7 - Heroes and Quests

Heroes and Quests

By: Ramandeep, Emily, and Harjaap 

     In class this week, we watched a remarkable documentary called Touching the Void about two climbers whose journey is documented as they make history, accomplishing something no one had done before. Outside of class, we watched Man On Wire, a film about a man who illegally connected a wire on top of the Twin Tower buildings in New York and stepped foot on it in order to create an art of his own. These films show us how heroes come to be and how they are among us everywhere.

Touching The Void

   Touching the Void is a documentary film, directed by Kevin Macdonald in 2003, about Joe Simpson’s and Simon Yates’ attempt to climb Siula Grande, a 20 814 feet high mountain situated in Peru. The climb of the mountains had been attempted before, but no one had ever successfully climbed it through the West face. This made the two climbers even more eager to reach the top of the mountain. With the unpredictable weather that constantly threw wind and snow smack in their faces, Joe and Simon successfully made their way to the top, but their journey to the foot of the mountain is where things got more complicated. Although they thought their route was well planned out and that the worst had passed, they had yet to surpass the biggest obstacles of the course. Soon after they started going back down the mountain, Joe and Simon get lost in the blizzard, not even having the option to stop and wait as they would have gotten sucked in by all the snow. The troubles continue and they are faced with the difficulty of descending the mountain on a completely vertical wall, which then results in the worst of their troubles: Joe breaking his leg. This becomes a burden on Simon, as he tries to drag both of them down the mountain with a 300 feet long rope connecting them. Joe would slide down 300 feet, as Simon acted as an anchor to hold the rope and then Simon would go down as Joe waited for him 300 feet down. This cycle continued until Joe was unable to keep his control and climb back up for support when he was stuck in the air beside a vertical wall. Simon felt as though something had gone wrong, but with 300 feet apart and no communication between them, they were both unable to move without the other. 

   Although they had a great amount of trust in each other, there is always a question of helping the other person or helping yourself. Simon had to save himself and he therefore cut off the rope that was keeping Joe alive. Joe falls straight into a crevasse, unable to believe he was still alive. He spends four days getting out of the crevasse and back to where they had started the journey and where Simon had already reached. He struggles to survive with no food on him and with a completely non functioning leg, but still he makes it back to his tent, badly bruised everywhere, hungry, weak and to say the least: tired. 

   This week, we discussed heroes and quests in class. We talked about what a hero's journey consists of and what a hero is described to be. Essentially, the hero is called for help, then he makes the decision to leave for his journey, he accomplishes his task and finally, he returns home. The hero comes back from his journey as a different person, having gone through life changing experiences. These concepts are related to the movie, because Joe and Simon go through an experience where they come back as completely different people. The separation part of their journey is when they leave to climb Siula Grande. The initiation is the whole journey itself, when Joe and Simon climb all the way to the top and back to the foot of the mountain. Finally, the return is when they successfully come back from their quest to their tents. During this journey, they learned life lessons such as never giving up and to always persevere in order to achieve the impossible. In class, we also discussed how this hero can be characterized in several ways. People can honor this hero, ignore him or completely dislike him. In Touching the Void, Simon and Joe are the heroes who are admired by society for doing such an extraordinary thing, unachievable by anyone else. 

   Touching the Void is a great example of Greiman's actantial model, dividing the film into 6 separate categories: the sender, the receiver, the subject, the object, the helper and the opponent. The sender in this particular film is the glory and achievement Joe and Simon would receive after the quest. The receiver and the subject is Joe and Simon, as they are the ones who benefit and undertake this quest of climbing Siula Grande, which is the object of the film. Joe and Simon's helpers are each other. As much as they can, they help one another to get through this tough climb. Finally, their opponent is simply the harsh weather conditions that they must face during their climb. 

   What was so special about this documentary film is the fact that throughout the occurring events, although not many gruesome scenes are provided to show the audience how painful the journey really was, we still feel those emotions of pain and horror. For example, when Joe broke his leg, there is no image to show the audience what happened. The interview from Joe in the background, describing his hurting knee and what he was feeling was more than enough to have the audience look away from the screen and block their ears. This was a very effective way of getting the audience to react to the film's events. This mix of interviews and reenactment in the film allowed the audience to better understand the experience of the journey. The descriptive comments Joe and Simon give along the way help support the images and make the audience feel as though they're going on the journey them.

