Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth (with Bill Moyers)
Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth (with Bill Moyers)(PBS, 1988) For me this is the ‘mother lode’ on Joseph Campbell, whose views has strongly shaped my later-life thinking. These six videos were the result of two years of Campbell-Bill Moyers interviews at George Lucas’ Skywalker ranch and in New York City. Professor Campbell died before the series was run, and continually rerun, on PBS.
This is as close as one will get on the definitive beliefs of Joseph Campbell and how he has melded his personal and professional life. His scholarship is astonishing and his interrelations between myths worldwide persuasive to this neophyte (some folk lore specialists criticize him as ‘superficial’). A core to Campbell’s core beliefs is the phrase: “Follow your bliss.” He describes life as the journey rather than the destination.
The visuals employed in these interviews are exceptional. Continually mythological themes are linked to Star Wars (George Lucas was influenced by Campbell). What I consider a summing up of Campbell’s thinking is presented in six segments: The Hero’s Adventure; The Message of the Myth; The First Storytellers; Sacrifice and Bliss; Love and the Goddess; and Masks of Eternity. Some of Campbell’s most controversial views relate to religion as mythology. He suggests that the ascension of Jesus may be an allegory that finds precedence in earlier mythology.
