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Journey, you’ll find a brief outline of the twelve steps in the article Three Acts or What? Screenwriting Paradigms Compared.
Before figuring out the individual steps along the journey it is important to determine the hero’s dramatic need. What does he have to accomplish? Certainly, he has to escape from the hands of the KGB. However, that is only the external objective. The internal one is much more interesting.
1. The Ordinary World (0:00:00)
The Hero’s Journey starts out in his ordinary, everyday world. Hence the the name of the first station: Ordinary World. The hero and the rules and circumstances that govern his everyday life are introduced, some foreshadowing of the battles and dilemmas to come may occur in this phase.
The movie starts out with Rodchenko smoking in bed. Not the most exciting entrance. However, a few moments later the frame expands and Rodchenko is actually on stage, dancing in the ballet The Young Man and Death.1 This is a foreshadowing of events to come when Rodchenko has to die to himself and resurrect before escaping Russia again.
Right after that scene Rodchenko, his dance group and his agent are on a plane above Russia. His agent Anne Wyatt (Geraldine Page) chatters away about Japan, but Rodchenko, oblivious of her talk, stares out the window as the Siberian landscape glides by below.
Maybe he hears his personal call to adventure already at this point. The moment certainly communicates that he has unfinished business in Russia which he escaped like a thief seven years ago. His dramatic need becomes clear at the beginning of the second act when his nemesis, KGB colonel Chaiko (Jerzy Skolimovski), tells him: “I have always admired you as a dancer. What a wounderful dancer... but what a pathetic man.”
Indeed, his stealing away from his dance group in London, leaving behind his former lover and exposing her to the repression of the KGB, is an ugly scar on his soul - which shows on his face as he watches Russia from the plane. His dramatic need is to become a man by facing his former lover and with her permission leave again. Look his mortal enemy, Chaiko and the KGB which he represents, in the face and escape once more, this time at the risk of his life.
2. Call to Adventure (0:11:40)
The Call to Adventure finally comes when a short circuit in the plane’s electrical system forces the plane to make an emergency landing on a military base in Siberia. When the captain announces the decision, Rodchenko panics, refusing the call instantly and wholeheartedly.
3. Refusal of the Call (0:12:00)
Rodchenko races to the toilet, tears up his American passport which shows his Russian name and flushes it down the drain. On the way back to his seat food cabinet shooting down the aisle hits him on the head and he loses consciousness.
Joseph Campbell has not much use for the Refusal of the Call. He talks of the ‘dull case of the call unanswered’ and mentions the tale of Daphne, daughter of the river Peneus. Pursued by the god Apollo who loves her but whom she fears as her enemy, Daphne asks her father, the river, to take away her beauty. She turns her into a tree. End of story.
However, the refusal of the call can be used with enormous benefit. The hero’s hesitation can tell about the greatness of the dangers ahead and it can expose the hero’s fears and his flaws. If a willing hero accepts the call immediately, there can be others who warn him of dangers and trying to persuade him to refuse the call. They may hint at future threats and the hero’s reaction can expose aspects of his character.
Indeed, Rodchenko’s panic and naked fear tell a lot about the coming events, how much is at stake for him and the emotional level where he starts out.
4. Meeting with the Mentor ()
Often after refusing the call the hero has a chance to reflect on his decision. Ultimately, he has to change his mind otherwise the movie ends here. Meeting with the mentor serves the purpose of having the hero reconsider and prepare him a bit more for the adventure. Nothing like this happens here. Rodchenko is forced into the adventure at gunpoint - or more exactly: with a blow to the head. He passes out and crosses the first threshold unconsciously.
5. Crossing the First Threshold (0:20:00)
Rodchenko has a bad awakening on the other side of the threshold when he wakes up in a hospital bed and is visited by Colonel Chaiko. Chaiko is the antagonist, his nemesis, representing the KGB.
Rodchenko pretends to be French, but Chaiko has found the snippets of his passport and knows exactly who he is. He pours the pieces all over him with the words: “Welcome home, Nikolai.” Rodchenko’s request to talk to the American embassy is rejected: “Here you are just a criminal.” The scene ends with Rodchenko in bed, covered by the remains of his American passport.
6. Tests, Allies, Enemies (0:21:10)
Normally, after the hero crosses the first threshold, he gets acquainted with the special world and, faces trials and tests, making allies and enemies. In White Nights, Rodchenko disappears for a few minutes and other main characters are introduced.
