ECHOES OF MYTH THE FEATURE FILMS OF JOHN BOORMAN By PETER WILTON JOHNSON M.A. The University of British Columbia, 1984 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTERS OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES Department of Theatre We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA September, 1984 © Peter Wilton Johnson, 1984 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of The University of British Columbia 1956 Main Mall Vancouver, Canada V6T 1Y3 7 DE-6 (3/81) ii ABSTRACT All eight feature films (1965-1981) of John Boorman were viewed and analyzed according to Auteur Theory. The recondite themes and motifs found throughout his work revealed a preoccupationwwith character and events in the Grail legend. Thematically, Boorman's rendering of the Arthurian protagonist revealed him in the modern context of the private eye, the soldier, the defrocked priest, the displaced aristocrat, and the wilderness adventurer. Merlin figures, and women figures intrinsic to the Grail legend appear in all his work. Aesthetically Boorman's feature films are veiled allegories of the Arthurian quest. Those recondite stylistic elements as abstract framing, colour distortion, elliptical editing, and overlapped and electronic sound were found to modify the cinematic conventions of those genres in which he worked. Boorman's mise-en-scene often approached the surreal. His action hovered between the world of slapstick, and the world of dream. The world-view that emerged from these feature-films makes,. Boorman a religious existentialist, or an Immanentist. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv PREFACE Notes on the Critical Method v CHAPTER ONE : Dying Gods and Transformations 1 CHAPTER TWO : Boorman's Twentieth-Century Mythic Vision 13 CHAPTER THREE : Aesthetics: An Overview 39 CHAPTER FOUR : "Having a Wild Weekend" (1965) 47 CHAPTER FIVE : "Point Blank" (1967) 64 CHAPTER SIX : "Hell in the Pacific" (1968) 84 CHAPTER SEVEN : "Leo the Last" (1970) 102 CHAPTER EIGHT : "Deliverance" (1972) 116 CHAPTER NINE : "Zardoz" (1973) 140 CHAPTER TEN : "Exorcist II: The Heretic" (1977) 158 CHAPTER ELEVEN: "Excalibur" (1981) 173 CONCLUSION : Boorman as Immanentist 187 FOOTNOTES 195 BIBLIOGRAPHY 201 FILMOGRAPHY 207 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many people helped me in this study of John Boorman. Primarily, those who helped me obtain his films for extended periods of critical viewing must receive top billing. Carol Burgoyne of Bellevue, Anne Pope of Canfilm, Roily Richard and Diane Overbo of Warner Brothers, Pearl Williams of Pacific Cinematheque, all of Vancouver, gave me access to films, without which there would be no thesis. Donn Andresen of Brandon University Film Service, Brandon, Manitoba allowed me use of one of Boorman's early documentaries. Eddie White of United Artists Classics, Toronto, provided me with a rare 35 mm print of "Leo the Last." Michael MeGee, technician in the University of British Columbia's Film Department provided me with a room, projector, and Steenbeck editor when necessary. Val Almendarez, of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles, provided useful biographical information. George Toles and Frank Burke, professors of Film at the University of Manitoba, inspired me, and nurtured my interest in film criticism. Professors John Newton and Joan Reynertson of the Film Department at the University of British Columbia sharpened that interest. Laurie Meeker, Deborah Bail lie, and Fred Hollingshurst made me be clear. Eve Lazarus painstakingly typed this manuscript. Jocelyn brought sunshine, wit, and warmth to the Black Hole. V PREFACE: NOTES ON THE CRITICAL METHOD Auteur criticism is valuable. It had a major influence upon other critical methods. Its greatest impact was upon Structuralism. Like the literary criticism of R.W.B. Leavis, Structuralism saw itselfas mediator between the film and the audience, between text and meaning. Structuralism sought an •immanent meaning, a centre, a core within a film by utilizing archetypal and social elements. It vigorously denied the primacy of the director as creator. For Structuralism, the language of film itself, the language of visual signs could be codified into providing meaning to the ever-changing flow of film images. The idiosyncracies of form or method were as alien to the Structuralist critic as were signifiers to the Auteur. Structuralism, and its related theory semiotics, was a means for investigating the relationship between art and