I love the movie, Tommy Boy. Since my first viewing of the movie my life has been revolutionized...well...maybe not my life, but at least my vocabulary. I know many others can relate to this because as soon as I mentioned Tommy Boy I would venture to say many in my viewing audience immediately thought of the memorable one-liners like, "Shut-up Richard" and "brothers don't shake hands, brothers gotta hug." Until class today the one-liners were really all I could recall from the movie, but there was more to the movie than just a "fat guy in a little coat" delivering comical lines. That movie was full of contemporary myths. The first myth that I noticed in the plot was 'wisdom of the rustic.' The movie writers go to great lengths to show that all the knowledge gained in college does not mean anything in the business world unless basic, backwoods people skills accompany it. (If you are familiar with the movie and its characters this is seen through Tom Sr. being able to sell car parts, but the highly qualified however not as social, Richard being unable to sell car parts.) The film also shows that if one works hard enough anything can happen (or 'possibility of success') , even saving a distressed car part factory in Sandusky, Ohio. There is also a strong 'coming of the Messiah' theme in which everyone places their hope and future in Tom Jr.'s hands after the company first shows signs of going under. The 'presence of conspiracy' can be seen with Tom Jr.'s step-family working against the factory and the only one who knows of the plot against the factory is one young woman in the shipping department. So, this brings us to myth 5 which is the 'value of challenge'. Tommy had to first overcome the challenges of meeting with each individual purchaser before he could overcome the enormous challenge at the end--taking on a large industry single handedly. So, in all Tommy Boy can be looked at for the many contemporary myths in our culture. This is not to say that it embodies one of these myths incredibly well, but a piece of each myth can be seen in the movie. Now, for some higher level thinking-- I think the question begs being asked, are these myths common just in the United States or do they have a global impact? Would "the possibility of success" be shown in an Indian equivalent to Tommy Boy? My guess would be 'no.' The possibility of success probably only shows up in movies that value "moving up the economic ladder" or bettering your place in society. I can't imagine that a culture with a caste system would show in their media a myth like 'possibility of success'. I have to wonder if these myths are western myths or global myths.
Disclaimer: Sorry for the disjointed writing--as I write I think and my ideas just grow and sometimes the connection cannot be seen in my unedited free writing. ~Julianna