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Martin Winkler’s Classical Myth and Culture in the Cinema
Martin Winkler’s Classical Myth and Culture in the Cinema is an important critical study on the influence of myth, classical studies, and film on contemporary society. Winkler opens his argument with the assertion that our high school and college curricula “reflect the menace of an ignorance almost incredible and indescribable” that proceeds from a lack of attention to classical studies (4). His text points to the importance of understanding “popular culture,” both now and throughout history.
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Winkler’s assertion is not a sweeping generalization; his investigation is specifically aimed at the importance of understanding how the Classical past continues to influence the present, especially the myth cultures of ancient Rome and Greece. Further, Winkler narrows his focus to look closely at the reconstructions of the past in contemporary cinema, as well as the power of cinema to inspire and encourage more scholarly attention for Classical studies from modern students.
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In context of his concern for undergraduate education, Winkler believes that even those filmic reconstructions that portray inaccurate historical details are powerful tools in the classroom. He quotes Anthony Mann, director of The Fall of the Roman Empire and El Cid: “if…everything is historical, then you don’t have [dramatic] liberty…inaccuracies from an historical point of view…are not important. The most important thing is that you get the feeling of history” (7). Winkler’s position is sharply divergent from that of film critic Siegfried Kracauer, who asserted in “Theory of Film: The Redemption of Reality” that such inaccuracy was poison to the masses.
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Kracauer’s belief that film as “art” is a bad thing, numbing the common viewer to ideological threats, seems very constricted up against Winkler’s clear, logical argument that the “art” of drama is powerful enough to bridge the gap between ancient cultural conditions and contemporary society – a feat that rewards critical investigation with relevant and meaningful information about both time periods. Winkler cites German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer, who succinctly described the importance of such study in his argument that “all interpretations of past literature arise from a dialogue between past and present…[in which] understanding [becomes] a “fusion” of past and present: we cannot make our journey into the past without taking the present with us” (9).
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Even more important are Winkler’s observations about Cinema and Society. Since the writings of Kracauer on the reproduction of images, it has been understood in philosophical and film theory circles that the act of reproduction is as inherently destructive as it is progressive. The opportunity for good or evil, both products of human motivation, to determine the outcome or purpose of a thing that is reproduced is a given value. Mass production evens the playing field between “high” things of intrinsic, traditional value and those that are considered “popular” and fleeting (17).
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Having laid a foundation for his discussion by arguing the need for Classical education, Winkler begins to demonstrate his Thesis with a series of carefully planned chapters that illustrate the presence of the past in contemporary film. Narrative strategies, camera (or cinematic storytelling), and the archetypes and motifs of myth and classical history are the focus of several critical analyses and comparisons of contemporary films to their ancient, mythic counterparts.
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For instance, he draws a brilliant comparison between the mythological tale of Procne and Philomela and Peter Greenaway’s modern film, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. In the myth, the Thracian king, Tereus, rapes Philomela, the sister of his wife, Procne, and cuts out her tongue to prevent her from revealing the crime. Philomela finds a way to expose Tereus, and, in revenge, the sisters brutally murder Itys, the son of Tereus and Procne. They cook him and serve his body to the king who, unknowing, gorges himself in a most disgusting manner on the remains of his son. In the end, he understands what he has done and is filled with grief. However, even though his crime against Philomela is brutal, Procne’s act of killing her own son in revenge makes her guiltier than Tereus. All three individuals are transformed into birds.
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Greenaway’s film tells the story of a brutal husband, the thief, who beats his wife regularly, even though he is possessive of her and can’t live without her. She, in turn, has affairs. Her husband catches her in the act of intercourse with her current lover and has the lover brutally killed. In revenge, the wife convinces a chef to cook the body of her lover and serve it to the thief. She forces her husband at gunpoint to eat the recognizable body of her lover, after which the thief vomits repeatedly, the wife shoots him dead, and the story ends with her moving on to take hold of her own life.
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While the endings are different, the motifs and archetypes are very similar. Cannibalistic feast, revenge, and transformation – the story type originates in the Greek mythology. Greenaway’s modern reconstruction is a variation on the theme, but one with contemporary values and social implications. As with this comparison, Winkler moves through several others, demonstrating the commonalities between ancient cultures and the modern in his quest to prove the importance of myth and historical culture to contemporary culture.
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Despite a growing chasm between authenticity and “art” in modern filmic reconstructions of history and classical myth, Winkler concludes that critics have developed a “new intellectual and aesthetic approach [in which] the desirability or justification of historical accuracy [is] questionable. In the cinema, there is no permanently “correct” sound of antiquity” (337).
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I believe this perspective is valid, but not entirely true. Winkler’s assertions are well supported, and his documentation and research scrupulous; however, it seems inconsistent to argue the value and necessity of understanding a “real” ancient culture and its influences on modern popular culture when the main tool of discovery is a film genre that accepts little or no responsibility for accuracy or truth. On the other hand, documentary directors and directors of fictional epics that stay as close as possible to known historical fact are, indeed, producing modern stories that encourage scholarly, or at least studious, attention to our common ancient pasts.
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