culture. Auteur theorizing sought to go beyond the role of icon and artifact, and to investigate the relationship between the artist and product. Although generally disavowing cultural influences, Auteur criticism did place a director, by virtue of the chronological parameters of his work, within a specific cultural context. It is easy to see for example, that Howard Hawks'•attitude toward women in "Bringing up Baby" and "Gentle• men Prefer Blondes is markedly different from Woody Allen's view of women in "Manhattan" or "Annie Hall" some twenty-five years later. Such general• izations are useful, not only in revealing the changing social mores within the history of the cinema, but in also revealing the emphasis placed upon these mores by various directors who lived and worked in a particular time. vi Methodology Auteur criticism seeks to isolate a director's vision and aesthetic as 2 revealed in all his films. As Peter Wollen has written, it seeks "to uncover behind the superficial contrasts of subject and treatment, a hard 3 core of basic and often recondite motifs." Used critically, Auteur criticism must begin with a close textual analysis. As such the following three questions provided the impetus for the detailed criticism of each film in this study. Namely: 1. What is Boorman's imagination trying to achieve in a particular film? 2. To what extent is that vision evident beyond specific cultural or studio influences, and common in all his films? 3. What unique aesthetic does Boorman's imagination generate in order to reveal his vision? John Boorman made eight feature films in a period of some fifteen years. As such, and as in all narrative works of art, his films operate on the level of value. Auteur criticism sees those components as character, setting, sound effects, etc., as express various states of emotional worth. Patterns and relationships are seen not only as fulfilling the requirements of a particular narrative, but also evolving into a uniquely personal vision. It is assumed therefore, that characters in Boorman's films are more than simply "people-;" Events are more than simply bits of plot, and settings more than collections of objects. All are elements that express values and relationships. These relationships are evident, and evolve throughout the whole of Boorman's canon. Auteur criticism also must assume that Boorman places artifacts and certain stylistic devices within his films because he believes they belong there. Auteur criticism is concerned vii with the integrity and coherence of each of his works yet, these elements must also be seen to be interconnected with other elements in other works. As such they belong to a narrative process that taken together reveals Boorman to possess a unique style that expresses a limited though genuinely felt hope for man. Thesis It is the intent of this study to show that the feature films of the British-born director John Boorman contain elements that are a contemporary rendering of his long-time preoccupation with the Arthurian legend. Besides his interpretation of the seminal legend in "Excalibur" (1981), Arthurian characters and themes are present in all of Boorman's feature films. The magician Merlin is transformed as Lazlo in "Leo the Last" (1970), Arthur Frayn in "Zardoz" (1973), Yost in "Point Blank" (1967), and Ecumenical Edwards in "Exorcist II" (1977). Morgana, Arthur's half-sister of the Grail legend, surfaces as Lynn in "Point Blank" (1967), Avalow in "Zardoz" (1973), Jean Tuskin in "Exorcist II" (1977), and even Bobby in "Deliverance" (1972). The knight questors such as Arthur, Perceval, and Lancelot, become rendered into the modern private-eye, the soldier, the defrocked priest, the displaced aristocrat, and the wilderness adventurer. The quest theme is basic to all western literature, and basic to Boorman's vision. In revealing Arthurian themes and characters in Boorman's films, it is the intent of this thesis to reveal Boorman's vision as that of a particular kind of religious existentialist. God is absent from Boorman's work, but the transcendent is not. Boorman is an Immanentist. He sees the transcendent not as a spiritual force outside of man, but viii inherent in him. As such, Boorman's vision is both sacred and profane. His protagonists hover between the world of violence and catatonia. The echoes of the Arthurian legend that surface in Boorman's work are at the same time allied to certain preoccupations with American culture. The notion of the wilderness, war, and the city, become mythic