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Like many people, I didn't see this when it was in theaters. I picked up the DVD a couple weeks ago and finally got around to watching it last night (I don't watch much TV anymore). I gotta say, I was really impressed. It's kinda like an independent teen film with big studio money behind it. But, I know the studio wasn't happy when it failed to recoup it's $60 million dollar budget. It grossed $31 million in North America and $14 million abroad.

Based on a comic book, it emulates the feel of a comic book and has a very mythic quality to it. This got me thinking about a lot of favorite movies that also build their own mythologies (Star Wars, The Matrix, Dark City, etc.). To what extent, does anyone think, that popular culture has displaced religion as our own personal myths?

that's an interesting point, Mike. I certainly believe that pop culture runs neck & neck with religion today. I'm not saying that George Lucas should be held in the same esteem as Jesus (or whatever religious icon belongs in that position-based on the individual, of course). However, I have to admit to being personally influenced by the movies and television (and radio, for that matter) that I encountered in my younger years.

In a lot of ways, I'm kind of scarred by it. I grew up watching people perform heroic feats in a very black and white setting. Having absorbed that into my mentality, it's very difficult to deal with "real life"-in which you never really know who the "good guy" is, and the whole "good vs. evil" line is entrenched in gray area.
In a circular kind of way, it's easy to see why so many people are drawn to Christianity. The "good guy", so to speak, is OBVIOUSLY the good guy. I guess that, in an odd way, pop culture and religion feed each other.

This reminded me...there's a line in a Styx song (Little Suzie):

"Someone's crying out for Jesus, someone's looking for a sign. Someone thinks they spotted Elvis. He was curing the sick and healing the blind."


Just an example as to how popular culture digs a niche into the realm that was exclusively religious.

joseph6 wrote:that's an interesting point, Mike. I certainly believe that pop culture runs neck & neck with religion today. I'm not saying that George Lucas should be held in the same esteem as Jesus (or whatever religious icon belongs in that position-based on the individual, of course). However, I have to admit to being personally influenced by the movies and television (and radio, for that matter) that I encountered in my younger years.

In a lot of ways, I'm kind of scarred by it. I grew up watching people perform heroic feats in a very black and white setting. Having absorbed that into my mentality, it's very difficult to deal with "real life"-in which you never really know who the "good guy" is, and the whole "good vs. evil" line is entrenched in gray area.
In a circular kind of way, it's easy to see why so many people are drawn to Christianity. The "good guy", so to speak, is OBVIOUSLY the good guy. I guess that, in an odd way, pop culture and religion feed each other.

Mike Nobody wrote:

joseph6 wrote:that's an interesting point, Mike. I certainly believe that pop culture runs neck & neck with religion today. I'm not saying that George Lucas should be held in the same esteem as Jesus (or whatever religious icon belongs in that position-based on the individual, of course). However, I have to admit to being personally influenced by the movies and television (and radio, for that matter) that I encountered in my younger years.

In a lot of ways, I'm kind of scarred by it. I grew up watching people perform heroic feats in a very black and white setting. Having absorbed that into my mentality, it's very difficult to deal with "real life"-in which you never really know who the "good guy" is, and the whole "good vs. evil" line is entrenched in gray area.
In a circular kind of way, it's easy to see why so many people are drawn to Christianity. The "good guy", so to speak, is OBVIOUSLY the good guy. I guess that, in an odd way, pop culture and religion feed each other.

I can't come up with a response to fully explain my feelings for this, so I'll dumb it way, way down.

Watchmen radically changed the way I look at the world.

"does anyone think, that popular culture has displaced religion as our own personal myths?"

Deffinately. People are looking for answers, and finding it harder and harder to blieve what Organized Religion is providing.

Scratchy wrote:"does anyone think, that popular culture has displaced religion as our own personal myths?"

Deffinately. People are looking for answers, and finding it harder and harder to blieve what Organized Religion is providing.

If you quote, don't paraphrase please. I don't mind correcting bad spelling / grammar. But, changing the meaning is something else.

dizzizz wrote:

Mike Nobody wrote:

joseph6 wrote:that's an interesting point, Mike. I certainly believe that pop culture runs neck & neck with religion today. I'm not saying that George Lucas should be held in the same esteem as Jesus (or whatever religious icon belongs in that position-based on the individual, of course). However, I have to admit to being personally influenced by the movies and television (and radio, for that matter) that I encountered in my younger years.

In a lot of ways, I'm kind of scarred by it. I grew up watching people perform heroic feats in a very black and white setting. Having absorbed that into my mentality, it's very difficult to deal with "real life"-in which you never really know who the "good guy" is, and the whole "good vs. evil" line is entrenched in gray area.
In a circular kind of way, it's easy to see why so many people are drawn to Christianity. The "good guy", so to speak, is OBVIOUSLY the good guy. I guess that, in an odd way, pop culture and religion feed each other.

I can't come up with a response to fully explain my feelings for this, so I'll dumb it way, way down.

Watchmen radically changed the way I look at the world.

