Power Of Myth Baraka Analysis

The Relationship Between Humanity and Nature

In Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell calls the movie theater “a special temple where the hero has moved into the sphere of being mythologized” (Campbell). Watching the movie Baraka, the audience can connect to Campbell’s description of the didactic nature of movies. According to its co-director Fricke, Baraka was intended to be "a journey of rediscovery that plunges into nature, into history, into the human spirit and finally into the realm of the infinite" (Fricke). Furthermore, Baraka dives into the didactic elements of archetypes and images that instruct the soul. Although Baraka does not use words, there is a clear message of humans and their world that Campbell says gives “relevance

Our inner evil tends to manifest whenever we display dark emotions such as greed or wrath. In the picture, the Kuwait oil fires destroy billions in oil. After Iraq realized they couldn’t have the oil, they attempted to burn in all out of both wrath and greed, destroying a substance the world values greatly for technology. The poverty in Sao Paulo, Brazil reminds us of how unfair our world can be. This is because it demonstrates how the lack of money in a country leads to high differences in wealth. When money is scarce, our greed gets the best of us and people begin to accumulate wealth at the cost of their own humanity. In Persepolis, the ruins remain to show us of when Alexander the Great destroyed the city out of bloodlust. The torture chambers in Cambodia as well as the concentration camps in Germany are the result of wrath towards certain people based on prejudice. Spiteful regimes and violent conquests tend to destroy great works of architecture with no consideration for the value of history or the amount of labor people have put into building

Every part of the movie in which people are practicing religion, there seems to be a peace that cannot be found in most of the modern world. The buddhist in the picture above meditates peacefully through religion despite the chaotic crowd around him. In Bali, the men there all practice the Kecak Dance with positive spirit and unity. In a local Christian church, Americans unite to find peace with God and in doing so, find peace with the people in their lives. Even the soldier in the movie, a symbol of violence, comes to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem for his religion. In all of the places of religion, there is a unity with the people in it as they connect to nature and reflect on the religion’s view of the human condition.

Baraka is a truly unique and didactic film teaching many lessons that are interpreted differently through each viewer. As explained, it teaches of how as mankind rises, it will fall whether it be by itself or by nature.

Only through finding peace with the natural world through religion can we achieve feats such as world peace and the ability to fight injustice. This is just one lesson the film teaches about the human condition and is probably only one piece of the larger picture that the movie is trying to teach