HIGHLA-L Digest - 8 Mar 2004 to 11 Mar 2004 (#2004-48)
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Thu, 11 Mar 2004 22:00:03 -0500
There is one message totalling 220 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Season Three dvd Commentary: The Samurai
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Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 10:20:34 -0500
From: kageorge <kageorge@erols.com>
Subject: Season Three dvd Commentary: The Samurai
I have now watched all the Season Three dvds, and will go back and do a
commentary on each episode. These will be a little different from the
Season Two commentaries. The comments made by the producers, directors and
actors are far more extensive and detailed in this dvd set, but I'll try to
stick to the relevant and non-trivial. The outtakes are frequently longer,
and some of the episodes have running audio commentary by one of the
individuals directly involved in the episode, whether it is the director,
one of the actors, the editor or the producer. Sometimes I found those
comments interesting, sometimes not, and my level of "reportage" will vary
depending on my own interest in what was being said.
My reasons for doing this are really twofold:
1) There are some folks who have not gotten the dvd sets and might be
interested in knowing what new information is provided on them; and 2)
Writing about them helps me clarify my own thoughts, especially about
character development, what constitutes canon, and the evolving
relationships among the characters.
Finally, I do it to spark conversation, so I would be pleased to hear about
any thoughts these posts generate (other than boredom - if you are bored
with them, ignore them).
COMMENTARY: David A. tells us that this is one of his top three favorite
episodes. He loved the line in the script after Duncan tells Hideo Koto he's
immortal and he can fake his death, and Hideo won't have to commit suicide.
Hideo says, "You cannot save honor with a lie." That lesson had a profound
effect on Duncan's character. It taught him the difference between pride and
honor and raised the value of honor.
Adrian Paul then comments that MacLeod is the sum of his experiences, and
that Samurai was important because it showed where he came from and what
taught him along the way, and the moment with Hideo Koto was one of the
deciding moments in MacLeod's life. AP also observes that DM had led a
relatively sheltered life (read: he was a barbarian), and that for him, this
was an entirely different culture and from DM's perspective it was the
Japanese who were barbarians, but that you could see MacLeod develop and
change over time.
Abramowitz comments that Adrian played a fish out of water in the episode, a
young hero coming of age, so he had good material to work with and played it
"very, very well" and reiterates how much he liked the episode. He says it
was also great because it showed how Duncan got his katana - not from
defeating anyone, but by helping someone commit sepuku.
Robert Ito was the hero of the episode, and DA comments that one of AP's
great strengths was that, when playing against a really great actor, AP got
better, and that the flashbacks were all wonderful. He also comments that,
while the acting in the present was also terrific, those scenes were given
relatively short shrift (in comparison).
F. Braun McAsh then observes that he wanted to have Duncan be at real risk
in the climactic sword fight, and introduced the move of catching the blade
between the palms. He says the object is to clap the inside heel of the hand
against the spine of the blade (rather than have it in your palm, which
would not be good for your hands) above the cutting edge. He worked on the
technique long enough to convince himself it was physically possible, and
then introduced it into the choreography of the fight.
The production designer talks about the production design and location
(Britania Beach, a remote spot outside Vancouver). They supplemented the
rugged terrain with bits and pieces of scenery to represent the estate wall.
He said in the building of Hideo's house, there was one compromise that was
questionable, but was done because of constraints of budget and space. The
kitchen area, where we see the servants bring in the food and tea, would
have been in a separate part of the house and the samurai would never have
come into that space, and that Robert Ito had a few comments about that.
OUTTAKES:
Gillian Horvath describes the scenes of Duncan and Hideo training as some of
the "gems of the episode", and tells us that Robert Ito was handicapped by
the fact that he had two replacement hips and didn't move very well. They
show the sword training bits. (Note: I'm not sure why they showed the
outtake since it showed nothing more than what we see in the episode,
although a second moment shows Ito blowing a line, which cracks up AP.)
Then they show an outake of a scene with Maya, the Japanese princess, where
Adrian is goofing around and breaks her up.
They also show the Quickening without any sound, just the water shooting up
over the back of the rocks. It's interesting to see those shots without the
special sounds and other effects, just silence. Sometimes they look
downright silly, but this one is rather poetic.
THE EPISODE:
Note: Adrian Paul does voice-over commentary on this episode, the plot of
which is very familiar and there is no real need to rehash it in any detail.
I will merely serve as a reporter of the highlights of AP's comments, where
are made as he watches. The commentary may seem a little disjointed, but it
sometimes reflects what he is watching, and sometimes reflects some
observation or extraneous memory that has gotten triggered by what he sees.
At the end. I'll add my own observations.
AP COMMENTARY: The idea for The Samurai was an outgrowth of a discussion AP
had will Bill Panzer when, at the end of season two, he asked what Adrian
wanted to see in season three. AP said he thought they should tell the story
of where MacLeod got his sword. The writers had already developed an idea of
doing a story about a Japanese princess, so they brought the two elements
together.
