In this episode our focus is on Heroes & Villains and our Twin Feature is Happy Gilmore (1996) & The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007).

When thinking of classic character types, there is a good chance the hero and the villain are the first that come to mind. Luke Skywalker & Darth Vader, Batman & The Joker, Chief Martin Brody & The Shark who terrorised Amity Island. Instantly recognisable archetypes that have become ingrained in the media we watch. And when looking at cinema through this structuralist context, it's easy to see how those underlying narrative concepts are present, and incredibly similar, even in the most unassuming of places, namely a brash 90s sports comedy, and a niche arcade gaming documentary.

Sources:

Hayward, S. (2006), Cinema Studies: Key Concepts. 3rd Edition. London: Routledge

Campbell, J. (2008), The Hero with a Thousand Faces. 3rd Edition. Novato, CA: New World Library

Levi-Strauss, C. (1983), The Raw and the Cooked: Mythologiques, Volume 1. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press

Lacey, N. (2000), Narrative and Genre: Key Concepts in Media Studies. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press

Propp, V. (1971), Morphology of the Folktale. 2nd Revised Edition. Edited by Louis A. Wagner. Translated by Laurence Scott. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press