The Twelve Labours of Hercules — Clip #1: Punch

THE TWELVE LABOURS OF HERCULES

Edwin Janzen
Twelve-channel video installation
Clips of various duration, 2009

The television cartoon series The Mighty Hercules was created by Trans-Lux Productions in 1962 and first aired from 1963 to 1968. Featuring the substantially reimagined exploits of the demigod Hercules, the series chronicled Hercules efforts — contained in bite-sized, five-minute episodes — to defend humanity against a series of relentless, conniving villains: the evil wizard Daedalus, the sea witch Wilhemine and Murdis, the Mask of Vulcan. Blending surpassingly cheap animation with a submerged homoeroticism and a chipper combat-readiness typical of Hollywood sword-and-sandal movies (but without the blood), The Mighty Hercules offered young viewers a totally unique (and, in hindsight, somewhat bewildering) cartoon-watching experience.

There is a titans disconnect between the serious academic study of classical history and mythology and the life of those same subjects in the popular mind. History is edged aside by historicism, as characters and subjects real and mythical are appropriated and reappropriated for a vast array of purposes by popular media, including Hollywood movies, advertising, Discovery Channel documentaries and, indeed, Saturday morning cartoon shows. In popular culture, the various heroes and demigods no longer represent themselves, their own struggles, their personal glory and prowess; they represent whatever we want them to.

In this installation, the demigod Hercules, already removed one degree from the ancient myth by the T.V. cartoon show, finds himself removed a second time — reappropriated, redeployed. Locked into the ephemerality of video in the age of mechanical — indeed, digital — reproduction, our friend Hercules finds that, in the postmodern age, his dozen already Herculean tasks have become more exacting — indeed, downright Sisyphean. Accordingly, he labours on, imprisoned in a digital, purgatorial state of unending cacophony, violence and emergency.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• video
• art
• installation
• mighty
• hercules
• newton
• daedalus
• loop

[ImThatOneGuy100]

Falcon....

PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCHPUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCHPUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCHPUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH

PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH

[sammimann]

hahahahhhaah a

[2hottie69Forever]

why is it looped?

why is it looped?

[RayPointer]

All right. Is the "record stuck"? It's obvious what was done here, so HA-HA!

[ZedStone1]

who wears short shorts......herc wears short shorts...

[ZedStone1]

who wears short short......herc wears short shorts...

[rogermwilcox]

This reminds me of all the martial arts movies where the bad guys attack the hero one-at-a-time.

[pwk22]

This must be Photoshopped. He can't just keep punching and punching, can he?

[jbhuntcsx]

this video is lame

[gasbutcher]

A true man's man , Chuck Noris ain't got nottin on this dude lol

[TheJodilena]

lolol

[Sutskoen]

nowadays, Hercules works in a shipyard, punching rivets in