Here is a link to the trailer of The Matrix, a film that follows a different kind of journey from Touching the Void, but is a good example of the actantial model none the less: 

 

Man on Wire

     Man on Wire is a documentary film about Philippe Petit, a French tightrope walker and street performer, who walked a wire than ran between the rooftops of New York’s Twin Towers. On August 7^th 1974, 24-year-old Philippe stepped out on the wire he and his friends strung on the world’s tallest buildings of their time. Petit spent forty-five minutes walking, kneeling, lying and dancing on the wire with no harness or safety net, until he was arrested and thrown in prison. Philippe and his team of accomplices managed to keep their elaborate plan a secret for eight months of preparation up until the day of their illegal ‘coup’. Their seemingly impossible task consisted first of bypassing the World Trade Centre’s security and smuggling in the cable and rigging equipment, suspending the wire between the two buildings and securing it safely, and, finally, performing the walk itself.

     Over the course of the film we are taken back through Petit’s past wire-walking achievements up until the ‘coup’, learn about his friendships, and see how his passion for adventure leads him to succeed in accomplishing his dream. Man on Wire was adapted as a documentary in 2008 from Philippe Petit’s book, “To Reach The Clouds”, and was directed by James Marsh. Philippe Petit stars in the film as himself, with archival footage of his wire-walking and current interviews. Also appearing in the film are some of his friends and accomplices, including Jean François Heckel, Jean-Louis Blondeau, Annie Allix, David Forman and several others.

     Philippe Petit is the hero of the story. In correspondence with the classic characteristics of the hero, Petit is a personage of exceptional gifts. His wire walking requires extraordinary balance, control and focus; not to mention bravery, for daring to attempt such dangerous tasks. It is a talent that very few people are able to master, so when “ordinary” people witness Petit in action, they are amazed and honor him. When Philippe walked the wire between the two tallest buildings in the world at the time, onlookers were in awe.

   Man on Wire is a good example of a “hero quest”. According to Greimas’ Actantial Model, the action in the story is divided into 6 actants: the subject, the sender, the helper, the object, the receiver and the opponent. Following this concept, In Man on Wire, Philippe Petit is the subject; he is the one who undertakes the quest, with the object of walking on a wire between the world’s tallest buildings. His six-year dream of wire-walking the Twin Towers is the sender, triggering his quest, and Petit’s group of friend and accomplices in the “coup” are his helpers. The hero’s opponents are the security guards and police officers who could potentially prevent him from completing his quest. Philippe Petit is the receiver, along with his team of accomplices who helped him achieve success. They all benefit from the quest, with a great sense of pride and accomplishment from having fulfilled a dream.

     The Wizard of Oz is another great example of the hero’s journey. This is the trailer for the original film, and in the clip we can see how the story follow’s Greimas’ Actantial Model as well:

Personal Response: Fear of the Unknown 
 

     As human beings, we are inherently afraid. Afraid of failure, afraid to step outside of our comfortable environment, afraid of change and the unknown – never wanting to leave the path we’ve been told we’re “supposed” to take.  

 

     In Man on Wire, after Philippe Petit had successfully completed his high wire walk across the World Trade Center, he was mobbed by reporters, all asking him the same question: why? To which he replied - “there is no why”. We are questioners and storytellers, when something shakes us out of the ordinary, we feel compelled to fill what we don’t have an explanation for, with a story. We have this desire to make sense of our planet, to shrink it into a single idea so that we can make our world seem less uncertain — and more predictable.  

     We wake up at 7. Get to school by 9. Eat lunch at noon. Come home at 6. Plant ourselves in front of the computer screen until we fall asleep — and then, the next day, and the day after that for months and years, we continue with this same routine. By doing so, we owe the world no explanation and no one thinks to ask us why. Now, if we were to suddenly go backpacking in Nepal for a year, or decide to climb the west face of the Siula Grande, or string a tightrope between two towers and walk from one end to another. Then, we would endlessly be asked: why? Touching the Void and Man on Wire are both helpful reminders that we don’t always need a why for everything, that sometimes, beauty and inspiration themselves are enough of an answer.

    

     How many dreams do we nip in the bud because they seem to us, our friends, and our families to be a little crazy? Most of us have this desire to be comfortable and play it safe; letting thoughts and emotions of doubt and hesitation take over. However, these films strike a chord as they remind us that true enjoyment and fulfillment comes from those moments when we step outside of our circle of comfort and into a life of uncertainty. 

     Human beings strive to overcome obstacles and barriers, the life of comfort and ease is not what we were made for. Thus, we should live out our dreams instead of our fears. Be our own hero and overcome the challenges in our path through perseverance and not fearing the unknown. We must take a chance and put ourselves out there. After all, life begins at the end of your comfort zone.

      In conclusion, documentary films not only provide us with facts but they can also teach us about heroes and quests. We are able to learn life lessons from these heroes and their journeys. As we can conclude from the film, Touching the Void, heroes are simply ordinary people facing extraordinary challenges. These documentary films provide us with hope that heroes don't only exist as fictional characters but rather they can exist in our everyday lives, all around us.