Untitled - Memorial University of Newfoundland

likewise noted that in the Vietnam War film. the American hero myth was regenerated for
the 19805 movie going audience (Schechter and Semeiks: 24-25). Schechter and Semeiks
argue that Rambo and Platoon engaged American audiences with traditional hero
narratives. Platoon was an initiatory rite while Rambo was a captivity-escapc talc. This
appeal to traditional narrative patternings accounts for the films' success. and not the
critical asswnption ofa decline in the audience's taste. lfhiSlory was unable 10 appeal to a
cultural pcrc:eption ofthe self, so their arguments went, then through the mediwn of
popular cinema, the culture could regenerate its own sense ofworth by righting the
wrongs it was unable to in "reality." This was a highly functionalist argwncnt; one which
posited that cinema played itselfout for a cultural audience that nceded to see its own
self·pcrceptions reified.
Other folklorists had been concerned with the: identification of Marchen tale-types
and motifs in popular cinema. For some scholars. the Disney-effect, taking traditional
tales and ruming them into mass-mediated and authoritative texts. as Peggy Russo and
Frances Clark. Sayer nOled above. could have a potentially detrimental effect on the
transmission ofthese tales. In this light. Thompson's affection for Disney movies seems
overly optimistic: as a trained and professional folklorist. Thompson was in the ideal
position ofrecognizing that Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. for example. was
but one variant ofthe narrative tradition. but he gave no recognition that children. or
adults. would see these cinematic texts as anything other than authoritative. Another point
Sayer raised was that these films frequently sanitize the narratives to be so inoffensive as
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