Hero's Journey: Character and Climax

The Hero's Journey is the template upon which the cast majority of successful screenplays are built upon. Films as diverse as Gladiator (2000), Million Dollar Baby (2004), Raging Bull (1980) and Scarface (1983) were all constructed around the Hero's Journey Template.

The Hero's Journey takes the character through the Character Arc.

There are four significant stages of the Character Arc: overcoming the refusal, the transformation (road of trials), the rebirth through death and the apotheosis.

The apotheosis is where the character climaxes. The precursor to that is the atonement with the father, where the hero confronts that which prevents his illumination.

For example, deconstructing Raging Bull (1980), we see that the climax is when Jake La Motta confronts Joey and learns that he has been sleeping with his wife (Vickie). All actions lead up to and beyond that point (the winning of the Title is simply the B-story).

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