Mike Nobody wrote:

This got me thinking about a lot of favorite movies that also build their own mythologies (Star Wars, The Matrix, Dark City, etc.). To what extent, does anyone think, that popular culture has displaced religion as our own personal myths?

I was thinking about this today, and have never noticed it before but "Watchmen" certainly has roots in previously existing mythology. The characters in particular share traits common to the Greek gods: Powerful and yet hopelessly flawed. Heroic yet selfish.
Dr. Manhattan finds something perfect and beautiful (and a reason to save mankind) in Silk Spectre, while knowing that she exists through essentially lust and violence (more or less).
In Greek myth, Cronus violently removes his own fathers'...eh, "family jewels" and tosses them into the sea-from which Aphrodite springs to life-she who is the representation of beauty.
The point I'm trying to make is this: If today's mythology can be traced back to the earlier mythology, is it really replacing it, or simply continuing it under new management?

joseph6 wrote:Mike Nobody wrote:

This got me thinking about a lot of favorite movies that also build their own mythologies (Star Wars, The Matrix, Dark City, etc.). To what extent, does anyone think, that popular culture has displaced religion as our own personal myths?

I was thinking about this today, and have never noticed it before but "Watchmen" certainly has roots in previously existing mythology. The characters in particular share traits common to the Greek gods: Powerful and yet hopelessly flawed. Heroic yet selfish.
Dr. Manhattan finds something perfect and beautiful (and a reason to save mankind) in Silk Spectre, while knowing that she exists through essentially lust and violence (more or less).
In Greek myth, Cronus violently removes his own fathers'...eh, "family jewels" and tosses them into the sea-from which Aphrodite springs to life-she who is the representation of beauty.
The point I'm trying to make is this: If today's mythology can be traced back to the earlier mythology, is it really replacing it, or simply continuing it under new management?

Well, according to Joseph Campbell, these stories are just masks on myths which are continuously handed down or are part of the human psyche intrinsically. The story of Oedipus exists because the Oedipal complex exists. The hero myth exists because all people experience similar events as they mature. Even the story of Jesus has precedents with similar features; virgin birth, son of God, miracles, death-and-resurrection, etc.

Mike Nobody wrote:

Scratchy wrote:"does anyone think, that popular culture has displaced religion as our own personal myths?"

Deffinately. People are looking for answers, and finding it harder and harder to blieve what Organized Religion is providing.

If you quote, don't paraphrase please. I don't mind correcting bad spelling / grammar. But, changing the meaning is something else.

"But, changing the meaning is something else."

Only when the true meaning is.........krap!, I almost did it again. sorry bout that.

Its a bad habit Im developing from people who put words into, and make assumptions from the things I say here. (just messin with ya)

Scratchy wrote:

Mike Nobody wrote:

Scratchy wrote:"does anyone think, that popular culture has displaced religion as our own personal myths?"

Deffinately. People are looking for answers, and finding it harder and harder to blieve what Organized Religion is providing.

If you quote, don't paraphrase please. I don't mind correcting bad spelling / grammar. But, changing the meaning is something else.

I love tostitos.

Me too.

dizzizz wrote:

Scratchy wrote:

Mike Nobody wrote:

Scratchy wrote:"does anyone think, that popular culture has displaced religion as our own personal myths?"

Deffinately. People are looking for answers, and finding it harder and harder to blieve what Organized Religion is providing.

If you quote, don't paraphrase please. I don't mind correcting bad spelling / grammar. But, changing the meaning is something else.

I love tostitos.

Me too.

OOOOO, Diz, nice.........This is a slippery slope we're all on.

Scratchy wrote:

dizzizz wrote:

Scratchy wrote:

Mike Nobody wrote:

Scratchy wrote:"does anyone think, that popular culture has displaced religion as our own personal myths?"

Deffinately. People are looking for answers, and finding it harder and harder to blieve what Organized Religion is providing.

If you quote, don't paraphrase please. I don't mind correcting bad spelling / grammar. But, changing the meaning is something else.

I love tostitos.

Me too.

OOOOO, Diz, nice.........This is a slippery slope we're all on.

I don't.

dizzizz wrote:

Mike Nobody wrote:

joseph6 wrote:that's an interesting point, Mike. I certainly believe that pop culture runs neck & neck with religion today. I'm not saying that George Lucas should be held in the same esteem as Jesus (or whatever religious icon belongs in that position-based on the individual, of course). However, I have to admit to being personally influenced by the movies and television (and radio, for that matter) that I encountered in my younger years.

In a lot of ways, I'm kind of scarred by it. I grew up watching people perform heroic feats in a very black and white setting. Having absorbed that into my mentality, it's very difficult to deal with "real life"-in which you never really know who the "good guy" is, and the whole "good vs. evil" line is entrenched in gray area.
In a circular kind of way, it's easy to see why so many people are drawn to Christianity. The "good guy", so to speak, is OBVIOUSLY the good guy. I guess that, in an odd way, pop culture and religion feed each other.

I can't come up with a response to fully explain my feelings for men and their Tostitos.

A slippery slope Diz. Be careful.