Mr. Banks is a Coward (archetypally)

I really enjoyed Saving Mr. Banks.  It has surprising depth - way more than a recounting of how Mary Poppins got made.  This is the story of a man who couldn’t face the challenges of life and overcome them. It offers an insight into the lasting effect this failure to grow into his heroic self had on his daughter.  

Mr Banks was great at spinning a story but he couldn’t subdue the dreamer and the demons in him long enough to heroically set a goal, anticipate the obstacles to success and overcome them through hard work and determination.  His wife obviously married for the ideal of love, against her family’s advice. She gradually woke up to being trapped in a marriage with many children and a husband who told pretty stories but couldn’t stop drinking long enough to hold a job.

To feel good about himself, Mr. Banks made his daughter his confidante. He felt protected from the need to perform by the way he always shone in her eyes.  This avoid, blame and deny behaviour is typical of the Coward archetype. He never had the maturity to notice that his daughter was stunted by their relationship. Even as an adult she felt the need to support her dad and make him her primary relationship.

This theme of the stages of masculine maturity is being explored more and more.  The Hurt Locker has the husband who is an epic Hero but unable to rise up and be the Warrior King that the woman in his life needs him to be.  The Warrior King is willing to let parts of himself die in order to cross the distance between himself and another person.  He is driven to preserve, protect and provide for the person he loves, rather than control her (or in this case block her love) to protect his heart.  

Broken FLowers also has this theme.  I love that we are starting to recognize that the masculine can’t go on being a Hero forever.  There are new frontiers to cross.  Heroes can become Warrior Kings, and Warrior Kings can become Mentors.  Each of these transformations makes an interesting story.

Mr. Banks did what often happens in real life.  The cowardly thing.  Rather than rise to the challenges life presented him, he engages his daughter in a wife-like role for he longs to be adored. He doesn’t want to face the disappointment of an adult woman.  He makes the daughter his confidant and the apple of his eye, ignoring the tension this creates between mother and daughter. Also blind to the need for a father to send his daughter back to her mother in preparation for her finding a mate of her own.

Saving Mr. Banks is about the universal human condition and how we have all been captured by its story.  Walt Disney (Tome Hanks) is the Warrior King for the daughter because he keeps showing up and relentlessly driving towards his goal.  He is not satisfied until he gets the job done.  I believe his presence in the author’s life was a very liberating example for her. I found this to be a very heart-warming ending to the story.