Rating: 
Summary: Well, DUH!
Review: To the surprising amount of reviewers who issued complaints of boredom because this "movie" was 'too long' and contained 'too much talking', all I can say is, what exactly were you expecting? First off, this program is not a "movie"...its a mini-series of six hour-long episodes, intended to be viewed individually, not in one fat sitting. Secondly, the premise of the program is...(shock!)... a conversation with Joseph Campbell about mythology. If watching a six hour conversation about mythology sounds boring to you, why are you watching, and more importantly, why are you bothering to post a review? What are you going to do next, complain that all they do is talk on "Inside the Actors Studio"? Or maybe that there was too much singing in "The Sound of Music"? Maybe you would have liked "Schindler's List" if it hadn't dwelt so long on the Holocaust?
Then there's the reviewers who obviously found their way to Campbell by way of George Lucas and hoped they were getting a six-hour dissertation on the Star Wars trilogy. Sorry folks--Joseph Campbell had a fairly robust career long before Lucas picked up his first camera, and the Star Wars films take up only a small portion of one of the six episodes.
Rating: 
Summary: A four star restaurant is still a pretty great place to eat
Review: There are some writers whose names continue to pop up and if you're a curious type like me, eventually you just have to check out if they're as good as folks say they are. So it is with Campbell and I finally went down to my local library and checked out his famous "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" book, plus the companion book to the POM series and three of the six videos. (unfortunately # 1 and # 2 are missing, but I'm going back for # 6).I sat with headphones on late last night and watched all three tapes I brought home, and I think this is the ideal way to take in the material. If a professor were to play this series to a group of students, most of them would probably be bored within minutes. The one-on-one setting - Moyers and Campell - wouldn't mix well with a large audience, even on a big screen TV. This is not "a stadium concert" this is an intimate small venue jazz/cabaret club thing. So go ahead and put on those headphones and forget about the world for three hours or even the six hours straight if you're up for it. I don't think it's a good idea to put anybody on a pedestal or get carried away with the dangerous cult-of-personality "thing". I'm pretty sure Campbell himself wouldn't think it a good idea. It's a shame that, to a certain degree, he has been turned him a corny New Age icon - yikes! To me, he was merely an extremely intelligent human being. A deep thinker, an avid reader, curious, respectful, not arrogant or patronizing, a great storyteller, witty, with a wonderful personality and charisma - you can't take your eyes off him. (He was quite a hunk as a young man and still handsome into his 80's. A vital mind is sexy, no matter what age you are. (I'm a thirtysomething female and hope to be as sexy as that in my 80s!) Only a couple of times did he lose me in his train of thought, but for the most part he was brilliant at conveying his knowledge in a fascinating, but not watered down manner. So few teachers/thinkers are capable of this - they tend to bore you to death the moment they open their mouth. Not Campbell, and I'm amazed that some of the Amazon reviewers here said they were bored. It's their right of course, but I'm nevertheless baffled - did we watch the same thing? Moyers asks very good questions for the most part, sometimes even brilliant ones, and he's not afraid to be the layperson, who sometimes has to stop Campbell and ask when he doesn't comprehend or want Campbell to elaborate on a topic. The camera often shows Moyers intensely concentrated (in fact, sometimes it looks a bit comical), but I applaud him for being so "naked" in front of us and engaging one of the great minds in American history in these wonderful food-for-thought sessions, and (too many journalists these days are lazy) doing his homework before sitting down. Some of the sessions are filmed better than others, which is why I didn't give the series five stars. Now, this was the late 1980s of course (arhhhhhhh), but surely they could have done better. In session # 3 the colors are crisp, the acustics are great, it's intimate, and the background with its library look is even okay and kinda cozy. But in # 5 the colors are terrible, the acustics are poor and it looks like they put them in whatever room was available at the time. What a shame. The sound quality is not superb either. In # 3 (again: otherwise fine) Campbell even bumps his mike several times when trying to demonstrate a point with his hands. But other than than: this is superb "edutainment", mesmerizing, intimate. When I think of how many people waste their time obsessing about people such as Paris Hilton, Britney Spears or whoever the flavor of the month/year/decade is, and how few seek out the knowledge and wisdom of amazing thinkers like Campbell, it makes ya wanna weep... Indulge yourself, sit back, enjoy six hours plus of brain gymnastics, but the pleasant kind! I should add that although the main topic is mythology, Campbell and Moyers touch on many more sub-subjects via the main topic: Love, marriage, sex, women and men, children, religion, rituals, modern society. He also peppers the conversation with