Journeys and Quests

Articulated by Joseph Campbell, the Hero’s Journey is a specific motif that has come down through literature since ages past (for our purposes, Star Wars being perhaps the most obvious example). We’ll address that another day. Here we speak of the pursuit of an aspiration far surpassing any mundane goal or craven ambition, one that bears significance to one’s very identity, that personally holds some great nobility, and the success or failure of which would inform one’s assessment of success or failure in life. Following are excellent examples of people wholly devoted to the attainment of a particular glorious outcome (at least as they define it!).

Examples of Journeys and Quests in Film

• 3:10 to Yuma (2007)
• Apollo 13
• As Good As It Gets
• Away We Go
• Born to Be Wild
• Braveheart
• Catch 22
• Charlie Wilson’s War
• City Slickers
• Coal Miner’s Daughter
• Ellie Parker
• Everything is Illuminated
• Extraordinary Measures
• Friday Night Lights
• Holes
• Hoosiers
• Inception
• Japanese Story
• Kung Fu Panda
• Little Miss Sunshine
• Lost in America
• Major League
• Mystery, Alaska
• Not Without My Daughter
• Papillon
• Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Rocky
• Rudy
• Sideways
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
• The Debt
• The Edge
• The Hunt for Red October
• The Lord of the Rings
• The Princess Bride
• The Pursuit of Happyness
• The Road
• The Rundown
• Tropic Thunder
• Under the Tuscan Sun
• Up
• Watership Down
• We Are Marshall
• Without Limits

What are some of your favorite examples, and why? Please do share ~