The State of the Movement: Our Hero's Journey

It has been quite a turbulent period between the theatrical release of Justice League and now. We have had ups and downs, moments of celebration and moments of sadness; in some way ours is but another example of the hero’s journey that Joseph Campbell describes in his book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”. He describes that every hero’s journey starts and ends in their ordinary world, but whilst on his/her quest they pass through a special world and along the way there are some key events that define the journey. In our hero’s journey we have faced trials (and in some ways we are still facing them); the task of finding pieces of the Snyder Cut jigsaw that we hope can change the public discourse is an arduous one, but one we have found great success in.

 

 

We have also faced what Campbell describes as the hero’s crisis. The aim of the Ben Fritz article last July was to discredit us, however it achieved something much more damaging. It served as a catalyst to divide us, something each person reading this article, and the person writing it, has fallen victim to. Our split was on a fundamental difference of opinion on how to win the Snyder Cut. People like myself took the view that the only way for WB to release the Snyder Cut is by forcing them to, by hurting them where it matters most, their bank balance. Others on the other side of the divide maintain that the only way to make them acquiesce to our request is by showing them that the cut can be profitable. I will still maintain my position and those on the other side will maintain theirs, but what has come to light is that in the period in which divisions were at their most prominent, nothing was achieved. We let our differences divide us, and that resulted in failure.

 

 

Joseph Campbell tells us that on the hero’s journey one of the key moments is when the hero is provided with assistance, often from someone older and wiser. What Zack Snyder gave us during his Director’s Cuts event, was exactly that assistance. He gave us a shot in the arm, and with two words “it exists” galvanised us. In the days following, new heroes emerged including those forming the @RTSnyderCut account with the initiative of unifying the fractured fandom. Their pledge to favour neither side of the major divide has resulted in the ability for people like me to cooperate with those of opposite perspectives once again in a constructive way, and vice-versa. The revelation of Ray Porter being cast and performing as Darkseid was another boost, primarily because of how Ray has lent his personal support to us. The video campaign led by Barry Moniquette and supported by Chris Wong Swenson, was yet another a wonderful example of what this fandom is capable of, harkening back to the glory days of our successful online, phone call and letter writing campaigns. Seeing all the videos was truly inspirational.

Click here to help donate to Project Comic Con and the AFSP

The project comic con team, another byproduct of Zack Snyder’s inspiring words at what has been dubbed “Snyder Con”, has also emerged. By providing a platform to raise funds for ground roots activism, which increases pressure on WB by raising awareness of the Snyder Cut, they have in the process helped the fandom raise thousands of dollars for the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention. Donations of little and large monetary value, and donations of time to share and spread awareness, all given with the fullness of the donors hearts, with the goal of making a difference in Hollywood and the lives of regular human beings. All achieved by a fandom that has matured and grown to realise that this is bigger than any individual’s ego, and not allowing deep rooted differences or bruised pride to divide them any longer. One united force to achieve great things.

 

We are not yet at the part of the hero’s journey where we claim our treasure; we may have many more trials and crises to overcome, but we have shown that we are capable of overcoming them. We know that WB do not want to release the Snyder Cut. If they did, they would have done it already. This fact should not be news and should not serve to dishearten anybody. Things that are worth fighting for do not come easy, and they do not come by doing nothing. The great Frederick Douglas said “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” So let us demand. Let us continue to post tweets, to write letters, to fly banners, to put up billboards, to hand out leaflets, and to build this inspiring movement. If we upset a few people at WB, so what? They are not our friends, fixing to do us a favour. We are their customer, a customer they cheated out of hard earned money to the tune of millions of dollars. Remember that justice is on our side and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. As Joseph Campbell himself tells us, “Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.”

 

 

WB does not need amateur economists from twitter to tell them how profitable the release of the Snyder Cut can be for them. They employ real ones, educated at a university level who are more than capable of telling them that it is. So this doesn’t serve to convince them, but to settle you, the reader. The notion that only those of us who are active in the movement will buy the Snyder Cut is beyond preposterous. Numerous director’s cuts have been released over the years, for films that were both profitable and non profitable at the box office. Watchmen which made less that $200m at the box office has had multiple cuts released on home video, earning $100 million merely in US domestic physical sales. Include US domestic digital sales/rentals and international physical and digital sales and you can begin to understand the scale of profit made. All of this without the controversy surrounding Justice League, and as we know with anything that is controversial, it gets a bump. We see this with the financial successes of Batman V Superman Ultimate Edition, and especially the Final Cut of Blade Runner which has earned the distributors an extra $70m to date on US domestic physical sales alone. No, this has never been a financial decision for the decision makers at WB, it is one rooted in pride.

 

This is a battle of wills, and because they have already tried to break us and failed, it is one that sooner or later we can only win. And once we conquer our final obstacle and we gain our treasure, we will reflect on our own hero’s journey, back in our own ordinary worlds, never quite the same… nothing is once you are a hero.

 

Release The Snyder Cut