delightful personal anecdotes, such as when he ate a place in Bronxville and overheard a father who was the incarnate of the famous literary character Babbitt: I never did anything I wanted to! Or the time Campell visited the beautiful caves and cathedrals in France and was equally moved and stunned. It's the little extras such as these that make a person fascinating and makes him human and makes you sit up and listen intently to his every syllable. I envy the students who went to Sarah Lawrence where he taught for 38 years (until 1972). No wonder he married one of his students. (Jean Campbell now heads the JC Foundation which has an informative web site, although most of the postings on the boards I read today seemed to consist of lenghty joke exchanges between various members. I read very little related to Campbell!) He died after a brief stuggle with cancer on Halloween of 1987 (not 1988 as stated in the editorial review) at the age of 83. What a wonderful life he had by all accounts. He followed his bliss and we should all do that, providing we don't wreck havoc in the process. Don't make him a "god", I'm sure he would not have wanted that. Just listen to him, watch him, read his books, and think for yourself. And don't let his asscociation with Star Wars turn you off, just think of Lucas as merely another Campbell fan. He would have been 100 in a few weeks: on March 26 - Happy Birthday Joe! I suspect that with the hugely successful Lord of the Ring trilogy, LOTR fans will be seeking out Campbell's books and the POM interviews will hopefully also appeal to loads of LOTR fans. P.S. I was struck by Campbell looking like a cross between Martin Landau and Jimmy Stewart! His voice even sounded a bit like Jimmy's, but without the famous Stewart "stutter".
Rating: 
Summary: Joseph Campbell and the Power of the Myth
Review: The interview of Joseph Campbell by Bill Moyer leaves the viewer feeling lost and unfulfilled. Wrought with terminology and an overabundance of information, the audience detaches themselves from moment to moment to decipher and digest all that
Campbell has to say. As one sitting in an advanced foreign language class with not a clue of how to say hello, Campbell falls short of relating to his audience. A teacher must be able to draw in her students and express in terms that they can understand. Although gifted and intelligent, Mr. Campbell lacks the important characteristic of interpretation. What good is knowledge if the person cannot share it?
In the interview, many heroes are discussed. From the current day Luke Skywalker down to the biblical character of Moses, Campbell ties centuries of beings together with his theoretical hero's life journey. It makes sense in the simplicity but there is nothing simple about Mr. Campbell or his thoughts. The journey of Moses leads him through a trip to
Mt. Sinai where he is given the Ten Commandments and returns to his people to fmd them worshipping idols. This is typical of the hero's journey in that it is an example of the highs and lows associated with being a hero.
Some heroes are born to be heroes while some are forced into heroism by unforeseen events. September 11th comes into my mind. I believe that Mr. Campbell would express the heroes of this event as those people who were not necessarily chosen, but rose to the occasion without thought, to fulfill their life journey by saving others and giving the ultimate sacrifice.
It is difficult to be critical of a man who is so exceptionally intelligent and thoughtful; however, I must stand by the premise that in order to teach the world the importance of heroes or any subject, one must have the ability to articulate one's erudition to others.
Expression is also a gift and unfortunately, one that Mr. Campbell was not amply given. One should not have to be a scholar to grasp the concepts of the hero's life journey.
Rating:
Summary: Aubree's review
Review: What comes to mind when someone mentions the word hero? Does a favorite childhood hero come to mind such as Superman or Batman? In Joseph Campbell: Power of the Myth, Mr. Campbell describes a variety of heroes from Star Wars heroes to Bibloigical heroes such as Jesus and Moses. Joseph Campbell does an excellent job of telling stories and myths from all over the world. He is very educated in myths from all different cultures. One myth that stood out to me was the one about the Native American princess who fell in love with a man from another tribe. She went to visit the man's family in their village. During her stay with the family, she found out the man she was to marry was a magician. Her soon to be husband went out every morning to hunt. While he was gone a serpent would come and try to scare her. Then would leave and a few minutes later her fiancée would come home and ask her, "Honey did I scare you when I was a snake?" The young girl was frightened by the man and wanted to run away and go back home to her own village. She lost her way in the woods and a kind, old man appeared and told her that the man and his brothers had their hearts stolen and if she found them and released them, then the curse would be taken away and they would not turn into serpents again.
Joseph Campbell also did a great job in telling the stories so one might be able to even mental visualize the story he is telling. This video not a very upbeat video and is a slightly boring, but it has good contents. I give this video two star for the great story telling and great contents!
