Seoyoung Kil Alex Callirgos English 12 5 October 2014 Hero archetypes in the movie “Enter the Dragon” Throughout history, people have loved literature that follows similar patterns. This was shown by Monomyth, or The Hero’s Journey, written by Joseph Campbell. The Hero’s Journey tells about a basic pattern of literature that contains a protagonist’s heroic deeds and divides numerous myths into specific structures and stages. Enter the Dragon (1973) is a Hong Kong martial arts action film directed by Robert Clouse. The movie was the last piece of the famous actor Bruce Lee. This movie follows the traditional structure of hero movies. To begin with, there are several archetypes of characters and 12 steps of plot in hero movies. The movie Enter the Dragon also follows these archetypes. Heroes are introduced in the (1) ‘Ordinary World.’ The Hero, Lee, is a Shaolin martial artist from Hong Kong. The Hero receives the (2) ‘Call to Adventure’. Lee receives the request from a British intelligent agent named Braithwaite. The agent says Mr. Han, who was once the member of Shaolin, is suspected of drug issues and prostitution. Mr. Han is a ‘Shadow’, the antagonist. Han owns an island and lives like a king of the island. He only connects with outside when the martial arts tournament is held. Lee has to join the tournament and find some evidence to arrest Mr. Han. While the agent says, Lee does not focus on the agent and teaches his student. Lee does not (3) ‘Refuse the Call’; however, he is not fully involved with the request. After his …show more content…
The movie characters and plot fit well with the basic hero story structures. As we can see, popular movies use the patterns introduced by Joseph Campbell to attract audiences. They involve not only the archetypes of characters, but also the progress of the story. Therefore, the Hero’s Journey can be adapted to this