Still on the military base, Chaiko informs Rodchenko’s agent that Rodchenko has been severely injured and may not recover. (0:21:10)
Next, Raymond Greenwood (Gregory Hines), the main supporting character, is introduced. Also he lives in an ‘ordinary world’ which is the starting point of his own hero’s journey, but that’s not the point right now. Raymond is a US defector who chose to live in Russia after traumatic experience in the Vietnam war. He lives in Siberia and makes a living by performing as a tap dancer in a local theater. He is married to Darya (Isabella Rossellini) who was his interpreter when he first came to Russia.
Chaiko visits them to prepare Raymond for the task of persuading Rodchenko to dance at the opening of the ballet season of the Kirov Ballet. Chaiko baits Raymond by telling him he might be able to return to Moscow. In many ways Chaiko incorporates the archetype of a shape shifter throughout the movie, buy constantly adapting his lies and schemes to the situation at hand.
Raymond is an important ally that Rodchenko has to win over.
In the American embassy Rodchenko’s agent talks with the ambassador and his staff about what can be done. They look at x-rays allegedly from Rodchenko which seem to prove that his condition is life-threatening. Also, Rodchenko has been tried in absentia and been convicted to 15 years in prison. There is no way to get further information. (0:30:05 - 0:31:30)
The purist approach to the three-act-structure requires that the first act covers approximately 25% of the movie’s length. That is about now. While the crossing of the first threshold, the ‘official’ end of act one already occurred after 20 minutes, the other main characters still had to be introduced. So in case this matters, the events until here might be considered part of act one.
At 0:31:30 Rodchenko awakes in Raymond’s and Darya’s home. They get acquainted and there are a few confrontations. Rodchenko doubts that he is free to go anywhere he wants and indeed when he tries to make a phone call Raymond comes and interrupts. (0:34:15)
At a dinner at Raymond’s home Raymond gets drunk and tells his story while tap dancing. He gets very depressed. Clearly, he begins to regret his choice of defecting to Russia, but is still unwilling to face the fact.
Chaiko uses various ways to ‘motivate’ Raymond to talk to Rodchenko about dancing in Kirov, pushing Raymond toward realizing that he really is a slave of the system. Still, Raymond complies and talks to Rodchenko, who finally pretends to give in. He says he has to go to Leningrad, his former living place, and see whether Chaiko’s offer is sincere.
7. Approach to the Inmost Cave (0:59:25)
Coming to Leningrad (0:49:05) feels like entering the lion’s den - but the images of Lenin’s statue, the Kirov ballet, Rodchenko’s old apartment are merely the outer wrapper of the Inmost Cave.
Chaiko continues to bait both Rodchenko and Raymond. The two finally start to practice dancing in Rodchenko’s rehearsal studio.
The approach to the Inmost Cave finally comes when Galina Ivanova, Rodchenko’s former lover and fellow dancer, now head of the Kirov ballet, comes to visit him. At (0:59:25) this is the midpoint of the movie. Galina explains how she had to suffer the reprisals of the KGB after returning from London without him. Rodchenko asks her to pass a message about his whereabouts to the American embassy.
Galina is outraged, refuses: “You havent’t changed. You’re just as selfish as you always were. You never thought of anyone in your life except yourself.” She points the finger exactly at Rodchenko’s dramatic need. Rodchenko defends himself, self-centeredly: “I had to go. I was choking.” But as Galina leaves Rodchenko begins to get the point. He says to Raymond: “I hurt some people when I left. Didn’t you?”
8. Ordeal (1:20:15)
Rodchenko’s ordeal really refers to him growing up, stop being ‘a pathetic man’, standing up for himself while showing concern for the life of those around him.
Still, Rodchenko remains bent on escaping no matter what. He pretends to have a shower but sneaks out through the window (1:05:00) to contact other dancers just to find out that nobody knows his name.
At dinner in Raymond’s home Chaiko dashes in and accuses Raymond that he had let Rodchenko talk to other dancers in the ballet. He takes Darya with him.
After Chaiko leaves Raymond and Rodchenko have another fallout. Raymond beats him up, blaming him for losing his wife. But Rodchenko talks back: “You did it to her.” Her certainly realizes in the process that he did the same to Galina when he fled and left her at the disposal of Chaiko and the KGB. In the end Rodchenko realizes that Raymond is the only person he can trust.
Following this Rodchenko visits Galina at the theater (1:17:35). When he enters she listens to Mussorgsky but he switches it of with the remark that it is forbidden in Russia: “Mussorgsky’s songs can’t be sung in this theater”.