Rating:
Summary: Power of Myth
Review: In my honor's literature class, we recently watched "Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth." In the video, Bill Moyer is the interviewer of Joseph Campbell. He gives us his insights on mythology and digs deep into it's meanings. The interview takes place in California on the set of Skywalker Ranch, owned by George Lucas. I have never been that interested in mythology or mythological stories, but this video has showed me that mythology is actually relates to many things in my everyday life. I am a Christian and Campbell uses Christ as an example of a Spiritual hero. Buddha and Moses were other examples. They all three followed the specific pattern shown in mythology. Star War movies are linked back to the world's oldest mythological records. This is why the interview was held on the set of the Skywalker Ranch. I really liked how the video gave examples of Star War movies being myths. I have never saw any Star War movies before. I would have never thought about Star Wars being a myth though, but Campbell explains to us that by Luke Skywalker being a hero, it is. Skywalker was called to action, went through many test, and then rewarded. Those are the characteristics of a hero. The modern movie examples that Campbell used made mythology in present time easier for me to understand. Star Wars wasn't the only example he used, he also linked cultures together through their mythology. Two things that I didn't know before watching this video is that many myths are the same all over the world and they do not change over time. Overall, I surprisingly enjoyed this video. It was boring at some points, but very informative to me. I would recommend for you to watch this video, especially if you are very interested in mythology. Even if you're not, you can definitely learn many interesting things from watching it.
Rating: 
Summary: Powerless.
Review: While I'm not nearly as interested in the fantastical fabrications of ancient civilizations as I am with the actual physical exploits of those cultures, I do find it fascinating how a society's myths can so accurately reflect its political and social feats, and yet also contain within them completely unprecedented ideas. An idea similar to this was expressed by the well-known historian Joseph Campbell in "Joseph Campbell: The Power of Myth," or as I like to call it, the "2004 Film Borefest Selection of the Week." My less-than-intelligent pun will be addressed later in the review.
To get back on track, the first volume of an extensive video collection of Bill Moyers' interviews with Campbell addressed the uniformity of myths around the world; that is, an identification of a central theme or idea in the various mythical stories found throughout the world's cultures. While there are many such themes, Campbell obviously feels that the most vital of all these is the idea of a hero's journey. Having observed this idea in several seemingly unrelated tales, Campbell has identified certain characteristics found in most of these legends and organized them into separate ascending steps, each of which the hero will probably go through. Among these are a hero's rite of passage, a quest placed upon him (or her), and a gracious reward. Campbell cites examples to further stress his point, but he insults the viewer's intelligence by shamelessly using the simplest and most popular references possible (Star Wars), even if there are others that would emphasize this idea more accurately (any of the great Greek myths, or even Shakespeare).
Although Campbell makes a viable and intelligent argument, the futile attempts to lure the already bored audience through overused Star Wars clips are immediately counteracted by Moyers' dull questions and Campbell's even-duller answers. Not to say, of course, that Campbell isn't passionate about what he does; on the contrary, he seemed as giddy as a young Luke Skywalker to lap up the answers to Moyers' generic inquiries.
However, as boring as the interview was, I was still somewhat interested by the history that was being explored. New concepts regarding ancient myth were being revealed to me, and the unexplained uniformity of various legends was intriguing.
But then I noticed that there was still one issue that wasn't being addressed: why?
Campbell seemed as if he could talk for hours about how most myths follow the same heroic pattern, but not once did I hear him even attempt to explain why such a phenomenon occurred.
Now I'm all for a good psychological thriller leaving me hanging, wondering what really happened.
But can you do that with history?
Rating:
Summary: The Power of Myth
Review: The Power of Myth was an excellent movie over myths. It gave very interesting facts and details that made me as the viewer want to watch more. The way it tied in the movie series Star Wars with mythology was very interesting. The movie The Power of Myth gave many examples of how myths and innuendoes are used in everyday movies likes that of Star Wars and many more. While this movie for the most part was very good, it did have its moments of boredom. It seemed as if it just rambled on and on about no particular subject for a while. The questions that Bill Moyer was asking the Joseph Campbell in the beginning were rather vague. In doing this it allowed him to answer the questions more openly. Closer toward the end of the video it started showing more clips and examples of how myths are used in movies. Campbell somehow finds many connections between certain cultures regarding mythology. He shows how many myths around the world are the same. Another point that stuck me as interesting was when he stated that women are the blame for the misfortunes of life.
