to go.

Re The Cost: That's a really good point. Typically there should be some sort of price the Protag needs to pay in order to pursue their need.

@James: Another good point. Recalls the New Testament line about not putting new wine in old wine skins. When a Protagonist begins to change (Act II), it's true -- often see them in 'new' attire, befitting their 'new' persona that emerges.

Isn't symbolism in storytelling a remarkably rich area to mine?

That's the same chart I use in my high school classes. Very useful, that. I have the kids shout out names of heroes and make a list on the board. Then as we go through the chart they point out which heroes fit which criteria. They love that lesson.

Just stumbled across this post, so glad I did! A movie that comes to mind that lacks the heart but hits all the hero "beats" is Avatar: The Last Airbender (movie, not animated series). Just fails so miserably, and yet everything seems to be there.

My two cents: the structure of a dramatic-narrative may not change, yet the motivations of the audience may change; thus, from structuralist films to avant-garde films, there is plenty of room for new ways to tell a story if the audience wants new ways to interpret the narrative. I see movies somewhere in the early stages of painting-history. It is the newest 'kid-on-the-block' and has a long was to go before a return to the classic hero's journey becomes the raison d'ętre for filmmaking of our times. To quote "late" Bergman in an interview, "Antonioni couldn't craft, but he could tell his movies his way and make all the mistakes he liked --this is what filmmaking is all about".

I think I disagree, not in a fundamental way, but story is based in theme. The goal/central conflict is rooted in the theme. So characters are not as important as theme/goal=story. You then pick characters that create the most conflict/emphasize that goal/conflict the best. I see a lot of beginning writers start off with a character, and then pick a goal. Often, if they switch out the character, they strengthen the story because the character has a more compelling relation to the goal. I see these independent films now a days and it's basically just a strange odd ball character doing strange odd ball stuff with no real meaning or purpose.

Please excuse me for replying again, however, I find "levack's" reply interesting. First, I"m not a screenwriter --just a novice at writing. Having said this, I agree with what you wrote about theme. Yet I ask, what about starting from anywhere to tell a story? Where do you begin writing a story like 'Down By Law'? If the theme is rather sweeping or vague, then does not the characters themselves embody the nuanced qualities of such esoteric musings?

I think you can start pretty much anywhere, depends upon the writer, the story, their mood, their inspiration. I focus on starting with character for several reasons not the least of which is I'm well aware of a common complaint in Hollywood development circles about formulaic scripts [written to plot paradigms], poorly written / thin characters, when in my experience if you really dig into the characters, you will end up with multilayered characters and a plot that derives from the characters. I also have a different idea about theme, primarily that movies don't have one theme, but rather many themes: a central theme [typically], sub-themes, even adjunct themes. But that's another subject... Re "Down By Law": If I had to bet, I'd say that Jarmusch started that process with the idea of three disparate characters stuck together in a jail cell. Then he went from there. Wonderful movie. I'll put that on my list to see again.

[...] Hero’s Journey: A nice visual cue of writing a hero’s journey, whether your hero is an actual hero in the purest sense or just a protagonist trying to get through life. You can think if it as a metaphor. [...]

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