An Action Movie with a Twist
Last night, as we finished watching WW 84, the latest installment in the new Wonder Woman film franchise, I felt a touch of synchronicity at play. In my previous blog post, “A Tale of Two Myths,” I spoke about murder mysteries as manifestations of the Myth of Redemptive Knowledge, and contrasted them with action movies that manifest the Myth of Redemptive Violence.
WW 84 follows almost all the plot conventions of a heroic action movie. The villain gains enough power to bring the world to the brink of destruction, but at the very last minute, our hero turns defeat into victory and wins the day.
What’s interesting, however, is that the story turns out to be a myth of redemptive knowledge, not of redemptive violence. I won’t give away the details of the ending, but as I thought back on the action scenes, I realized they were ambiguous enough to leave me wondering whether anyone was actually killed. Evil is not destroyed, but redeemed.
Of course, when the heroine embodies the Roman goddess Diana (the Greek Artemis) — the ancient Great Goddess and moon goddess in the form of the “huntress” and protective “mother bear” — I suppose we should expect to the story to be twisted subversively.
The power of the feminine principle is different than the power of the masculine. Knowledge and wisdom are different than violence and destruction. Are we seeing a new age bringing changes in our cultural myths? Maybe.
Soul Spirit Wisdom 