Rating: 
Summary: The Power of Myth
Review: In The Power of Myth: The Hero's Adventure the show's host, Bill Moyers, interviews Joseph Campbell in Northern California on the set of George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch. Campbell is considered to be the mastermind of modern mythology. The way he expresses mythology just touches my heart with passion. The interview is conducted at Skywalker Ranch because of one of the main themes of this movie, which is how George Lucas' Star Wars movies can link to some of the world's oldest mythological accounts. The movie shows many clips from some of the best Star Wars movies. These clips give us examples of the ideas of mythology used to make the Star Wars movies. Campbell does a good job of showing how the myths he told about in the interview relate to the Star Wars Clips. In the movie, Campbell shows how many religions are very similar. He talks about how Jesus, Moses, Jonah (when he is inside of the whale), and Buddha are very similar because they are all people that have to be proven as heroes through a number of events or tests. He does a good job on the explanation of how religions can be very alike. The movie is very informative in the educational values of mythology. It shows how Joseph Campbell does very well in knowing and helping others in trying to learn about the key points of mythology. Campbell sounds like he is a man of great knowledge of the mythological perspectives of life. Over all, the movie seems to be very informative, but boring. It is very repetitive in its information. I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone if they were just going to watch it for pleasure. I would mainly use this movie for educational purposes inside of the school or in any other way possible.
Rating:
Summary: "Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth"
Review: Joseph Campbell was interviewed by Bill Moyers on SkyWalker Ranch, owned by George Lucas. During this time he explained his many views, thoughts, and ideas about mythology. Campbell spoke of how heroes come in different forms and change over time. This is seen in many different works.
Campbell enlightens his viewers with the patterns he has seen in almost all mythology. This specific pattern is as follows: the departure, fulfillment, and the return to a "home place." An example of a spiritual hero that followed this path is Moses. Spiritual heroes show the powers of life and their infliction through man. Other spiritual heroes were Christ and Buddha.
During his discussion of mythology, Joseph Campbell gives insight on more of his opinions. He shares with viewers that mothers are heroines, well, most of them any ways. Campbell also discusses how the hero evolves as culture evolves. As culture evolves, values change and people view different things as notorious, courageous, etc. He also explains how each achievement is a manifestatiion of his character [hero], and leaves the topic very open-ended. In the interview's entirety, he leaves a majority of topics and answers open-ended to give viewers the change to develop some of their own opinions.
All in all, this film did not particularly stir my interest. I know that if mythology and heroes intrigued me, I would've been very interested in the film. To anyone who loves mythology, this surely is the film for you. Granted, you don't fall asleep during the video, you will hear many good insights of this brilliant man who has passed away. There was a lot of good content, whether you like mythology or not, almost anyone could have learned at least one thing.
Rating:
Summary: Too brilliant to relate
Review: Although I acknowledge the depth of Mr. Campbell's intellect and expertise, I feel that the interview was difficult to follow and understand. It would have been better had I read the book. There were times that his mumbling made it impossible to decipher his words. When I did audibly connect, Mr. Campbell had much to say, and I applaud his research and opinions. Webster, himself though, could not have followed the immense, superfluity of vocabulary terminology that Campbell emitted from his orifice in a rhythmic precedent that only Einstein could have decoded.
He brings forth the heroes in biblical, mythological, and fictional movie characters. Hercules, Moses, Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter, and several others were mentioned. The one that interested me the most was his input on the life and death of Jesus Christ. Jesus' heroic journey included several phases of the modeled hero's life journey as describe in detail by Mr. Campbell. Jesus' life included tempting trials three times, performing miracles, and meeting with his Father in the end. These examples were a part of the theory that Mr. Campbell believed and studied.
He intertwines and mixes many religions and focuses on the point that our religions are based on a particular hero of sorts. Heroes have been written and talked about for centuries. Mr. Campbell believes that a hero can be ordinary or extraordinary. That anyone can be a hero even if they are not documented heroes. Heroes can have a journey that they want or choose but also heroes can have a journey that they really don't want to have. A heroine that Mr. Campbell failed to mention was Joan of Arc. In fact I do not believe he mentioned any heroic women and because of this, I take offense. Maybe I should read the books. Surely, a man of Mr. Campbell's intelligence would realize the contribution of female protagonist.
I recommend reading the book before attempting to decipher the difficult vocabulary and audible obstacles that await the viewer on DVD.
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