Dear Cinemythologists,
On Tuesday, September 15, our unit on Perseus on screen comes to a head. Please do the following.
VIEWING
- Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (Chris Columbus, 2010)
Streaming on Amazon Prime. Take notes as you see fit. You might consider how the movie treats some of the characters we’ve seen before, such as Medusa and Hades.
READING
- McWeeny, Drew. 2010. Interview with Chris Columbus and Craig Titely. (Originally posted on hitfix.com.)
Insights into the intentions of the film’s creative team.
- Paule, Maxwell T. 2020. “The Whitening Thief: Latent White Supremacy in Percy Jackson.” eidolon.pub. January 22.
Paule makes the case for the inherent racism of the first PJ novel; let’s see whether Paule’s ideas apply to the first entry in the abortive film series.
NOTE: This essay appeared in the journal Eidolon, which is devoted to (as its tagline reads) “Classics without fragility.” Given that the novels are much cherished by many young adults today, please try to maintain an open mind, or at least a sense of detachment, while reading and discussing this piece.
SEQUENCES
- Graubart, Padala, Ricci.
Use the comments feature on this post to recommend a sequence to be reviewed and discussed in class.
Recommendations should contain the following:
- A brief description of the sequence.
- Precise starting and ending times (hh:mm:ss — hh:mm:ss).
- A rationale as to why this sequence is worth our time.
DC
I want to discuss the scene with Medusa, from 00:50:00-00:55:45. I think it’s important to talk about the scene with Medusa in comparison to the Medusa scenes we’ve seen before in both versions of Clash of the Titans (1981 and 2010). This scene in particular struck me due to Medusa’s apparent sexuality, as it felt in a strange way like she was some sort of temptress, dressed in all leather and constantly invading people’s personal space, which felt offensive to her original myth, as she is a victim of sexual assault. I think it’s also interesting to look at her from a much more humanoid perspective in comparison to the snake-like forms she’s taken in the past. The fact that until she removes her headscarf she could very easily pass as fully human definitely contributes to a big theme of the movie, which is how mythology has become fully integrated into modern society, blending in unnoticed by regular humans. I think this scene really encapsulates the vibe of this movie really well between the campy fun combined with modern adaptations of mythology.
I’d like to review and discuss the sequence from 00:43:46 to 00:46:50. At this point in the film, Percy has decided to go on a quest to save his mom, but before he leaves Camp Half-Blood with Annabeth and Grover, they stop to see Luke as they believe he may be able to help them get to the underworld. In this sequence, Luke gives Percy winged converse as well as a shield, both of which connect us back to the original myth of Perseus. Instead of Hermes giving Perseus gifts for his quest, Luke, the son of Hermes, provides Percy with them. This scene not only echoes the original myth of Perseus, but it also shows us what the relationship is like between the gods and their demigod children. Luke makes it very clear that he dislikes his father from the beginning of this scene as he describes the neglectful relationship that exists, one which we learn is normal for the rest of the Olympians and their children. While we have a few brief scenes in this movie where we see the gods for ourselves, we learn the most about them through their children. It is the demigods’ opinions of their own parents which guide and shape the audience’s view of the Olympians.
I’d like to review the hydra sequence from 1:05:59 to 1:10:19. What I find interesting about this scene was the fact that it was added into the movie; as a hydra does not appear in the original book. In fact, a hydra appears in the 3rd book if I remember correctly. It starts a conversation on adaptation. Another thing I like about this scene was how clueless Percy was in regards to how to fight a hydra. Perseus grew up in the mortal world and lived a mortal life, unaware of how monsters behaved, and Percy is no different. In this scene, he has to learn how to fight a creature he does not know much about, as well as hone his skills as the son of Poseidon by bursting the bubbler pipes. A while back I was watching a video on how to effectively animate and choreograph fight scenes, with the environment being one of the most important factors. I thought the use of the environment was done well here and shows how Percy has learned to use his power to control water effectively. Finally, the scene ends with Grover using Medusa’s head to turn the hydra to stone, just like Perseus does with the Kraken. Although the movie and the books are their own stand alone projects, they still hearken back to the myth they are based on.