As the teaser and early scenes are shown, AP comments that Tamlyn Tomita and
Robert Ito were great, and how they taught him a lot. He also really liked
the guy who played the villain, that he had a "great look." AP also talks in
some detail about the artistry of some of Dennis Berry's specific shots and
camera work.
The scene segues to the dojo, and AP says he really misses the "gym", and
that some of the weights were fake. The extras in those gym scenes had a
real challenge to look like they were hitting bags and lifting weights, but
to do it without making noise so they wouldn't cover the dialogue.
The scene eventually moves into the flashback, and AP talks about filming
the shot of Hideo finding MacLeod face down, dead, in the water. He reports
that Dennis Berry had completed the scene but never yelled "cut," leaving
Adrian face down in freezing cold water (he was wearing a wet suit under his
costume) until he finally raised up and asked if the scene was over. As he
watches the scene AP says he always thought of MacLeod as a buffoon and a
barbarian at this time in his life.
The training scene with Koto was fun to do, AP says, because it was "MacLeod
at his rawest." AP said he figured this was the place where MacLeod's
interest in martial arts began, and which ultimately incorporated not just
the Japanese, but other methods.
Some of the flashback scenes were shot in a beautiful Japanese garden in
Vancouver, and when Koto turns the sword that Duncan is wearing, it was an
unscripted moment, but totally in character of a teacher constantly looking
out for his student, and they liked looking for those extra elements.
"Ah, the bath scene!" AP grins. He said it was really funny because he was
actually naked inside the bath, and the look on the Japanese woman's face as
she was trying to get Duncan out of the bath was priceless.
AP says he really enjoyed the humor in the episodes and that they changed
the timing of a line from the script where he said, "It looks, like raw
octopus," and she replies immediately, "It is raw octopus," to having her
say the line after he takes the bite. He thought it was much funnier that
way.
He speaks in general terms about the themes of the episode, about Duncan
realizing he was a barbarian, and coming face-to-face with racism.
He talks about the act of sepuku, and that the responsibility of the
"second" was very great because he had to cut the head off so that it fell
forwards, otherwise it would bring shame on the deceased by seeing the look
on the dying person's face.
Adrian liked the final fight because the entire sequence was one shot, and
the fight was about strategy, where there would be a flurry of blows and
then wait to see what the other person would do. Then he points out a shot
where Duncan has his hands below the water, saying that is a specific
technique designed to mask which way you're going to strike next. Using two
katanas was every different than using conventional swords against a katana,
and he says F. Braun's idea of catching the sword then reversing it was
great, and made comments about the excellent camera angles and the beautiful
scenery. He thought the Quickening in this episode was beautifully done, and
that it had to be done at exactly the right time of the day or the tide
would overtake the rocks and the effect of the water crashing over MacLeod
would be lost. Everything was very carefully planned, from the lighting to
the camera angles, to the water to the costuming to provide a really nice
aesthetic effect.
The last shot, of Midori and MacLeod by Hideo Koto's grave, was one shot,
and Dennis Berry was great to work with because he liked doing shots like
that with a steady cam, giving the actors real room and ability to do their
jobs.
MY COMMENTS: I think most everything has already been said specifically
about this episode that's really relevant. It is extremely important
canonically because it doesn't just tell us about how Duncan got his katana,
it tells us why, and what it represents to him. When we see him later
struggle with issues of judgment and the relative value of human life, and
whether he has the right or the duty to act when he sees something he
believes is wrong, we know that he is dealing with those issues against a
background of long-held belief that deception, however well intended, does
not preserve honor, and that the value of honor is larger than the man who
upholds it.
Duncan is still thinking like a mortal, in many ways. He doesn't really take
the long view that Methos does. He believes that in order to live a good
life he must adhere to the concepts of trust and loyalty and honesty, and
not doing so will stain his honor and lessen the value of his life. Methos
appears to feel it is life itself that is the ultimate value, and that if he
uses deceit and guile and even dishonor, if necessary, to insure his own
survival (or that of people he cares about) that any ramifications of
distrust or disgust or outrage at his behavior are acceptable, and
relatively short-lived.
Who is right? Both? Neither?
Later, we do see Duncan begin to step away from his rather rigid notion of
honor that we see up through Season Three. It began even before then,
though, when he first encountered Darius, and ultimately decided that few
causes were worth the price that war extracts. Then, he ultimately finds
that he is capable of as much evil (in his view) as any of the great
villains he had fought in his life, and that no facade of honorable behavior
could successfully hide that fact, from himself or anyone else.
By the end of the series, I think MacLeod is philosophically somewhere
between the heroic, honorable DMotCM that we see in Season Three, and the
completely situational ethics that we see Methos espouse. Duncan believes in
acting in the face of immediate threats to innocent mortals, but he also
believes that people have to make their own choices and deal with their own
demons, and that it is not up to him to make that choice for them.
MacGeorge
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End of HIGHLA-L Digest - 8 Mar 2004 to 11 Mar 2004 (#2004-48)
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