Adam Sandler’s Movies and Their Popularity
You may love him or hate him, but you are bound to know at least ten movies where he starred. Adam Sandler belongs to the kings of American comedy, and his characters are popular with several generations of people in the USA and well beyond it. Thus, I consider Adam Sandler a perfect example of The Hero’s Journey video and explanation of Joseph Campbell’s theory.
The most famous films with Sandler are Happy Gilmore, Fifty First Dates, The Daddy, Billy Madison, The Wedding Singer, That’s My Boy, Funny People, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, and some others. The actor has a huge number of awards and nominations for his talent as a comic character. The movies with Sandler are so well-known that it is easy to understand what the presenters in The Hero’s Journey are discussing. Indeed, every movie has the main character (a hero) and several more important people or even objects, as Campbell points out, that make the story the way it is (“The Hero’s Journey”).
To illustrate the typical elements of the movies starring Adam Sandler, Glove and Boots have chosen the most popular film with Sandler for their video The Hero’s Journey – Happy Gilmore. Since the popularity of an actor is huge, it is easy to understand what the video is talking about when it analyses various characters from different movies. It is mentioned that each of Sandler’s films has all of the characters from Campbell’s theory: a hero, a herald, a mentor, the threshold guardians, a trickster, a shape-shifter, and a shadow (“The Hero’s Journey”).
In Happy Gilmore, the hero is Gilmore. The herald is his grandmother since it is her debt for the house that stimulates Gilmore to start some radical actions and save her home. There are several tricksters, one of which is Donald, who distracts Gilmore in the most decisive moment and causes a lot of trouble. Virginia Venit is the mentor since she agrees to help Gilmore and does not allow Doug Thompson, the tour commissioner, to kick Gilmore out.
Another movie with Sandler discussed in the video is Jack and Jill. Unlike Happy Gilmore, it is mentioned to have been less exciting (“The Hero’s Journey”). I think I can agree with this opinion, since Jack and Jill were also developed according to Campbell’s theory, and it may be predictable at times.
All in all, I think that the choice of an actor for Glove and Boots’ discussion of The Hero’s Journey was rather successful. A lot of people know Adam Sandler’s movies, even if they may not be particular fans. His comedies are easily loveable and contain a lot of nice humor. At the same time, not all of his movies share the success of Happy Gilmore, which makes it possible to make comparison and contrast between them.
As for me, I am quite an average fan of Sandler, but I managed to understand everything that the presenters in the video are mentioning. Indeed, the popularity of Happy Gilmore is hard to compete with since it belongs to the earliest Sandler’s films. However, each movie has the characters mentioned in Campbell’s theory, and it is quite easy to apply the theory to Sandler’s movies. There are many actors whose movies could have been used as an example for The Hero’s Journey, but Sandler is probably one of the best examples since the genre of comedy is what unites the biggest number of people.
My Reaction to The Hero’s Journey video by Glove and Boots
The video created by Glove and Boots to illustrate the core features of hero stories is rather engaging and full of fun. First of all, the characters presenting the story are grabbing the audience’s attention due to being unusual and colorful. Also, the way they speak is rather interesting. In the beginning, one of the presenters even copies the voice of Adam Sandler, which gives the video a humorous effect as the viewers immediately recollect how the famous actor speaks. A large number of visual and sound effects add to the video’s impact. Various pictures, pieces of videos, cartoons, sounds, and even the font used for writing the main points discussed by the presenters are aimed at grabbing the audience’s attention and keeping us interested till the very end.
Another, probably even more important, asset of the video is its topic. The project tells us about Joseph Campbell’s theory on the character’s journey during a book or a film. This theory is rather engaging when you come to think of it. Indeed, after listening to the presenters, I recollected many books I have read or watched, and I was able to trace many similarities in them. Thus, Campbell’s theory may be applied practically to any story.
Finally, the third positive thing about the video is its language. The script is written brilliantly. The speakers use a lot of connectives, their vocabulary is rich, and the text is rather interesting. The only mistake I noticed was the absence of an article in the phrase “Luke Skywalker is a hero” (“The Hero’s Journey”). However, this tiny glitch is an exception in the overall brilliant text.
Work Cited
“The Hero’s Journey.” YouTube, uploaded by Glove and Boots. Web.