Galina tries again to convince him to dance at the opening performance of the ballet but he knows that there is no future for him in Soviet Russia. Finally he bursts out “For eight years I’ve been free. I won’t whisper anymore. I want to scream like he [Mussorgsky] does. I can’t lie anymore.”
Then he dances Mussorgsky. He dances with such passion, love and longing that she breaks down in tears. Galina admits she works for Chaiko (1:22:10). Rodchenko is stunned but she explains the compromises she had to make to rebuild her life. Rodchenko admits: “Yes, I was selfish. Still am. I’m not a hero. I’m just a dancer. That’s all I can do.”
It is here that his ordeal reaches its climax ending with the symbolic death of the ‘pathetic man’ Rodchenko. While he remains selfish he screams out rather than hiding, looking for a way to again steal himself away. And when she says “I can’t risk everything that I fought for.” he just says “I understand.” (1:23:10)
9. Reward (1:23:50)
Also Rodchenko cries, accepts his destiny. Only then, and without any need, she comes to him and says “I won’t let them destroy you.” This is his reward.
10. The Road Back (1:24:00)
Following this are scenes that show his second escape from the hands of the KGB. Galina contacts the American embassy, Rodchenko and Raymond plot the escape, Raymond convinces Darya to come escape with him.
All this is suspenseful action with few important events for Rodchenko’s internal journey. However, something unexpected happens - of course.
What happens is that Raymond, who until now was the reflection for Rodchenko - and vice versa - now takes the central role in Rodchenko and Darya’s escape. Before leaving the room to climb across the backyard, Darya put a tape with a recorded conversation into the player in order to fool the guards behind the microphones. Chaiko and Kirigin, a local KGB officer are listening to their talk. Chaiko feels that something is wrong and gives order to return to Rodchenko’s apartment. When Kirigin wants to know why Chaiko just barks at him, pissing him off.
Raymond sees the car drive into the yard and decides to go back and stall Chaiko. He returns to the room and goes downstairs to meet him. Raymond’s appearance puts Chaiko temporarily at ease and they start a conversation on Darya who apparently is falling for Rodchenko now. They empty a bottle of Vodka in the process. Kirigin listens to the taped conversation notices something is wrong as Raymond can’t possibly be in the room while he is talking to Chaiko here. Kirigin goes to alert Chaiko but just gets another bark of Chaiko. Kirigin just lets it be, knowing full well that Rodchenko is on the run - sweet revenge of the abused slave.
With some effort one could draw connections between Rodchenko’s actions from here to the end of the movie, but that appears a bit contrived. Even though he wraps up his change from boy to man through forcing the embassy representative to take also Darya, maneuvering her through the KGB guards and finally pushing her onto embassy grounds, essentially Rodchenko is out of the picture from now on and Raymond/Hines takes over.
This makes a certain sense from a plot point of view, but maybe - being as accomplished an actor as Rodchenko as a dancer - maybe requested a bit more limelight for himself. We learn in the final scene that he has been in prison for his support of Rodchenko’s escape.
11. Resurrection
Surely, the pattern of resurrection is found in Rodchenko confronting Chaiko heads on before the American embassy, maneuvering Darya through the KGB guards and onto embassy grounds, but Raymond’s acting in the final moments of the movie evoke far more intense emotions.
Chaiko and Raymond sit in a car which appears to drive Raymond to the site of his execution (2:08:30). Chaiko pushes him out of the car and tells him to walk across a bridge. Raymond fully expects to be shot now, but in that moment lights come on across the bridge. A man walks over from the other side, passes by Raymond and is embraced by Chaiko. This is a prisoner exchange between the USA and the Soviet Union.
The resurrection here is Raymond’s entirely. When Darya comes out from the lights he says: “I thought I’d never see you again.” Also Rodchenko is there to meet him. They embrace, Darya smiles.
12. Return With the Elixir
Only with some effort could we find an ‘elixir that heals the land’. It might be the land of Raymond destiny who fled the USA in search of a fairer life in the Soviet Union and returns with appreciation for the freedom of America in spite of all its shadows. It might be the elixir that puts the finishing touches on Rodchenko’s ascension to manhood, whose daring escape from the KGB is now free from the stigma of another friend paying for his freedom.
But no story follows the Hero’s Journey in detail. It doesn’t have to. All that Campbell claims is that stories that are truly inspired tend to reflect the Hero’s Journey, that age-old pattern of storytelling which shines from the depths of the universal unconscious, the wisdom of the ages.
Not all stories validate that claim, but White Nights arguably does.
Write to Ashton Zach at azach@trilane.com.
1 Le Jeune Homme et la Mort, by Roland Petit, 1946 [back]
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